There is a great Annie Dillard quote about how you spend your days is how you spend your life.

You know, and when I first read it, I felt so afraid that I thought right now, every day, I'm writing in my journal that I'm not done any

writing. So let's change it. And that struck the fear of God in me. Welcome back to working. I'm

your host, Ronald Young Jr. And I am your other host, Isaac Butler. And we should also say,

Ronald, this is your first episode as an official co-host of

working.

Welcome aboard the USS Working.

Why don't you tell the listeners a little bit about yourself.

It's great to have you on the show.

Oh, it's great to be here, Isaac.

I am Ronald Young Jr., as I said. I'm an audio producer,

host, and storyteller based in the Washington, D.C. area. I have another podcast called Wait

For It, Spelled, W. E.I. G.H.T. where we kind of examine navigating the world in the plus

size body and what that's like. We tell a lot of stories about that.

So that's the type of work I like to do. I also like pop culture. I talk a lot about movies and television. And I'm happy to be here talking to creative folks with you, Isaac. Thanks, man. I'm so excited to have you on board. It's going to be a blast. Yeah, I'm really excited to be here. So tell me, who was that voice we heard at the top of the episode?

We heard the sagacious voice of the charming and talented Amitava Kumar,

who is both a writer and a professor of writing at Vassar College.

And what made you want to talk to Amitava Kumar right now?

So I wanted to talk to Ami for a few reasons. First of all,

he has a lovely new book out called My Beloved Life. And second, he has written in a number of

different forms, journalism, memoir, kind of more experimental nonfiction, fiction, all sorts of things.

And third, he's written and talked extensively about writing and the

...