Can the end of the world as we know it bring about new ways of living? In this broadcast of Severance Radio, host Heidi Kyser interviews expert speculative fiction writers and creative writing professors Christopher Coake and Claire Vaye Watkin

On Solitude

Sep 21st, 2020 18m 6s

In this episode, Severance Radio host Heidi Kyser interviews Professor Shelley Kelley and Natalie Pennington on the effects of a solitary life amid a pandemic. Shelley Kelly is a professor, reader, music lover, motorcyclist. She is one of the l

Memory, Loss, and the Politics of Forgetting

Sep 14th, 2020 21m 19s

In this episode, Hugh Shapiro and Claytee D. White talk about memory, loss, the politics of forgetting our past when we look for ways to live during a pandemic.Hugh Shapiro is Associate Professor of East Asian history at the University of Nevad

Apocalyptic Expressions

Sep 8th, 2020 27m 40s

In this episode, artists Brent Holmes and Lance Smith delve into art as a vehicle for imagining a new world and the current social order. How does the apocalypse inspire their art? Brent Holmes is a multi-disciplinary artist with a deep affinit

Navigating Immigration and Acculturation in America

Sep 3rd, 2020 13m 56s

In this episode, Nasia Anam interviews writer Bonnie Chau about navigating cultural backgrounds in a capitalist society.Nasia Anam is an assistant professor of English literature and global Anglophone literature at the University of Nevada, Ren

Humor in a Time of Crisis

Aug 27th, 2020 21m 51s

In this episode, novelist and twitter comedian Kristen Arnett and Desert Companion editor Scott Dickensheets discuss the value of satire in the middle of a pandemic.Kristen Arnett is the NYT and Los Angeles Times bestselling author of the debut

Work and The Millennial Condition

Aug 20th, 2020 16m 48s

In this episode, two voices in academics and publishing, Karen Gu and Jean Munson, trace connections between Candace's experiences and the millennial struggles to break into an industry and survive in the workplace.Karen Gu is a writer whose f

Decolonization and Dystopian Literature

Aug 13th, 2020 24m 25s

In this episode, Jenna Hanchey and Erica Vital-Lazare – two scholars who study language – talk about the new voices needed to imagine new worlds.Jenna Hanchey is an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Dynamics of Race & Privilege Amid a Pandemic

Aug 13th, 2020 12m 52s

In this episode, a long-time Las Vegas community partner Dana Lee and experimental writer Vi Khi Nao discuss how a pandemic brings out familiar–and unsettling–ways of talking about race.Dana Lee has been a long-time Las Vegas community partner,

The Construction of Otherness

Aug 13th, 2020 16m 10s

In this episode, two scholars Tim Gauthier and Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan delve into the Us/Them paradigm that reveals itself throughout the story. How do we decide who is human, and who is not? What are the dangers of Othering in times of crisi

Tracing the History of Zombies

Aug 13th, 2020 18m 34s

In this episode, two scholars of English literature, Katherine Fusco and Stephen Pasqualina, investigate one of the most unsettling signs of the apocalypse in popular culture: the rise of the undead. Join us for a conversation about the mytholo

Public Health Amid a Pandemic

Aug 13th, 2020 12m 28s

In this episode, Severance Radio host Heidi Kyser interviews two public health experts, Jennifer Carson and Marya Shegog, as they examine who is most vulnerable in a pandemic. Jennifer Carson works to envision and develop opportunities for indi

The Beginning of Severance Radio

Aug 13th, 2020 13m 49s

For 14 weeks, Severance Radio will dissect a single book: Severance, the satirical, dystopian novel by Ling Ma. This book is a mixture of immigrant family story, corporate satire, and global health crisis. In this episode, producers Stephanie G

Trailer

Introducing Severance Radio

Jul 10th, 2020 1m 9s

Severance Radio is an on-air book club dissecting Ling Ma’s satirical, dystopian novel Severance. The novel is a moving family story that explores loneliness, corporate monotony, and survival in the midst of a global health crisis. Severance Ra