Another episode of Houseguest has arrived, in which we continue to eschew the original concept of the podcast, that we interview people that are staying at our house, and instead just interview people. This was a lovely conversation with one of my favorite audiobook narrators: Simon Vance. Vance is the reader of over 1,000 audiobooks and is a 17-time Audie winner (making him the Meryl Streep of the audiobook world). He is currently engaged in reading all of Charles Dickens to me.

This also happens to be the longest Houseguest episode to date, clocking in at just over an hour, but it was such a treat to be able to hang with Vance and ask all those questions I’d had about what it is to be an audiobook narrator, that we kinda lost track of time. Enjoy!

As promised, here are the links to the books Simon recommended:
Guy Gavriel Kay
Brent Weeks

Also mentioned:
Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens
Nicholas Nickleby, by Charles Dickens
Bring Up the Bodies, by Hilary Mantel
The Unconsoled, by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Dune Books, by Frank Herbert

When Carson and I first set out to make Houseguest, our podcast where we interview people who stay at out house, I think we might’ve overestimated how many people stay over at our house. Chalk it up to the pandemic, chalk it up to our hospitality (or lack thereof), chalk it up to the relative discomfort of our broken fold-out couch — chalk it up to whatever you like, but there’s been a real dearth of houseguests at our house of late.

But rather than let Houseguest, a podcast with real promise in life, molder in the corner, we figured we’d do what other, more veteran podcasters do — we ditched the conceit and decided to interview people remotely. A couple weeks ago, we managed (after some schedule wrangling and time zone miscalculating) to get Kate Beaton on the line. Kate is a Nova Scotian, a Cape Breton…eer (?), a mother and a wife, and an incredible artist, writer, and cartoonist. Her most recent graphic novel, Ducks, came out a few months ago and it is finding its way on to practically every best-of-2022 list worth its salt. You should read it. But first: you should listen to Houseguest, Episode 2, in which we talk to Kate about her life and work. Enjoy!

My wife Carson Ellis and I have cool friends who do cool things — and sometimes they stay at our house! And rather than making them do their laundry or pay for groceries, we’re making them be guests on our brand new podcast, Houseguest.

There’s no real telling who will be a guest on Houseguest, or what we’ll talk about. It all depends on who’s staying at our house. Sometimes, those people will be luminaries in the writing, music, and illustration world — other times they will be our children, our parents, or anybody else who happens to be staying at our house. Everyone has a valuable and interesting story to tell.

So: pull up a chair, make yourself a cup of tea and spend a few moments with our Houseguest.

This week’s guest is Jon Klassen. Jon is a Canadian writer and illustrator of children's books and an animator. He won both the American Caldecott Medal and the British Kate Greenaway Medal for children's book illustration, recognizing the 2012 picture book This Is Not My Hat, which he also wrote. His animation projects include design work for DreamWorks Feature Animation as well as LAIKA Studios on their feature film Coraline. Originally from Niagara Falls, Ontario, Jon Klassen now lives in Los Angeles.

Vera Brosgol also appears, secretly. Vera was born in Moscow, Russia in 1984 and moved to the United States when she was five. She has storyboarded for Laika on the feature films Coraline, Paranorman, The Boxtrolls, and Kubo and the Two Strings, as well as for Cartoon Network, Frederator and various commercial projects. Her first picture book, Leave Me Alone, was published in 2016 by Roaring Brook Press and won a Caldecott Honor. She lives in Portland, OR. Vera will likely be a featured guest on Houseguest one day, provided she stays at our house.