The New American West

2026-09-24 · 58 min · 9 entities

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discusses Society & Culture concept

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discusses Arts concept

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discusses Fiction concept

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hosted by Symphony Space person

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Episode description as stored

Host Meg Wolitzer presents two works that reassess and redefine our ideas of “the West.” It’s both a landscape of awesome beauty, and the scene of cultural appropriation, and we’ve got two masters sharing and shaping our experience. In Louise Erdrich’s “The Hollow Children” a natural disaster tests family ties. It’s read by Tate Donovan. And writer and environmental activist Rick Bass stress tests the West, and his main character, in “Fires,” read by John Benjamin Hickey. We also reprise part of an interview with Louise Erdrich from earlier in the year. In it, she mentions a new novel in progress, which has now been published: The Mighty Red: A Novel. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.