Podcasts Education Self-Improvement Conversations with Tyler Emily St. John Mandel on Fact, Fiction, and the Familiar

Emily St. John Mandel on Fact, Fiction, and the Familiar

Published: April 8, 2020, noon

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When Tyler requested an interview with novelist Emily St. John Mandel, he didn\\u2019t expect that reality would have in some ways become an eerie mirror of her latest books. And Emily didn\\u2019t expect that it\\u2019d be boosting sales: \\u201cWhy would anybody in their right mind want to read Station Eleven during a pandemic?\\u201d she wondered to Tyler. Her reaction was pure bafflement until she found herself renting Contagion and thought about why. \\u201cThere\\u2019s just such a longing in times of uncertainty to see how it ends.\\u201d Narratives, especially familiar ones, soothe us. It\\u2019s fitting then that her latest book has been suggested as \\u201cthe perfect novel for your survival bunker.\\u201d

She joined Tyler to discuss The Glass Hotel, including why more white-collar criminals don\\u2019t flee before arrest, the Post Secret postcard that haunts her most, the best places to hide from the Russian mob, the Canadian equivalent of the \\u201cFlorida Man\\u201d, whether trophy wives are happy, how to slow down time, why she disagrees with Kafka on reading, the safest place to be during a global pandemic, how to get away with faking your own death, how A Canticle for Leibowitz influenced her writing, the permeability of moral borders, what surprised her about experiencing a real pandemic, how her background in contemporary dance makes her a better writer, adapting The Glass Hotel for a miniseries, her contrarian take on Frozen II, and more.

Read a\\xa0full transcript\\xa0enhanced with helpful links, or watch the\\xa0full video.

Recorded March 27th, 2020

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