Nerdette Book Club: Rebecca Makkai on ‘I Have Some Questions for You’

Nerdette Recaps With Peter Sagal

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Tv & Film, Books, Self, Improvement, Pop, Tv, Wbez, Culture, Technology, Society & Culture, Nerds, Nerd, Nerdette

4.6 • 924 Ratings

🗓️ 7 March 2023

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Our March Book Club book is ‘I Have Some Questions’ for You by Rebecca Makkai! It’s a whodunit that interrogates the true crime genre, the carceral system and #MeToo narratives. The novel follows Bodie, a true crime podcaster who’s invited back to the boarding school she attended to teach a class. While back on campus, she is flooded with memories of her former roommate, Thalia, who was murdered during their time at school. A staffer, a Black man, was convicted of the crime. Yet, gaps in the investigation draw Bodie back into the case and push her to determine if the killer is actually still out there. Author Rebecca Makkai joined us for this spoiler-free conversation about the book! You’re invited to take part in book club too! Get your hands on a copy of the book and tell us what you think. You can record a voice memo on your smartphone and send the file to NerdettePodcast at gmail. We’ll try to include your voice in our spoiler-filled panel episode out on Tuesday, March 28!

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Natalie Moore. I fell in love with soap operas when I was just five years old, and I still
0:06.1	watch them. Their television's longest scripted series and have zero reruns. Now let me tell you,
0:12.7	soap operas aren't just some silly art form. They are significant. In this season of making,
0:18.0	Stories Without End from WBEZ Chicago. Join me as I share how the genre
0:22.3	began, their social impact, and why these stories endure. Listen wherever you get your podcast.
0:30.6	WBEZ is supported by Chicago Humanities, presenting its spring festival on April 27th in Lakeview
0:37.0	with historians Heather Cox Richardson and Timothy Snyder,
0:40.6	Jonathan Blitzer on Immigration,
0:42.7	University of Chicago professor Agnes Collard on Socrates,
0:46.2	and documentaries Unblocked Englewood by Chicago's Tanika Lewis Johnson,
0:50.8	and Beyond Closure on the 2013 Chicago Public School closures.
0:55.0	Tickets and more conversations on arts, culture, and current affairs at
0:59.2	Chicago Humanities.org.
1:05.3	From WBEZ Chicago, I'm Greta Johnson, and this is the Nerdat Book Club.
1:10.4	It's just like a regular
1:11.4	book club, except sometimes the author stops by. It is March of the year 2023, and our book this
1:17.2	month is Rebecca McKey's. I have some questions for you, a boarding school murder mystery with
1:22.7	the cherry on top, a podcast storyline. It's about Bodie, who's invited back to Granby, the boarding school she attended, to teach a class about podcasting.
1:32.9	When Bodie was a student, her former roommate, Thalia, was murdered.
1:36.5	A Granby staffer, a black man, was convicted of the crime.
1:40.0	That's all I'm going to say for now, since this is a spoiler-free conversation.
1:44.5	Rebecca, welcome to Nerd Up.
	...

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