Ep. 252 Begging to Go to the Library with Mina Kimes

Written By Megan Caballero

Award-winning ESPN reporter Mina Kimes joins the show to share her love of reading and the one book that inspired her career. Mina reveals how she ended up in sports journalism, how she handles online harassment, and what she would change if she were suddenly appointed NFL commissioner.

The Stacks Book Club selection for February is The Round House by Louise Erdrich. We will discuss the book on February 22nd with Mina Kimes.

 
 

Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes and on Bookshop.org and Amazon

To support The Stacks and find out more from this week’s sponsors, click here.

Connect with Mina: Instagram | Twitter | The Mina Kimes Show featuring Lenny
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TRANSCRIPT
*Due to the nature of podcast advertising, these timestamps are not 100% accurate and will vary.

Traci Thomas 0:08
Welcome to The Stacks, a podcast about books and the people who read them. I’m your host Traci Thomas and today we welcome Mina Kimes to The Stacks. I’m so excited. I’m a huge fan of Mina. She is a sports journalist. You might know her from the show NFL live on ESPN. You also might know her voice from the Mina Kimes show featuring Lenny, her dog. Mina is very much the person to go to for all things Sports. Today, we talked about her career, how she thinks of her place in sports media, and of course, her favorite books. Remember, Mina will be back on February 22 to discuss The Round House by Louise Erdrich for The Stacks book club. Quick reminder everything we talked about on each episode of the show can be found in the link in the show notes. And if you love the show, and you want more of it, please go to patreon.com/thestacks and join the stacks pack. I could not make the show without the support of the Stacks Pack and for just $5 a month you get bonus episodes or virtual book club access to our Discord which is very much the place to be if you love books. Plus, you get to know that your contribution makes it possible for this podcast to exist every single week to join head to patreon.com/the stacks. I also want to say a quick thank you to some of our newest members of the stacks pack. Elizabeth Loretto Movitch Rebecca stemmy Heather heights, ma Grace 10 cough, Andrew and Madison. Donna Tony. Thank you all so much and thank you to the entire Stacks Pack Alright, it is now time for my conversation with Mina Kimes.

All right, everybody. I am so excited. Today I’m here with one of my maybe my most favorite person in sports, Mina Kimes, she is podcaster. She is a TV personality. She’s a writer. She’s a Seahawks fan, which we can talk about later, because that’s a problem. But otherwise, mostly, I’m on board with me. And so Mina, welcome to The Stacks.

Mina Kimes 2:03
Thank you so much for having me.

Traci Thomas 2:04
I’m so excited. I just said you’re my favorite person in sports. And I know David Dennis is gonna listen and be mad. So it’s a tie and Justin Tinsley. It’s a three way tie for favorite people.

Mina Kimes 2:14
Those guys are so great. Justin’s probably the most likable person on the face of the earth. Yeah, he’s just such a peach. And they’re obviously wonderful writers. So yeah, yeah. When they connected with you, I was so excited.

Traci Thomas 2:27
Yes, we’re big fans of them here. So if you would, would you just tell folks a little bit about yourself?

Mina Kimes 2:32
Yeah, sure. So my job right now is that I’m an NFL analyst at ESPN. But my career has taken a lot of pretty interesting turns before that. After graduating from college, I worked as a business journalist for six years, I worked at Fortune Magazine, where at first I wrote about investing. And then I pivoted a couple years into that to being an investigative reporter. Their writing, basically about companies doing bad things is how I would summarize it. Then I moved to Bloomberg News and joined their investigative team. And then in 2014, ESPN contacted me about a job at ESPN The Magazine, which doesn’t exist anymore. As a features writer, writing about sports, which is not something I ever aspired to do, or thought I could do. I was huge sports fan, but that was not something I dreamed of. So I joined ESPN as a writer and worked as a writer for Fears profiling athletes got to travel around the World Cup, the Olympics go to Korea a couple times for stories, which is kind of a boondoggle for me because I am Korean. So I got to use those trips to see family. And then around 2015 16, I started doing sports, radio and podcasting. And then from there, and this is how a lot of writers at ESPN transitioned to becoming television personalities. I started doing shows like around the horn, highly questionable, first take and help launch a podcast called ESPN daily. And then I think around 2019, or 20, transitioned to being full time on television as an NFL analyst, which brings me to what I said at the beginning. So yeah, so my job now basically, is to talk about football and give opinions about football and it means watching a lot of football.

Traci Thomas 4:19
Okay, when you got the email from or the the the reach out from ESPN that was like, Hey, do you want to write about sports? Were you like, yes, 1,000% I’m all in or were you like, I don’t do that.

Mina Kimes 4:33
It was shocking, because it is not something that ever occurred to me. I mean, they occurred to them because I had written a personal essay about how much I love football. And also because my social media was just dumb sports and sports games. Yeah. So they were like, You seem obsessed with this when you want to, but I really truly had never thought it I never, even as a child. Thought it was something that I could write about much less give opinions about. Let me tell you that But, you know, at the time I was I’d been working as a business journalist for a while. And the good investigative journalist is very tiring, getting yelled at, by lawyers. And, you know, just I went home, I thought, Man, I could write about something I love for a living. It was scary, because I had kind of built up this institutional expertise, institutional, whatever, I you know, I’ve been covering business for a while, and I didn’t know the first thing about covering sports, but I kind of thought, well, if I don’t take this opportunity, probably never gonna get it again.

Traci Thomas 5:31
Is it at all similar covering business and sports?

Mina Kimes 5:34
So I would say the fundamentals were the same, especially as a features writer, you know, reporting, gathering information gathering data is it was a kind of a through line for me between things. And then structuring features very similar, right. But all of the little things you take for granted, like I knew how to read 10, Ks and get through to companies and find worker employees and stuff. Whereas covering sports, especially pro athletes, it’s like, how do you work with agents? How do you get it? How do you get into a locker room? Like you don’t know, right? It’s all masking, like, how do I get a credential? So I had to learn like a lot of the little things on the fly. But the underlying tools were basically the same.

Traci Thomas 6:12
And nobody tells you that, like on your onboarding day HR is not like, Okay, this is how you get a credential. You just have to just like figure it out.

Mina Kimes 6:19
Exactly. Yeah. I mean, and or ask people, which is embarrassing, right, you know, I mean, especially if you’re not just starting out your career at times. And then yeah, so that was writing about it. And then talking about it was obviously a totally different process and something I had to learn how to do on the fly.

Traci Thomas 6:38
So Jemele Hill came on the show last year. In case in case you didn’t know, I’m a big sports fan. So any opportunity to have a sports person on the show? I’m like you wrote a book, come on it. So but in Jamal’s book, she talks about how cuz she was. She was also a sports journalist writing about things before she ever got on TV. And when she first went on TV, she talked about how like, she didn’t know how to dress. She didn’t know how to like, be feminine. And like that, that was something that was really hard for her. And she hired her friend to help her. And it was this whole other thing, because all of a sudden, she was being judged on her looks when she was used to being judged on just her work and her ability to tell a story. Did you run up against any of that?

Mina Kimes 7:15
You know, there was a little bit of it, as far as the look stuff. So like, I didn’t really wear makeup before I started going on TV. And the makeup artist ESPN always laughed, because I would call foundation skin makeup because I just didn’t I was like, where’s the skin makeup? You know. So there was some definitely some missteps early on, like, you know, but like, way too many smoky eyes, and I have small eyes. But for the most part of the things I had to learn, that I didn’t know how to do were performance related, you know, performance, meaning performing on camera, you know, I didn’t act I didn’t do comedy or improv, to do radio growing up. So just like learning how to communicate in a concise and hopefully entertaining fashion. It’s a craft, you know, some people are born with a gift of gab, I guess. And it comes easier to some people than others. But for me, it was a lot of watching other people paying attention to how ideas were structured, and, you know, trying to gain the confidence to do it myself.

Traci Thomas 8:13
Who were you looking to who were the people on sports television that you were like, Okay, I like what your what you bring,

Mina Kimes 8:19
oh, shoot, I always love watching to Mel because she was just so she is so clearly herself. But she also and I think this is what I feel is what makes her so good on television. She’s so warm, and human. And I have always loved that quality. When I watch people you know, on television, the ones who can who you know, are appear to be enjoying themselves and unlike the things they’re talking about, and also have empathy for the people in their orbit. But for me, a lot of it also was watching football analysts in particular because, you know, especially when I transition to becoming a full time NFL analyst, understanding okay, this is these are the things we have to talk about. These are the things we have to hit, right how do I communicate? Football is really complicated. How do you communicate complicated things in a digestible fashion was something that I had to learn along the way.

Traci Thomas 9:11
So what I like about you is your confidence I think, obviously you’re I think you’re like one of the smartest people doing what you do not just in football but just like whenever I hear you on like a ringer podcast you always have a take you always have like such a good sense of what’s going on even if it’s like a movie or whatever. The Bachelor big Juliet Lippmann fan here so you know I love love when she has you on but I wonder if when people because people shit on you all the time. They’re like you’ve played you know, you know,

Mina Kimes 9:40
the number one thing that so first one, no one has ever cheated on me to my face ever. It’s literally never happen and it’s easily right. But I just want to like let people know for someone who does invoke a lot of anger, the commentary yet it’s never happened in real life. The thing that The guy is mostly guys, but women, you know, people say to me in real life, especially athletes say this to me all the time to like, you know what? Media climbs people shit on you, but they’re wrong. It’s true. That’s my reputation for eviction.

Traci Thomas 10:16
It is it is because I feel like, I feel like the reason it’s your reputation is because you clap back in the best ways sometimes. So like, I feel like that’s always good. But I also think it’s because the people who watch you and know you and like you, like, I genuinely feel upset when someone tries to cheer on you like, so I feel like I take it on like, I’m like, hi, like, how dare they, in a way that like other people, I’m like, well, I could see, I could see that criticism. But for you, I’m like, nobody. She’s smarter than everyone else talking. So I don’t know why you’re saying that. But my question is, like, how do you get how do you like, keep going? In the face of so much, like so many people belittling you. And you know, I think we can call a spade a spade. It’s because you’re a woman. It’s because you’re Asian. Like, they’re not they don’t shit on dudes who don’t play football who talked about football as nearly as much as they should on you. So I’m wondering, like, how do you? Do you have, like, a, like a pregame thing that you do? Or something that like a mantra, or is it just like, you know, you’re the shit? And fuck, you

Mina Kimes 11:17
know, it’s definitely not bad. I mean, for much of my career, it really bothered me. And I’d be lying. If I said, it didn’t still bother me. Sometimes. I’m the kind of person and I think most people are this way. Like 99. People can say something nice. But if one person says something mean, that’s the only thing I remember,

Traci Thomas 11:35
it’s the only thing I remember. And I like writing down and I like to tell everyone about it. I’m like texting my friends. And I like,

Mina Kimes 11:41
yeah, totally. So for me, sometimes, I impulsively reply, especially if I have like a joke. But really knowing my brain and how it works, I actually don’t see 99% of it. I have pretty elaborate filters. And I reply sometimes, but really, most of it, I just try not to look at and I think this is something we all are dealing with right now. Or like every single whether you have a million followers or 10 followers or whatever, on social media, I think none of our brains are wired for this. And we’re all trying to figure out how to protect ourselves and our mental health. For me, and I think this is true of a lot of people, I just have to filter it out and make sure he doesn’t even get to my brain because it’s it can be wrong, it can be stupid, it can be obviously based on identity, it still affects me. So, you know, just being honest with myself about that is pretty important.

Traci Thomas 12:40
Yeah. I think another thing that you’re known for is being a fan of teams. And I wonder how that like you’re your first pitch thrower out or at the mariners game, a great pitch, really glad you didn’t embarrass yourself very well. It could have been could have been worse, could have been in the ground. But do you think that I think I asked, I asked this almost every time I talk to a sports person, do you think being a fan of like particular teams enhances or detracts from your work?

Mina Kimes 13:14
You know, it? I think it is up to you, frankly, as a writer or an Opinionator. You know, when I was a writer or a sports writer, I would get asked about it openly reading fantasy is not so well. I’m a features writer, I think it would be strange for a beat reporter someone who covers a team inside out to be right airy, you know, pro a van. So you know, I didn’t write on CBS. And then now as an analyst, I think I’m pretty hard. And I have people there have told me that so yeah, I think you you whether you however you whatever job you have in media have to be pretty if you’re choosing to be a fan. And I think there’s something great in that because listeners, readers, viewers, their fans, and they kind of like seeing someone who cares, like them to some extent, and it can create, you know, really, it can be extremely entertaining and funny. And there’s also like shot and Fraida aspects of it like they like you know, but you have to be very careful about how you deploy it. And I do think sometimes you have to be a little bit harder on the teams. If you’re open about it.

Traci Thomas 14:18
Yeah. Do you have any opinions about people who are player fans versus Team fans?

Mina Kimes 14:24
Ah, yeah, that certainly with NBA especially, you see a lot of that, but sometimes with the NFL too, I think it’s kind of the same thing. Like it’s like,

Traci Thomas 14:31
if you despise that. I think that is the worst kind of fandom. Oh, I think media personally No, no. I mean, generally like, what do you think of people who like I am such a team person that when someone’s like, Oh, I’m a LeBron fan, and I have a Cleveland in Miami and a Laker jersey. I’m like, You’re a loser.

Mina Kimes 14:49
who’s a writer? You should have his name’s Derek Thompson. He’s a writer for The Atlantic. And we met a long time we went out to business journalists. And he was like, Yeah, I’m just, he’s, uh, he was reading for the Denver and I was like, Oh, you Every second our Peyton Manning fan. I’m like, What? What he was like, Yeah, I went from Peyton’s there now and I’m like, Who are you? Like, I don’t understand. I hate it. It’s a different kind of fandom.

Traci Thomas 15:10
And what do you have no allegiance. So this person is going to leave and then they’re going to retire and what you’re just going to find a new person to like,

Mina Kimes 15:17
as he went from Peyton to someone else, I forget who actually did that.

Traci Thomas 15:22
I wonder who that would be. Who’s like your next? Who’s your next in line? I feel like now it would be Joe burrow. That is like my Peyton Manning. Personality. That’s, he’s a little chest here. But that same kind of like milquetoast white boy, but I wonder who would have been in between?

Mina Kimes 15:38
I don’t remember who he was rooting for. But yeah, he he’s like, I’m just a fan of greatness.

Traci Thomas 15:43
I hate it. LeBron fans are my nightmare. Okay, football. So, in the SAKs community, we have a discord we talked about. We have a little sports channel. And when everything happened a few weeks ago with Mr. Hamlin there was a lot of chatter within the sax community about what does the NFL do? And and what can they do and does is the only solution that there’s no more football ever again, because it’s inherently dangerous. And so the question is less about Damar Hamlin, because I think, you know, that’s a one time situation that is indicative of a much bigger hole. And I’m wondering if you become Commissioner tomorrow, you can do something quickly to help bring people back to football who have left so not the people who are diehard football people, but the people who are on the fence, who have stopped maybe watching as much or tuning in maybe now just for the playoffs. But they feel icky about it, the Kaepernick stuff, the head traumas of just you know, the general kind of decline of football, which is not real, but it’s definitely like assessment. It’s not really what I mean. Like there’s definitely the sentiment of like, people don’t watch football as much myself like I used to watch so much football now I watch Niner games and like a little here and there. What’s the easiest, most effective change PR move thing that you think the NFL could do to bring people back into the fold?

Mina Kimes 17:04
Well, I think there’s, there are people who have who have been alienated for different reasons. I think there are fans who were correctly alienated during when Colin Kaepernick was blackballed as a quarterback, and unfortunately, like that ship has probably sailed in terms of doing the right thing, which is bringing him back into the NFL. And that’s kind of what we’re alluding to, which is sort of the health aspect of it. And frankly, like, I have to be honest, you can’t make football safe. It is what it is. And you can be more honest about it, which is something I think the NFL is obviously done a better job than 10 years ago. Yeah. But you can’t lie and say, you know, this is a safe and traumatic brain injuries aren’t going to happen. I think what I would do if I was commissioner was probably pour more resources into taking care of players, lifetime health care, that sort of thing. Making it easier for them to access benefits. And because that’s really just the most realistic thing you can do.

Traci Thomas 18:03
Yeah, that’s, that’s what I that was my solution was like, give everybody lifetime retirement tomorrow. And I feel like people are like, well, at least they’re trying to do right by these athletes. Okay, one more sports question, then we’re gonna transition to books, but what’s a sports thing? And I’ll let you decide what thing means that’s still on your bucket list. Because I feel like you’ve gone to the Superbowl you’ve done the Olympics. You’ve covered all these people. You’ve you’re on TV, you’ve written you podcasts? What’s on your sports related bucket list?

Mina Kimes 18:30
Well, I am a fan of the Seattle Seahawks and the Seattle Mariners and a couple college teams, but I mean, the mariners just made it to the playoffs. Yes. If the mariners actually made it to the World Series, which obviously is never happened. I would go drop everything doesn’t matter, I would find a way. So I think just seeing my beloved baseball team in the World Series is probably the number one thing that I wish I’d love to do. As a sports fan. So yeah, I think that’s it. I have football eyes have kind of done everything I have wanted to do. I didn’t watch the Seahawks less at either to both I didn’t watch in person, but I didn’t really care. I wanted to walk. Were you working? No, I wasn’t working that Super Bowl. And I the one in Arizona are probably in New York, which is weird cuz I lived in New York. But I had a bunch of friends who had been watching the Seahawks with for a long time and who couldn’t have gotten to go anyways. And it was kind of more fulfilling to meet a watch with them.

Traci Thomas 19:31
Wait, I lied. I have one more sports question. How did you get into sports? Like as a young person? It’s like

Mina Kimes 19:37
so many people, my dad, you know, same? Yeah. It’s like that’s the usual answer. But yeah, you know, parents?

Traci Thomas 19:45
Well, you know, sometimes it’s like a weird thing. It’s like, oh, my uncle was really into the Niners. So I became a diehard Seahawks fan. Because I just wasn’t sure if it was the truth.

Mina Kimes 19:53
I inherited all of his reading interests, baseball, basketball, college football, all of it.

Traci Thomas 19:58
What’s What are your but not soccer because you’re Tottenham right. Yeah, not

Mina Kimes 20:03
really. I my mom and my brother loves soccer and I grew up playing soccer I played soccer all the way through high school but I don’t follow it close enough to really like to claim fandom but you know, I want them to be happy so I kind of loosely painted a room for

Traci Thomas 20:17
Tottenham yes, they’re obsessed. So I got into Premier League because my brother very into Man City. And during the pandemic, I went and lived with him for a little bit. And he was like, You need to watch this film about Pep Guardiola. You need to do this. And then I just became I got so into it. And now I’m like, it’s my number one football. It’s taken over American football for me.

Mina Kimes 20:37
I have this a lot of people. Yeah, it’s really cool. Love it.

Traci Thomas 20:40
I love it. I love the drama. I love the way that they all can kiss each other. I love I just I love them. I love them. Okay, we’re gonna take a quick break and then we’ll be right back. Okay, we’re back. Now we’re gonna talk about books. Thank you for indulging me with all my sports questions. This is a book podcast allegedly. So just for for folks. And for me, how do you love reading? You’re a big reader. How did you get into reading? Where did your love of reading come from?

Mina Kimes 21:05
What my earliest memories are reading like as a child, I was always the kid who begged to go to the library who spent hours alone at the library. My mom could wield library time as a reward for me and make me do anything i i read everything I get my hands on in the house. I read my gosh library just all every from real. I mean, like, you know, we’re talking I remember reading like, The Phantom Tollbooth and Boxcar Children and all those books and then chapter books and then various Yeah, I just my whole life have loved books, and have probably found them more entertaining than anything else.

Traci Thomas 21:47
And when you were a kid, and I guess now Is there are there job genres that you were really into or not into.

Mina Kimes 21:55
I liked everything to be honest. You know, I read like all the trashy kids books like the baby sitters club, and

Traci Thomas 22:04
that is iconic literature. Yeah,

Mina Kimes 22:07
I there’s one that I one of your questions. I don’t know if I want to spoil it. That is the childhood obsession of mine. That’s fairly embarrassing. Okay, yeah, I wish I wait. I mean, oh, no, no, no. Okay, so I really liked fantasy books as a kid too. And I loved the Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey. Oh, that Oh, my God, it’s so nerdy. It’s it? There’s many of them. And it is about people who ride dragons sporting heroes. Yeah. And it’s I don’t think they’re targeted at kids. I read them all. Because, you know, there, there’s some explicit content in there, but I read them. Okay. As a child, and I love stuff like that. So much of it.

Traci Thomas 22:53
Is that the answer to your favorite book as a child, or is that a different? A different question?

Mina Kimes 22:59
I think one that I think it was one that people might not guess.

Traci Thomas 23:03
I was like, is it that one? Or is it? Yeah,

Mina Kimes 23:06
so blow up a spot a little bit. My friend Zach Baron, who’s a great writer, for GQ. I don’t know how it came up. Somehow it came up that we both read these books as a kid. And I think there’s such like a unique bond and having a shared love of an obscure children’s books here. I mean, again, it wasn’t only for children, but coming out as like, fantasy nerds who like dragon books is as embarrassing as it can get.

Traci Thomas 23:30
But again, like you said, now with Game of Thrones, it’s like cool, but I feel Yeah, a little bit like five or 10 years ago with less cool, like, people now are like, Ooh, can wait to read another dragon thing?

Mina Kimes 23:40
Yes. Yeah, you’re right. Maybe they should have a second light. I think I’ve read about TV projects that have gotten killed over the years associated with this series. But um,

Traci Thomas 23:50
is it similar to Game of Thrones, like kind of slimy world? Yeah, a little. A little bit. The

Mina Kimes 23:56
main character is a woman. I mean, yeah, it’s, there’s It spans deck, you know? Sagat, like decades and generations. And like, yeah, I really liked this

Traci Thomas 24:07
book. This. Okay, before we get to the full questionnaire, I didn’t prep you for this, but this is something people write in to me, they asked for a book recommendation. So I’m going to read you what they said. You got to give us at least one I’ll give a handful so you have time to think. Okay, this question is I have to buy a book on a sports event that is based on true events that has or will be made into a TV show a Movie or Documentary as a gift for a family member. This person is a huge sports fan. football, hockey, basketball, you name it, and loves to read about athletes teams or events. I know you talking to me I have a passion for sports but I’ll extend that to you. So I feel like I’m in good hands any recommendations? So if you want to think for a second so specific

Mina Kimes 24:53
yeah these questions parameter to the so a sports events bets event

Traci Thomas 24:58
that has been turned into Something you can watch that’s based on a true story.

Mina Kimes 25:04
I have one but I don’t think it was based on a true story or if it was, I don’t know, but Fitzy other aspects of that? Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. Have you ever read that? No, I’m looking at my it’s right in front of me, Ben Fountain. It’s about a veteran who comes back and attends the Super Bowl. It’s a beautiful book. It’s about war and sports and the militarization of sports in America. He goes to like a Jerry world type. So it’s a wonderful book. Yeah, so that one comes to mind, but I don’t know if it quite fits with spirit specific.

Traci Thomas 25:38
That’s close enough. Okay. I’ll give my the ones I come up with if you think of any more, let me know. So the first one is unbroken by Laura Hildenbrand, which she also wrote Seabiscuit, so those both technically fit. That one. This one was made into a movie, it’s about this guy, Lewis and perini, who is a track runner, who then went to World War Two, his plane was shot down, he became a prisoner of war. It’s about sports, but it’s also about other things. My next one is Friday Night Lights, which was a book and it was like a really beloved book before it became this sort of Teen sensation. Olds to young will old millennial sensation, I should say. And then this is sort of I haven’t read this, but I when I was researching this, I was like, oh, I should read this book, because I loved the movie as a kid, even though was terrifying, is alive by piers Paul read about the think the soccer team that got stuck in the Andes for like, two months or something crazy and yelling at each other. So I kind of went off the beaten path with the sport situation, except for Friday Night Lights, because I thought they probably read all the things that are like obvious, but those are my three. Did any more come to you?

Mina Kimes 26:49
I would echo Friday Night Lights because I actually have read that book and seeing the movie and watch TV series

Traci Thomas 26:53
and never seen the movie. Okay, so like I

Mina Kimes 26:56
this is probably the craziest thing. All three media are good. Really, the series is amazing series. This movie is really good with Billy Bob Gordon, who’s incredible in it. And the book is also really good. So that’s a very rare, very rare. Yeah, they’re all good. Yeah. Oh

Traci Thomas 27:14
my god, I love it. Okay, well, for people at home. If you want to have book recommendations on the show, email us the stacks at the stacks. podcast.com. Okay, two books you love one book you hate. Two

Mina Kimes 27:26
books, I love our Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, who I love in every like as a person as a human being. She’s wonderful. I love her letter books. But that book is very important to me. Especially there’s some resonances with my own family history. And this book that I shared with my mom who’s from Korea, and originally from North Korea. And another book, I wrote this down and I was like, I haven’t said his name out loud in like 20 years, is disgraced by jam cozzia. Yes, you’re nervous about saying his name. I don’t know how to say like, Oh, it’s just a very important book to me. My whole life. It’s a book that even thinking about it, like gives me chills. book I was really like struggling. I’m sure I’m not the only person who has said this as an answer. But I was just trying to think books I read in high school. And the fountainhead came to mind and even I read that in high school. Yeah, we read it. I Holy shit. Yeah, we read it in high school. And I was like, This is dumb.

Traci Thomas 28:28
Were you in AP English or something? Yeah, I was gonna say this. Yeah. Regular.

Mina Kimes 28:36
Like this is you know, I get what this is about.

Traci Thomas 28:39
No one has ever said that on the show. But I have never heard of that being assigned in school before.

Mina Kimes 28:45
There’s probably others from high school that I’m forgetting that I didn’t like but that was one that just jumped out to me.

Traci Thomas 28:50
I accept that answer. What’s the last really great book you’ve read?

Mina Kimes 28:54
So this past year, I read way more books and I’ve read and I but I hadn’t I like went like three or four years with like reading very little for related reasons. I don’t know. So basically, I missed all of the like award winning books from like 2017 to 2021. Anyways, so I finally read All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. I don’t know if I’m saying his name, right. Which is a very famous and popular book. Yeah, of course. But I was like years late to it. And I was I think I read it like two days. So just like, it’s so it’s so riveting, though. You’re just like, what’s gonna happen? What’s gonna happen? What’s gonna happen and the way it’s structured with the interweaving stories is so it just as a writer, it’s like, wow, you know, thinking about all the planning that went into that is amazing and beautifully written.

Traci Thomas 29:45
When you were out of your reading practice for a few years I had I had a similar thing, which is kind of how this show started. Actually, as I was like, I’m gonna get back into reading and then I fell back in love with it and was like, we should be talking about books on podcast, but when you like decided to go back to reading. Was there something that you changed or something that you did to get yourself back in the habit?

Mina Kimes 30:05
I, you know, not really it was. I had like some free time coming up and I was thinking about all the silly things around the house and whatever. And then I was like, what if I just bought a bunch of books, so I bought like three and then it was a reminder of how much I loved them. So then I just bought like, six, and it kind of just happened. It was like riding a bike for me.

Traci Thomas 30:27
I love it. I love it. What are you reading right now?

Mina Kimes 30:31
So aside from the book that we’re gonna talk about,

Traci Thomas 30:34
we’re doing the Roundhouse, your people who just missed the announcement. We’re doing the Roundhouse by Louise Erdrich. At the end of the month. I think it’s February 22 is when that episode airs.

Mina Kimes 30:43
I could also say, I mean, we’re probably going to talk about a little bit but the nightwatchman was the other really great book I read, which was why I was so excited to read this one but um, a book that I have like a bookmark in that I like just have not finished and I need to is book four of the Neapolitan series by Elena Ferrante. Yeah, so this was it. I love it. But it was like circumstantial, I was on vacation. And I just zipped through like two and three, started for on my Kindle. And then like the football season started, and I just never got back to it. So he’s just sitting, it’s just unfinished. And it’s like, I need to finish the series for books. But I haven’t.

Traci Thomas 31:18
Do you have time to read, like, during football season? Or are you just constantly watching? Football?

Mina Kimes 31:25
Not really, except for on like, Fridays and Saturdays, because so much of my job is watching and preparing for shows on during the week. Right? Right. But when you get to Friday, I don’t have anything to prepare for anymore. And the next batch of games is going to happen. So that’s when I can get some reading done or just like consuming other forms of like television stuff.

Traci Thomas 31:51
Yeah. What books are on your list that you’re looking forward to reading.

Mina Kimes 31:56
It’s a reread for me. If anything I wrote down. I always am afraid of saying out loud Gilead. So I was cleaning my bookshelf, or just, I guess, organizing it. And I realized I hadn’t read it in a million years. And it’s such a beautiful book. And it was so meaningful to me. And I kind of pulled it out. And I said, You know what, and the other thing is, I was reading and I was like, I vaguely remember this, but I’ve actually forgotten enough to where I would like to reread this. So

Traci Thomas 32:26
I love how many books are meaningful to you. It’s making me like my heart. So happy. Usually people are like, so casual, the answer is like, I don’t know. And you’re like, this book was really meaningful. And it makes me really happy. Because I love when books have meaning for other people I call books that are really meaningful to me, I call them books of my life, because I can never do like a favorite book. But there’ll be a book that just like sat at the right part of my life and like sits in my heart in the exact right way. And I’m like, this is a book of my life. I don’t know if it holds up. I haven’t read it in 20 years, but it’s a book of my life. How do you pick what you’re going to read next? Do you have friends that recommend to you? Are you going to the New York Times? Are you listening to other people just browsing the bookstore?

Mina Kimes 33:02
Yeah, I is. I use the New York Times a lot. And then when I sort of undertook the project I described where I are, I guess kind of decided to dive back into it. It was very easy, because like the best books, lists and award winners of the last like five years, I just hadn’t read most of them, right. So a book like all the light, we cannot see which one the Pulitzer Prize winning or the Booker, I was just like, Okay, this is obviously good. So, yeah, it’s a lot of that. And then some of it is recommendations from friends as well.

Traci Thomas 33:31
Do you ever we Juliet was on the show, and she’s a big reader. Do you ever go to her for recommendations? No, I have really similar book tastes do a I asked her now, every once in awhile, she’ll text me be like, have you read this? And then some a few of those books were on the list you first sent me of like books I read recently that I loved. And I was like, Oh, I wonder if they read the same books together. What’s the last really good book that someone recommended to you?

Mina Kimes 33:54
It’s funny because I mentioned Zach Baron. It was his sister Ruthie Baron, who’s an editor at pro publica recommended a couple of books to me, one of which was a book called I think we talked about it maybe trubiz. Yeah. On the show in December. Yeah. Which is such a fun book and such a quick read. And I because I told her I was like, you know, I just, I think I don’t know what I just finished something long. And I was I’m looking for something I can read. And I think I read the book in like, two days or something like it zooms by Yeah, but it was so it was so cool. Because you did on the show, so readers know. But it was like a whole world I knew nothing about which is so fun.

Traci Thomas 34:28
Yeah, yeah. What’s a book that you like to recommend to people?

Mina Kimes 34:32
So I came up with a couple. Yeah. I like to recommend short story collections, two people. One of which is pretty well known and then one of which is not so versus Jesus’s son.

Traci Thomas 34:45
Oh, yeah, we did that on the show years ago and she doesn’t mind team

Mina Kimes 34:49
you know, really special and just will stick with you for a long time. The other one is a little bit lesser known and it’s a short story collection called Charity by a writer named Mark Richard. I have never I recommended it to someone who’s read it in my entire life. I don’t even know how I stumbled across it. I must have just like bought it at a used bookstore and it looked interesting. But it’s it’s so there’s a lot of DNA as Jesus is on. And I whenever I think of the short stories, whenever they kind of come into my mind, they really stick with me.

Traci Thomas 35:17
Hmm, how do you read audiobook ebook Kindle or Kindle book, physical book,

Mina Kimes 35:23
mostly hard copies. But sometimes I like I was reading the yaupon series on my Kindle, but I really use

Traci Thomas 35:29
mostly hard copies. Any ever audio or No,

Mina Kimes 35:33
not in a really long time? Because it is because I think it’s because I just listen to sports podcast so much. So like if I’m driving or walking, I’m just more likely to listen to a podcast,

Traci Thomas 35:43
I go through phases where I’ll be like, Okay, I’m only doing audiobooks right now and then I’ll be like, Okay, I have to catch up on all the podcasts I missed in the last like two weeks. What’s your ideal reading setup? Where are you Time of Day snack or beverage? The whole give me set it up. If you’re having like your perfect reading day,

Mina Kimes 36:00
like on a weekend morning, usually like on a Saturday morning. Definitely not at night, because I’m so tired. And I love reading outside. So it’s really nice that I live in Los Angeles because it’s always it’s mostly nice outside. Like, I like beach vacations just because it means I can read books for the most part. And I like you know, being outdoors and reading for some reason.

Traci Thomas 36:21
Do you have reading snacks or beverages?

Mina Kimes 36:23
Not really. Although I guess I drink. Oh, my husband cracks like last me so much because I just leave Kansas spindrift around our house. So I guess that’s usually what I’m doing in reading

Traci Thomas 36:37
and what’s your favorite spindrift flavor?

Mina Kimes 36:39
Oh my god orange mango number one, grapefruit number two

Traci Thomas 36:43
had that locked and loaded? i

Mina Kimes 36:46
Okay, this is super off track but I am a spin an influencer.

Traci Thomas 36:51
Because I dream

Mina Kimes 36:54
I Yeah. So I was posting about it so much for free that someone there hit me up and they were like, Would you like to do a couple ads for spindrift and in exchange, we will send you free spindrift. So it’s been like yours and once a month I just get a box of spindrift.

Traci Thomas 37:09
Oh my god, incredible. If Diet Coke is listening, I’m available for such a deal.

Mina Kimes 37:15
You get to the universe and manifest. Diet Coke. That’s literally how it started. I was on desus and mero, their digital show and I had a bunch of undergrads drinking and I just started talking about how much I liked it. And yeah, it was like yo spindrift, and notably, somebody saw

Traci Thomas 37:33
Jesus and marrow also past guests of the show before they were just two separate people. Devastating. I can’t even I can’t even think about it. I’m still like mourning. Um, you’re in LA. I’m in LA, what are your favorite bookstores?

Mina Kimes 37:46
Um, I like skylight in Los Feliz which is where I used to live, that I really loved kind of Los Angeles, as you know, and people not only know it’s really walkable, so I could like, walk and get a meal. And they were like, go on

Traci Thomas 37:59
bookstore, swing by skyline. Not an LA thing at all. So I came from New York and I live in a different area that sort of walkable. And during the pandemic, I put like 10 miles on my car and an entire year because I just walked everywhere. It’s like, I have nowhere else to be, like, just want to be outside. Like pretending like I’m going places. But I before that I never walked and now I’m like, not walking as much anymore again, and it really is sad. Okay, this is sort of our speed round. What is the last book that made you laugh?

Mina Kimes 38:29
Okay, um, candy house is what I wrote by Jennifer Egan. There’s a lot of I mean, it’s it’s a thinker, but there’s a lot of really funny stuff in there too. Okay, last book that made you cry. Sea of Tranquility, by Emily St. John men. I’m sorry. I write say John Mandel, the woman who wrote patient love it. Yeah. I mean, it’s, it’s like pandemic stuff. So it’s like a little bit like, oh, but that really, really is worth reading.

Traci Thomas 38:55
Did you? Did you read station? 11? Yes. And did you read the glass hotel? The other? Whoa, I haven’t. So I guess they’re all connected. But like, each one is free standing as well. I have only read station 11 I couldn’t get up the courage to do the other two. But I have them and I really want to and I’ve heard it’s, it’s really good.

Mina Kimes 39:16
And it’s not depressing. It’s more just like, yeah, yeah. takes you back to certain places. Yeah. All right.

Traci Thomas 39:22
Like that’s what station 11 Yeah, I read it before the pandemic though. Station. 11. Thank God because I don’t know if I could have done it directly. Watch the show

Mina Kimes 39:28
during the pandemic.

Traci Thomas 39:29
I did watch the show. Intense.

Mina Kimes 39:31
Did you watch the show? Yeah, yeah, watch. Yeah.

Traci Thomas 39:34
Okay, the whole time. So I read the book and like 2018 so it had been a little bit of it had been a few 100 bucks between that and when I watched the show. Yeah. And I was like, the whole time I was watching I’m just sitting on the couch with my husband being like, my memories failing me. I like so much but I didn’t realize that and I was like, I don’t remember this at all. And so the whole time I just was irritated because I was like this. What is this? What? I don’t I don’t remember that. And I like

Mina Kimes 39:59
Oh, Watching Pachinko that Apple did it? Oh, yeah, that’s it. There’s so many differences. And I did not love the differences.

Traci Thomas 40:06
It makes you feel crazy, because you’re like, I don’t remember that. But like, and then I’d like Google, but I didn’t want to get spoiled on the show. But I also was like, that person didn’t do that. Anyway, so I liked the I thought the station lovin was like, beautiful, but I just couldn’t relax into it. Because I was so like, freaked out that I was going crazy or something.

Mina Kimes 40:29
Yeah. When it’s just like a little off to you know, like, yeah, yeah,

Traci Thomas 40:34
there was I mean, it ended up being really different. I don’t think I actually finished I think I stopped, like one or two episodes from the end, because I don’t know why, you know, all these things. Are you sort of move on? Yeah. Other things come up. What’s the last book that made you angry?

Mina Kimes 40:48
This was what I read last year, these truths by jolla poor, which is the history of the United States, but a much more honest History of the United States. It’s very rarely recommended. Do you read a lot of nonfiction? No, not at all. That’s why it’s kind of weird. But yeah, it’s, I don’t even know why I bought it. I don’t know.

Traci Thomas 41:09
Interesting. What’s a book where you felt like you learned a lot.

Mina Kimes 41:14
I was thinking back to books I read when I was younger, not like, child. But yeah, yeah, her adult and the one that came to mind, for me was no name in the street by James Baldwin. Not just because of the historical aspects of it, but I think it was a book that, you know, I’ve seen you welcoming a writer and the way for those who haven’t read it, like one of the most interviews should actually read it. The way he like he used his personal history to tell the history of so many other things was just so fascinating to me. And and he’s such a beautiful writer, also, obviously, like, the prose is just like, every sentence you could take and put on a wall somewhere, right? But I think so I guess what I’m saying is, it wasn’t just like learning about history, but also like learning about how to tell a story. And I think about that a lot.

Traci Thomas 42:06
I should have asked you this way earlier. Are you gonna write a book?

Mina Kimes 42:10
I don’t know. Maybe I you know, people ask me sometimes. And I have some ideas, but it’s also I have so much football to watch. But I but I would love to I do miss writing.

Traci Thomas 42:22
I would love for you to write a novel. I feel like that’d be really fun. I don’t know what it’d be about. And I’ll be really zany ideas. Oh, good. I love weird. What’s a book that brings you joy?

Mina Kimes 42:33
Another short story collection cathedral by Raymond Carver. Especially the main story if I’m ever really sad, I reread because it’s it’s, it’s just your heart will like burst reading it. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone. I’ve never read it. Now. I’m just just read the one story. And it’s just like, Oh my God. It’s the title story. Yeah. Okay.

Traci Thomas 42:53
Are there any books that you feel proud about having read?

Mina Kimes 42:57
Yeah, I’m so early in my relationship with my husband. He gave me the recognitions by William Gaddis, which is a beast. I mean, that book is long, and it is weird, and it has really cool ideas, but it is not an easy read. And I like to tell him like that’s how he knew he should have known how committed I was started like that. I actually read that. It’s a real hipster, but it’s like, you know, it’s not an easy read.

Traci Thomas 43:23
That’s so funny. I feel like that’s a story that turns out the opposite way. When the book that’s given us like Infinite Jest, I feel like I’ve heard that story of like, this guy gave me Infinite Jest to read. And I was like, fuck you. It’s over. But I’m glad that this worked out for you guys. This is my

Mina Kimes 43:41
recommended. It’s good, though. I don’t know.

Traci Thomas 43:43
Did you give him anything to read?

Mina Kimes 43:45
Yeah, I remember I gave him another. I think we were just trying to impress each other. It was carnival by Attalus. VEVO, which is another really hipster weird book. I remember giving that to him earlier. Did he read it? Yeah. He loves reading. Yeah, he like his weirder tastes than me.

Traci Thomas 44:00
And do you all like sit around the home and read together?

Mina Kimes 44:04
Sometimes now that I’ve been reading a little bit more, but I like, I like fun books a lot more than him?

Traci Thomas 44:10
Yeah. Okay. I love this idea of you guys exchanging hipster books to impress each other and fall in love through reading? What’s a book that you’re embarrassed that you’ve still never read?

Mina Kimes 44:23
Oh, this is a very specific reason for being embarrassed. I’m looking at so I do a lot of television from home, which started during the pandemic and now it’s just something we do and we have a book drop with our backdrop pardon me with books behind me. And one of them that’s in my backdrop. I’ve actually never read which I feel like is a lie, but it’s 2666 by Roberto and yeah,

Traci Thomas 44:45
I’ve never read it, but it’s that’s a big clunker.

Mina Kimes 44:47
I just needed to like fill space and I was like frantically and literally, I have rarely changed these books. All of them except for that I’ve read I’m looking at them right now, but it’s right there.

Traci Thomas 44:57
I love that. It’s like the Easter egg like do you know Mina she’s not read one book which one so you told us oh, what’s a book that you wish more people knew about?

Mina Kimes 45:09
i It’s a I’m gonna go through writer Alexander Heyman is one of my favorite writers. He wrote books called Nowhere Man, the Lazarus project and love and obstacles. I love all of them. He’s a Bosnian writer. Weirdly, he wrote the new matrix, which was not good, but he was one of the writers on it. But don’t let that detract you because they are gorgeous books. And they are about a lot of themes in terms of like expatriation and Homeland and their stories about humanity. And they’re just all all three of those books are wonderful.

Traci Thomas 45:41
Mina Your taste is so ranging. I’m obsessed. I love this. It’s like from trubiz to Bosnian writer. This is beautiful. What book is your problematic fave?

Mina Kimes 45:53
Okay. Maybe Lolita? Right?

Traci Thomas 45:57
Definitely problematic. Yeah.

Mina Kimes 46:00
Some people hate Jonathan Franzen. And every time I read an interview with him, I’m like, oh, yeah, I get it. But I do like his books.

Traci Thomas 46:06
Okay, but did you read freedom?

Mina Kimes 46:09
That one I didn’t like as much. That’s the one where the family goes to like South America or the

Traci Thomas 46:13
cover is like a bird. And

Mina Kimes 46:16
isn’t that great? The Corrections is good. I didn’t read the corrections. It’s good. But he does seem very, very douchey seems horrible. Every time I read interview them, I’m like, Oh, my God.

Traci Thomas 46:25
I read freedom similarly to you when I first started dating my husband, but he did not give it to me. But there’s so many pictures of like the beginning of our relationship where I’m like, in his dorm room, like reading the book, but it’s like spans like three months. I’m like, I really struggled to get through that book, I guess. Because it’s in every picture of like, the first three months of our relationship.

Mina Kimes 46:48
It wasn’t great.

Traci Thomas 46:49
I don’t remember a single thing because I because it took so long. And I obviously hated that. Do you have a favorite book assigned in school that was assigned in school?

Mina Kimes 46:58
Ah, you know, I was just talking about this the other day with a friend of mine. The rest of the Earth was a really pivotal book for me and college. By Fanon that was assigned to me early in college and completely changed the course of my academic career, came into college, wanting, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, I want to do something with reading or writing and then became that book made me want to write about me, I ended up focusing on post colonial literature in large part because of reading that book. Wow, it is a real eye opener. It’s incredibly written. That was my freshman year of college, I think, is when I read that.

Traci Thomas 47:35
And you went to Yale? Yeah. Should have known because I AP English that I found and had what’s, um, what’s a favorite book about where you’re from?

Mina Kimes 47:50
So I’m from everywhere, which makes us a little bit complicated. My dad was in the military. Okay. So I’m gonna go to another mansion, Lee, but it’s not really like where I’m from, because it takes place in New York. I’m not from New York, but men wrote another book called free food for millionaires. I know that one that’s about a young Korean American woman. That really, it’s kind of about being from a blue collar background and going to an Ivy League school and dealing with Korean nests. And that is that book, which I read last year, for the first time, even though it came out a while ago, I was like, Whoa, was the resonances with where I’m from as a person are pretty intense.

Traci Thomas 48:28
If you were a high school teacher, what’s a book you would assign to your students?

Mina Kimes 48:33
I’m gonna go with another Korean author and pick native speaker by Chang Rayleigh, I mean, Jamie Lee, but like that book is not only a

Traci Thomas 48:42
memoir one, right? First one,

Mina Kimes 48:45
it’s no, it’s a it’s gonna spoil it for people. I don’t know what his first book is. Actually.

Traci Thomas 48:51
I thought it’s one of his early his early

Mina Kimes 48:52
it is it is earlier. Yeah. And he’s, he’s so prolific. It’s, um, it’s a book. It’s a work of fiction. It’s very riveting, because it’s like a little bit of a there’s like a mystery aspect to it. But it also has really important things to say about the Asian American experience that I think it’s important for high schoolers to read.

Traci Thomas 49:10
Is there any book that influenced you, like in your professional career?

Mina Kimes 49:16
Yeah. Not with sports. But when I wanted to, when I was thinking about journalism and what I wanted to do, I read a bunch of Michael Lewis books.

Traci Thomas 49:26
It’s kind of sportsbook monitoring, right?

Mina Kimes 49:29
That’s true, but for me, it was like liars poker. And barbarians at the gate is another business book that I recommend to literally everyone spike like really amazing writers. And it’s it’s like a it’s like a real page turner. Right. But both of those books made me think wow, like money’s really interesting and like also, you know, power and corruption. And it really made me fascinated with the idea of business journalism, I guess, and covering those types of people.

Traci Thomas 49:55
And he’s an interesting one because he He not only tells interesting First, but he makes them interesting. Because if you had told me that I was going to care about The Big Short or whatever, like, I would have been like 0% chance. I don’t know numbers. I don’t care. I don’t get it. It’s, you’re wrong. And I was like, this is fascinating. Yeah.

Mina Kimes 50:14
Just the idea of like making a narratives out of these? Yeah, it was something that I had to learn how to do early when I was writing my business.

Traci Thomas 50:21
Yeah. And whoever wrote in to ask the stacks, Moneyball would also be a book that would fit your request just FYI.

Mina Kimes 50:27
that actually parallels with my life right now.

Traci Thomas 50:30
Who would you want to write the book of your life? If it’s not you?

Mina Kimes 50:34
Yeah. Zadie Smith is my pick for this one of my favorite writers. And I just I, one thing I love about her writing is that the prose is excellent. But it’s also really self aware. And funny, I guess. And I guess I would, I would want someone writing about me to have that kind of light touch.

Traci Thomas 50:54
Yeah. Yeah. What’s a book that you’ve read that you’d love to see turned into a movie or TV show or something?

Mina Kimes 51:00
Well shoot free food for millionaires would be a great and maybe it is going to be one another book, though, that I read. This last year that I read the whole time I was reading, I was like, this would be such a good movie. I think it might be for young adults. I don’t know if it is maybe not. But it’s called migrations by Charlotte. Connor. He’s a woman’s name who wrote it. It’s about a woman who is trying to track to like, basically get her way hitchhike her way onto a fishing ship to track the paths of these birds escaping from the Arctic because of climate. It’s about climate change. But it’s really about like, it’s like a it’s like a love story and a tragedy and a mystery. It’s so it’s just so cinematic that at the whole time I was thinking, Oh God, this would be such a good movie.

Traci Thomas 51:45
I love that. Okay, last one. I stole it from the New York Times. If you could require the President to read one book, what would it be?

Mina Kimes 51:52
This might be like a little bit on the nose. But I was just reading one of many articles right now about all the books that are like being banned across America are being taken out of libraries. And it’s like, it’s so horrifying to read lists, because so many of them are books that have meant so much to me and taught me so much growing up. It’s like, not just it’s it’s not, it’s like, classic. So you could choose literally any of those. The one though, that I keep seeing on list is The Bluest Eye, like Toni Morrison, which is a book that frankly, every man in should we should be reading. But um, you know, I it was just like bone chilling to me to see that on these lists, because of the not only, you know, beautifully written it is but the things it has to say about race and gender and sexuals is just a really important book. So,

Traci Thomas 52:44
yeah, such I mean, a classic. Yeah, the fucking book banning is, we did a whole series on it. Last year on the show, I talked to like a bunch of different like, librarians, teachers, authors, whatever. And this year, I’m like, I’m not I don’t want to do it again. I don’t want to fucking do this, again, stop banning the books who assholes just cut it out.

Mina Kimes 53:04
It’s just books I read. And I that’s what’s so strange. It’s, you know, you open these lists, and you expect to see things you’ve never heard of, and maybe like, things are like, I don’t know, like, avant garde or whatever, or whatever. But like, like, No, I this is where all my high school reading was, like, what is happening,

Traci Thomas 53:18
So many of the books that I didn’t know, were books that were like, This is what a period is like, there’s so many books that are instructional books that they’re trying to ban like, this is a period or like my body going through puberty, and I think about kids whose parents like, Don’t who, whose parents agree with the book banning, who aren’t gonna be able to get it from anywhere else. And it’s like, their last possible spot is like the school librarians like your banning, you know, or like books, they have a lot of books that are in translated so it’ll be like a book that’s an English but like the Spanish translation or a book, like it’s, like, so deeply forked. And a lot of the books that get the buzz are the books that we all know and love, but there’s so many there’s like a book about Ruby Bridges. It’s like this is fucking a story about a kid like this just happened. Like there’s no agenda here. This is just like, who is Ruby Bridges? Like, it’s fucking crazy.

Mina Kimes 54:12
Really heartbreaking.

Traci Thomas 54:13
Yeah, it’s devastating. So stop banning books. Thanks, Mina. Thank you so much. This was so fun. What a shitty way to end.

Mina Kimes 54:22
I should have ended with the dragonriders of pern that would have been a high note.

Traci Thomas 54:27
Another book, we’re gonna try to adapt into the screen. Mina will be the executive producer. I can’t wait for you to be nominated for an Emmy and a Golden Globe. And I’ll be like I was there when she got the idea. Mina will be back at the end of the month on February 22. To talk about the Roundhouse by Louise Erdrich, which is her national book award winning novel not to be confused with her Pulitzer Prize winning novel and all of her other award winning novels and I’ve never read her before, so I’m really excited.

Mina Kimes 54:58
I’m excited for you.

Traci Thomas 54:58
Thank you so much, Mina. Thanks for having me. And we will see you in the Stacks

All right, that does it for us today. Thank you all so much for listening and thank you to Mina for being my guest. I’d also like to say a huge thank you to David Dennis Jr. for helping connect Mina to The Stacks. Reminder our February book club selection is the Round House by Louise Erdrich. Mina will return on February 22 for that discussion. If you love the show and want inside access to it, head to patreon.com/thestacks to join The Stacks Pack. Make sure you’re subscribed to The Stacks wherever you listen to your podcasts and if you’re listening through Apple Podcasts or Spotify, be sure to leave us a rating and a review. For more from The Stacks, follow us on social media at thestackspod on Instagram at thestackspod_ on Twitter and check out our website thestackspodcast.com. This episode of The Stacks was edited by Christian Dueñas, with production assistance from Lauren Tyree. Our graphic designer is Robin McCreight and our theme music is from Tagirijus. The Stacks is created and produced by me, Traci Thomas.

Megan Caballero
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