Host Clara Sherley-Appel interviews authors about their creative process, from the inspiration behind the books they write to specific choices they make.
Maurice Isserman's family has a long and complicated history with Communist Party USA. The most notable figure in this history was Isserman's uncle Abraham, a founding member of the National Lawyer's Guild who served as a defense lawyer in the first Smith Act trial against Communist Party leadership, and was subsequently cited for contempt, imprisoned, and disbarred. As a result, Isserman grew up with a personal view into the idealism that drove many Americans to join the party, as well as the internal tensions that made many leave years later. In college, he witnessed similar tensions in the internal politics of Students for a Democratic Society, or SDS—an experience that made him all the more eager to understand what happened with CPUSA. Isserman has devoted his academic career to this and other questions, and in 2024, he published Reds: The Tragedy of American Communism.
In September, I spoke to Isserman about Reds, and about his own experiences on the American left. In addition to his time in SDS, Isserman was also an early member of the Democratic Socialists of America, and he has been a frequent chronicler of the organization's history. He left DSA in 2023 over frustrations with the organization's new leadership and its response to the attacks of October 7, a decision he discussed in a widely read and widely critiqued essay in The Nation. Near the end of our conversation, I talk to Isserman about his decision to leave and ask him to engage with some of the questions that his public departure from DSA raised but didn't answer.
15 Oct 2026
Real Sugar Is Hard to Find with Sim Kern
Sim Kern started writing after the birth of their child left them disabled and unable to return to full-time work as a teacher. Though their first stories were quite personal, frequently taking a memoiristic form, they soon found a home in speculative fiction.
Their short story collection, Real Sugar Is Hard to Find, leans into solarpunk, a genre of speculative fiction that refuses cynicism, depicting ecologically sustainable futures and highly cooperative communities, and allowing Sim to combine their life as an activist with their life as a writer. They reject the notion that political fiction is inherently didactic or narratively impoverished. Rather, they view the emotive qualities of narrative and character as powerful tools for political education.
I loved talking to Sim. If you've only ever known them through their political work, I hope you'll take the time to listen. Real Sugar Is Hard to Find comes out on October 20, 2026 from Interlink Press. You can preorder it now from the publisher's website (https://interlinkbooks.com/product/real-sugar-is-hard-to-find/), or wherever books are sold.
Special Guest: Sim Kern.
1 Oct 2026
Make Me Better with Sarah Gailey
Sarah Gailey is one of those authors you can't quite pin down. They published their first novel in 2017 and since then, they've published ten more, along with dozens of short stories, essays, and comic books, including multiple original series. While their work is largely speculative and frequently veers into horror, no two stories approach their subject matter in the same way.
Maybe that has something to do with the fact that Gailey is so engaged with the world around them. I certainly got that impression in our conversation. What started as a discussion of their latest novel, Make Me Better, quickly veered into territory as diverse as the politics of transformation, the appeal of outsourcing your values, and the mechanics of representing time dilation on the page.
I loved conversations like these, where you really get to see into the mind of an author. Sarah's mind is especially generative: after talking to them for an hour, I'm convinced they could find inspiration in a dust bunny under their couch. I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed making it.
Special Guest: Sarah Gailey.
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160,211
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
3 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
3 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 43 / 100
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Quality
40
Social presence
0
YouTube
82
Engagement
32
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