{"podcast":{"title":"What Happened Next: a podcast about newish books","slug":"what-happened-next-a-podcast-about-newish-books-6367402","podcast_index_feed_id":6367402,"rss_url":"https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/67f6cc8f0c09f66202906ee8","website_url":"https://thewalrus.ca/podcasts/what-happened-next/","image_url":"https://assets.pippa.io/shows/67f6cc8f0c09f66202906ee8/show-cover.jpg","author":"Nathan Whitlock","episode_count":167,"summary":"In each episode of What Happened Next, author Nathan Whitlock interviews other authors about what happens when a new book isn’t new anymore, and it’s time to write another one. This podcast is presented in partnership with The Walrus.https://thewalrus.ca/podcasts/what-happened-next/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-20T16:19:26.730524+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/what-happened-next-a-podcast-about-newish-books-6367402"},"episode":{"title":"Ira Wells","slug":"ira-wells","published_at":"2026-04-27T08:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/what-happened-next-a-podcast-about-newish-books-6367402/ira-wells","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/what-happened-next-a-podcast-about-newish-books-6367402","url":"https://shows.acast.com/what-happened-next-a-podcast-about-newish-books/episodes/ira-wells","audio_url":"https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/67f6cc8f0c09f66202906ee8/e/69e8da5907ecece42a66fad1/media.mp3","summary":"My guest on this episode is Ira Wells. Ira’s work has appeared in The Guardian , The New Republic , The Walrus , The Globe and Mail , Literary Review of Canada , Los Angeles Review of Books , and many other publications. His books include Fighting Words: Polemics and Social Change in Literary Naturalism and Norman Jewison: A Director’s Life . His most recent book is On Book Banning: Or, How the New Censorship Consensus Trivializes Art and Undermines Democracy , published by Biblioasis in 2025. That book is a finalist for the 2026 Writers’ Trust Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. Quill & Quire called it “a testament to the life-altering power of books and ideas.”   Ira and I talk about the sense of cultural fear and helplessness that seems to be behind the resurgence of book banning, about how his book was inspired, not by a conservative drive to ban books, but by a so-called “library audit” at a school in the heart of progressive Toronto, and about his return to biography for his next book project. This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock , in partnership with The Walrus . Music: \"simple-hearted thing\" by  Alex Lukashevsky . Used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.","meta_description":"My guest on this episode is Ira Wells. Ira’s work has appeared in The Guardian , The New Republic , The Walrus , The Globe and Mail , Literary Review of C…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2079,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/what-happened-next-a-podcast-about-newish-books-6367402/episodes/ira-wells/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/what-happened-next-a-podcast-about-newish-books-6367402/ira-wells.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}