This week we chat with Jennifer Mandula about her book The Geomagician, a historical fantasy novel that explores the life of pioneering paleontologist Mary Anning and a dinosaur that comes to life, all within an alternate magical England. This book explores issues of female empowerment and the tension between science and religion as well as offering up a little romance.
For our book rec segment of the show, we’re discussing AI books. It feels like we’re at somewhat of a critical moment in terms of artificial intelligence, with communities protesting data centers and AI heads talking about how it could end humanity in a decade. So we’ve found 6 books about AI that we recommend you check out. Some of these might even make you laugh.
Books Mentioned In This Episode:
1- The Geomagician by Jennifer Mandula
2- Culpability by Bruce Holsinger
3- Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson
4- The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson
5- Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson
6- The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth
7- The Everlasting by Alix Harrow
8- Life on the Moon by Matthew Swanson and Robbi Behr
9- This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews
10- Motherhood Discounted: Care Work in America Before and After Roe by Carolyn McConnell
11- Rental House by Weike Wang
12- A Five Star Read by Fellow Book Lover Molly @mollypg - The Great Wherever by Shannon Sanders
13- The Verifiers by Jane Pek
14- Afterword by Nina Schuyler
15- The Infinite Sadness of Small Appliances by Glenn Dixon
16- The People's Library by Veronica G. Henry
17- Daemon by Daniel Suarez
18- You Look Like a Thing and I Love you: How Artificial Intelligence Works and Why It's Making the World a Weirder Place by Janelle Shane
Media Mentioned in this Episode:
1- High Dive Podcast - https://highdivepod.com/
2- Zelda Williams and the use of her father's voice - https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/robin-williams-deepfake-video-9.7353857
3- US Military AI mistake close call - https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/18/politics/us-military-ai-false-intelligence-china-ship
4- Anthropic using old books - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/05/anthropic-ai-destroying-books
5- Janelle Shane blog - https://www.aiweirdness.com/
6- Matthew Swanson and Robbi Behr on The Perks of Being a Book Lover - https://www.perksofbeingabooklover.com/episodes/blpks3ktgywx9fx-x9wxe-p3aft-j9j3f-pk2fn-wbdd3-dbsfp-hhfrc-ep6yz-alk6z-hl34a-dhhaz-l9x4z-88zrd-rh699-xd584-r9src-wkdf3-aegrx-hhnhf-zsc5j-tcmh4-h9adg-9wmnz-c6fgx-57jfn-24pym-jzy8d-j85nx