‘Dreaming Back’ with Novelist Joyce Carol Oates
Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso
Lemonada Media
4.8 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 28 August 2022
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today, we head to Princeton, New Jersey to sit with legendary writer Joyce Carol Oates. We begin with her daily routine, from writing to revision (6:34), the real-life events that inspired her new novel, Babysitter (9:09), and why she’s fascinated with examining violence in her work (14:06). Then, we walk through Oates’ early years: growing up on a farm (17:45), her literary influences (22:22), and the lasting relationship she formed with libraries (27:01).
On the back-half, Joyce revisits a 1977 journal entry on writing (28:30), how she grapples with criticism (31:20) and her complex relationship to Twitter (33:20). To close, we sit with love (40:05), loss (43:40), and why, at age eighty-four, she continues to tell new stories (50:22).
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | What do you poll dancing AI chatbots and diet culture all have in common? |
| 0:04.0 | These subjects have a home on Embodied the award-winning podcast I host from |
| 0:08.0 | North Carolina Public Radio W-U-N-C. My name is Anita Rao and you can consider me your personal guide to taking on the taboo. |
| 0:16.0 | Join me to explore important questions about our bodies and our society, where nothing is off limits. |
| 0:21.9 | So go ahead, listen to Embodied every Friday wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:27.0 | Pushkin. This is talk easy. I'm Sam Forgo, so |
| 0:54.3 | welcome to the show. Today I'm joined by the legendary writer Joyce Carol Oates. |
| 1:13.4 | Since her debut in 1964, Joyce has published over 50 novels, |
| 1:19.0 | including a Garden of Earthly Delights, |
| 1:21.6 | them, The Falls, and Jack of Spades. |
| 1:25.0 | She's also written national bestsellers like We Are the Mulvaney's and Blonde, |
| 1:31.0 | the latter of which has just been adapted into a film starring Anna to Armis, out next month on Netflix. |
| 1:37.0 | Her latest work is called Babysitter, a heart-racing thriller of Love and Deceit, set against the backdrop of 1970s Detroit. |
| 1:46.3 | It's there in an affluent suburb just outside the city where a child serial killer is on the loose. |
| 1:53.2 | The novel is inspired by the real case of the babysitter killer, |
| 1:57.0 | who struck in Oakland County, Michigan |
| 1:59.6 | and was never apprehended. |
| 2:01.6 | You can find babysitter in your local bookstore, audible, or wherever you get your books. |
| 2:07.0 | This blend of fiction and non-fiction is something Joyce has been doing for the better part of 60 years. |
| 2:13.7 | In this case, the serial killer is real, but the protagonist, a 39-year-old housewife |
| 2:19.5 | named Hannah, whose marriage is on the outs, is fictitious. We talk about the intersection of these |
| 2:25.6 | two worlds a whole lot in this conversation. We also discuss her upbringing on a farm in New Jersey, her early literary influences, her fascination with |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Lemonada Media, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Lemonada Media and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.