Episode 31 — Dana Spiotta

Summary: Dana Spiotta is the guest. She's the author of three novels: Lightning Field, Eat the Document (a finalist for the National Book Award), and, most recently, Stone Arabia, now available from Scribner. Publishers Weekly calls it "extraordinary...one of the most moving and original portraits of a sibling relationship in recent fiction.” Topics of conversation include: Los Angeles, adolescence, the olden days, Ally Sheedy, Crossroads School, drama, freaks, freaking out, happiness, Syracuse, Don DeLillo, money, Jim Hosney, Bertolucci, creative autonomy, Gordon Lish, Michael Bay, Columbia, Jack Kerouac, dropping out, philosophy, Seattle, The Quarterly, James Joyce, activism, serial killers, Gary Lutz, parenthood, identity, shooting birds, musicians, obscurity, social media, hope, and skepticism.