Ep. 397 A Book Club in a Weekend with Mikey Friedman
The Stacks
Traci Thomas
4.8 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 5 November 2025
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today on The Stacks, we are joined by Mikey Friedman, the founder of Page Break, a New York–based, weekend-long retreat centered on community reading. We discuss all things Page Break, including how it came to be, the book selection process, the focus on fiction, and why reading aloud is at the heart of the experience. Plus, tune in for a special announcement.
The Stacks Book Club pick for November is We the Animals by Justin Torres. We will discuss the book on Wednesday, November 26th, with Mikey Friedman.
You can find everything we discuss on today's show on The Stacks' website: https://www.thestackspodcast.com/2025/11/5/ep-397-mikey-friedman
Connect with Mikey: Instagram | TikTok
Connect with Page Break: Instagram | Website
Connect with The Stacks: Instagram | Threads | Shop | Patreon | Goodreads | Substack | Youtube | Subscribe
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I always read the book in advance quietly. And then we go on the retreat. We read the, I read the same book aloud again. And I'm like, I missed like so much detail in this book. It's like kind of freaking me out. And on page break, you have 15 different audio book narrators sitting in a circle with you, basically. And it's unlike an audio book only and it's not like reading only. It's actually the two |
| 0:22.2 | together. So it just creates this really rich, like close reading of the book. And authors, |
| 0:27.8 | when they come on page break, multiple authors always are like, wow, you guys like really read |
| 0:32.3 | the book. Like you know, they were like, you were in it. Like you're asking me questions that I |
| 0:36.3 | haven't even like considered because of like the level of depth that we're really getting into the pages |
| 0:41.9 | and like the way things are phrased and like the minute, minute details that you don't get |
| 0:46.6 | when you just do it on your own. |
| 0:53.7 | Welcome to the Stacks, a podcast about books and the people who read them. |
| 0:57.0 | I'm your host, Tracy Thomas, and today I am joined by Mikey Friedman. |
| 1:00.8 | Mikey is the founder of Page Break, a New York-based weekend-long retreat, |
| 1:04.6 | centered on reading one novel together out loud as a community. |
| 1:08.9 | Today, Mikey and I talk about his inspiration behind page break, |
| 1:12.8 | his goals for the future of the retreat, and some books that have shaped his life as a reader. |
| 1:17.3 | Plus, we share a special announcement. Mikey will also be returning on Wednesday, |
| 1:23.3 | November 26th, to discuss our November book club pick, We, The Animals by Justin Torres. |
| 1:29.5 | Everything we talk about on each episode of The Stacks can be found in the link in the show notes. |
| 1:34.2 | If you like this podcast, if you want more bookish content and community, consider joining |
| 1:38.7 | the Stacks pack on Patreon and subscribing to my newsletter unstacked on Substack. |
| 1:43.5 | Each place offers different perks like community |
| 1:45.4 | conversation, virtual book clubs over on Patreon, and my writing and hot takes on the latest |
| 1:50.1 | literary and pop culture news on substack. But no matter which one you join, your support makes |
| 1:55.5 | it possible for me to make the stacks every single week. Go to patreon.com slash the stacks to join the stacks pack and head to |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Traci Thomas, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Traci Thomas and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.