Meet Me Here

Speculative fiction is often about society, how people think and work together. Sure, there's something decidedly out there, something not quite possible, sometimes something downright magical. But at the end of the day, the genre speculates about what might happen if... What exactly comes after the "if" depends on the writer.
Author Lily Brooks-Dalton's "what if" often includes a kind of societal collapse, and that collapse sets her latest main character, Ember, on a journey into a surprising past. Ruins is, on its face anyway, about an archaeologist who goes looking for a lost empire. But what is this lost world? What clue does Ember have of its existence? And why is the end of something so often the beginning for this author?
Lily stopped by to talk to host Katie Campbell about the allure of societal collapse in her storytelling.
If you want to stay speculative, check out Lily and Katie's Recommended If You Liked (RIYL):
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
On the Calculation of Volume by Solvej Balle
The Husbands by Holly Gramazio
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel (Honestly, Katie recommends anything by Emily St. John Mandel
For All Mankind on Apple TV
Read more about Lily Brooks-Dalton (and all the authors who stop by for a chat with our host Katie Campbell) at kuow.org/books.
Help keep KUOW's local podcasts going strong! Donate now at kuow.org/meet.
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Finding love can be so weird these days, which is why the main character in Seattle author Sonora Jha’s new novel decides to take a big swing to find the right man for her.
She holds a swayamvar. It’s an ancient Indian custom in which suitors competed in a feat of wills and strength to win a beautiful princess’s hand in marriage. But the woman in the novel Intemperance is not a young princess looking for her first love. She’s a twice-divorced professor of feminist theory in her 50s who lives on a rad houseboat in present-day Seattle.
The KUOW Book Club read Sonora’s novel in May. KUOW’s Katie Campbell sat down with her on May 21 in front of a live audience at the Seattle Central Library to talk about love, aging, and the kinds of feats Sonora would require at her swayamvar.
Join the KUOW Book Club at kuow.org/books.
Help keep KUOW's local podcasts going strong! Donate now at kuow.org/meet.
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Meet Me Here listeners, if you still don't have any plans for this weekend, fear not. The Weekend Warmup is here to help with a whole bunch of ideas for fun things to do around the region this weekend.
HOST: Soundside Producer Jason Megatron Burrows
LINKS:
Inaugural Ballard Book Crawl
Lost the Plot Mobile Books
Bremerton by the Book
Page 42 Bookstore Smut & Sips
Book Recommendations thanks to @beckybooksandbeads!
Trailhead Direct - Begins Saturday!
Whidbey Ren Faire
Festival | Northwest Folklife
Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/meet
Meet Me Here is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network.
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Margo Vansynghel sometimes jokes that she’s the harbinger of doom. As the arts economy reporter for The Seattle Times, it's her job to spell out the connections between the arts and the economy here in Seattle.
She’s written about the recent layoffs of 250 local arts workers; Seattle Art Museum employees working to unionize; and the Bellevue Art Museum's sudden closure in 2024.
In this conversation from October 2025, Margo gives us a temperature check on how Seattle arts organizations are doing overall and says it's not time to freak out just yet. She also shares simple, actionable ideas for things we can all do to support Seattle artists and arts organizations.
In this episode we mention:
The Seattle Symphony and its new music director, Xian Zhang
Seattle’s 13 art walks, in neighborhoods like the Central District, Capitol Hill, Belltown and Hillman City. Along with the mothership art walk, First Thursday Art Walk in Pioneer Square
King County’s cultural funding agency, 4Culture
The Seattle Public Library’s free museum pass program.
Discount tickets to arts organizations, including Pacific Northwest Ballet, Seattle Rep and Seattle Art Museum.
Local storyteller Emmett Montgomery
MORE ON MARGO:
For more of Margo’s coverage of the arts and economy check out her articles about unexpected art experiences in Seattle and 12 ways to support the arts in Seattle.
There’s also this visual story Margo wrote that explains 15 ways you can support local arts and artists.
If you’d like to ask Margo for her arts suggestions based on your personal preferences, email: [email protected]
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Support Meet Me Here and all KUOW's podcasts at kuow.org/meet
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"The Yankee Sphinx" may sound like a mysterious novel in line with "Twin Peaks," which author Mark Frost co-created, but it's much more normal than the famous surrealist crime drama.
Note: I said "more normal."
The novel is about President Franklin D. Roosevelt — nicknamed the Yankee Sphinx — and his presidency in the later years of World War II. There was very little that was "normal" about that period, considering the novel covers FDR's third full term and partial fourth term as president.
Then, there's the matter of the novel's source material: a clandestine diary kept by FDR's longtime staffer and friend William D. Hassett.
Frost stopped by KUOW while on tour to talk about someone who has classically dealt in the weird and uncanny came to write something so normal.
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