The following podcast contains explicit language.

Welcome to Slate's Audio Book Club.

I'm Jacob Weisberg, chairman of the Slate Group,

and I'm joined today by Troy Patterson, Slate's TV critic,

and Jody Rosen, who Slate's music critic.

Today we're going to talk about super sad, true love story, a new novel by Gary Steingard.

And just to get our conversation started today, Troy, let me ask you to tell us what the story of this book is.

Well, the book is set in an unspecified but very near future,

many of the features which may have already come to pass

by the time this discussion gets posted on the site.

The United States is laboring under a crushing debt

and the dollars pegged to the yuan.

People have, rather than smartphones, these sort of viciously cunning ones, called operats.

There are umlots on all those A's.

That's how I want to pronounce it.

And these project the endless stream of images and data.

And moreover, they talk back to the universe

and that every street corner in Manhattan

features a credit poll

that will read and broadcast your credit rating.

Moreover, there's a setting.

If you change the community parameters,

...