Sruti Islam

Episode 72: Weird Era feat. Lexi Freiman

October 27th, 2023  |  Season 1  |  54 mins 28 secs

2022books, authors, ayn rand, bookclub, books, fiction, interviews, lexi freiman, literature, montreal, mtl, randian, the book of ayn, weirdera, weirderapod

Tune in to our episode and hear us consider why more people should be embarrassed to be the same, what an unflushed turd is in contemporary social discourse, and why Rand was an intellectual top and a sexual bottom.

Episode 71: Weird Era feat. Anna Biller

October 19th, 2023  |  Season 1  |  37 mins 6 secs

2022books, anna biller, authors, bluebeard's castle, bookclub, books, fiction, interviews, literature, montreal, mtl, the love witch, verso books, weirdera, weirderapod

Sruti talks to the director of The Love Witch, about her debut novel, Bluebeard's Castle. They consider glamour, romance novels, Sruti's "little girl theory," why women often seek singularity, and how the adventure of sex that can sometimes trump the actual experience of sex.

Episode 68: Weird Era feat. Isle McElroy

September 27th, 2023  |  Season 1  |  52 mins 24 secs

2022books, authors, bookclub, books, fiction, interviews, isle mcelroy, literature, montreal, mtl, people collide, weirdera, weirderapod

Sruti talks to Isle for the second time on the Weird Era podcast about their second novel People Collide, if a body is anything but limits, how we can own our sexuality with the knowledge gender is fluid, mothers, never truly knowing anyone masculine and female emotional capacities, and if anyone marries for love.

Episode 66: Weird Era feat. Sean Michaels

September 14th, 2023  |  Season 1  |  49 mins 6 secs

2022books, authors, bookclub, books, do you remember being born, fiction, interviews, literature, montreal, mtl, sean michaels, weirdera, weirderapod

Sruti talks to Sean Michaels about tech novels, what having kids does to the passing of time, what happens to art when commodified, and the nap ministry.

Episode 65: Weird Era feat. Jessica Campbell

September 8th, 2023  |  Season 1  |  45 mins 11 secs

2022books, authors, bookclub, books, d&q, drawn and quarterly, fiction, interviews, jessica campbell, literature, montreal, mtl, rave, weirdera, weirderapod

Sruti talks to Jessica Campbell about Christian Raves, shame, what to do with a unibrow, and what is so often misunderstood about the graphic novel form.

Episode 63: Weird Era feat. Emerson Whitney

August 24th, 2023  |  Season 1  |  38 mins 36 secs

2022books, authors, bookclub, books, daddy boy, emerson whitney, fiction, interviews, literature, montreal, mtl, weirdera, weirderapod

Sruti sits down with Emerson Whitney to discuss Daddy Boy, how elders are a map, the appeal of masculinity and the simultaneous disdain for toxic masculinity, storm chasing, and how to foster independence without it resulting in isolation.

Episode 60: Weird Era feat. Deborah Willis

August 3rd, 2023  |  Season 1  |  34 mins 27 secs

2023books, authors, bookclub, books, deborahwillis, fiction, girlfriendonmars, interviews, literature, montreal, mtl, weirdera, weirderapod

Sruti talks to author Deborah Willis about monogamy, megalomaniac CEOS, how, "a human being is a mystery, as dark and expanding as the universe," and why on earthlings themselves love reality TV so much.

Episode 57: Weird Era feat. Sarah Blakley-Cartwright

June 28th, 2023  |  Season 1  |  21 mins

2022books, alice sadie celine, authors, bookclub, books, fiction, interviews, literature, montreal, mtl, sarah blakley-cartwright, weirdera, weirderapod

Sruti talks to Sarah Blakley-Cartwright about her novel Alice Sadie Celine, how mid-life crises can come for older lesbians, the cons of being overeducated, and what about goodness threatens eroticism.

Episode 55: Weird Era feat. Marta Balcewicz

June 9th, 2023  |  Season 1  |  41 mins 29 secs

author, big shadow, books, bookstagram, fiction, lit, literature, marta balcewicz, weird era, weird era pod, weird era podcast, weirdera, writers

Sruti talks to Marta Balcewicz about her debut novel Big Shadow, how intimacy can tether us to things (and people) we don't actually like, Sarah Schulman novels, why young women seek to feel singular, and much more.

Episode 54: Weird Era feat. Dizz Tate

June 1st, 2023  |  Season 1  |  35 mins 18 secs

author, books, bookstagram, brutes, dizz tate, fiction, lit, literature, weird era, weird era pod, weird era podcast, weirdera, writers

Sruti talks to Dizz Tate about her debut novel Brutes, how girlhood is a religion itself, how humiliating a woman is the only way some men know how to love, and the thread that laces female friendship with both adoration and jealousy.

Episode 52: Weird Era feat. Stephanie LaCava

May 18th, 2023  |  Season 1  |  32 mins 22 secs

Sruti talks to Stephanie LaCava about the ways the , "throb of prying eyes (is) harder to sit with than the pain of a bruised leg," daddy issues, if things can be real without conflict, and so much more.

Episode 51: Weird Era feat. Catherine Lacey

May 11th, 2023  |  Season 1  |  47 mins 56 secs

2023, books, catherine lacey, lit, literary podcast, literature, publishing, weird era, weird era pod

Sruti sits down with Catherine Lacey and talks about merging genres, how to spend a fictional biography describing a person who self-identifies as, "personless," what is something worse that grief wants, the ways in which first wives can look to the partners who follow, and so much more.

Episode 48: Weird Era feat. Colin Winnette

April 12th, 2023  |  Season 1  |  41 mins 58 secs

alex nierenhausen, book podcast, books, bookstagram, colin winnette, literary, literature, reading, sruti islam, users, weird era, weird era podcast

Sruti sits down with @colinwinnette to discuss his latest novel, Users. For a tech novel, they talk at great length about parenting, what an incandescent moment in literature is, and how the novel was inspired by the concept of guilt.

Episode 47: LSHB's Weird Era feat. Sean Thor Conroe

September 8th, 2022  |  Season 1  |  47 mins 22 secs

2022books, authors, bookclub, bookish, books, bookstore, fiction, fuccboi, interviews, literature, montreal, sean thor conroe, weirdera, weirderapod

Sruti talks to Sean Thor Conroe about the line between mimicry and influence, white fuck boys vs ethnic fuck boys, and if fiction, like fuck boys, can manipulate.

Episode 46: LSHB's Weird Era feat. Justin Ling

August 25th, 2022  |  Season 1  |  43 mins 49 secs

2021books, authors, bookclub, bookish, books, bookstore, fiction, interviews, justinling, literature, montreal, mtl, the village, weirdera, weirderapod

Provide Daphnee with social media one liner

Episode 44: LSHB's Weird Era feat. Elif Batuman

July 28th, 2022  |  Season 1  |  41 mins 33 secs

2022books, authors, bookclub, bookish, books, bookstore, elif batuman, fiction, indiebooks, indiebookstore, interviews, librairiesthenribooks, literature, lshb, montreal, montrealbookstore, mtl, sthenri, weirdera, weirderapod

Sruti sits down with Elif Batuman to talk about what it means to ~feel~ intelligent, to over-intellectualize a crush, the normalized expectations of heterosexuality, how it feels to forefront Immigrant stories in North American canon, and what she thinks about The Idiot developing into film.