A conversation about AI, sci-fi, creativity, teenagers growing up in a tech-filled world, and the complicated questions around technology, ethics, originality, and what it means to stay human while the world changes so quickly.

• why reading still matters
• how books help you slow down and focus
• how reading shapes the way we think and feel

From how stories begin to what it really takes to get a book into the world, this conversation offers a real look at the life behind the pages.

What starts as a personal story quickly turns into a glimpse of what really happens inside a small bookstore. It’s not quiet or predictable — it’s full of people, moments, and stories you don’t expect.

From an impromptu SAT test at the counter, to a homecoming proposal between the shelves, to a letter that arrived from prison — this episode is about the life of a bookstore, and the people who make it what it is.

We explore how working close to science influences storytelling, what draws her to sci-fi, and how her characters navigate worlds shaped by change.

Together, they explore why letters — even in a world of instant messages — still feel so powerful.

Through real excerpts from over a century of correspondence, this conversation brings the past unexpectedly close. A student writing home after hearing about the assassination of John F. Kennedy. A young woman describing an earthquake, convinced it might be the end of the world. And lighter, almost timeless moments — like a student asking their mother not to embarrass them in public.

Funny, intimate, and deeply human, these letters reveal something simple: we haven’t changed as much as we think.