The Animal Riot Podcast is a "literary" podcast that invites artists, entrepreneurs, and diverse thinkers to express their belletristic opinions on everything from Borges to bureaucracy. Though literary at its locus, the Animal Riot Podcast isn’t afraid to take on the world at large, including prison reform, Deafness, and the commercial merits of, yes, the Insane Clown Posse. So join us as we rise to self-imposed drinking challenges and say things as we see them – subscribe, review & forever prosper.
Episodes
Thursday Dec 05, 2019
Thursday Dec 05, 2019
What’s good Animals? Glad you’re joining us for our 43rd episode. Today we’re discussing Zadie Smith’s semi-recent essay, "Fascinated to Presume: In Defense of Fiction". Joined by Animal Riot OGs Jared Marcel Pollen and Seth Katz, listen in for our take on whether we still live in an age where it’s permissible to write across demographics and identities. Meanwhile, your host will lament the lack of snow here in New York on the heels of a busted winter storm forecast. (Brian really likes snow: follow him on Facebook for winter weather forecasts.)
The transcript for this episode can be found on our website.
Thursday Nov 28, 2019
Thursday Nov 28, 2019
Hoppy Thanksgiving, Animals! We'e thrilled to bring you this holiday special featuring writer, podcaster & literary magazine publisher, Bob Raymonda! Bob Raymonda is a writer based out of New Rochelle, NY. In early 2015 he founded Breadcrumbs Magazine, an online literary and arts journal that fosters creativity and collaboration through shared inspiration. The project has grown into a community of over 200 contributors across the world in a wide variety of mediums, with more submitting all of the time. In 2018 he helped co-found Rogue Dialogue, a production company focusing in podcasts with Christie Donato and Adam Raymonda. Join us as we talk Breadcrumbs, his podcast Windfall, and all things self-care in this Thanksgiving special!
The transcript for this episode can be found on our website.
Thursday Nov 14, 2019
Thursday Nov 14, 2019
We were off for a week because life got in the way, but we're back with a sparkly new episode for you, featuring the one and only Rax King alongside your faithful host Brian Birnbaum and our Priest Vallon, Devin Kelly. Rax King is a dog-loving, hedgehog-mothering, beer-swilling, gay and disabled sumbitch who occasionally writes and works as assistant editor for Sundress Publications. She is the author of the collection 'The People's Elbow: Thirty Recitatives on Rape and Wrestling' (Ursus Americanus, 2018). Her work can also be found in Catapult, Electric Literature, and Autostraddle, and she is most recently a columnist for Catapult with her ongoing series "Store Bought Is Fine". In this episode, we're talking all things Guy Fieri, Bruce Springsteen and authenticity in writing.
The transcript for this episode can be found on our website.
Thursday Oct 31, 2019
Thursday Oct 31, 2019
Whaddup Animal Riot fam. Welcome to the 40th episode of the Animal Riot Podcast—us bunnies are officially over the molehill. Today we’ve got the lovely ladies of the Ditmas Lit reading series, Rachel Lyon and Sarah Bridgins, here to discuss the origin story of their friendship and thenceforth series, and, most importantly, the intricacies of our favorite HBO show, which rhymes with smecksmeshion. Not to mention two of the best readings we’ve yet to have on our podcast, period. What could possibly be better? Smecksmesh!
The transcript for this episode can be found on our website.
Thursday Oct 24, 2019
Thursday Oct 24, 2019
We're so excited about this week's episode! We recorded this episode live at this year's Fall for the Book Festival in Fairfax, Virgina! Featuring YA Author Atia Abawi, we discussed how she and host Brian Birnbaum redefine the definitions of home and trauma. In Abawi’s book, A Land of Permanent Goodbyes, Syria is torn apart due to war, leaving each survivor with a new and dangerous label: refugee. And in Birnbaum’s Emerald City, a family company’s profits are being used to illegally fund a drug-crop in Guatemala. Guest Atia Abawi is a foreign news correspondent who was stationed for almost five years in Kabul, Afghanistan. She was born to Afghan parents in West Germany and was raised in the United States. Her first book for teens was the powerful The Secret Sky, about forbidden romance between different ethnic tribes in Afghanistan. And today's podcast was lovingly guest produced by the one and only Annie Krabbenschmidt.
The transcript for this episode can be found on our website.
Thursday Oct 17, 2019
Thursday Oct 17, 2019
Welcome to the 38th episode of the Animal Riot Podcast, brought to you by fill in future sponsor (we’re keeping it cool like Facebook did back when it was cool). Today we’ve got Ian Humphrey in the box, discussing his podcast noir-drama, Under the Shroud, which follows Corin—the half-demon junkie cab driver. Yes, it’s exactly as f***ing wild and wondrous as it sounds. But we also get an inside look at the experiences that inspired Ian to write the show. Oh, and while you’re listening, don’t forget to hit up Corin’s patreon—he’s got a raging habit to support.
The transcript for this episode can be found on our website.
Thursday Oct 10, 2019
Thursday Oct 10, 2019
We're back this week with this awesome episode featuring our special guest, Abbe Wright, Senior Editor of Read It Forward from Penguin Random House! RiF is where you go for reading lists, literary lifestyles, new books, and all things wordy. Abbe has a resume that's got us awestruck. Abbe has written for Glamour, The Cut, Metro, O, The Oprah Magazine, Modern Bride and Philadelphia Magazine about books, culture, career, food, beauty, weddings, fashion and everything in between. No. Big. Deal. On this episode she talks with us about all this, her memoir-in-progress, and shares from an essay she wrote for The Cut, "I Wanted to Break Up. Then He Got a Tattoo of My Name."
The transcript for this episode can be found on our website.
Thursday Oct 03, 2019
Thursday Oct 03, 2019
This week's episode of the Animal Riot Podcast invites Tobias "Toby" Carroll (author of the Transitory from Civil Coping Mechanisms, Reel from Rare Bird Books, and the forthcoming Political Sign, a work of nonfiction for the Object Lessons series of books). Tobias is a writer to be jealous of, having made his way with freelance work as the managing editor of Vol.1 Brooklyn and writer for the Watchlist column for Words Without Borders. Join us for a deep dive into translations and other work and Brian struggling to call Words Without Borders everything but that.
The transcript for this episode can be found on our website.
Thursday Sep 26, 2019
Thursday Sep 26, 2019
This week's episode of the Animal Riot Podcast invites V.V. 'Sugi' Ganeshananthan (author of the 2008 novel, Love Marriage) and Whitney Terrell (author of three novels, The Huntsman, The King of Kings County, and The Good Lieutenant). Both Sugi and Whit studied at the Iowa Writers' Workshop under the late James McPherson, who was the first black writer to win the Pulitzer for Fiction, a winner of the MacArthur grant (AKA the 'genius grant'), and a renowned activist and writer of issues surrounding race and culture. Having studied under McPherson at different times, Sugi and Whit didn't meet until the late and great writer's memorial service--yet as the Phoenix rises, so did the spirit of McPherson's values; after becoming fast friends, Sugi and Whit realized a shared vision for what has become the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast, which espouses literature and politics, and more specifically, how the former predicts and/or digs deeper into the latter.
The transcript for this episode can be found on our website.
Thursday Sep 19, 2019
Thursday Sep 19, 2019
Welcome to the 34th episode of the Animal Riot Podcast brought to you by your favorite rioting creatures. We're happy to welcome back our friend and wonderful writer, Meher Manda, to the podcast. We're talking all things debut books with Meher, as she released her first chapbook of poems on September 7th and host Brian Birnbaum's novel Emerald City was released this past Sunday! However, despite how exciting debuts can be, sometimes they can leave you feeling more empty than full. Join Brian & Meher as they discuss why that is and more.
The transcript for this episode can be found on our website.