GRETAGRAM book club: 'Kin,' discussed!
Happy To Be Here
Greta Johnsen
4.8 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 31 March 2026
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For this deep-dive discussion of Tayari Jones’ novel Kin, host Greta Johnsen talks with Traci Thomas, who hosts The Stacks podcast.
They talk about the exquisite pleasure of reading a book that does exactly what it sets out to do, the beauty of female friendship, and the different ways the main characters are mothered despite the absence of their actual mothers.
Warning: this is a spoilery conversation! If you haven’t read the book yet, go listen to Greta’s spoiler-free conversation with Tayari.
SHOW CREDITS
Creator and host: Greta Johnsen
Senior Producer: Ben Goldberg
Composers: Ross Bellenoit and Jeremy Thal
Tile art: Mac Maclean
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Happy to Be Here, the show for recovering perfectionists and |
| 0:12.5 | they're perpetually curious about what to read, eat, watch, think about, and delight in |
| 0:16.2 | wherever you might happen to be. I'm your host, Greta Johnson, and I am so excited that you are here. |
| 0:23.4 | Today's episode is kind of a first for the new show because this is a deep dive discussion |
| 0:29.3 | into the March Greta Graham Book Club pick, Terry Jones's gorgeous novel, Kin. For the last two |
| 0:35.7 | years or so, you may know I've been hosting book club gatherings |
| 0:39.1 | each month on Zoom through my newsletter, Greta Graham. Those discussions are absolutely wonderful, |
| 0:44.6 | and you should definitely come sometime if you are able. However, I also understand that life is |
| 0:50.5 | lifing the hell out of us these days. So it can be hard to get a specific book and read it |
| 0:56.4 | in a specific time frame and then be able to sit on a Zoom and an even more specific one hour window. |
| 1:03.6 | So I'm really happy that I am able now to have this podcast as part of the book club cinematic universe, if you will. Today, I am talking about |
| 1:14.5 | Kinn with my friend Tracy Thomas. We are doing spoilers. So if you haven't read Kinn yet and |
| 1:20.8 | you don't want to know what happens, you should go back and listen to the spoiler-free author |
| 1:24.4 | interview, which is in the feed. If you have read the book or you're just |
| 1:28.6 | like a wonderful little monster who wants the book spoiled for you, great. This conversation is for you. |
| 1:34.7 | A quick refresher, Kin is about two black girls who grow up in small town, Alabama in the 50s. |
| 1:41.4 | They are the best of friends and both have have lost to their mothers, but in very |
| 1:44.8 | different ways. And those losses shape the trajectories of their lives. This book came out |
| 1:50.4 | earlier this year. Terry's last book and American Marriage got a lot of critical praise. |
| 1:54.5 | It came out about eight years ago. And Terry is also the author of Leaving Atlanta and Silver |
| 1:59.3 | Sparrow. Okay, let's get into it. Tracy Thomas, host of the |
| 2:04.4 | Stacks podcast, one of my favorite readers. Welcome to the show. I'm so happy to be here in the new, |
... |
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