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

Started in 2008, Big Think is a kind of online think tank of big ideas from some of the most creative thinkers on the planet.

On the podcast, we revisit these ideas in new ways. Our producers surprised me and my guests with short interview clips from Big Things Archives,

ideas that we didn't come here and necessarily expecting to discuss.

I'm very excited to be joined today by Mary Gatescoe.

She's the author of three short story collections, including Bad Behavior and Don't Cry,

and three novels, including Veronica and two girls

fat and thin. Her latest book is a collection of essays and reviews called Somebody with a Little

Hammer. The topics are diverse from the Hollywood version of Mary's story secretary to date rape,

to Celine Dion to Mary's experience losing her cat, Gatino.

In every case, Mary writes with startling otherworldly clarity,

peeling back the surface of things we might think we understand,

to peer into the slippery psychological realities underneath.

Welcome to think again, Mary.

Thank you.

So, I mean, first of all, these essays cover a long

span of time, so I wonder what it was like for you going back to them. I assume you had

to like reread and look at a lot of them again. I don't know, what observations, if any,

you had along the way about the themes that have preoccupied you and about these essays

specifically? Well, some of them, especially the early ones, I was a little surprised and is

sometimes even a little embarrassed by the earnest tone of them. I mean, I shouldn't have been

surprised or embarrassed because I am in fact a very earnest person.

...