Little Atoms

Author and music journalist David Stubbs joins Neil to talk about his latest book Mars by 1980: The Story of Electronic Music . They chat about the evolution of synthesisers, the women who pioneered electronic music and where the genre is now. For information regarding your data privacy, visit

Fatima Bhutto was born in Kabul, Afghanistan and grew up between Syria and Pakistan. She is the author of five previous books of fiction and nonfiction. Her debut novel,  The Shadow of the Crescent Moon , was long listed for the Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction and the memoir about her father’s life and assassination,  Songs of Blood and Sword , was published to acclaim. Her most recent novel is  The Runaways , and her latest book is New Kings of the World: Dispatches from Bollywood, Dizi, and K-Pop. For information regarding your data privacy, visit

Lillian Li is from the D.C. metro area and lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her work has appeared in  Granta, Guernica, Bon Appetit , and  Jezebel . Her first novel Number One Chinese Restaurant was longlisted for the 2019 Women's Prize for fiction. For information regarding your data privacy, visit

Novelist Ben Fergusson joins Neil to talk about An Honest Man , the final book of his Berlin Trilogy. They discuss writing against the backdrop of 1989 Berlin, the summer after leaving school, and the novel's parallels between relationships, infidelity and espionage. For information regarding your data privacy, visit

Madeline Stevens joins Neil to talk about her first novel, Devotion . They discuss the drafts and graft that come before a debut novel, how Madeline's seven years spent working as a nanny in New York influenced her writing, and how what started out as a short story became Devotion . For information regarding your data privacy, visit