Severance Radio: A Nevada Reads Book Club is an on-air book club dissecting Ling Ma’s satirical, dystopian novel Severance. The novel is a moving family story that explores loneliness, corporate monotony, and survival in the midst of a global health crisis.
Severance Radio aired on KUNV Radio in Las Vegas, and KWNK Radio in Reno July 5, 2020–October 4, 2020.
Severance Radio presents chapters from the acclaimed novel Severance, author Ling Ma’s satirical portrait of a global plague that transforms life in the U.S. Each audiobook excerpt is followed by conversations between scholars and artists on the novel’s themes, including: COVID-19; humor writing in a time of crisis; nostalgia and its dangers; freedom and loneliness; and the genre of apocalyptic writing. Featured guests include artists, writers, and thinkers like: Kristen Arnett, Jennifer Carson, Bonnie Chau, Christopher Coake, Scott Dickensheets, Katherine Fusco, Tim Gauthier, Karen Gu, Brent Holmes, Shelley Kelly, Lisa Ko, Dana Lee, Ling Ma, Vi Khi Nao, Stephen Pasqualina, Natalie Pennington, Hugh Shapiro, Marya Shegog, Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan, Erica Vital-Lazare, Claire Vaye Watkins, Claytee White, and others.
Published in 2018, Severance is an eerily apt book for the current moment. While investigating capitalism through an apocalyptic lens, and offering a satirical look at worker alienation among millenials, the novel also imagines the consequences of a fictional global pandemic originating in China called "Shen Fever."
Severance Radio: A Nevada Reads Book Club is now available as a podcast.
