Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. Before we get into today show, I want to tell you about a new offering we have here at Book of the Day. We have now launched Book of the Day Plus, which is a new way to support our work here at NPR. When you sign up, you get access to a special feed where you can listen to our new episodes sponsor free.

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Remember that TV show 24 with Kiefer Sutherland? The whole schick was that each episode of a season was an hour of Jack Bauer's very rough and busy day.

Sure, the conceit was kind of hokey, but it worked as a way of pushing the pacing of the show

and making sure it was never too sluggish.

Although, Daniel Krauss does something similar in his new book, Whalefall.

It's about a teenage boy who has one hour of oxygen left as he's diving looking for,

well, you know, you'll find out.

And in this conversation with Empire's Aisha Roscoe,

Krauss talks about playing with the chapter lengths. So the reader has this innate sense of how

much time is left on the clock. That's ahead. In the U.S., national security news can feel

far away from daily life. Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.

On our new show, Sources and Methods.

NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,

helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.

Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

How deep would you dive to retrieve something or someone you lost from the past?

In Daniel Krause's new book, Whalefall, 17-year-old Jay has one hour of oxygen to make it to treacherous depths along Monterey, California,

and bring back his father's skeleton.

But before he can, he's swallowed alive by a giant sperm well.

...