GrottoPod

Latest Episodes
Episode 135: Adam Smyer’s Anti-Racist Translation Guide
Adam Smyer joins us on the GrottoPod this week to talk about his new book, You Can Keep That To Yourself: A Comprehensive List of What Not to Say to Black People, for Well-Intentioned People of Pallor. It's a pocket-sized translation guide designed to ...
Episode 134: Vanessa Hua, “VIP Tutoring”
Award-winning writer Vanessa Hua joins the GrottoPod summer reading series today to share a taste of her short story "VIP Tutoring" from her newly reissued collection, Deceit and Other Possibilities. Hua is a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle a...
Episode 133: Raina León, “Solstice in Solidified Sugar”
Writer Raina León joins the GrottoPod this week as part of our summer reading series to share her piece "Solstice in Solidified Sugar." León is a full professor of education at Saint Mary’s College of California,
Episode 132: Rachel Levin Wants You To Eat Something!
Food writer Rachel Levin continues our GrottoPod reading series in a special Shabbat episode. Listen in as she reads from EAT SOMETHING: A Wise Sons Cookbook for Jews Who Like Food and Food Lovers Who Like Jews, co-written with Evan Bloom,
Episode 131: A.H. Kim’s ‘A Good Family’
Today on the GrottoPod we're kicking off our summer reading series, bringing you readings from Writers Grotto members. Today we're featuring Ann Kim, who reads from her brand-new novel, A Good Family, available now. Ann Kim (writing as A.H.
Episode 130: Kevin Smokler’s ‘Vinyl Nation’
Kevin Smokler is an author, documentary filmmaker and event host based in San Francisco. Today on the GrottoPod, he discusses his documentary, Vinyl Nation: A Deep Dig into the Record Resurgence, which debuted digitally on what would have been Record S...
Episode 129: Taneum Bambrick’s Bold Poetry
Taneum Bambrick's book, Vantage, is a fictionalized account of the poet's time spent working as the only woman on a garbage crew. Using unforgettable images, Bambrick tackles issues such as class, gender, and environmental degradation without sentiment...
Episode 128: Historian Yan Slobodkin on the Current Moment
Yan Slobodkin is a historian of modern Europe, with a focus on French colonial and transnational history. He stops by the GrottoPod this week to discuss his current book project—a history of famine in 19th- and 20th-century North Africa, West Africa,
Episode 127: Beth Lisick and ‘Edie on the Green Screen’
Beth Lisick's debut novel, Edie on the Green Screen, is about a Bay Area Gen-X rebel, an "It Girl" in the late '90s who faces her own obsolescence in 2010s San Francisco. It is fundamentally about how we manage change,
Episode 126: International Literature
What can international literature teach us about our collective past, present and future in these chaotic times? In the latest GrottoPod Gabfest, producer and Grotto fellow Rita Chang-Eppig talks to Jesus Francisco Sierra,