Jodi Picoult on Banned Books, Buried Truths, and the Story Behind Hollow Bones

Description:

Jodi Picoult is back, and she brought her thirtieth novel with her.

If you have been in a book club at any point in the last thirty years, you know the name. Forty million copies in print. Thirty four languages. And, as of this year, the fourth most banned author in America, which Jen considers a five star review.

Jodi and Jen get into all of it: what thirty years of publishing actually teaches you (start with the underwear), why she refuses to coast when she could easily phone it in, what she believes AI will never do to a reader, and the career she never asked for as an advocate against book banning. Then they turn to Hollow Bones, out September 15, a novel that began with an anonymous postcard and a letter from a jail cell and carried Jodi deep into postpartum psychosis, the dismissal of women by medicine, and the long shadow of 9/11. She also brings back a character you have wondered about since My Sister's Keeper.

One heads up before you press play: this conversation includes discussion of postpartum psychosis, suicide, the death of a child, and school shootings. Please take good care of yourself. Support resources are linked below.

Thought-provoking Quotes:

• If I'm not challenged by a book, why should you be?
• AI will never be human. Novels work because an author is reaching deep into the heart and soul of a reader and finding a chord to pluck that resonates. AI can imitate that. It can never really do it.
• It's fine for a parent to decide what his or her child should be reading. I advocate that. It is not fine for that parent to decide what everyone else's child should be reading.
• When we remove books from schools, we are not protecting children. We are taking away resources that help them deal with an increasingly complex world. And that is the opposite of protecting kids.
• Women are failed at every turn of their lives by the medical industry.
• The more you lie, the easier it gets to lie. And we are living in a time right now when lies are being peddled as truths.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

• Hollow Bones by Jodi Picoult (Ballantine, September 15)
• Pre-order signed copies plus an exclusive overlay from Still North Books
• Pre-order from Barnes & Noble for the sweepstakes and a letter
• Nineteen Minutes, My Sister's Keeper, and Mad Honey (with Jennifer Finney Boylan) by Jodi Picoult
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, adapted for the stage by Jodi Picoult
• PostSecret
• PEN America on book bans
• Postpartum Support International
• National Maternal Mental Health Hotline: call or text 1-833-TLC-MAMA
• 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988

Guest's Links:

Website - https://jodipicoult.com/

Instagram - https://instagram.com/jodipicoult

TikTok - https://tiktok.com/@jodipicoult

Facebook -