Thresholds

Valeria Luiselli

20 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan sits down with Valeria Luiselli to talk about the U.S.-Mexico border, and in particular its origin point (or terminus) in the Pacific Ocean. Th...

Aracelis Girmay (& an announcement)

12 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In the penultimate episode of the series, Jordan sits down to talk with poet Aracelis Girmay about the way that reading --especially discovering the w...

Jayson Greene (Live!)

06 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan sits down with author Jayson Greene during a live taping of Thresholds at the Beverly Theater in Las Vegas, Nevada. The two talk about Jayson's...

Tayari Jones

25 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan sits down to talk with bestselling novelist Tayari Jones about the power and satisfaction of moving back home after decades away, and how her n...

Introducing: "Borrowed & Returned" from the Brooklyn Public Library

17 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Thresholds is happy to introduce "Borrowed & Returned," a new podcast from the Brooklyn Public Library about the books that have changed America. ...

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

08 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan sits down with marine biologist, writer, and climate advocate Ayana Johnson to talk about her mission to fight climate fatalism, her love of Ra...

Claire Vaye Watkins

01 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan sits down with Claire Vaye Watkins to talk about how the grief over her mother's death diffused into a homesickness for the landscape of the Mo...

Mariana Enriquez

24 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This week, Jordan sits down with the "queen of Latin American gothic horror," Mariana Enriquez, to talk about the manuscript she burned and how it led...

Miriam Toews

17 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan sits down to talk with Miriam Toews about her new book, A Truce That Is Not Peace, her first nonfiction book, and the events that ins...

Renee Gladman

25 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan sits down with Renee Gladman to talk about prose architecture, Henry James, walking in cities, and mushrooms. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/pr...

Nicholson Baker

18 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Nicholson Baker sits down with Jordan to discuss writing about the unsung pleasures and details of the world-- things like the way your mother cuts up...

Sarah Aziza

11 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Sarah Aziza sits down with Jordan to talk about the eating disorder that almost took her life in 2019, and the search into her family's history in Pal...

Lisa Ko

04 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Lisa Ko sits down with Jordan to talk about the daily journaling practice that she started at age five, and the period of creative crisis between her ...

Sabrina Imbler

26 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan sits down to talk with Sabrina Imbler, author of How Far the Light Reaches, about writing the non-human world, leaving the world of legacy medi...

Maya Binyam

19 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This week, Jordan sits down to talk with Maya Binyam, author of the novel Hangman,about a near-drowning that changed her life.Maya Binyam is the ...

Carvell Wallace

12 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This week, we're sharing a live conversation between Jordan and Carvell Wallace, recorded last year at P&T Knitwear in New York. They talk about h...

Lidia Yuknavitch

05 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This week, Jordan sits down to talk with Lidia Yuknavitch about menopause, where stories lodge in our bodies, having a creative process that takes the...

Live! Garth Greenwell

15 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This week, we bring you a live interview with Garth Greenwell, conducted in October 2024 at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn. Garth talks about growing up in...

Remix! Jericho Brown

04 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We're revisiting our 2021 interview with the poet Jericho Brown, who this week was named a MacArthur Fellow-- one of the highest honors in the arts an...

Sigrid Nunez

19 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This week, Jordan talks to the novelist Sigrid Nunez about her youthful preoccupation with mimicking the prose of Virginia Woolf, the step-by-step int...

Sofia Samatar

23 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan chats with Sofia Samatar (The Practice, The Horizon, and the Chain and Opacities) about having two books out this year, doing everything twice ...

Emma Copley Eisenberg

02 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan chats with Emma Copley Eisenberg (Housemates) about a ghostly encounter that led to her new novel, the opposing worldviews of Grace Paley and O...

Amy Lin

19 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Shades on, sleeves up—it's summertime and we're back! This week, Jordan talks with Amy Lin, author of Here After, about grief, the sudden loss of he...

Remix! Aimee Nezhukumatathil

24 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This is a re-airing of our 2021 episode with the poet and bestselling essayist Aimee Nezhukumatathil. We're celebrating the release of her new collect...

Dorothea Lasky

12 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan chats with Dorothea Lasky (The Shining) about interpreting a horror classic in her latest poetry collection, her love for horror, and why playf...

Vinson Cunningham

22 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan talks with Vinson Cunningham (Great Expectations) about finding himself in the midst of history, discovering ways to hang onto moments, and why...

Meghan O'Rourke

08 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan chats with Meghan O'Rourke (The Invisible Kingdom) about hiding from herself, the death of her father, and the challenges of writing a book wit...

Rumaan Alam

23 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan talks with Rumaan Alam (Leave the World Behind) about money, freedom, his recent period of creative fecundity, and the enduring power of art.ME...

Maira Kalman

09 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan talks with artist and writer Maira Kalman about the death of her husband Tibor Kalman, the process of grief, and her irrepressible creative spi...

McKenzie Wark

26 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Thresholds is back! To open a new season, Jordan sits down with McKenzie Wark live at PioneerWorks in Red Hook, Brooklyn, for a conversation about rav...

Gina Chung

12 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For her last guest as guest-host, Mira chats with former mentee Gina Chung about her debut novel Sea Change, writing about the honest messy stuff, and...

J Wortham

05 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

J Wortham joins Mira to talk about the power of changes -- changing location, changing names, changing pronouns -- and the space that can open up as a...

Barbara Brandon-Croft

29 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Legendary cartoonist Barbara Brandon-Croft (Where I’m Coming From) joins Mira to talk about building a life out of odd jobs, the double-edged sword ...

Sarah Thankam Mathews

15 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Writer and organizer Sarah Thankam Mathews (All This Could Be Different) joins Mira to discuss a brush with mortality in a rip-tide off the California...

Layli Long Soldier

08 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Poet Layli Long Soldier joins Mira to talk about her transformation during pregnancy, learning to open up to the possibilities of the world, and how s...

Hari Kondabolu

01 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Comedian Hari Kondabolu joins Mira to talk about seeing space for himself on the screen, discovering an answer to the question of how to be in the wor...

Angie Cruz

22 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Mira chats with novelist Angie Cruz (How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water) about figuring out who you want to be, Angie's semi-secret history in fashi...

Chani Nicholas

15 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Guest-host Mira Jacob talks with astrologer and author Chani Nicholas about being the child at the party, how Chani found her voice, and the question ...

Introducing Guest Host Mira Jacob

08 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Big News: novelist/memoirist/wonderful human Mira Jacob will be stepping into the host chair this spring! This week, she and Jordan sit down for a pas...

Hafizah Geter

01 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Hafizah Geter (The Black Period) joins Jordan to discuss her family's influence on her work, the power of memory, being in conversation with the write...

Sam Lipsyte

25 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sam Lipsyte (No One Left to Come Looking For You) joins Jordan to talk about giving up on punk rock, rediscovering a passion for writing, and the reve...

Heather Radke

18 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Heather Radke joins Jordan to talk about Butts: A Backstory, the playful invitation of the book's title, the general unruliness of bodies, and the joy...

A 100th Episode Celebration

28 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Thresholds reaches its centenary episode with equal parts celebration and consideration. We reached out to old friends to leave us some voicemails, Jo...

Endnotes: Saeed Jones, Chloé Cooper Jones, and pre-orders

07 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It's the end of our last full capsule for 2022 -- and what a joyful, life-affirming batch of conversations it was! First up, we've got Saeed Jones off...

Alyssa Songsiridej

30 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Alyssa Songsiridej (Little Rabbit) chats with Jordan about moving to a new city, the scary-freeing experience of being away from one's community, and ...

Asali Solomon

23 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan talks with Asali Solomon about The Days of Afrekete, the unexpected discovery that she’s a funny writer, and trying to impart wisdom to stude...

Saeed Jones

16 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Poet Saeed Jones joins Jordan to talk about the long-term experience of grief, the intensity of writing from the point of view of another person, and ...

Alex Marzano-Lesnevich

09 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Alex Marzano-Lesnevich (The Fact of a Body) joins Jordan to talk about a particularly life-altering haircut, the power of a sequined tuxedo, and what ...

Chloé Cooper Jones

02 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Chloé Cooper Jones (Easy Beauty) joins Jordan to talk about avoiding mandates, about writing through pain and trauma, and about finding the neutral r...

Kay Ulanday Barrett

26 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan talks with poet/performer/advocate Kay Ulanday Barrett about their decision to get top surgery, the intersection of family and food, and writin...

Endnotes: Patrick Cottrell, Lynn Steger Strong, and some scary reading

12 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It's the end of our 'ghosts' capsule and not a moment too soon! Those days sure are getting shorter...FEATURED:Patrick Cottrell on his change-of-seaso...

Samantha Hunt

05 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Samantha Hunt joins Jordan to talk about The Unwritten Book, what it means to believe in ghosts, grieving the death of her father, and confronting the...

Ingrid Rojas Contreras

28 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan talks with Ingrid Rojas Contreras (The Man Who Could Move Clouds) about the accident that left her with amnesia, grappling with the decision to...

Amy Fusselman

21 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan talks to Amy Fusselman about writers who perform, getting out of your own head, and the agonies and ecstasies of comedy. It's a laugh-out-loud ...

Celeste Ng

14 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Celeste Ng joins Jordan to talk about her new book Our Missing Hearts, motherhood and parenting while writing, and the big questions of what kind of p...

Endnotes: Crystal Hana Kim, Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, and summer reading

10 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It's the end of a 'Family' capsule of episodes and the last before our summer break, so we really pulled out all the stops this time.FEATURED:an outta...

Michelle Tea

03 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan talks with Michelle Tea about her new memoir (Knocking Myself Up), making the decision to get pregnant, her tarot practice, and creating a quee...

Keith Gessen

27 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan talks with Keith Gessen about his new memoir of fatherhood, Raising Raffi: The First Five Years, and the challenges -- and wonders -- of bein...

Crystal Hana Kim

20 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan talks with Crystal Hana Kim (If You Leave Me) about the ultimate unknowability of another person's story, about motherhood as a writer, and abo...

Lydia Conklin

13 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan talks with Lydia Conklin about bucking the conventions of queer storytelling, how a childhood Oregon Trail reenactment led to one of the most m...

Ashley C. Ford

06 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan talks with Ashley C. Ford (author of the memoir Somebody's Daughter) about how writing made her into more of herself, about the systems that we...

Endnotes: Marie-Helene Bertino, Ocean Vuong, and listening to your own voice

22 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It’s the end of our ‘Inheritance' capsule of episodes!MENTIONED:Marie-Helene Bertino shares her summer reading plans (hint: they involve Ursula K....

Jhumpa Lahiri

15 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan talks with Jhumpa Lahiri about her new collection of essays (Translating Myself and Others), how Ovid helped her navigate her mother’s death,...

Elissa Washuta

08 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan talks with Elissa Washuta (White Magic) about the transformative nature of narrative, avoiding vs. thinking about painful things, why she takes...

Jessamine Chan

01 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan talks with Jessamine Chan about the ways having a kid changed her writing, about the difficulties mothers face in America, and about the one ve...

Morgan Talty

25 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan talks with Morgan Talty in advance of his debut story collection about moms, storytelling, writing from a teen point of view, and the villain o...

Stephanie Foo

18 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan talks to Stephanie Foo about Complex PTSD, what it takes to accept and understand a diagnosis, and the transformative power of Google Doc Thera...

Endnotes: Ross Gay, adrienne maree brown, and a special song

04 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It’s the end of our ‘The World Around Us' capsule of episodes!MENTIONED:Jordan calls up Ross Gay to talk about his garden and something called a g...

Jeff VanderMeer

27 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan talks with Jeff VanderMeer about the process of re-wilding his backyard, his initial obsession with uprooting air potatoes, learning to see mor...

Introducing Storybound

26 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Now celebrating its fifth season, Storybound is a radio theater program designed for the podcast age. Hosted by 2021 KCRW Radio Race winner Jude Brewe...

N. Scott Momaday

20 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan talks with N. Scott Momaday about the Stanford fellowship that changed his life, the importance of taking the natural world into your heart, an...

Lulu Miller

13 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Lulu Miller joins Jordan to talk about heartbreak and building back from it, about making writing the healthy choice, about relating to David Starr Jo...

adrienne maree brown

06 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

adrienne maree brown joins Jordan to talk about the moment she learned what her style of leadership looked like, about the power of saying things alou...

Allegra Hyde

30 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Allegra Hyde talks to Jordan about the peripatetic experience she had trying to find herself in utopian communities after college -- and a transformat...

Ed Yong

23 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ed Yong joins Jordan to tell the story of his pandemic puppy, Typo, and how introducing a new animal to his household deepened his understanding of th...

Endnotes: Sheila Heti, Alexander Chee, and a New Voice

09 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It’s the end of our ‘experimentation’ capsule of episodes and Jordan is joined in the studio by Thresholds producer Drew Broussard for a grab-ba...

Sheila Heti

02 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Sheila Heti joins Jordan to talk about grief, god, the shape of her novel, and what it means to be rooting for the snail.Mentioned:"The Unknown Master...

Carl Erik Fisher

23 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan talks to Dr. Carl Erik Fisher (The Urge: Our History of Addiction) about perceiving addiction as a spectrum, the historical evolution of addict...

Sarah Manguso

16 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Sarah Manguso talks to Jordan about thinking she'd never write a novel, processing the place you come from, and the cold silence of whiteness.Mentione...

Kiese Laymon

09 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan talks with Kiese Laymon about fear, loving an enemy, trying not to write wack-ass shit, and what it was like to buy back the rights to his firs...

Leanne Shapton

02 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan talks to writer and artist Leanne Shapton about her workspace, her desire to create something large, and being fascinated by the recurring imag...

From Well-Read Black Girl: Min Jin Lee on Becoming a Writer

01 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

I'm sharing a special preview of the new podcast, Well-Read Black Girl from Pushkin Industries. Well-Read Black Girl is the literary kickback you nev...

Revisiting Melissa Febos

29 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

To round out 2021, we are revisiting a few of our favorite episodes of 2021. Melissa Febos is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir, Whip Smar...

Revisiting Ross Gay

22 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

To round out 2021, we are revisiting a few of our favorite episodes of 2021. Ross Gay is the author of four books of poetry: Against Which; Bringing...

A Look Back at 2021

15 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What a year it has been! 47 episodes featuring some of the most incredible guests ruminating on the most fascinating topics. We dove into the archives...

Katie Kitamura

08 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan talks to Katie Kitamura about the process of writing, the challenge of calling yourself a writer, and being a slow-moving creature in a world t...

James Han Mattson

01 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan talks to James Han Mattson, author of Reprieve, about a trip to Korea to find his birth family and about harnessing messiness to create fiction...

Aimee Bender

24 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It's Infrastructure Week on Thresholds! Kind of! Jordan talks with Aimee Bender, author of The Butterfly Lampshade, about how developing a structure c...

Ryka Aoki

17 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan talks donuts, taking big leaps, and writing with/for/about pleasure with Ryka Aoki, author of Light from Uncommon Stars.Ryka Aoki is a poet, c...

Gregory Pardlo

10 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan is joined by Pulitzer-winning poet and memoirist Gregory Pardlo — currently teaching at NYU in Abu Dhabi — to talk about sobriety, understa...

Introducing Operator, From Wondery

09 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Hi listeners – I just started a new miniseries from Wondery and Topic Studios called Operator, the untold true story of the phone sex line company t...

Susan Orlean

03 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan talks Susan Orlean (author of On Animals and The Library Book and The Orchid Thief and those hilarious tweets) about finding the right way to t...

Saïd Sayrafiezadeh

27 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan talks to memoirist and fiction writer Saïd Sayrafiezadeh about growing up in the Socialist Workers Party, deprogramming from childhood, and ho...

Warren Ellis

20 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan sits down to a wild, funny, moving conversation with violinist, composer, Bad Seed, and author of Nina Simone's Gum Warren Ellis. It's an hones...

Rita Dove

13 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan talks to the incomparable Rita Dove about discovery, about taking a break from creating and publishing, and about re-learning to hold a pen aga...

Sanaë Lemoine

06 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Sanaë Lemoine tells Jordan about the moment she learned her father had a second family and the ways that that reveal changed her life, her family, he...

Andrew Martin

29 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan talks to Andrew Martin about a trip to Montana in the midst of a tumultuous year, putting on a persona for writing, and how the two combined to...

Rebecca Carroll

22 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan chats with writer and critic Rebecca Carroll about the tricky nature of writing memoir, being the mother of a Black son, and about the power of...

Maggie Nelson

15 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan talks to Maggie Nelson about hope, about hitting one's threshold, and about trying to respond to current events in On Freedom without dating th...

Alexandra Kleeman

08 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan talks to author Alexandra Kleeman about the threshold of the natural and the man-made, about how we are and will continue to consistently cross...