Hi, everyone.

Welcome to episode 138 of The Librarian is in, the New York Public Libraries podcast about books, culture, and what to read next.

I'm Gwen.

I'm Frances.

And we are here today to talk about some books. We are. We are. What made you say episode 138? I don't know. It was written on my paper and I was like, that has so many episodes. 138 times we've started the show. It doesn't feel like it. It really doesn't. It feels like 6 billion, 7,000. No, it doesn't. Oh, I'm opposite. I feel like I don't know what I'm doing yet. No, I don't either. I just want to keep it small. Keep it small today. You and me, kid, talking about things. 130 times. Just keep it that way. And now there's this giant apparatus around us. Producers, stardom, retakes. Like, now there's, there's a buffet when we come to record. It's like, oh. That's just because we're the luckiest people in the world. I'm just going to be wearing dark glasses and shooing people away as I enter the studio. I can't talk to you because I have to focus on the work. Because I have to go eat the tofu spring roll that Gabby, our producer, got us before the show. I'm like tofu spring rolls. I said chicken. That's what it's going to be like from now on. I like the tofu ones better. I just can't focus on any of the trappings. It's just about you and me talking about books and the library. We're talking about anything, really. Yeah, it's true. We neglect the culture part sometimes. And then when we do talk about it in the library or talking about anything really yeah it's true we neglect the culture

part sometimes and then when we do talk about it

they're like stop talking about culture

they see I'm already having a they

I know who's they

they are fans

I don't even know who that is

our fan

I feel like I'm still coming down

from our poetry episode which I listen to I often don't listen gr our poetry episode, which I listen to.

I often don't listen. It was grueling in some ways. I have, yeah, you know what? It was, that was one of our hardest ever episodes to record, but I also, I really think that the output of that episode wound up being one of our best ever. I loved it. Like, I listened to it, and I was like, this is amazing. And we help get this out in the world. and that is really good.

All thanks to the producer for that.

Yeah, seriously.

I haven't listened to it and I was like, this is amazing and we help put this out in the world. And that is really good. All thanks to the producer for that. Yeah. Seriously. I haven't listened to it yet. It was exhausting because it was a lot of, but satisfying. A lot of voices to listen to, a lot of poems to go through. And then also feeling like who we could include,, we had time for. It wasn't like a judgment

of who's better. It was just timing and content. And emotional too, recovering from some of

a certain. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway. It's always emotional. It's all about feelings. Actually,

that really ties into everything because it's really always about how one feels. If you think about any issue or any decisions we make or any,

any group of people or any person anywhere,

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