The Guardian – Mythili G. Rao

Recent reviews and interviews: Fiction by Marlon James; nonfiction by Jill Lepore, Catherine Carr, Sarah O’Connor, Charlotte Proudman, Rebecca Solnit, and Siri Husvedt; plus, “Severed Minds,” an Audible Original

It’s been a busy and productive summer and autumn! Since June, I’ve been working with The Economist’s excellent podcast team (if you haven’t heard this three-part series on Tommy Robinson— which I didn’t work on but strongly recommend– don’t miss it, it’s very good). You can hear a bit of what of what I’ve been up to with the Checks & Balance gang in the run up to the midterms here.

I’ve also carried on with other freelance work. For Intelligence Squared I interviewed:

Marlon James about The Disappearers. (the book Dwight Garner called “the novel of the decade and possibly of the century”). We talked about Nirvana, Toni Morrison, the AIDS epidemic, and the Jamaica he left behind.
Jill Lepore about The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State. We talked about Elon Musk’s grandfather, the long line of dystopian fiction that foretells this current moment, and why she’s optimistic about the artificial state’s impending fall.
Catherine Carr about Who’s the Favourite? We talked about the time I vomited Frooti Mango onto my brother in the early 90s and the richness of sibling bonds.
Charlotte Proudman about He Said She Said. We talked about her stark assessment of systemic injustices in the family court system, and the sexism she’s faced as a barrister.
Rebecca Solnit about The Beginning Comes After the End. We talked about why I struggled to connect with Hope in the Dark ten years ago, how to understand the destruction of democratic institutions, and why she remains so focused on celebrating the accretion of slow wins in social movements.
Siri Husvedt about her memoir Ghost Stories. We talked about her fourty-three year literary romance with husband Paul Auster, personal and political grief, Nöel Coward, and the cigarettes and leather jackets of 80s literary New York.

For The Guardian I reviewed:

Finally: At long last, the six-part documentary series I wrote and produced for Audible with the fabulous podcast department at RAW is out in the world!

Hosted by mental health activist Niall Breslin (who also composed its aching piano score), Severed Minds is the story of the doctor who popularized the procedure, Walter Freeman, and one of his patients, Gretchen Reb.

In the years when the procedure was popular, more women were lobotomized than men, but their stories have largely been lost. Most of them weren’t famous, and they certainly weren’t in positions of power.

The detailed records Gretchen left behind—diaries, scrapbooks, and letters which her daughter Roberta so carefully preserved and organized—made it possible to tell a different kind of story about lobotomy.

It’s a heartbreaking story, but an astonishing one, too. I came away from this project with so much admiration for vibrant Gretchen and tenacious Roberta. (Also: renewed respect for archival librarians!)

If you listen I’d love to know what you think.

One last thing to share: This summer, a documentary based on a podcast series I edited and executive produced at the Guardian in 2022 was released in theaters. The teams at Bellingcat and KEO who made the film “Killing Anna” have done a tremendous job; catch it on Channel 4.

Recent interviews and reviews: Nonfiction by Ece Temelkuran, Fatima Bhutto, Daniel Hahn, Suzanne Simard, and Rebecca Solnit; Fiction by Brandon Taylor

For Intelligence Squared, I spoke with:

For the Guardian, I reviewed:

For the Literary Review, I wrote about:

Minor Black Figures by Brandon Taylor

Second half of 2024: Reviews, interviews, podcasts

As the year comes to a close, here’s a quick round-up of a few projects I’ve worked on over the last six months.

For the the Financial Times, I reviewed Rejection by Tony Tulathiamutte.
For the Guardian I reviewed Breakthrough by William Pao.
For Intelligence Squared, I interviewed Amorina Kingdon about her book Sing Like Fish and Ferris Jabr about his book Becoming Earth.

Finally, working on Zero’s COP29 coverage for Bloomberg Green was a big end-of-year highlight. A few of the half-dozen episodes I produced:

First, a look at the opening of the conference— which reminded me of Girl Scout Thinking Day.
Here’s an interview with ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods taped in front of a live audience in Baku, Azerbaijan (extra context about that appearance in The New York Times here).
Also taped live on stage in Baku: A conversation with the Biden administration’s outgoing climate tzar, Ali Zaidi
And here, I help break down what COP29’s final deal actually achieved.

Recent book reviews: fiction by Walter Kempowski, Camilla Grudova, Andrey Kurkov; nonfiction by Michel Faber, Caspar Henderson, Arash Azizi, and Yuan Yang (plus, podcasts)

I’ve fallen behind on updating this site! Some recent (well, from the last six-ish months) book reviews and podcast projects below.

For the Financial Times:

I reviewed An Ordinary Youth by Walter Kempowski, a 1971 autobiographical German novel now available in English for the first time (translated by Michael Lipkin). It’s a book about the language used by a society complicit in genocide—but also about the sensory experience of childhood. (Some say it’s timely.)
I reviewed The Coiled Serpent, a new collection of creepy short stories by Camilla Grudova, one of Granta’s Best Young British novelists for 2023. (Pairs well with Paula Rego’s paintings.)
I reviewed Andrey Kurkov’s new crime novel, The Silver Bone, a historic crime novel set in wartime Ukraine translated by Boris Dralyuk. It made me consider Kurkov’s fear that the war might destroy Ukrainians’ connection to the language he loves.
I also reviewed Real Americans by Rachel Khong, an ambitious novel about money, migration, dreams, secrets and the lure of scientific progress.

For the Washington Post:

I reviewed two new books about sound—Listen by Michel Faber and A Book of Noises by Caspar Henderson. (They made me think about the relationship the protagonist of The Bloater by Rosemary Tonks has with sound, so I wrote about that too.)

For the Guardian:

I reviewed What Iranians Want: Women, Life, Freedom by Arash Azizi. As a follow-up, Intelligence Squared invited me to interview him; you can hear our conversation here.
I reviewed Private Revolutions: Coming of Age in a New China by Yuan Yang. It’s a wonderful book, and these women’s stories have stayed with me. (Pairs well with The Economist’s excellent Drum Tower podcast.)

A few other projects: The final series I was responsible for overseeing at Novel late last year, a sprawling investigation into wildlife trafficking called “The Wild Life” is now out. It’s built on hundreds of hours of undercover recordings from the spy who brought down one of the biggest African wildlife trafficking syndicates—and so much more. It’s also the first time I’ve shared a production credit with Drake (yes, that Drake).

Also now out in the world is a local news/true crime hybrid pilot I worked on for BBC Sounds. It’s the story of the long, colorful career of a fraudster named David Levi from the town of Lytham St. Annes near Blackpool. Over the years he’s dabbled in eBay phishing, cannabis shipping, and cruise-ship credit card fraud, but in his latest scam, he pocketed hundreds of thousands of pounds impersonating the sacred British icon Pudsey Bear.

And in March, I started a new job as the producer of Zero! It’s a terrific show about the policies, tactics, and technologies taking us to a future of zero emissions. A few highlights have included this barn-burner of an interview with former Conservative MP Chris Skidmore (which caught the attention of the FT) and taking a turn on-mic in this conversation about Microsoft’s rising emissions.

Introducing: ‘Today in Focus’ from The Guardian

TIF In September, I moved to London and began working with a fantastic team of radio producers to create a new, daily, current affairs podcast for The Guardian. We launched this week! The show is called Today in Focus and it’s hosted by former political editor Anushka Asthana. Our first episode is all about Brazil’s Jair Bolsanaro; in our second episode, we travel to Racine, Wisconsin with reporter Gary Younge ahead of U.S. midterm elections. Listen, subscribe, and enjoy (and send feedback!).