Rebecca Wolf, ALIVE AND BEATING
Totally Booked with Zibby
Zibby Owens
4.4 • 602 Ratings
🗓️ 1 September 2025
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Zibby welcomes author Rebecca Wolf to discuss her debut novel, ALIVE AND BEATING. Inspired by the true story of Rebecca’s close friend, who was killed in a 1995 suicide bombing in Israel, the novel imagines the lives of the six people who will receive organ transplants from the victim. Rebecca shares how she wove together multiple perspectives to honor her friend’s legacy, the diversity of Jerusalem, and our shared humanity. She also reflects on the challenges of writing such a personal story, the research that went into capturing medical and cultural details, and how the book became both a tribute and a cathartic process.
Purchase on Bookshop: https://bit.ly/4fTn137
Share, rate, & review the podcast, and follow Zibby on Instagram @zibbyowens!
JOIN ME! I'm hosting four events on September 19, 25th and 30th in NYC and on October 4th in Greenwich, CT. Get your tickets here!
(Music by Morning Moon Music. Sound editing by TexturesSound. To inquire about advertising, please contact [email protected].)
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi, listeners. We have totally booked live coming up this fall, and I hope you'll be a part of it. |
| 0:06.0 | We have three events in New York City, September 19th, 25th, and 30th, in New York, where I'll be doing six interviews live each day. |
| 0:14.1 | We also have a petite retreat in Greenwich on October 4th. |
| 0:18.0 | Go to Zibbimedia.com and event or and or event bright and search the events |
| 0:23.7 | and please come. I can't wait to meet you in person. |
| 0:29.2 | Hi, this is Zibi Owens and you're listening to Totally Booked with Zibi. |
| 0:34.6 | Formerly, moms don't have time to read books. In my daily show, I interview |
| 0:38.7 | today's latest, best-selling, buzziest, or underrated authors and story creators, whose work |
| 0:44.7 | I think is worth your time. As a bookstore owner, publisher, author, and obviously podcaster, |
| 0:51.3 | I get a comprehensive look at everything that's coming out and spend my |
| 0:55.4 | time curating the best books so you don't have to. Stay in the know, get insider insights, |
| 1:00.8 | and connect with guests like I do every single day. For more information, go to zibbymedia.com |
| 1:07.1 | and follow me on Instagram at Zibby Owens. |
| 1:16.4 | Rebecca Wolf is the author of Alive and Beating a novel. |
| 1:21.2 | Rebecca is a former journalist whose fiction and essays have appeared in many publications, |
| 1:24.0 | including Epricity and Tablet. |
| 1:28.1 | She is a volunteer writing tutor for Penn's America's prison writing program, |
| 1:33.4 | and she lived in Jerusalem as a foreign student before attending Barnard College. She lives in New Jersey with her family. Welcome, Rebecca. Thank you so much for coming on Totally Book |
| 1:38.0 | to talk about Alive and Beating a novel. Congrats. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. |
| 1:43.2 | I'm really excited to be here. |
| 1:45.0 | Well, thank you for this beautiful novel, which at times felt like short stories all interwoven |
| 1:50.3 | in these clever ways. I was reading part of it in the car with my husband and I would be like, |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 20 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Zibby Owens, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Zibby Owens and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.