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0:36

here's the show. First

0:39

there was flour until it ran out.

0:41

Then we could get wheat, and that

0:43

ran out. Then corn kernels. Then we

0:45

tried animal feed. Now my mom

0:47

makes us a pudding with water and starch, and

0:50

we eat that. Hunger,

0:52

malnutrition, and man-made catastrophe

0:55

in Gaza. It's

1:05

Friday, March 22nd, and this is

1:07

Here and Now Anytime from NPR

1:09

and WB where Boston. I'm Chris

1:11

Bentley. At

1:14

the end of the show, we've got

1:16

some recommendations for your bookshelf, if

1:19

you're even remotely into sci-fi.

1:22

And before that, why is

1:24

the House Freedom Caucus threatening to blow

1:27

up another budget deal on immigration? Any

1:29

Republican who votes for this bill, they

1:31

own it, and they are the ones

1:33

risking the election. Before we get to

1:36

all that though, we've

1:38

been following the warnings from aid

1:40

groups of famine in Gaza. And

1:43

even without a formal declaration of

1:45

famine, we know Palestinians are already

1:48

dying of disease, hunger,

1:50

and malnutrition. At

1:52

the top of the show, you heard

1:54

14-year-old Yousuf Thafish speaking to NPR. Situations

1:58

like his are the result of a war

2:00

between Hamas and Israel, but

2:03

also Israeli policy that

2:05

restricts shipments of aid into Gaza,

2:08

including food. For

2:10

some context on how war has

2:12

contributed to famines in history, we

2:15

called up someone who has studied the issue. Yara

2:18

Asi is an assistant professor at

2:20

the University of Central Florida and

2:22

co-director of the Palestine Program for

2:24

Health and Human Rights at Harvard

2:26

University. Here's her conversation

2:28

with Celeste Hedley. Celeste I

2:30

want to go back to this phrase that we're hearing

2:32

a lot from aid groups. Famine

2:35

is imminent in Gaza. But

2:37

we know that hundreds of thousands of

2:39

Gazans are right now experiencing really

2:41

devastating levels of hunger. At what point does

2:44

it reach that threshold of famine? Yara

2:47

Yeah, that's a great question because, you know,

2:49

this is not a natural disaster. This is

2:51

something that we can kind of watch happening.

2:53

And so, as in the early 2000s,

2:56

in other instances of famine,

2:58

we designated this global

3:01

kind of food security alarm

3:03

system called the integrated

3:05

food security phase classification. And

3:07

their job is to keep an

3:10

eye on instances of food insecurity,

3:12

starvation, and eventually famine to warn

3:14

external actors of what is coming.

3:18

With regard to Gaza, they have

3:20

indicated that this is the most

3:22

acute and quickest incidence of food

3:24

insecurity in their records since they

3:26

have been recording this. So

3:28

their job is to kind of tell the rest of us

3:31

what they're seeing. The job of those on the

3:33

outside is to prevent that from happening. Famine

3:36

Nonprofit organizations have been putting up

3:38

flags for some time now. Why

3:41

do you think the public health

3:43

impacts of this war are being

3:46

overlooked in large part? Yara

3:49

Yeah, so as early as December 18th,

3:51

Human Rights Watch issued a report that

3:53

explicitly said starvation is being used as

3:55

a weapon of war in Gaza. Our

3:58

understanding of war in our conflict is

4:01

typically kind of the spectacle

4:03

of bombings, of tanks in

4:05

the streets, of these kinds

4:07

of very visceral, viewable acts

4:09

of violence. What is often

4:11

missed is that most people die in armed

4:14

conflict and war from indirect causes

4:16

like starvation, like infectious disease, lack

4:18

of access to clean water, any

4:21

of the other breakdowns of society

4:23

and infrastructure that we're seeing in

4:25

places like Gaza. But those

4:27

are much easier to look at in retrospect.

4:29

In the moment, we're kind of

4:31

just tracking trends day to day,

4:33

but it is alarming that even

4:35

with just a few months or

4:38

weeks into this, these kinds of

4:40

groups are saying, we can already

4:42

see that starvation is a man-made,

4:44

human-made catastrophe in the Gaza Strip

4:46

and is consistently getting worse. People

4:49

were trying to make things work for several

4:51

weeks or months initially with what they had.

4:54

Things have deteriorated now such that especially

4:56

in the north, there is literally no

4:58

access to food. So the

5:00

clock is really ticking for these people. So

5:03

many officials in governments

5:06

around the world have said it's

5:08

impossible to know whether Israel is

5:10

using starvation as a weapon

5:12

of war. Why, especially historically speaking,

5:14

why has it been difficult to prove

5:16

this? Well, I

5:19

think we need to take that into

5:21

two parts. I think one, a lot

5:24

of the same countries that are being

5:26

hesitant to call out Israel's actions or

5:28

the consequences of their actions are

5:31

doing so in large part because

5:33

they have supported Israel militarily, financially,

5:35

and diplomatically. And so admitting

5:38

that their ally is using these

5:40

tactics would be in some ways

5:42

holding themselves complicit and enabling this

5:44

behavior. But I think when we

5:47

look back at history, especially more recent history, when

5:49

we look at areas of other famine

5:51

and mass starvation, I'm thinking Haiti, Sudan,

5:53

Yemen, many of the

5:56

times these are non-state militias

5:58

that are besieging territory. or

6:00

there are other external factors

6:02

that are leading to starvation,

6:05

like in Haiti, earthquake, or

6:08

kind of mass violence and insecurity

6:10

in the streets. I think in

6:13

those cases, we are much

6:15

more willing to see the

6:17

actions of actors who are

6:19

perpetuating these circumstances. With

6:21

the exception of perhaps Saudi Arabia in Yemen,

6:23

we are not used to seeing states

6:26

that are kind of on the global

6:28

stage, that are

6:30

allies with Western countries seemingly

6:32

purposefully enacting these policies themselves.

6:36

So I think that this is kind of

6:38

both a shift in practice of how war

6:40

is waged, and also is kind

6:43

of a wake-up call for humanitarian agencies,

6:45

for human rights scholars, for

6:48

really all of us in public health and others,

6:50

that we need to be

6:52

more forceful in the moment in calling

6:54

out these actions, because weeks, months from

6:56

now, it's too late. Yara

6:59

Asi is a professor at the University of Central

7:01

Florida, an author of the book, How

7:03

War Kills the Overlooked Threats to

7:06

Our Health. Yara, thank you

7:08

so much. Thank you for having me. Coming

7:14

up next, your representatives in

7:16

Washington are also talking about Gaza this week.

7:19

Some of them are trying to permanently

7:22

end funding for the United Nations' main

7:24

Palestinian aid agency. That's

7:26

one part of a spending deal

7:28

and a seemingly constant battle in

7:30

D.C. to keep the government running,

7:33

that Celeste and Deepa Fernandez will pick

7:35

up with our regular politics roundtable when

7:38

we return. Did

7:50

you kill Marlene Johnson? I

7:53

think you're one of the first people to have actually

7:55

asked. Beyond

8:00

All Repair, a new podcast

8:02

about an unsolved murder that will

8:04

leave you questioning everything. Somebody

8:06

should be in jail for murdering my

8:08

sister. A woman who's never been believed.

8:10

As long as they think I have

8:12

done this, then they're not looking for

8:15

who actually did this. And that's

8:17

what makes it a cold case. No, it's a botched

8:19

case. And a search for the truth. Once

8:22

and for all. Wow, it

8:24

just gets more interesting. Beyond

8:27

All Repair. Join and

8:29

follow wherever you get your podcasts. Be

8:31

careful. You're digging

8:34

in a place that's been very peaceful for

8:36

a while. Do it anyway. Dig.

8:55

There is a big rush in the Senate

8:57

right now. The Senate passed a $1.2 trillion

9:00

funding bill that would keep the lights on

9:02

and the federal government passed midnight when funding

9:04

expires. It passed in the House this morning.

9:07

And because of that, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie

9:09

Taylor Greene threw the lower chamber

9:11

into chaos by filing a motion

9:13

to vacate Republican Speaker Mike Johnson from

9:16

his job. He passed a budget that

9:18

should have never been brought to the

9:20

floor, did not represent our conference, and

9:22

it was passed with the Democrats and

9:24

without the majority of the majority. And

9:28

in another fast approaching deadline, Donald

9:30

Trump has until Monday to put

9:32

up some big money to stop

9:34

his properties from being seized in

9:36

New York. Let's bring in our

9:38

Friday Politics Roundtable. Isaac Arnstoff is

9:40

National Political Reporter for the Washington

9:42

Post and author of a book

9:44

that's coming out next month called

9:46

Finish What We Started About the

9:48

MAGA Movement. Hi Isaac. And

9:53

we'll get Isaac in a minute. Scott Wong

9:55

is a senior congressional reporter for NBC News.

9:57

Scott, welcome. Hello. with

10:00

you. So Scott, let's get your

10:02

quick take on this big budget bill. Is

10:04

it going to pass the Senate by midnight to prevent a

10:06

shutdown? What are you hearing there? Yes,

10:09

it will pass the Senate. The

10:12

big question is, you're right, will it pass

10:15

by the midnight deadline? It

10:17

all depends on if they can get agreement

10:19

from all 100 senators,

10:21

but it looks to be on

10:24

track. The House got it to

10:26

them relatively early. They

10:28

will have to work through

10:30

some processes, but it looks

10:32

to be on track. If

10:34

there is a very brief

10:36

shutdown, it could be hours

10:38

long into the early morning. But

10:44

for all intents and purposes, I don't think any

10:47

Americans will feel any sort

10:49

of pain if funding lapses

10:51

for a few hours. Except

10:54

for Congresswoman Green might feel some pain.

10:56

As we mentioned, she filed that motion to

10:58

vacate. So Isaac, what happens

11:00

next after that motion? So

11:03

this is not going to come up before

11:05

the recess. So the

11:07

House is going to be out for a few weeks,

11:09

and they can deal with it when they get back.

11:12

So that's the first thing. And

11:14

then it's not totally clear. Like Scott

11:17

said, a majority

11:19

of Republicans didn't support this budget.

11:21

That doesn't necessarily mean that they're

11:23

all going to want to throw

11:26

Mike Johnson out, especially

11:28

since it wasn't that long ago that they went

11:30

through this and ended up with Mike Johnson because

11:32

they couldn't figure anyone out. So I'm sure

11:34

there are going to be a lot of

11:37

Republicans who might not be happy with the

11:39

spending bill, but also wouldn't love the spectacle

11:41

of casting around for another speaker

11:44

in an election year. That

11:47

is actually with Ms. Green, Marjorie Taylor

11:49

Green, a few minutes ago on the

11:51

steps of the Capitol. And

11:54

she is really upset about the fact

11:56

that Johnson did this

11:58

budget deal. relied mostly on

12:01

democratic votes, it bypassed all the

12:03

normal procedures, it bypassed the rules

12:05

committee. The majority of Republicans

12:07

did not support it because

12:10

they believe it did not cut

12:13

spending enough, did not address

12:16

border security enough. And

12:18

what this act does, while

12:20

Johnson is not under threat to

12:23

be removed right now, House

12:26

Republicans and Senators as well

12:28

will be leaving for a

12:30

two-week Easter recess, their spring

12:32

break, if you will. And

12:34

so this hangs above Johnson's head

12:36

for the next two weeks. It will

12:39

be a major storyline. And guess

12:41

who gets to be in the spotlight for the next two weeks? Marjorie

12:43

Taylor Greene. She's concerned with spending,

12:45

but also with funding for

12:47

Ukraine, which she does not really want

12:49

to see pass the United States Congress.

12:52

Scott, given you were just with her, I'm

12:55

very curious because we're reading that right after

12:57

she filed the motion, she was swarmed by

12:59

her Republican colleagues, many of whom trying

13:02

to convince her not to do this. Do you

13:04

think she's hearing them? Did she say

13:06

anything about that? She

13:09

did. Yes, she was swarmed by

13:11

Republican colleagues on the House floor.

13:13

Obviously, people trying to understand what

13:16

this was about, what her concerns

13:18

were. Was she serious

13:20

about forcing the actual vote on

13:23

the floor? She basically has teed

13:25

up this vote for when they

13:27

return, but still can decide

13:29

to pull back or to withdraw it.

13:33

I talked to Mike Lawler. He's a

13:35

moderate Republican from a very swing district,

13:38

a vulnerable Republican. He said, look,

13:40

what this does is it paints

13:43

us as a chaotic

13:45

conference. It undermines faith

13:49

from voters in the Republicans who

13:52

hold this majority, and

13:54

it's bad for the party. There's

13:57

a lot of Republicans that clearly are not

13:59

on board. board with what

14:01

MTG is doing. There's also a

14:03

number of Democrats that have indicated

14:06

mostly privately that they are willing to

14:09

join hands with some Republicans to save

14:12

Mike Johnson in the event that this

14:14

vote heads to the floor. Yeah.

14:16

And speaking of the Democrats, President

14:18

Biden stepped up his campaign in

14:20

this week. He visited Texas, Arizona,

14:23

Nevada. He opened campaign offices, wanted

14:25

to shore up support among Latinos who helped him win

14:28

last time. Here he is in Reno. And

14:30

folks, you know, we're going to keep making the case for

14:32

second term by lowering the cost

14:34

and creating more jobs. You know, we have

14:38

grassroots support. He talked about

14:40

American values, unions, jobs, bringing down

14:42

drug prices, standing up to

14:45

Russia in ways he says

14:47

the former President Trump will

14:49

not. He's trying to overcome

14:51

concerns that he is not connecting with the voters.

14:53

So, Isaac, how do you think he's doing? Well,

14:56

the Biden campaign is thrilled with how

14:58

the past few weeks have been going

15:01

pretty much since the State of the

15:03

Union. They love the contrast that they've

15:05

been drawing with Biden actually doing a

15:07

lot more campaigning than Trump. And when

15:09

Trump has been going out and doing

15:11

these rallies, creating a lot of controversies

15:14

with what he's been saying about January

15:17

6th or using

15:19

the term bloodbath in Ohio

15:22

last weekend. So

15:24

they feel like they're really like

15:27

the since the primary ended and

15:29

we've moved into the general election phase

15:31

now that both candidates have become

15:33

the presumptive nominees. They really like actually

15:36

the way that that sort of

15:38

reset the race and creating

15:40

the contrast between Biden and Trump in

15:42

that Biden and Trump that they

15:44

want to see. They're not really

15:46

seeing that show up in the polls as

15:48

much as they probably like to quite yet.

15:52

But it's still early and the polls in

15:54

the key states have been sort of a

15:56

mixed bag that you can pick and choose. interesting,

16:00

maybe the polls are not showing it, but

16:02

Biden made a lot of money. His campaign

16:04

made twice as much in

16:06

the last week we're learning than former President Trump

16:09

has. Some of his money went

16:11

to ads like this, which play back

16:13

some of Trump's own comments about the

16:15

pandemic. And then I see

16:17

the disinfectant. And is there a way we can do

16:19

something like that? Right.

16:22

Injection inside. And on a scale of one

16:24

to ten, how would you rate your response

16:26

to this crisis? I'd rate it a ten.

16:30

So I'm wondering, Scott, you know, campaign cash,

16:32

is that a good way to measure where

16:34

a campaign's at? I mean, we do know

16:36

that Trump earns a lot of free media.

16:40

Yes. I mean, I think it's one measure that

16:42

we should take into

16:44

consideration. Biden obviously announcing that he raised

16:47

more than 50 million dollars in the

16:49

month of February. That's a big number

16:51

that he put up, dwarfing

16:54

the numbers coming from Trump world.

16:57

However, I will point out, and this

16:59

has been a discussion on Capitol Hill

17:01

and throughout Washington, that Hillary

17:04

Clinton also raised more money than Donald Trump

17:06

in the 2016 campaign cycle.

17:09

She did not end up winning the

17:11

presidency. And so there's that. President

17:13

Trump has a way of capturing

17:15

media, how capturing,

17:17

you know, galvanizing support among

17:20

his very loyal people, especially

17:24

as he has been railing against some

17:27

of the criminal charges that have been

17:29

filed against him in various courts of

17:32

law. And so, you

17:34

know, while it is one aspect

17:36

that we need to consider and the

17:38

fact that President Trump has said,

17:42

you know, indicated that some of his

17:44

campaign money will be going towards his

17:46

legal defenses, that's another, you

17:49

know, challenge that he is

17:51

dealing with. It

17:54

Cannot be overstated That, you know,

17:56

Trump is an entirely different type

17:59

of politician. Then we really

18:01

have ever seen before. And speaking of

18:03

that, Isaac the week started with Trump

18:05

using it, as you mentioned, some very

18:08

heated rhetoric. I'm. Being

18:10

divisive that's hardly at a character he also

18:12

notably said this about a national. Abortion ban

18:14

on W A D C radio

18:16

ad it'll come out to something

18:18

that's very reasonable. But. People

18:21

are really be a bit hard liners are

18:23

agreeing. Seems to be sixteen weeks seems to

18:25

be a number that people are agreeing at.

18:28

There's not actually agreement on that. I'm

18:30

of what do you make? Isaac of

18:32

Scrims messaging. Or was

18:34

a biden Campaigners has been clobbering him

18:37

with with that comment. I'm awesome. Other

18:39

comments he made seeming to take credit

18:41

for the Supreme Court overturning Roe versus

18:43

Wade. I'd also a comment he made

18:45

the other week suggesting that he'd be

18:47

opens her cutting social Security which is

18:49

definitely off message for him on. They

18:52

had a field day with that as

18:54

well so that the all goes back

18:56

into the of way that they feel

18:58

like they've really had a good few

19:00

weeks on end up. You know that

19:02

the money that we're talking. About his

19:05

is huge factor in why we've

19:07

been actually seeing less of Trump.

19:09

You know, those rallies are expensive

19:11

to put on and on. The

19:13

campaign is really focused on trying

19:15

to close that gap, and that

19:18

means spending more time in private

19:20

fundraisers. And take

19:22

us out. Just Scott with a quick

19:24

take on Ukraine. Aid is a pass

19:26

any time soon. Some lawyers are talking.

19:29

Some lawmakers are talking about making it

19:31

alone. yeah

19:33

sleep alone idea is something that

19:35

was floated by former president trump

19:38

himself to some a republican senators

19:40

or is it is an idea

19:42

that is on the table i'm

19:44

however as i mentioned before lawmakers

19:46

are leaving for two week risa

19:48

so the soon as we will

19:50

see a vote on critical funding

19:52

for ukrainian the house of representatives

19:54

will be some time in mid

19:56

april at the earliest this obviously

19:58

comes as russia has launched a

20:00

barrage of new attacks on

20:02

civilian targets and energy targets

20:04

in Ukraine. Zelensky has said

20:06

that unless he gets aid

20:08

from the US and the

20:10

West, there's a real possibility

20:12

that they could lose the

20:15

war. That's right. Isaac Arnstorf,

20:17

National Political Reporter for The Washington Post.

20:19

Scott Wong is Senior Congressional Reporter for

20:21

NBC News. Coming

20:26

up next, that's enough news

20:28

for today. It's Friday, and

20:31

when we return, we're talking sci-fi

20:33

and romance novels with producer Kalyani

20:35

Saksena, who has two titles for

20:37

your list. Stick

20:41

around. In

20:45

a stressful election year, we know that

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a good show, movie, or book can

20:49

feel like a sacred thing. At

20:51

Pop Culture Happy Hour, we believe pop culture

20:53

can be good for you, so we're here

20:55

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20:58

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on Fridays, we discuss indicators in the

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21:17

of food, sometimes all three. So

21:19

my indicator is about why you might need

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eggs. I'll be here all

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week. Wrap up your week and listen to The

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Indicator podcast from NPR. On the StoryCorps

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stories are right there in front of us, waiting

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22:20

it's sci-fi, fantasy, or romance,

22:23

genre fiction readers love a

22:25

series. All that world

22:27

building for one book? Nah, keep them coming.

22:30

So on that front, here and now

22:32

producer Kolyani Sixena is here to talk

22:34

about the latest installment in a new

22:36

series of sci-fi novels that she's into.

22:39

Hey Kolyani. Hi Chris. We're

22:41

talking about the Devoured Worlds series from

22:43

author Megan O'Keefe, and the third book

22:45

in this series comes out in June.

22:48

It's called The Bound Worlds. The

22:50

first two installments came out last year, The

22:52

Blighted Stars and The Fractured Dark. I read

22:54

the first one on your recommendation and enjoyed

22:57

it quite a bit. Yay! I'm

23:00

so glad actually because it's one of

23:02

those series where I'm not

23:04

a big sci-fi reader. I used to be

23:06

when I was a kid. You know, I

23:08

loved the concept of two people stranded together

23:10

in space, which is kind of what

23:13

this book is about, but I fell off on reading sci-fi

23:15

and someone recommended this to me. I happened

23:17

to have had COVID and I was locked

23:19

onto a balcony basically for like four hours

23:21

at a time because my family was in

23:23

a really small apartment and this book is

23:25

really what got me through those hours locked

23:27

on a balcony. Oh wow. Well,

23:30

I'm glad you're feeling better. Yeah, I mean I do

23:33

read a fair amount of sci-fi and I like,

23:35

you know, this I would categorize as

23:37

a space opera for getting super niche

23:39

genre, which I like. I

23:42

like another series that people might have heard

23:44

of called The Expanse. If people haven't read the books,

23:46

they might know the sci-fi channel show. I haven't seen

23:48

the show. This reminded me of

23:50

that because it's also like action-packed. It's

23:52

got this intergalactic political intrigue

23:54

and creepy planets with a little

23:57

bit of cosmic horror in there.

23:59

So much. Why don't you give listeners

24:01

a little elevator pitch? Why should people check

24:03

this series out? Yeah. One

24:05

thing I should say about this series, and I know you've

24:07

only read the first book, Chris, so I'm not gonna spoil

24:09

anything, is that each book feels

24:12

so different, and this first book

24:14

feels almost like a haunted,

24:16

like horror story, but on a

24:19

closed planet. So we have these

24:21

two people. We sort

24:23

of start the book with Tarkin Mercator. He's part

24:25

of this, one of the

24:27

ruling families in this political

24:30

system that sort of governs the

24:32

galaxies that people live within,

24:35

and he is sort of a scholar

24:37

by nature. He doesn't really want to

24:40

get involved in the family politics, but

24:42

he's with his dad on this mission,

24:44

and there is this terrorist,

24:47

an environmental terrorist. Her name's

24:49

Nyra Sharp, and she

24:51

basically had accused his father of

24:54

being involved in a really exploitative

24:56

mining practice on these planets, which

24:59

are called the cradles, where

25:01

human life is possible, and her accusation

25:03

was that his father had

25:05

something to do with this thing called the shroud,

25:08

which is really eating up all

25:10

the possible livable life on these

25:12

planets, and Tarkin's kind

25:14

of determined to show that

25:16

she was wrong, that his father couldn't have had

25:18

anything to do with this, and so

25:20

he's on a mission to one of these cradles when the

25:22

ship that he's on with his father explodes,

25:25

and Nyra happens to be on that ship,

25:27

but he doesn't recognize her, which is

25:29

maybe, Chris, you can do a little

25:31

bit of explaining about why exactly he

25:33

doesn't recognize her or know her. Oh

25:35

yeah, sure. Well, I mean, there's a

25:37

critical part of the plot, which is

25:40

this reprinting process. It's kind of like

25:42

this reincarnation through technology, and basically people

25:44

can have their consciousnesses reprinted into a

25:47

new body after death. By

25:49

the way, I haven't seen it, but I know the series,

25:51

the TV series Altered Carbon has a similar concept. Yes,

25:53

it's quite similar to that, and that's why I think it

25:55

was so easy for me to understand. Basically,

25:58

your personality is... stored in

26:00

these neural maps, which are uploaded to

26:02

a cloud-like system. And so if you

26:05

die, then you can just get reprinted

26:07

into a new body with that same

26:09

map downloaded into the new body. But

26:11

you, of course, have to back it up.

26:13

Yeah. And I think it's cool

26:16

because it's fertile ground for some of that

26:18

philosophical side of sci-fi that we love. I

26:21

wrote down one passage. There's a character that's

26:23

speaking about soldiers that get

26:25

repeatedly killed and brought back by their

26:27

kind of overlords to

26:29

keep fighting. And the

26:32

quote, this character says, there's a look you get

26:34

after a while, a stain with every life taken,

26:36

seeping through. People get to keep

26:38

coming back as long as they can afford to reprint.

26:40

But I don't believe the human heart has caught

26:43

up with technology. Yeah. I

26:45

thought this was a cool way to play

26:47

with the ideas of the limits of science.

26:49

Yeah. Consciousness is just

26:51

an effect of neurochemical pathways or something

26:54

more, you know? And I

26:56

think that's what worked so well about the

26:58

book for me, actually, is this idea that

27:00

like, yeah, you have this really cool technology,

27:02

but there are limits, right? And like, you

27:04

can't be violently killed again and

27:06

again, or something happens to you when it's

27:09

called cracking within the book system. And

27:11

it means basically your mind breaks. And

27:13

the people who actually have access to printing are

27:16

not, you know, it's not available to everyone. It's

27:18

available to wealthy families like Tarquin and his father.

27:21

There's some really interesting political

27:23

themes. Yeah. And you get

27:26

a lot of that tension playing out between the two main

27:28

characters, Tarquin, as he's described at

27:30

one point as a soft skinned

27:32

aristocrat, unused to pain. And

27:34

then his counterpart, Nyra Sharp,

27:37

is this like rugged assassin and

27:39

spies working against a capitalistic

27:42

space cabal of aristocratic families. So

27:44

it's fun to watch where that

27:46

relationship goes without spoiling anything. Without

27:48

spoiling anything. What are

27:50

you looking forward to in the third installment of this,

27:53

which comes out in June? So I've already read

27:55

the third. That's one of the great

27:57

perks of this job. But so I can't, the thing

27:59

is like. I can't tell you anything

28:01

about the third because everything that happens in

28:03

the second is so crazy and like Unpredictable

28:06

that you will be gasping for air

28:08

like I finished the first book and

28:10

I loved it But it feels very

28:12

much like a self-contained book

28:14

and it's like the seeds that are

28:17

planted in book one Really get fleshed

28:19

out in books two and three So

28:22

it's I think Readers who want a

28:24

story that will surprise them with characters

28:26

that have heart and themes that are

28:28

really complex and don't have easy Answers

28:30

will really have a great time with this

28:32

series and I'm always a

28:34

fan of some imaginary Biology and there's

28:37

a there's a lichen in this book

28:39

that is actually pretty important. So

28:41

yeah This

28:43

goes out to all the plant lovers

28:45

and the geologists Both of

28:47

those things play an important role in the book So

28:50

that's the blighted stars the first in a

28:52

series of sci-fi books the third of which

28:55

is coming out in June But

28:57

Kolyani, I know you also wanted to talk about another

28:59

book an older one from 2015. Yeah, it's

29:02

a romance novel It is I'm a big romance

29:04

fan and I've been reading a lot of historical romance in

29:06

the last month I think it's just something that brings me

29:08

a lot of comfort It

29:11

is very formulaic like romance is but

29:13

I think when you find a book

29:15

that Surprises you even

29:17

within that formula. It's it's really refreshing to

29:19

me at least and so this book is

29:21

by Julie Ann long it's called it started

29:23

with a scandal and We

29:25

follow this woman named Elise and she

29:28

a few years before the start of

29:30

the book had and

29:32

I guess out of marriage affair

29:34

and Got pregnant as a

29:36

result and so she's had a sort of plummet

29:39

in social status And now she has to take

29:41

this job as a housekeeper for this Really

29:44

important guy. He's a prince. He's a French

29:46

prince. His name is Philip and Philip

29:50

is really just like a standoffish

29:52

cold guy He needs someone who can just take care

29:54

of the house and most people have already fled the

29:56

job But at least really needs a job because she

29:58

needs it for her and her her son, and so

30:01

she's determined to do a good job, which

30:03

of course puts them in contention. And it's

30:05

a really sweet romance between two people that

30:07

takes its time to develop, and they're

30:10

sort of stuck in this position of

30:12

employer and employee, and they navigate that

30:15

power dynamic as well in the book. It's

30:17

really thoughtful and romantic and full of yearning,

30:19

and I think just a good dose of

30:21

escapism for anyone who's looking for it. Here

30:24

I know producer Kalyani Saxena with some book

30:26

recommendations for us. Thanks, Kalyani.

30:29

Thank you so much, Chris. That'll

30:36

do it for us. This show comes

30:38

from the team behind Here and Now

30:40

from NPR and WBUR Boston. Today's

30:42

stories were produced by Hopsa Kharishi and

30:44

Lynn Menegon. Today's editors were

30:47

Julia Corcoran, Todd Munn, and Mika

30:49

Eila Rodriguez. A technical

30:51

direction from Mike Mosqueto and Michaela Varela.

30:54

Mike Mosqueto also wrote our theme music,

30:56

along with Max Liebman and me, Chris

30:59

Bentley. Our digital producers

31:01

are Alison Hagen and Grace Griffin, and

31:03

the executive producer of Here and Now

31:05

is Karlene Watson. Thanks

31:08

for listening. Have a great weekend.

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