Originally aired November 16, 2021.
Annie kicks off with Kriota Willberg, author of Draw Stronger, to discuss self-care for cartoonists.
After the break, Liz and Jamie Schumacher, author of Butterflies and Tall Bikes, have an in-studio discussion about writing and interviewing through what makes Cedar-Riverside special.
Annie and Amitava Kumar plunge into all the ways Kumar’s newest book, A Time Outside This Time, gets us to think about our contemporary chaos in new ways, from questioning the simplicity of truisms like “believe science,” to the wavy rules of semi-autobiographical fiction, to the inherent biases we all carry, to a more thoughtful reflection on the early months of COVID-19, to “slow jamming the news.”
Before it airs in the normal half-hour Write On! Radio fashion, enjoy Annie’s interview with Amitava Kumar uncut exclusively on the podcast (here on the website, on Spotify, or on Apple Podcasts).
What’s the first rule of mini-comics? Is art really a healing process? Why draw something and then erase most of it? Will therapy change your art? We know how online exposure can hurt one’s career, but can it also really help? Can people quit talking about NFTs already?
Annie gets on a call with MariNaomi to discuss her comics collection Dragon’s Breath, but the conversation expands far outside it, into the role (and hazards) of self-deprecation in art, the myth of art as a healing process, the value of feedback, the joy of flirty fruit, and MariNaomi’s work compiling databases for POC, queer, and disabled cartoonists.
Before it airs in the normal half-hour Write On! Radio fashion, enjoy Annie’s interview with MariNaomi uncut exclusively on the podcast (here on the website, on Spotify, or on Apple Podcasts).
Originally aired August 10, 2021.
Plot twist! Amina (“Dee”) and Annie, who are usually behind the scenes producing and engineering the show for Bihi, are star players today. Bihi interviews them about their new podcast, Culture Shock MN, and why they decided to make a multicultural interview podcast.
Amina (aka “Dee”) and Annie are friends and Minnesotans who are always looking for that story—the one about you living through something that shaped how you see the world and yourself in it. This story has to be told in-person, so the laughs and the pain are coexisting right there.
Amina moved from East Africa (Somali and Kenya) to the United States when she was middle-school age. Annie is a longtime Minnesotan has never even been outside North America. That said, having mental health challenges while living on the East Coast definitely threw her for a loop.
Together, Amina and Annie get away from the bite-size, reductive stories we see on social media and clickbait news and have full conversations with friends new and old. We discuss the culture shocks we’ve felt—the ones that made us who we are, and the ones we can’t WAIT to forget! On the way, we dig into interracial friendships, what it is to feel “like home,” family (chosen and born). We also get into mental health across cultures, the social issues that affect us all, and the pop culture pieces we’re excited about.
On this first episode, Annie and Amina interview each other and introduce the show before we welcome guests in future episodes.
Originally aired July 20, 2021.
Liz and Marilyn Peterson Haus start the episode discussing Haus’s latest, Half of a Whole, and its depictions of mental illness, twins, and zealotry.
After the break, James Beard Award-winner Beth Dooley joins Annie to discuss the intersections of food education, climate justice, local farming, and great recipes in the context of Dooley’s latest cookbook, The Perennial Kitchen.
Originally aired July 6, 2021.
It’s the Annie super-episode!
First, Ranae Lenor Hanson joins Annie live in the studio to discuss how addressing climate change is similar to addressing diabetes, how to push through feelings of hopelessness in climate conversations, and the importance of teachers learning from their students, all in the context of Hanson’s new work of nonfiction, Watershed: Attending to Body and Earth in Distress.
After the break, Annie and Maggie Shipstead dive Shipstead’s new novel Great Circle into gender politics across time, writing Hollywood and history, researching flight.
Originally aired June 15, 2021.
Dave brings Ramsey County librarian Tami Lee for a return appearance, thoughtful book recommendations for civil and social justice, and great analysis of why a book club isn’t advocacy on its own.
After the break, Annie and Maggie Shipstead discuss novel research, women’s stories in aviation, and sexism’s alterations over time, viewed through the lens of Shipstead’s new novel, Great Circle.
