Julia and Victoria learn what the word “flannel” means in British English and formulate their own theories about what happened to a stranded deep-sea researcher in the devastatingly beautiful novel Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield.

Julia and Victoria grapple with the grotesque narrative choices in Whale by Cheon Myeong-Kwan, translated by Chi-young Kim. Julia incorrectly uses the word “epigraph” when she means “epitaph” approximately 25 times.

Julia and Victoria get into the weeds of cultivating a creative life while also having to pay bills with Nate Ragolia—writer, podcaster, and publisher at Spaceboy Books. They also decide which zoo animals they would be.

Julia and Victoria are joined by their new literary friend Caleb Tankersley to discuss Caleb’s debut story collection Sin Eaters. They enjoy a lovely ramble about the process of creativity and the value of writing what makes you happy. Plus: some important Oreo discourse.

Julia and Victoria try to solve the Who, the How, and the Why of Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu and may or may not reach a verdict. Victoria invents a new grammatical tense.