Michael Calore: Go to the movies.
Lauren Goode: Just go to the movies.
Katie Drummond: I like that.
Michael Calore: This is the worst time of year to go to the movies.
Lauren Goode: No, it’s the best time of the year because air conditioning and comfy seats.
Michael Calore: Yeah, but it’s-
Katie Drummond: I’m with Lauren, that’s great advice.
Lauren Goode: No, I’ve been three times this year and every time, very last minute. A friend invited me last minute to go see the 40th anniversary of Goonies that was playing downtown. We went, it was fantastic. I was hanging out with friends one night and we said, “Let’s go see Sinners.” It was playing right across the street, fantastic. The theater was practically empty, it was glorious. The movie itself, actually, check out our friends, Critics at Large, New Yorker pod. They had some thoughts on the Materialists, so I’m going to toss it to them, but it was great. I was like, I need to go to the movies more.
Michael Calore: Oh, for sure.
Lauren Goode: What’s your recommendation, Mike?
Michael Calore: I’m going to recommend a book, and this is a book that I read over 4th of July weekend. It’s called, I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger. I believe this is Leif Enger’s fourth novel. He’s a bestseller, you may have heard of his name before. This is his new book, it is dystopian fiction. It depicts a world a few decades from now in which society has crumbled in a way that feels very recognizable and familiar, a bit like a more dangerous and uncertain version of today. The entire economy is controlled by a handful of super rich elites. The education system is crumbled, most Americans are proudly illiterate. We have a proudly illiterate president in this book. Satellite communications have been enshittified, are totally unreliable, GPS doesn’t work anymore. It is just like an eroded version of the world that we live in, and it’s really starkly rendered. We drop into this world and we follow the main character on a quest. The whole book takes place on Lake Superior in northern Minnesota and western Ontario. The main character gets in a boat and he goes and he sets sail on Lake Superior and we follow him around. I’m not going to spoil it by saying anything more than that, but it is gripping and unpredictable and also just beautifully, beautifully written at the sentence level. It is like poetry for pages. It’s amazing, emotional, deep. It will enrage you because it is a book for this moment. It’s just gorgeous.
Lauren Goode: I don’t know what to say to that, except that it sounds really deep.
Katie Drummond: You are so much more sophisticated than both of us. Sorry, Lauren.
Michael Calore: Well, I mean, not really.
Lauren Goode: I accept this.
Michael Calore: No, I mean, I know I recommended a nerdy book, but you should really read it just because it gives you a really sharp, sort potential future of what it’s like if you just let the richest people in the world run the economy and run all of the basic services that we rely on, to the point where they just fall apart because the most important people don’t need them anymore and it’s the rest of us who have to suffer for it. And it’s like, it’s kind of grim, kind of feels like that’s the way the world is moving, and that’s the reason why the book resonated with me so much when I read it. Yeah.
Lauren Goode: I’m going to add that to the good reads. Thanks so much.
Michael Calore: Of course.
Lauren Goode: Yeah. I almost recommended a book by a philosopher, but I’m going to hold off and keep it lowbrow for now. Once Katie’s gone, we can just lit nerd out, Mike.
Michael Calore: I don’t know. I’m going to go watch Goonies. I don’t know.
Lauren Goode: Welcome to WIRED’s Lit Nerd podcast.
Michael Calore: All right, well thank you for listening to this episode of Uncanny Valley. If you liked what you heard today, make sure to follow us on our show and rate it on your podcast app of choice. If you’d like to get in touch with us with any questions, comments, or show suggestions, write to us at uncannyvalley@wired.com. Today’s show was produced by Adriana Tapia. Amar Lal from Macrosound mixed this episode, Pran Bandi was our New York studio engineer. Mark Lyda was our San Francisco studio engineer. Kate Osborn is our executive producer. Katie Drummond is WIRED’s global editorial director, and Chris Bannon is the head of global audio.
