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The Michael Shermer Show

305. Bethanne Patrick — Book World

The Michael Shermer Show

Michael Shermer

Science, Natural Sciences

4.31K Ratings

🗓️ 8 November 2022

⏱️ 99 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A conversation with literary critic and publishing insider Bethanne Patrick about the future of books, book publishing, authors and readers.

Shermer and Patrick discuss: her memoir Life B • trends in treatment of depression and other mental diseases • why memoirs by authors who have suffered traumas and stresses in their lives sell so well • non-fiction, fiction, and quasi-nonfictional fiction • censorship and cancel culture in publishing • why the New York Times bestseller list is so influential • the trial over the acquisition of Simon & Schuster by Penguin Random House over whether it will lead to a monopsony • the future of publishing and book stores • how writing compares to more accessible forms of content such as film or podcasting • what advice she would give to new would-be authors.

Bethanne Patrick is the ultimate literary insider. If you read book reviews, you undoubtedly know Bethanne. Her endorsements in venues like the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, NPR, and the Boston Globe have moved hundreds of thousands of copies. Check your shelves: chances are you own a book (or three) with a Bethanne blurb on the cover. An influencer in the book world, Bethanne (@TheBookMaven) has over 200K Twitter followers and originated the popular #FridayReads hashtag. The author of two books for National Geographic and editor of an anthology for Regan Arts, Patrick's debut memoir Life B will be published by Counterpoint in May 2023.

Transcript

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0:00.0

You're listening to the Michael Sherman Show

0:17.0

Welcome to the Michael Shimmer Show. It's time for another episode.

0:18.0

I'm your host Michael Shimmer.

0:20.0

This episode is brought to you by Wundrium, a former Great Courses Teaching Company, is now a broader subscription-based system that you get on your phone or your laptop or however you prefer to consume your online content that's streamed and you can do it through Wundrium which is a series of college level audio and video courses. I just take the audio because I do it

0:45.3

while I'm doing something else but it's great either way the videos I have done a

0:49.9

few of those actually when I when it's pretty visual and you need to see what's going on.

0:53.5

Anyway it's a whole series of long-form courses that I've taken dozens and dozens of

1:00.6

that I talk about a lot but it it's also short form videos and tutorials

1:04.1

and how-to lessons, travel logs, documentaries, films and just all kinds of great content like that.

1:10.0

Check it out.

1:11.1

If you do so through me through the show here by going to

1:14.3

Wundrym.com slash surem or you get 50% off the first three months. That's half

1:18.9

off the first quarter of the subscription. W-O-N-D-R-I-U-M-D-U-M-T-E-R-E-R-W-N-E-R-E-R-W-N-T-E-E-R-E-R-W-E-M-T-E-E-R-E-M-T-E-O-M-T-E-N-T-E-E-R-E-O-O-O-O-O-N-O-O-O-O- half off that first

1:32.6

first quarter of the subscription. Here's an episode or here's a series that

1:37.7

I'm interested in taking 24 30-minute lectures on the scientific guide to health and happiness.

1:44.6

That's a worthy goal to have, right, health and happiness.

1:48.4

The health and happiness connection, there is one obviously, What do we know about living longer? Well, I wrote a book about the attempt to achieve immortality and I included some of that really great interesting content and what it means to say that people live twice as long as they

2:04.9

used to not like people used to live to the ripe old age of 80 and now they live to 160 nodes

2:10.9

that more of us are making it up into the 80s that's what that means anyway

2:14.5

happy heart healthy heart yeah it's always good that's why I ride my bike every

2:19.3

day better habits for healthy eating I'm not so good about that. I probably pick up some of their cues. I eat relatively healthy, but then, you know, glass of wine or beer, maybe a little ice cream after dinner. Probably not on the schedule here, but you know all things in moderation.

2:35.0

Okay, I'm riffing on this music, happy stimulation for the mind. Yes, yes, I do mix up content like this with

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