What Happened Next: a podcast about newish books

My guest on this episode is Elizabeth Renzetti. Elizabeth is an author and journalist who worked for the Globe and Mail as a reporter, editor, and columnist, and currently writes a regular column for the Toronto Star. Her books include Shrewed: A Wry and Closely Observed Look at the Lives of Women and Girls,  What She Said: Conversations about Equality, and the Bury the Lead, which she co-wrote with novelist Kate Hilton. Her most recent book, also co-written with Kate Hilton, is Widows and Orphans, published by House of Anansi Press in 2025. Chatelaine called the book "a smart whodunnit."Elizabeth and I talk about why she is Elizabeth on the covers of her books but Liz in real life, and why the Globe and Mail is partly responsible for that, about the benefits of having a co-author, and about how everything that happens in her life gets stored away as potential plot points for her mysteries.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

My guest on this episode is Raymond Biesinger. Raymond is a Montréal-based illustrator, artist, and author whose work has been published in places like Billboard, the Economist, the Globe & Mail, the Guardian, the New Yorker, The Walrus, and more. His debut book was the bestseller 305 Lost Buildings of Canada, which he illustrated and which was written by Alex Bozikovic. His most recent book is 9 Times My Work Has Been Ripped Off, published by Drawn & Quarterly in 2025. Author Cory Doctorow called the book “a masterclass in how creative workers can transform the endless, low-grade seething about the endless ripoffs of the industry into something productive and even profound.” Raymond and I talk about his original plan to become a journalist, not an illustrator, about how his most recent book started life essentially as an act of blackmail, and about how having published a book about being ripped off has already helped in encouraging clients to pay him on time.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

My guest on this episode is Michelle Berry. Michelle is the author of more than half a dozen novels and three collections of short stories. Her books have been nominated for multiple awards and been optioned for film several times. For five years Berry owned and operated her own independent bookstore in Peterborough, Ontario, called Hunter Street Books. Her most recent two novels, which were both published in 2025 by Turnstone Press under the name MS Berry, are the thrillers The Tenant and Behind the Door. The Seaboard Review of Books called Behind The Door “a riveting experience.”Michelle and I talk about how border collies are basically writers in dog form, about the culture shock that came with opening her own bookstore, and about the trade-offs that come with writing in a new genre under a pen name.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

My guest on this episode is Zilla Jones. Zilla’s writing has won the Journey Prize and been shortlisted for the CBC Short Story Prize and the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers. Her debut novel, The World So Wide, was published in April 2025 by Cormorant Books. The Winnipeg Free Press said that “Jones’ novel is a gift and a magnificent read that will leave readers crying for an encore.”  Zilla and I talk about the role opera singing has played in her life and in her creative work, about the very first story she ever wrote—at the age of 3, in crayon—and about exploring the complexities of social and historical issues through fiction, something she is rarely able to do in her day job as a lawyer.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

My guest on this episode is Russell Smith. Russell is the author of multiple novels and collections of short fiction, as well as one non-fiction book. His work has been nominated for the Giller Prize, the Governor General’s Award, the Rogers/Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Trillium Prize, the Chapters/Books In Canada First Novel Award, the City of Toronto Book Prize, and the Danuta Gleed Award. He is the editor of three story anthologies, and works as an acquiring editor for Dundurn Press. His most recent novel, Self Care, was published by Biblioasis in 2025. Kirkus Reviews called it “an uncomfortable, disturbing, and timely examination of relationships between men and women.” Russell and I talk about the infamous and possibly apocryphal pitch letter that accompanied his very first novel, about how his very strong opinions as a writer and reader inform his work as an acquiring editor, and about the ways he feels the Canadian book world has sabotaged itself.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

My guest on this episode is Elliott Gish. Elliott is a writer and librarian whose work has appeared in the Baltimore Review, Dark Matter, Grain, and the New Quarterly. Her debut novel, Grey Dog, was published by ECW Press in 2024. In a starred review of the novel, Publishers Weekly said “Gish’s prose is as sharp as a scalpel.”Elliott and I talk about the impact a very nerdy-sounding historical summer camp had on her imagination, about why she’s not into writing horror stories set in the era of cellphones, and about why she’s both excited and a little concerned that her second novel will have far fewer horror elements than her first.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

My guest on this episode is Jason Schneider. Jason has written for Exclaim!, the Globe & Mail, the Toronto Star, Paste, American Songwriter, Relix, Shindig and many other media outlets. His books include Whispering Pines: the Northern Roots of American Music, The Longest Suicide: The Authorized Biography of Art Bergmann, and the novel 3,000 Miles. He is the co-author of Have Not Been The Same: the CanRock Renaissance 1985-1995. His most recent two books are That Gun in Your Hand: The Strange Saga of ‘Hey Joe’ and Popular Music’s History of Violence, published by Anvil Press, and the novel The City Knows, published by Montag Press. Both books were published in 2025.Jason and I talk about how he ended up publishing two books, in two different genres, in the same year, about turning a COVID-era deep dive into a single song into an entire book, and about how he is once again working on two books at once, in two different genres.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.

My guest on this episode is Jeannie Marshall. Jeannie is a nonfiction author, journalist, and former staff writer at the National Post. She has written for Maclean’s and the Walrus and has published literary nonfiction in The Common, the Literary Review of Canada, Brick, and elsewhere. Her first book was Outside the Box: Why Our Children Need Real Food, Not Food Products. Her most recent book is All Things Move: Learning to Look in the Sistine Chapel, published by Biblioasis in 2023. Vanity Fair called the book “rich, meditative” and said “the book is part art history, part memoir; a case for slowing down, curiosity, a closer look.” Jeannie and I talk about the early days of the National Post, about overcoming the skepticism of art historians who felt there was nothing new to say about the Sistine Chapel, and about how her new book project, a novel, fits in with her previous two books.This podcast is produced and hosted by Nathan Whitlock, in partnership with The Walrus.Music: "simple-hearted thing" by Alex Lukashevsky. Used with permission.