Join Anna Nguyen for a podcast that asks us to reflect on our reading and analyzing practices. Interviewing writers, authors, and academics, we'll discuss: what does it mean when we cite a text or when we activate the text? Are we giving authors the agency or do we take for granted the concepts we use?
Find me on Instagram and Twitter @anannadroid .
From Language Learning to Translating (Shanna Tan)
Shanna Tan discusses her trajectory from language learning to translating and how the success of Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop made her name synonymous with cozy reads. We talk how cozy, and language fluency, might mean different things to different readers, the politics of translation, context and society, and her excitement for the upcoming Café. Love. Waiting, which is a book that is very significant to her as a reader.
29 Sept 2026
Why Race Still Matters (with Dr. Alana Lentin)
Dr. Alana Lentin, the author of Why Race Still Matters and The New Racial Regime: Recalibrations of White Supremacy, discusses how she situates herself and experiences to understand race as a global project that has national and local particularities. She summarizes why she views race as a technology of rules that produces and maintains human differences, which is important for the continuation of white supremacy, and why critical racial literacy is important.
14 Aug 2026
On Writing an Immersive, Propulsive Romance-Beach Read (with Soon Wiley)
Four years after appearing on Critical Literary Consumption to discuss his debut, When We Fell Apart, Soon Wiley returns with CeCe Downing’s Start Over Summer, a complex beach read. Wiley considers, again, the fluidity of genre, books he thought of while writing CeCe’s story and the question of class that emerges when asking what makes a good partner or relationship. We also talk about the idealization of New England town halls and summers, both of which were subverted in Wiley’s second novel. He also shares stories about his research rabbit holes for his secondary story, on bureaucracy, environmentalism, and zoning laws. And, of course, we talk about the questions and concerns that arise when a man writes a romance.
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
4.9 / 5
13 ratings
Spotify
4.8 / 5
12 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 30 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
28
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
82
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