{"podcast":{"title":"KQED's Forum","slug":"kqed-s-forum-910728","podcast_index_feed_id":910728,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC9557381633","website_url":"https://www.kqed.org/forum","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/f7fab6b6-22d6-11eb-9a54-13d0154cc15e/image/KQED_Podcast_tiles_-_NPR_network_Forum.png?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"KQED","episode_count":3536,"summary":"Forum tells remarkable and true stories about who we are and where we live. In the first hour, Alexis Madrigal convenes the diverse voices of the Bay Area, before turning to Mina Kim for the second hour to chronicle and center Californians’ experience. In an increasingly divided world, Mina and Alexis host conversations that inform, challenge and unify listeners with big ideas and different viewpoints. Want to call/submit your comments during our live Forum program Mon-Fri, 9am-11am? We'd love to hear from you! Please dial 866.SF.FORUM or (866) 733-6786 or email forum@kqed.org, tweet, or post on Facebook.","last_synced_at":"2026-09-30T22:18:30.402859+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/kqed-s-forum-910728"},"episode":{"title":"In Daniel Mason’s Comic Novel ‘Country People,’ California Collides with New England","slug":"in-daniel-mason-s-comic-novel-country-people-california-collides-with-new-england","published_at":"2026-09-03T17:58:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/kqed-s-forum-910728/in-daniel-mason-s-comic-novel-country-people-california-collides-with-new-england","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/kqed-s-forum-910728","url":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/KQINC1334419134.mp3","audio_url":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/KQINC1334419134.mp3","summary":"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","meta_description":"Acclaimed novelist Daniel Mason’s latest book, “Country People,” centers on Miles, a stalled PhD student of Russian folklore, who is married to a brillian…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3288,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/kqed-s-forum-910728/episodes/in-daniel-mason-s-comic-novel-country-people-california-collides-with-new-england/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/kqed-s-forum-910728/in-daniel-mason-s-comic-novel-country-people-california-collides-with-new-england.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}