{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Chapter 152: Robin Sloan weaves wonder and weirdness into the warbly world of words","description":" Last year I picked up a book called \u2018\u200bMoonbound\u200b\u2019 by Robin Sloan and it blew me away.  Reading it was like riding some rainbow-speckled rocket ship where I experienced the bizarre combination of having no idea what was going on while not being able to wait for what happened next.  The book was full of talking beavers. Talking swords! Strange video games. And ever-expanding worlds with wizards, who maybe aren\u2019t really wizards, and oh\u2014it's narrated by a microscopic AI-type chronicler, who\u2019s been in many different lives across millennia and who now sits inside our protagonist\u2019s left shoulder.  The writing was like a jacked up \u2018Star Wars\u2019 meets \u2018Cloud Atlas\u2019 by \u200bDavid Mitchell\u200b featuring Willy Wonka and Mad Hatter types with moments of poignancy dashed in to let us see, and see around, our endlessly twisting lives together. It is a big, loud, cymbal crash of a book so after I was done I reached out to the giant-minded author Robin Sloan to invite him on the show.  Robin Sloan is a writer, printer, and manufacturer\u2014his new 3-word biography!\u2014with three mind-expanding novels including \u2018\u200bMr. Penumbra\u2019s 24-Hour Bookstore\u200b\u2019, '\u200bSourdough\u200b', and, of course, the magical '\u200bMoonbound\u200b'.  Robin splits his time between the San Francisco Bay Area and the San Joaquin Valley of California where he (wait for it) manufactures California extra virgin olive oil. He also (yes) prints wonderful zines and sends out a delightfully nerdy newsletter every 29 1\/2 days via his \u200bwebsite\u200b.  Strap in as we discuss social media, AI ethics, childhood obsession, books as technology, olive oil, working with your partner, myths and identity, and, of course, the brilliant Robin Sloan\u2019s 3 most formative books\u2026   Let's flip the page to Chapter 152 now... ","author_name":"3 Books With Neil Pasricha","author_url":"http:\/\/www.3books.co","html":"<iframe title=\"Libsyn Player\" style=\"border: none\" src=\"\/\/html5-player.libsyn.com\/embed\/episode\/id\/38103635\/height\/90\/theme\/custom\/thumbnail\/yes\/direction\/forward\/render-playlist\/no\/custom-color\/88AA3C\/\" height=\"90\" width=\"600\" scrolling=\"no\"  allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen><\/iframe>","thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/assets.libsyn.com\/secure\/content\/192703405"}