We’re excited to welcome filmmaker and author John Sayles to the show. John spoke with us about his most recent novel, Crucible, which focuses on the impact that an egocentric automobile magnate’s uninformed plans has on the economy and other populations. Sounds vaguely familiar. We also dove into John’s career, screenwriting vs. writing fiction, and what makes Pittsburgh so great.

Then, our intrepid hosts returned to a topic hinted at last time: how much overlap there is between the books the two of us have read? What a shocker: we both read Moby-Dick!

Crucible by John Sayles is out now

Works cited this episode:

A Moment in the Sun, John Sayles

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

Naked Lunch, William S. Burroughs

White Teeth, Zadie Smith

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson

One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez

A Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson

The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt, John Bellairs

Want, Lynn Steger Strong

Why We Read Fiction: Theory of Mind and the Novel, Lisa Sunshine

Don’t Skip Out on Me, Willy Vlautin

The Killer is Dying, James Sallis

Pulp Fiction, dir. Quentin Tarantino

The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen