I started a podcast!
Welcome to Unbound :)
Hi friends,
Over the last several months I’ve been working on a project near and dear to my heart- my very own podcast, Unbound. Unbound is a podcast about the culture and craft of books. In my first season I’m speaking to 10 great writers and readers about their work, the books they read as a kid, their sources of inspiration, and more. Today our very first episode dropped, and it would mean the world to me if you’d take a listen. And! In addition to a podcast, we have a companion substack you can subscribe to as well. Below is the very first post from that substack, along with a link for you to listen to our first episode.
Happy listening!
Tembe Denton Hurst has been the source of several of my reading picks over the past couple of years, and for good reason. Her taste in literature, which she showcases on her Instagram and her Substack, Extracurricular, is exquisite. Put simply, if I saw Tembe post it, I would read it. So when her debut novel Homebodies came out in 2023, I ran to buy it and immediately sank into the story. I even got to lead a book club discussing the novel, which is where I met Tembe in person for the first time.
Homebodies is about many things - working in media, defining success for yourself, and the ways we resist being truly still for fear of what that stillness will bring to the surface. In our conversation, Tembe described Homebodies as our narrator traveling through a dark tunnel - and we’re right there with her. I resonated with that description in part because I am at the tail end of my twenties and have experienced my fair share of muscling through life shifts. I particularly resonated with the theme of separating your Self from your Work, something I think Toni Morrison put succinctly in the article The Work You Do, The Person You Are, which is an article I think is in conversation with Tembe’s work in Homebodies.
I’ll be honest and say that I had very little love for the main character of Homebodies while I read it, but chatting with Tembe gave me more insight into the construction of her character and how the author herself feels about her (“love, not like.”)
Tembe and I could have talked for at least 2 more hours, but we packed a lot into the hour we had. Listen to the podcast for a deep dive into Tembe’s childhood reading habits, how we both feel about the lack of representation in the books we read as girls, and how Tembe approaches building the narrative arc of her books. I can’t wait for you all to listen, and let’s chat about the episode in the comments!
Here’s a full list of the books that Tembe mentioned and recommended throughout our conversation:
Happy listening!
Mbiye
So excited to listen!