Hello, how's it going out there? Welcome to the show. This is the Other People podcast. I'm Brad Listy in Los Angeles. It's nice to be with you. Thank you for tuning in. I appreciate it. I hope you're doing all right. Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen.

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So my guest today is Sarah Rose Etter, author of a new novel called Ripe.

People love to bitch at me on Twitter about this, but if you don't have an outline before

you sit down to write, that is the quickest way to spend 10 years on something.

And plot isn't that complicated, okay?

We have loved the same plots since the dawn of time.

The shit was drawn on cave walls. It was in the Bible. It's in mythology. Like, that is the part where I'm like, don't overthink it. Like, get a plot, you got a character, something happens, pick the right time. And I thought, I don't want to do a whole life. That is how you get lost in the sauce is doing a whole life. I want to do,

literally, I said six weeks of someone's life. And what is the quickest way to make six weeks

really matter? Well, she's got to be pregnant. All right, that was Sarah Rose Etter, who was making

her second appearance on the Other People podcast, a returning champion. Her new novel is called

Ripe. It is out this week on Scribner, and it is excellent. Ripe is a book about a woman on

the verge, a 30-something woman who is working in the pressure cooker world of a Silicon Valley startup,

living in San Francisco, trying to navigate late capitalism, the insanities of modern hustle culture,

relationships, friendships, financial pressure, all of it.

This is a very astute, very moving, very propulsive book.

I couldn't put it down. I read it in one sitting.

My conversation with Sarah Rosetta is coming up in just a second.

Before we begin, I do want to remind you that I do a weekly email newsletter.

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