S6 Ep. 18: This Other Eden: Paul Harding on Imagining Our Integrated Past

fiction/non/fiction

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Paul Harding joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss the history of an integrated community in Maine and how it inspired his new novel, This Other Eden. Harding talks about where he drew the line in his research; his ekphrastic habits; the ever-present human tendency to create “Others”; and what it means to say “never again” in the face of injustice that repeats itself. He also reads from the novel.

To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/

This podcast is produced by Anne Kniggendorf.

Selected Readings:

Paul Harding

• This Other Eden
• Enon
• Tinkers

Others:

• Charles Ethan Porter
• Malaga Island - Bowdoin University
• Maine evicts residents of Malaga Island - Maine Coast Heritage Trust
• Maine School for the Feeble Minded - Pineland Farms
• First International Congress for Eugenics in London
• The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, by James Weldon Johnson
• Karl Barth
• Confessing Church
• William Shakespeare
• Macbeth
• The Tempest
• Old Testament
• Darwin and the theory of Eugenics
• “Understanding and Ameliorating Medical Mistrust Among Black Americans” - The Commonwealth Fund
• Sturgis Motorcycle Rally COVID-19 Superspreader Event - National Health Institute
• Artificial Intelligence
• Race Bias in AI and other science/tech
• The Cornerstone Speech
• Walt Whitman
• Maine apologizes for Malaga Island - Press Herald
• Moby Dick, Herman Melville
• Henry James
• Review: Racism tears a Maine fishing community apart in 'This Other Eden' - NPR
• Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 1 Episode 9: Can I Get A Witness: God and Faith in American Fiction
• Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6 Episode 17: Chatbot vs. Writer: Vauhini Vara on the Perils and Possibilities of Artificial Intelligence

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