Surreal Talk: A.S. King on Validating Teen Tr...

Three years strong, y’all! We’re back with our favorite tradition: The Reading Culture Yearbook. As we close out 2025, we’ve gathered superlatives and stories that celebrate some of the memorable authors who joined us on the show this year. This year’s edition features awards suc ...  Show more

“When we are making books, we are making little homes for our readers that they can return to hopefully again and again and again, just as we return to books and find a sense of home, we return to the person we once were, when we were reading that book.” — Sophie BlackallHome. It ...  Show more

We talk about ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) at school. We take bullying head on. But there's one especially treacherous ACE that afflicts as many as 1 in 3 teens from which we shy almost completely - teen dating violence and sexual abuse. Abuse survivor-turned-activist and ...  Show more

The conversation about trauma is everywhere, and it seems like our culture is finally grappling with the concept openly. But here's the thing: if we don't get what trauma really is, on a psychological or biological level, it can be hard move past it. In this episode, Adam sits ...

When will I get my first period? How do bras work? Am I ready to have sex? These questions and more filled the minds of our teenage selves, but we weren't sure where to find the answers. Before the internet existed, many of us turned to books. This week, Meg is joined by the crea ...  Show more

Kim Fiske wants to get to the truthful emotional core of situations and people, with powerful nonjudgmental awareness, and though in this episode you will hear her talk about our childhood selves and monsters, "mental bloodhounds", "reticular activation systems" and other conc ...