A note to our listeners, this episode contains discussions of sexual violence that some may find upsetting.

When the writer Roxanne Gay speaks, a lot of people, myself included, lean in to listen as closely as possible.

Well, she's going to speak on this show today. It's Depression Mode. I'm John Moe. I'm glad you're here.

I'm going to mention this in the interview that you're about to hear, but in preparing for it,

in watching and reading various talks and interviews with Roxanne Gay, the issue of trauma kept coming up.

And she had a lot of interesting things to say about trauma, particularly the shared, complex,

societal trauma of the pandemic, and the trauma for many people of living through the Trump presidency.

And I lean in closely when Roxanne Gay talks about trauma. She's been open in talking about trauma in her own life, including a rape by a group of boys when she was 12 years old, what that is

meant for her. Roxanne Gay is a writer, social commentator, editor and university professor. She's

the author of numerous books, both fiction and nonfiction, including bad

feminist and hunger. Her latest is Opinions, a decade of arguments, criticism, and minding

other people's business, which collects many opinion pieces she's written for the New York

Times and other publications. Lean in, let's listen to my talk with Roxanne Gay.

Roxanne Gay, welcome to Depression Mode. Thank you for having me. I'm looking forward to

our conversation. Congratulations on the book, Opinions, a decade of arguments, criticism, and

minding other people's business. Beyond being a compilation of arguments, criticism, and minding other people's business. Beyond being a compilation

of opinion columns you've written, what is the book about? About with a capital A, what is this

about? Really, it's about opinions and the reality that everyone has them, of course, some better than others, and

everyone has a right to their opinions and a right to articulate their understanding or

experience of the world. And so as I was compiling this book, I was looking through my work

and looking for pieces that I felt would work together well, thematically and tonally,

and this is what I came up with.

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