# In Daniel Mason’s Comic Novel ‘Country People,’ California Collides with New England

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/kqed-s-forum-910728/in-daniel-mason-s-comic-novel-country-people-california-collides-with-new-england
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/kqed-s-forum-910728/in-daniel-mason-s-comic-novel-country-people-california-collides-with-new-england.md
Podcast: [KQED's Forum](https://stenobird.com/podcast/kqed-s-forum-910728)
Published: 2026-09-03T17:58:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/KQINC1334419134.mp3
Audio file: https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/KQINC1334419134.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/kqed-s-forum-910728/episodes/in-daniel-mason-s-comic-novel-country-people-california-collides-with-new-england
Duration seconds: 3288

## Resource

Acclaimed novelist Daniel Mason’s latest book, “Country People,” centers on Miles, a stalled PhD student of Russian folklore, who is married to a brilliant academic. A visiting stint at a prestigious liberal arts college in rural Vermont sends their family of four, plus the perfect dog, careening through a different America of Slim Jims, forests, and local legends. It’s both a sendup of academia—Mason’s a Stanford professor of psychiatry, after all— and those intrepid Californians, like himself, who head to New England in the summer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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