Podcasts · Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso
A New Year with Writer Jia Tolentino (‘Trick Mirror’)
· 1 h 20 min
Episode A New Year with Writer Jia Tolentino (‘Trick Mirror’)
Writer Jia Tolentino (The New Yorker) became a literary sensation in 2019 upon the release of her best-selling essay collection, Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion. She joins us this week to ring in 2025.
We start by discussing the erosion of privacy online (11:26), the potentially forthcoming TikTok ban (13:32), and how she circumvented self-surveillance technology in her Hidden Pregnancy Experiment for The New Yorker (15:28). Then, we unpack how data is monetized online (18:00), as depicted in an unsettling scene from Succession (21:50), the harmful effects of screen time on children (26:10), and her writerly upbringing in Houston (31:48).
On the back-half, Jia recounts a formative summer in Venice (41:55), her subsequent decade working at The Hairpin and Jezebel (50:43), the trad wife phenomenon (55:00), how she swings between pessimism and optimism (1:12:19), and why writing still retains the power to liberate (1:17:00).
Thoughts or future guest ideas? Email us at sf@talkeasypod.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Links in the notes 5
Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them. Explicit shows are for adult profiles only, and children’s profiles hear only children’s shows. More about this list.