Shows
Third Person LimitedEpisode 24: Deals with the Devil (with Ed Simon) and Firing Holden CaulfieldWe’re going to Hell with literary man-about-town Ed Simon, founder of the Pittsburgh Review of Books (with which our podcast is affiliated) and author of Devil’s Contract: The History of the Faustian Bargain. Ed helps us figure out why the legend of Faust still feels fresh in our world today, where nobody ever makes short-sighted deals that turn out badly in the end.
Then, we put Catcher in the Rye on trial. Does it deserve its vaunted position in the high school curriculum? And what do we want high schoolers reading, anyway, you big p...
2026-06-0151 minThird Person LimitedEpisode 23: Alice Martin and Is Exposition Gendered?Women everywhere have an indescribable urge to get up and go west. That would be weird if it was real; in the hands of Alice Martin, author of the novel Westward Women, it’s not only weird but an incredible conceit for a thoughtful work of literary fiction that’s among the best books we’ve read this year. We were lucky to get Alice as a guest.
This was followed by some deep thoughts about exposition in fiction, such as “what is it” and “is it for girls?” Turns out it’s for everyone, but there may be some expe...
2026-05-1954 minThird Person LimitedEpisode 22: Nina McConigleyWe had a great time with Nina McConigley, author of the new novel How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder, which hits all the beats you want from a book where a character named Agatha Krishna says, “We blame the British.” Nina shared with us her thoughts on how colonialism divided not only countries but selves, and where characters (and real people) find themselves within those divides.
Then, how can you tell if a translated work is good when you don’t know the author’s language? Maybe the translator created something great that isn’t really true to the ori...
2026-05-0448 minThird Person LimitedEpisode 21: PEN/Bingham Prize winner Jared LemusWe were fortunate to have Jared Lemus, author of the story collection Guatemalan Rhapsody, join us to discuss masculinity and empathy in fiction. Jared recently won the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for debut story collection, and he was also once Nate’s co-worker. (Which is also a noteworthy achievement.)
Plus, what if the author was peering over your shoulder while you read their book? They aren’t, but what if you intentionally imagined that they were, and it was up to you to figure out what they’re doing with their writing? This is all just hypoth...
2026-04-1443 minThird Person LimitedEpisode 20: John SaylesWe’re excited to welcome filmmaker and author John Sayles to the show. John spoke with us about his most recent novel, Crucible, which focuses on the impact that an egocentric automobile magnate’s uninformed plans has on the economy and other populations. Sounds vaguely familiar. We also dove into John’s career, screenwriting vs. writing fiction, and what makes Pittsburgh so great.
Then, our intrepid hosts returned to a topic hinted at last time: how much overlap there is between the books the two of us have read? What a shocker: we both read Moby-Di...
2026-03-2448 minThird Person LimitedEpisode 19: Rejection is Good! And you never read alone
So your manuscript was rejected by another publisher. Will you revise your work to meet the shifting whims of the marketplace, or hold steady to your uncompromising vision, bragging all the while about the rejections you’ve accumulated like tumbleweeds tangled in a barbed wire fence? Meanwhile, we also wonder if one can ever truly read a book alone, or if the various social contexts are inextricable from that experience, like tumbleweeds tangled in a barbed wire fence.
Works cited this episode:
“Why is everyone suddenly obsessed with ref...
2026-03-0948 minThird Person LimitedEpisode 18: Author Tom Ryan and Movies Being Too LiteralWill Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Encyclopedia Brown, or any of the other fictional teen sleuths ever grow up? We spoke with Tom Ryan, whose novel We Had a Hunch throws adult versions of kid detectives into several harrowing grown-up situations, from hunting a serial killer to the slow-dawning realization that they’ve become middle-aged.
Plus: are contemporary works of art too literal? It’s no fun if a novel or a movie tells to your face its theme and meaning. That’s the message of our movie, Movies Should Not Tell You Their Meaning.
...
2026-02-1646 minThird Person LimitedInterpretation and EcstasyWe have too many reviews and not enough interpretive criticism. At least, that’s what Nathan says, and it seems to hold water. A true critique engages your intellect and raises questions, while a review just says whether you should watch that movie/read that book/listen to that podcast.
In our second segment, we engage with Ivy Pochoda’s latest novel, Ecstasy, which itself engages with the classical play The Bacchae. We’re not saying a cult of drunken women who kill the men would solve all our problems, but maybe it’s a start.
Ecsta...
2026-02-0251 minThird Person LimitedLiterature for Aliens, and How to Be PerfectOur hosts have ideas about what sort of books should have been included on the Voyager spacecraft, to support its heartwarming mission of spreading humanity to the stars. Would you have just sent the aliens your favorite book? Because maybe they don’t have the context to understand what a “Da Vinci Code” even is. And speaking of putting a lot of pressure on a book, TV creator Michael Schur’s How to Be Perfect put that pressure on itself. Philosophical ethics never sounded so good.
How to Be Perfect by Michael Schur
Works cit...
2026-01-191h 02Third Person LimitedChris Hauty and gift booksAuthor and screenwriter Chris Hauty joined us to discuss his latest thriller, Dead Ringer, which imagines a conspiracy around the JFK assassination—and if you think you’ve heard it all before on this topic, we assure you this novel will take you somewhere you were not expecting. Chris shared his surprising influences and offered insights about where Hollywood and book publishing overlap (and where they don’t).
Then, we ponder why books are such popular gifts when they’re actually rather fraught as an item to give someone else. What if they don’t like it? Or don’t e...
2026-01-0351 minThird Person LimitedWe Don't Like End-of-Year Book Lists, Plus: Our End-of-Year Book List!All those “best books of the year” lists are bogus marketing material that flattens the distinct reading experience that any individual brings to a book they interact with. We tore apart the very concept of those lists in this episode. Then we shared our own Best Books list! Hypocrisy, or nuanced ability to delicately balance competing perspectives? Eh.
Also, what is Author X up to with that crummy novel they released this year? Blind and not-so-blind items on the year’s worst books.
Works cited this episode:
Books We Love, Nat...
2025-12-1547 minThird Person LimitedShort Stories We Love, Part 2We’re back with more Short Stories We Love, after Nathan scoured the literary mags to find writers who deserve a closer look. Short stories aren’t just for The New Yorker! In this episode, Joey Hedger brings us a tale of cancer and terrible liqueur; Glenn Clifton joins from Canada with a story of viral infamy and relationships; and Patricia Q. Bidar shares an ode to her hometown featuring a massive explosion.
“Her Jesus Year” by Joey Hedger is in HAD
“What You Are Looking For Is What Is Looking” by Glenn Clifton is in The Ex-Pur...
2025-12-0958 minThird Person LimitedEpisode 12: Amber Sparks and We Love You, BunnyWe had a great time welcoming writer Amber Sparks to the show and discussing her new novel Happy People Don’t Live Here, which features a girl detective, abusive men, ghosts, a mermaid, and what it means to keep your love for someone alive long after they — or you — are gone. Amber is conflicted about the idea of Virginia Woolf using social media and, like several guests before her, stands up for the unjustly maligned second person POV.
Then, we do a deep dive on We Love You, Bunny, this year’s follow-up to Mona Awad’s cult hit no...
2025-11-2442 minThird Person LimitedJason Diamond and Book BlurbsWe sat down with Jason Diamond, bookish man about town and author of Kaplan’s Plot, a multigenerational Jewish gangster saga in bookstores now. He made a strong case for Chicago as a literary city and for not forgetting the immigrant experience in your ancestry. Then, we pull back the curtain on back-of-the-book blurbs and other publicity tactics. “Riveting!” — Stephen King
Works Cited
The Adventures of Augie March, Saul Bellow
Humboldt’s Gift, Saul Bellow
The Middlesteins, Jami Attenberg
The Lazarus Project, Aleksandar Hemon
The House on Mango Street...
2025-11-1050 minThird Person LimitedEpisode 10: Spooky Season with Kyle Winkler and FaustWe’re feeling spooky with horror author Kyle Winkler, back to discuss his latest novel, the creepy and horrifying Enter the Peerless, which starts with a private investigator trying to figure out what happened to a bunch of people who went into an abandoned trailer and never came out. Always a thoughtful and fun guest, Kyle gives us some insight into his process for this novel while establishing a mind-meld with Nathan over possible Halloween costumes.
Plus, Mason overreacts to an upcoming novel being based on the Faust myth, and demands a moratorium on Faust retellings. Will th...
2025-10-281h 01Third Person LimitedShort Stories We LoveThe first in an occasional series focusing on short stories we found in various journals, and interviews with those authors. Short stories don't get much love outside of The New Yorker or MFA workshops, but they should! Many of them are incredible. Our guests include writers Billy Irving, Kelly Magee, and Kit McGuire.
Works cited this episode:
Alyoshenka legend
Nine Stories, J.D. Salinger
“The Sound of Thunder,” Ray Bradbury
“The Lady or the Tiger,” Frank R. Stockton
There is no Antimemetics Division, qntm
“The Neighborhood,” Kelly Magee
Don't forget...
2025-10-1657 minThird Person LimitedMeta Stole our Writing to Feed its AIWe knew Zuck was a fan of the podcast. We didn’t know he would go so far as to dig up our old articles and use them, along with a million other books, to train Meta’s AI. Oh, you say he didn’t do it himself, and maybe it’s not stealing (legal opinions pending)? This may be true, or it may just be a topic we debate on this episode. Plus: We review the novel Luminous, by Silvia Park, a touching story of humans seeking connection in a world where robots walk among us.
2025-09-2957 minThird Person LimitedErin Lyndal Martin and Men in LiteratureWriter Erin Lyndal Martin joins the show to inform us that Saddam Hussein wrote a romance novel, but only after we wondered if Joe Rogan could do it. Other topics include whether men should read more literature, which we think Yes! They should; and whether men doing so would make the world a better place, which we think is debatable. Also, what to do about books that are capital-I Important but maybe not so great?
2025-09-151h 02
Third Person LimitedPaul Bradley Carr, Part 2Bestselling author of The Confessions and bookstore owner Paul Bradley Carr returns for Part 2 of our conversation about artificial intelligence, the power of narratives, drinking blood, and whether vaping is cool (spoiler: it’s not). The AI chatbots kept trying to disrupt our Zoom session with Paul, but for now, humans remain dominant. We also discuss Tom Comitta’s Patchwork, a novella constructed entirely from snippets of text taken from other, previously published works. One of our hosts was turned off by this experimental approach. Try to guess which one! We think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
2025-09-0358 minThird Person LimitedKyle Winkler Part 1, Plus BLOBAuthor Kyle Winkler joins this episode to talk about horror fiction and his novel Tone Bone. What's scarier: There's a Wocket in my Pocket or Goodnight Moon? Plus, we review BLOB by Maggie Su, and in the process, we enjoy saying "blob" over and over again. Try it!
2025-08-191h 06Third Person LimitedPaul Bradley Carr, Part 1We invited former tech journalist and bestselling author Paul Bradley Carr for a rollicking discussion about his new novel, The Confessions. It features an all-knowing Artificial Intelligence that doesn’t want to destroy the world—because it was trained by reading fiction. He also shared his polite and not-at-all derogatory thoughts about several leading tech industry personalities. Plus, our discussion of Nobel Prize winner Patrick Modiano’s latest novel, Ballerina, inspired Nathan to invent the cool new subgenre Proustian Noir.
2025-08-041h 10
Ask Christa!Ask Christa! Business Basics Series (5/6) - What is Outsourcing and Should All Businesses Do It? (S3E30)SummaryIn this episode of Ask Christa!, Christa Dhimo explores the concept of outsourcing, explaining that every business engages in outsourcing to some extent, emphasizing the importance of leveraging outsourcing to enable businesses to focus on their core competencies: what they do best. The key to outsourcing is being intentional about what stays in-house and what gets handed off. She shares relatable examples from areas like logistics and PR, and walks the listeners through how to decide what to outsource and when, and offers additional guidance on making informed outsourcing decisions based on business objectives...
2025-08-0110 minThird Person LimitedDan EastmanWe were joined by author and poet Dan Eastman for a discussion about confessional poetry, second-person POV, and the best memes. I ask you: should poems mention Facebook? Still waiting on our podcast name during this episode. Nice of Dan to not make fun of us for this.
2025-07-2059 minThird Person LimitedMFA AuthorsNate and Mason both have MFAs, but do they go around telling everyone and demanding book deals because of it? Well, yes, if you’re offering. But anyway, a social media firestorm about a take about Sally Rooney not having an MFA got us thinking: Are They Good and Should Anyone Care?
2025-07-141h 24Third Person LimitedIs Reading Good?Our first episode, before we even had a name for this podcast. So, it's a big question, whether reading is good. Specifically, is reading fiction inherently good, as well as instrumentally good (meaning, it’s good for some other reason, like making you smarter)? We grapple with this, mostly by talking. Also: Why do so many YA novels use orphans as protagonists?
2025-07-141h 28
Service Academy Business Mastermind#289: Creating Warehousing and Fulfillment Solutions for E-Commerce Companies with Eric Lobdell, USMA '06"I talked to a lot of people, and it was really surprising to me – the low levels of service that are prevalent in this industry. And a lot of the way we will win is by simply doing what we say we're going to do… We think we can bring more value, especially for someone who's in the e-commerce space and looking to be multichannel…" –Eric Lobdell Eric Lobdell is the founder of Thrive 3PL, Lonestar Trade, and Lobdell Capital, companies that offer warehousing, fulfillment, and logistics solutions to help launch and scale e-commerce businesses. Eric turned a career...
2024-08-1638 min
Truck N' Hustle28 Year Old Grows to 30 Trucks in One Year with Amazon Secret Business in a Box! - Andrew Stevens#business #TruckNHustle #trucks #amazondspFREIGHTFEST 2024 EARLY BIRD TICKETS!!:www.freightfest.comFOR MERCH:http://www.trucknhustle.storeFOR EXCLUSIVE CONTENT & MORE VISIT:https://www.trucknhustle.com/_________Andrew Stevens is the YOUNGEST & FASTEST GROWING Amazon DSP contractor in the country. He has grown to over 30 TRUCKS and has acquired MILLIONS of Dollars in dedicated contracts. Check out his amazing story and get the info you need to get involved...
2024-02-071h 20
Truck N' Hustle26 Yr Old Turns FLIPPING Face Masks Into Medical Supply Warehouse EMPIRE; 1st SHIPMENT TO GARY VEE! - ANTHONY GOMEZ#business #TruckNHustle #warehouse #3PLGET EARLY BIRD TICKETS FOR FREIGHT FEST 2023!!:http://FreightFest.comFOR MERCH:http://www.trucknhustle.storeFOR EXCLUSIVE CONTENT & MORE VISIT:https://www.trucknhustle.com/__________CONNECT WITH ANTHONY GOMEZ & RAPIDSHIPS:agomez@rapidships.comhttps://rapidships.net/https://www.linkedin.com › an...
2023-08-161h 01
Check CallLIVE from Future of Supply Chain in Northwest ArkansasMary O'Connell, Freight Broker/3PL Expert at FreightWaves, is joined by Dan Martin, Chief Executive Officer of Xpress Global Systems, LLC, in the first ever Check Call Live episode.Follow Check Call on Apple PodcastsFollow Check Call on SpotifyMore FreightWaves Podcasts
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2022-05-3125 min
The Unofficial Shopify Podcast3PL ShipBob Sees Strong Black Friday FulfillmentAccording to Shopify sales data, "merchants on Shopify generated peak sales of nearly $3.1 million per minute at 12:02 PM EST on Black Friday, and merchants crossed $1 billion in sales by 4:00am EST, four hours earlier than Black Friday in 2020."Now we have to get all that product delivered. In 2020, that was a problem. Is it an issue this year?CMO of ShipBob, Casey Armstrong, joins to tell us. The global 3PL ships millions of orders per month for over 7,000 brands across a network of 30 fulfillment centers worldwide. They track and publish carrier fulfillment data which they'll...
2021-12-1435 min
WHAT THE TRUCK?!?Two storms spell double troubleOn today’s episode, Dooner and The Dude talk about an unprecedented pair of storms that could spell double trouble for freight, Tenstreet’s partnership with Truckers Against Trafficking, a widow of a murdered trucker who is still seeking answers, and the logistics of logistics.They’re joined by special guests Marilyn Surber, Advisory Team, Tenstreet LLC; Joe Lynch, The Logistics of Logistics; Jeremy Thone, Marketing Manager, 3PL Systems; Nick Austin, Director of Weather Analytics/Senior Meteorologist at FreightWaves.And, Emily Szink, with this week’s Big and Little Deals concerning USPS proposed House bill, used tru...
2020-08-241h 00