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Wild Card with Rachel Martin

Margaret Atwood isn't surprised people find her scary

Wild Card with Rachel Martin

NPR

Society & Culture

4.6991 Ratings

🗓️ 3 October 2024

⏱️ 37 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Margaret Atwood knows that she scares people. She says that's been the case since the beginning of her career, long before her dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale was published. She talks to Rachel about that perception, and also reflects on the bad advice she's received in her career and how she takes vengeance. Margaret's new poetry collection is Paper Boat: New and Selected Poems: 1961-2023.
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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Support for NPR and the following message comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

0:05.4

RWJF is a national philanthropy, working toward a future where health is no longer a privilege but a right.

0:12.1

Learn more at RWJF.org.

0:15.4

What's a piece of advice you were smart to ignore?

0:19.1

Oh, boy.

0:22.4

Well, where do I begin with that?

0:26.2

I'm Rachel Martin, and this is Wildcard.

0:28.8

The game where cards control the conversation.

0:32.7

Each week, my guest chooses questions at random from a deck of cards.

0:39.0

Pick a card one through three.

0:45.3

Questions about the memories, insights, and beliefs that have shaped them. My guest this week is the literary icon Margaret Atwood. My usual way of reacting to people's advice that I didn't agree

0:53.6

with was my inner voice saying,

0:56.2

You're an idiot.

0:57.9

The first thing most people think of when they hear the name Margaret Atwood is The Handmaid's Tale.

1:02.3

And that makes sense.

1:03.3

That book catapulted into pop culture when Hulu turned it into a series starring Elizabeth Moss.

1:08.7

But to define Atwood by that particular book,

1:12.7

that particular story of a dystopian America where women are enslaved, raped, and forced to bear

1:17.9

children, as provocative as that is, it's just a small part of Margaret Atwood's life work.

1:24.4

She's published dozens of books, including a new book of poetry coming out called

1:28.5

Paper Boat, which is a collection of 60 years of her poetry, including some new works. Other things

1:34.7

to know about Margaret Atwood before this conversation. She is a proud Canadian. She knows how to

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