Friday Special Blend
Friday November 21st, 2025 with Susan Johnston. Micah Petti. Gianluca Petti.
Robert Hough on Anarchists in Love. Christy Climenhage on The Midnight Project. New music by K

About Anarchists in Love: "In this compelling novel, acclaimed author Robert Hough recreates the political violence and revolutionary idealism that flowed through New York City during the Gilded Age of the 1890s. At its centre are real-life revolutionists Emma Goldman and Alexander “Sasha” Berkman, whose passionate love affair fuels their commitment to creating a better world. Following their chance meeting at a New York café in 1890—Emma is fleeing a loveless marriage, while Sasha is becoming convinced that only a new system of thought called anarchism will liberate working people from poverty—two poor, young immigrants join New York’s political underground to overthrow all forms of government. Swept up by her new egalitarian beliefs, Emma gains a reputation as a rousing public speaker, extolling the radical virtues of workers’ rights, free love and women’s liberation. At the same time, Sasha’s own ambitions become mired in jealousy and inhibition. But when shocking news arrives that industrialist Henry C. Frick has ordered the fatal shootings of striking steel-plant workers in Pennsylvania, Sasha and Emma plot a violent act that, they hope, will ignite a worldwide anarchist revolution. As the first work of fiction to recount this captivating story, Anarchists in Love casts light not only on a politically charged chapter of history, but also on forces of desperation and insurgence that are still in effect today." About The Midnight Project: When enigmatic billionaire Burton Sykes walks into Re-Gene-eration, a bespoke reproduction assistance clinic run by Raina and Cedric, two disgraced genetic engineers struggling to get by, they know they have a very unusual client. When Sykes asks them to genetically engineer a way for humanity to survive the coming ecological apocalypse, Raina is tempted. Bees are dying, crops are failing, and she knows her research is partly to blame. Could she help in some way? Though troubled, Cedric agrees to take part when it becomes clear their benefactor will do this with or without them. How else can he be sure their work won’t fall into the wrong hands? But can they really trust Mr. Sykes? In this near-future science fiction thriller, Christy Climenhage has created a frighteningly real world on the verge of collapse. As disaster strikes, the two friends need to decide whether to cling to their old life or to let go and embrace a new path for humanity.