A weekly behind-the-scenes dive into everything interesting, dynamic, strange, and wonderful happening in literary culture—featuring Lit Hub staff, columnists, and special guests! Hosted by Drew Broussard.
We’re back and raring to go—starting with a fiery intro from Drew (see below!) and then diving into something a bit more celebratory: some audio 2025 Most Anticipated picks from Calvin Kasulke, McKayla Coyle, Olivia Rutigliano, Molly Odintz, Brittany K. Allen, Emily Temple, James Folta, Dwyer Murphy, Jonny Diamond, Dan Sheehan, and Drew Broussard!
From the episode:
Drew Broussard: Happy New Year everybody. This year so far, young though it may be, has been a pretty brutal one. We are thinking, of course, everyone here at Lit Hub is thinking about the tragedy that is unfolding in Los Angeles right now. We have friends there, we have family there, writers who we love and admire, booksellers that we love and admire art that we love and admire people, animals, nature that we love and admire up literally in smoke. It is horrifying and I feel powerless. I feel like there is nothing that I can do.
I also feel angry. I feel angry at a world that has pushed us to this breaking point. And that is related to the climate crisis? Yes. But it is also related to AI and the large language models that are draining the water, that are exacerbating the truth crisis. I am mad at the Elon Musks and Jeff Bezoses of the world who have more money than anybody could ever know what to do with, and yet they don’t want to do anything with it to help, certainly.
After the election, Johnny Diamond and I sat on this podcast and talked a little bit about what Lit Hub is going to do in 2025 and beyond in terms of addressing a second Trump presidency. I am here at the beginning of this year, the first episode of the year, which by all means should have just been celebratory—and it will be celebratory, everything that comes after this in the episode is Lit Hub staffers sharing some of their most anticipated books for 2025, just getting you excited about books that we are excited about, which is part of what we do here! We are a books website. This is a books podcast. But… As I think everyone who reads knows, books are so much more than just books. They are a way that we can build empathy. They are a way that we can change people’s minds, that we can tell stories about other ways of living. And so that is what I am trying to channel my anger into right now.
It is one thing to say like, oh, you should go read Parable of the Sower, which absolutely you should. Octavia Butler, the Bard of Pasadena knows. Exactly what was gonna happen in 2024 in an almost uncanny way, but that’s actually not the point of reading Parable of the Sower. It’s not important to read Parable of the Sower so that you see a Pasadena on fire in early 2025.
The point of reading Parable of the Sower is to imagine how people can get through tragedy. Is true of any good piece of art, whether that is escapist literature or a schlocky TV show, or a really good pop record, whatever it might be. The point of art is to open up your mind and I. I wanna be very clear that while we will continue to have lighthearted banter episodes about book news, we will be featuring the stories that are on the website.
There is probably going to be a vein of anger that runs through this podcast for the foreseeable future because I don’t know how else to be in this world right now other than angry, and I wanna do something with that anger that feels constructive, so I’m going to use it. I’m going to use this platform and we are going to talk about things, whether that is the fact that 30% of the LA Fire Department.
Are incarcerated individuals, individuals who after they have finished their incarceration term, cannot join the LA fire department because they are convict criminals. Whether that is the fact that once again, the most powerful people in the world, the Elon Musks, the Jeff Bezos is yes, the Donald Trumps are using their power and their ill-gotten riches to further burn the planet in the pursuit of dot-dot-dot-question-mark. I am gonna be talking about it. We are going to be talking about it, and I just want you to know if you are feeling scared, if you are feeling alone. If you are feeling angry, I feel you. I do too. I think I speak safely for. The entirety of the Lit Hub staff. When I say that we all do, we all understand we are a community.
Even if it sometimes feels kind of parasocial because I’m just a voice, just some guy in his house talking to you, who’s listening to this, wherever you might be in the world, and that’s a one-to-one, but also a lot of people listen to this. A lot of people read this website.
We are a community and it’s not just the literary community. It’s something bigger than that and maybe more ineffable. We are a community and we have to have each other’s backs, and so I also wanna make you that guarantee. It doesn’t matter if we’ve never met before. It doesn’t matter if we never will meet.
I have your back ’cause you are another person on this planet at this time. I hope that you will think a little bit as you go through your day about the ways in which you can have, maybe not my back, but somebody else’s back, that we can help each other because my God, Los Angeles is on fire. A fascist is being sworn into the White House in two weeks.
If this was handed in as a draft to a literary editor, the editor would probably say, this is all a little bit too on the nose, so we’re gonna do what we can. And the first, and frankly, maybe most important thing to do is. Celebrate the good stuff, which is why we’re going to celebrate some of the most anticipated books of 2025.
The Lit Hub Podcast is a production of Lit Hub Radio and is available wherever you get your podcasts; music by Dani Lencioni of Evelyn; Engineering and production by Stardust House
