Hey, it's Empire's book at the day. I'm Andrew Limbong. Mary H.K. Choi's debut novel,

Emergency Contacts, came out in 2018. It's a novel about young lovers finding it hard to truly

connect, despite all the conveniences that modern technology affords them. Again, the book came out

in 2018, and in a lot of ways,

the things Choi addressed in the novel have only gotten more timely, more relatable.

So I want that to play you this interview she did when the book came out talking to then

NPR host Lulu Garcia-Navarro about how the internet makes teens feel hopeless and depressed,

but also how there's a way through that. That's coming up.

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wise.com. T's and Cs apply. How do we find a real connection in a device-reliant world? In Mary H.K. Choi's

debut novel, Emergency Contact, Penny and Sam strike up a text-based romance and soon become, take your phone to the

bathroom inseparable. But for different reasons, they have trouble making it real. Mary H.K. Choi joins

me now from our studios in Culver City, California to talk about her book. Hi. Hi, how are you?

I'm great. So I guess let's start with these two characters, Penny and Sam. Who are they at the start of this book?

So at the start, Penny, who is a Korean-American person, is going off to college. And Sam is in the throes of the worst breakup, he's kind of, he's homeless adjacent, and he's dealing with a lot of anxiety and panic.

And they kind of have this, not a meat cute, which is what they're normally called when you have romantic leads meeting.

It was a meat anxiety.

Yes, it's definitely sort of meat harrowing rather than

meet cute. Sam sort of has this panic attack on the street and Penny, who is the type of person

who would normally just sort of keep it moving and be like, ooh, someone else will deal

...