The thriller genre has a new dynamic duo. In our latest episode, we sit down with Ryan Steck and Simon Gervais to discuss their debut collaboration, The Second Son.

They call it "The Vintage of Collaboration." Despite writing from a distance and having opposite backgrounds—Simon is an ex-RCMP officer, Ryan is a renowned critic—they’ve created a seamless narrative that feels like a high-proof, complex blend.

We dive into the shadows of 1970s Vietnam with author Nancy Cole Silverman and her electrifying new Kat Lawson Mystery, A Spy in Saigon. Kat’s “simple” assignment to write a travel piece and make a covert drop goes off the rails fast, thrusting her into a deadly web of secrets, double agents, and trafficked children who desperately need her help.

From the outside, Michelle Yang’s life might look like a familiar immigrant success story—but her new memoir, Phoenix Girl, reveals something far more powerful and complex. When her family left their tight-knit Chinese community in South Korea and arrived in America, the promise of freedom quickly tangled with a domineering father, a silenced mother, and the nonstop grind of running a Chinese takeout restaurant in Phoenix. By twelve, Michelle was already behind the counter, learning to juggle customers, cultures, expectations—and her own emerging sense of self.

In Phoenix Girl, Michelle traces her courageous journey from fear to freedom. She opens up about childhood instability, her path toward self-acceptance, and her honest, deeply human experience living with bipolar disorder. It’s a story of resilience, reclamation, and learning to rise from the fire instead of being consumed by it.

Dr. Carolyn Larkin Taylor is a neurologist with decades of experience, and now, she's turning her stethoscope inward in a powerful new memoir, Whispers of the Mind.

Through a series of deeply personal essays, Dr. Taylor takes us behind hospital doors and into the moments that defined her—from the crushing task of declaring a teenage boy brain dead, to the quiet redemption of caring for her estranged father in his final days. With compassion, candor, and a poet’s eye for detail, she invites us to consider the weight of every diagnosis, the grace in every goodbye, and the fragile beauty of the mind itself.

Ever feel like eating healthy means giving up the foods you grew up with? Dr. Marissa Toussaint says you don’t have to choose. Her new book Flambeau Kitchen blends Caribbean heritage with real, sustainable wellness—70+ recipes, practical tools, and guidance for conditions like high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. Today we talk with her about honoring culture, embracing mindful eating, and finding health without losing the flavors of home.

Savannah has always been a city of secrets—but none as haunting as the mystery at the center of Mark Murphy’s new novel, Rose Dhu. Tangled loyalties, buried grudges, and long-kept secrets ripple beneath the city’s live oaks as he hunts for the truth.

What if the next world war isn’t fought for ideology or territory — but for quarterly profits?

That’s the unsettling premise behind Prophets of War, the explosive debut novel from writer, investor, and political thinker Jack Brown. A lifelong student of history and finance, Brown turns his eye to the places where power hides in plain sight — where ambition, ideology, and capital collide.

The story follows Alex Morgan, a young financial prodigy who stumbles upon a hidden network of shell companies and shadow investors profiting from global conflict. What begins as a search for truth soon becomes a desperate fight for survival, as Alex discovers that the war in Ukraine is only one piece of a far greater design — a machine that monetizes chaos itself.

From the boardrooms of Wall Street to the offshore vaults of the Caribbean, Prophets of War rips open the veil on how modern empires are built — not with armies, but with spreadsheets.

Jack Brown joins us to discuss how fiction can illuminate the systems that shape our world — and why some of the most dangerous battles today may not be fought with weapons, but with money.

Ever meet someone who didn’t just witness history—but lived right in the middle of it?
That’s Nancy Shear.

For more than twenty years, Nancy was woven into the fabric of America’s classical music world—an orchestra librarian, broadcaster, and behind-the-scenes insider who worked shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the greatest musical minds of the twentieth century. She slipped into Philadelphia Orchestra rehearsals at fifteen, joined the library staff at seventeen, and by eighteen was assisting the legendary Leopold Stokowski himself.

In her remarkable new memoir, I Knew a Man Who Knew Brahms, Nancy pulls back the curtain on a golden era of classical music. She brings readers into rehearsal rooms, backstage hallways, and the private lives of Stokowski, Ormandy, Rostropovich, and more—capturing the brilliance, the ego, the arguments, and the humanity behind the concert stage.

It’s a story about music, yes—but also about perseverance, mentorship, and carving out space in a world that didn’t always welcome her. A reminder of the power of art, and the people who devote their lives to it.

🎙️ Join us for a conversation with Nancy Shear about the extraordinary life behind I Knew a Man Who Knew Brahms—and the history she helped shape from the inside.