A New Year with Writer Jia Tolentino (‘Trick Mirror’)
Description
Writer Jia Tolentino (The New Yorker) became a literary sensation in 2019 upon the release of her best-selling essay collection, Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion. She joins us this week to ring in 2025.
We start by discussing the erosion of privacy online (11:26 ), the potentially forthcoming TikTok ban (13:32 ), and how she circumvented self-surveillance technology in her Hidden Pregnancy Experiment for The New Yorker (15:28 ). Then, we unpack how data is monetized online (18:00 ), as depicted in an unsettling scene from Succession (21:50 ), the harmful effects of screen time on children (26:10 ), and her writerly upbringing in Houston (31:48 ).
On the back-half, Jia recounts a formative summer in Venice (41:55 ), her subsequent decade working at The Hairpin and Jezebel (50:43 ), the trad wife phenomenon (55:00 ), how she swings between pessimism and optimism (1:12:19 ), and why writing still retains the power to liberate (1:17:00 ).
Thoughts or future guest ideas? Email us at sf@talkeasypod.com.
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