Hi there, I'm Jason Gautz, and you're listening to Think Again, a Big Think podcast.

The places we live shape us. I don't care who you are or how indomitable your will. Your spirit is in dialogue with the place you live.

For example, I live in New York City, a place I wrapped around me like a

second skin when I was 18 years old. Back then, New York made me feel strong, cool, infinitely removed

from the suburbs I grew up in. I've been here for about 25 years, and at this point what I

mostly notice is the claustrophobic public spaces, the smallness of the sky. What do you feel when you hear the word Florida?

Do the pleasure centers of your brain light up, imagining palm trees and pristine beaches,

or does your amygdala kick in as you imagine the ancillary costs of a week at Disney World?

My guest today is the writer Lauren Groff.

In her vivid, dreamlike new book of short stories,

Florida is a humid, seething organism that wants to eat you. Snake-infested, full of sinkholes,

a thing to resist, get lost in, surrender to, and sometimes temporarily escape. Lauren Groff is the author

of the novel's Fates and Furies, Arcadia and the Monsters of Templeton,

and the short story collections, delicate edible birds, and her latest Florida.

And I'm delighted to be speaking with her today.

Welcome to Think Again, Lauren.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me on the show.

I thoroughly enjoyed Florida.

And one thing that's really interesting about this collection is, you know, it's sort of like a concept album.

Everything ties together and interweaves in interesting ways. Like, did you plan it that way?

Did it just emerge that way? How did it, how did that happen? So it just emerged that way.

...