Authors in conversation

Copies of this month’s book The Martians are still winding their way to many subscribers, so I’m going to hold off talking about it in this week’s newsletter—don’t want to spoil anything for those who don’t have their copies already. 

So I thought I’d take the opportunity to quickly touch on a couple of other bits and bobs that have happened over the last few weeks.

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November featured a bit of a personal milestone when I went to see Salman Rushdie in conversation at the City Arts & Lectures series here in San Francisco. While I wouldn’t classify myself as a Rushdie obsessive, I have always been fascinated by his work and even wrote my undergraduate thesis on his novels—but I’d never seen him talk in person.

He’s a fascinating combination of an inquisitive and inventive writer, somebody who’s very smart and also enjoys celebrity—and has obviously gone through some incredible, almost unprecedented threats and traumas. He talked a little about the attempt to murder him in 2022, which he recounts in his memoir Knife, which I have recommended here before.

The whole thing is available as a podcast—and you can even hear me ask a question at about 44 minutes!

And in a lovely intersection, if you haven’t had enough then Alexis Madrigal (whose book The Pacific Circuit was CUR017, our pick for September 2025) also interviewed Rushdie for the Bay Area’s KQED radio.

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What else has been going on in the wider Curious-verse?

Nicola Twilley (CUR005, September 2024) took the stage at TED to give a talk based on her book Frostbite, and it was released to the public just a little while ago. For those of you who were not part of the club when we picked it, the talk is a great overview. 

If that’s interesting to you, then we also have a few copies of the book still on hand in our store!

Meanwhile, if you want more videos to watch, then some other Curious authors who have TED material include Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, Annalee Newitz, Bonnie Tsui, Carly Anne York, and Timothy Snyder.

And with that, I’m off. Next time we’ll talk about The Martians in details.

Onwards

Bobbie