Elif Batuman, a New Yorker staff writer and author of The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them, offers up a delightfully refreshing coming-of-age story about not just discovering but inventing oneself. Batuman’s debut novel The Idiot begins in 1995 when email is new and Selin, the daughter of Turkish immigrants, arrives for her freshman year at Harvard where she navigates the strange new worlds of academics, friendships, and falling in love via email. Batuman discusses this off-kilter journey into adulthood and her recent reporting for The New Yorker from Turkey, with comedic author, television writer, and co-host of The Great Debates podcast Steve Hely.

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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