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Zero to Well-Read

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Zero to Well-Read

Riot New Media Group, Inc.

Arts, Books, Society & Culture

4.7837 Ratings

🗓️ 16 September 2025

⏱️ 80 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Rebecca and Jeff dive into Zora Neale Hurston’s masterpiece, Their Eyes Were Watching God, a story about the search for love, freedom, and self-determination. They talk about what makes Hurston's writing so transcendent, why the novel was nearly forgotten, and how it found its rightful place in the American canon. This season of Zero to Well-Read is presented by Thriftbooks. Subscribe to The Book Riot Newsletter for regular updates to help you get the most out of your reading life. Email us: zerotowellread@bookriot.com Zero to Well-Read is a proud member of the Airwave Podcast Network. This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:18.0

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0:20.0

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0:22.4

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0:25.6

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0:34.5

Welcome to Zero to Well Read, a podcast about everything you need to know about the books you wish you'd read.

0:39.9

I'm Jeff O'Neill.

0:40.7

And I'm Rebecca Shinsky.

0:42.0

In this episode, we're diving into one of the great comeback stories of American literary history.

0:47.0

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston.

0:50.1

From forgotten masterpiece to syllabi staple, their eyes were watching God as one of the most read or supposed to have been read.

0:57.3

Novels of the last 200 years, and Rebecca, we're so excited to do this one. I know a lot about hers, and I've got to keep it under wraps. You've got to wave me off. You're going to have to do more than usual Jeff wrangling today. You know, our schedule worked out where you did most of the prep and the research for this episode.

1:13.7

And I knew this was right. today. You know, our schedule worked out where you did most of the prep and the research for this

1:13.0

episode, and I knew this was right in your wheelhouse. I have done my own background, but I'm looking

1:18.6

forward to it. And we did have the treat. We got to talk about this a little bit in person last week

1:22.2

when I was visiting you and just watching your face light up with the Hurston trivia. I think it's going to be a

1:29.0

treat for everybody to hear that today. So here's how this goes. We're still getting our feet wet with this, but we're going to talk about who Hurston was, what this book is. Our first impressions of reading it will do some plot. There'll be a chance to jump off if you're worried about spoilers. But I will say this, we are not on, we're not watching the wall for every single spoilery thing we could say along the way. This book is more than 75 years old. But here's a thing, Rebecca. People may, I mean, here's, but it's true. Yes. More about books than literally any other genre or any other format is like there are people discovering this every day. There are 18 year olds out there. Hello and welcome and I'm so sorry. If you're cheating on your homework, you're in a pretty good place actually. No, you're not cheating. You're doing research. Look, listen, there are ways to cheat on homework and now that go beyond listening to a couple of us talked about. Actually, I think there's a way to spin the fact that you listened to a podcast as extra credit rather than cheating. Well, just don't just don't pass off

...

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