{"podcast":{"title":"Happy To Be Here","slug":"happy-to-be-here-445507","podcast_index_feed_id":445507,"rss_url":"https://rss.art19.com/nerdette","website_url":"https://art19.com/shows/nerdette","image_url":"https://content.production.cdn.art19.com/images/9d/13/00/ca/9d1300ca-ab16-43e3-82bd-5d2be7a6c624/a2ef2557fbf173e8a13d41cc4196fbbd8c3ba06c9180ad1cf297b94f015559eba9d2d1a4e3afc79ced05ac7abbbba92beeb2215fd78d1bb633fde8a3a5506030.jpeg","author":"Greta Johnsen","episode_count":671,"summary":"Happy To Be Here is a new interview podcast for the recovering perfectionist and the perpetually curious, full of conversations that make you feel right at home and allow you to learn a little bit about almost anything. Host Greta Johnsen (formerly of Nerdette ) invites you to meet journalists, chefs, authors, and all kinds of excellent humans who will delight and inspire you. Packed with recommendations for stuff to eat, read, watch, and enjoy, this show is great for helping you make sure you actually take it easy this weekend, wherever you might happen to be.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-03T14:18:33.429783+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/happy-to-be-here-445507"},"episode":{"title":"GRETAGRAM book club: Julia Langbein on 'Dear Monica Lewinsky'","slug":"gretagram-book-club-julia-langbein-on-dear-monica-lewinsky","published_at":"2026-06-05T05:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/happy-to-be-here-445507/gretagram-book-club-julia-langbein-on-dear-monica-lewinsky","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/happy-to-be-here-445507","url":"https://rss.art19.com/episodes/d0843ab7-072d-4ae7-a5ba-aea4b2492852.mp3?rss_browser=BAhJIg90cmFuc2NyaWJyBjoGRVQ%3D--952c5701c84ad333c69d5faa668f8177091704f0","audio_url":"https://rss.art19.com/episodes/d0843ab7-072d-4ae7-a5ba-aea4b2492852.mp3?rss_browser=BAhJIg90cmFuc2NyaWJyBjoGRVQ%3D--952c5701c84ad333c69d5faa668f8177091704f0","summary":"It’s the first Friday of the month, which means it’s time for a new book to read! This month’s selection is Julia Langbein ’s phenomenal novel Dear Monica Lewinsky, and Julia is today's guest on the show. The book is about Jean, whose life was derailed the summer after her sophomore year in college. When she travels to France to study medieval religious history, she meets a charismatic professor and decides to pursue an affair with him. The repercussions of that choice echo through her life, and she’s still haunted as an adult.  When she realizes her summer abroad was the same summer the Monica Lewinsky story broke in the United States, Jean prays to Monica, asking for forgiveness. That’s when a vision of Monica Lewinsky appears to Jean, and she’s able to relive her summer in France.  When Tom Perrotta blurbed Julia’s first novel American Mermaid , he said, “It probably shouldn’t work, but it succeeds brilliantly, thanks to Julia Langbein’s tonal control and wicked sense of humor,” and the same can be said for Dear Monica Lewinsky .  This book may be hard to describe, but it’s a joy to read, and it’s also a searing examination of female desire and the prices we pay to pursue it. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .","meta_description":"It’s the first Friday of the month, which means it’s time for a new book to read! This month’s selection is Julia Langbein ’s phenomenal novel Dear Monica…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1346,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/happy-to-be-here-445507/episodes/gretagram-book-club-julia-langbein-on-dear-monica-lewinsky/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/happy-to-be-here-445507/gretagram-book-club-julia-langbein-on-dear-monica-lewinsky.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}