Friday Special Blend
Friday November 28th, 2025 with Susan Johnston. Micah Petti.
Keriann McGoogan on Sisters of the Jungle (Douglas & McIntyre, 2025) and Rebecca Hirsch Garcia on Other Evolutions (ECW Press, 2025).

About Sisters of the Jungle: "Since the 1970s, the science of primatology has been dominated by women—a unique reversal, with men usually outnumbering women in other science, technology, engineering and math fields. Sisters of the Jungle shines a light on a scientific discipline in which women take the lead while transporting readers to the far corners of the earth to understand our closest living relatives. Keriann McGoogan’s journey as a primatologist has taken her to Belize and Madagascar studying wild primates, including howler monkeys (the loudest living primate) and lemurs (the most endangered group of animals on the planet). Against this backdrop, she explores the stories of the many women who came before her. Intrepid scientists like Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Birutė Galdikas and Alison Jolly broke boundaries, made astonishing discoveries and ultimately shaped the trajectory of an entire branch of science." About Other Evolutions: "With sharp human insight and unflinching prose, Other Evolutions is O. Henry Prize-winning author Rebecca Hirsch Garcia’s dark, speculative debut, perfect for readers of Iain Reid and Emily St. John Mandel. Alma Alt, the sheltered youngest daughter of an interfaith, interracial Jewish-Mexican couple, rarely ventures far from her home on a wealthy tree-lined street in Ottawa, where nothing ever happens. The one time she did, striking out to visit her older sister, Marnie, in Montreal, things ended in disaster as she found out that beautiful, blonde Marnie had been lying about their family’s background, trying to pass herself off as white. The fallout from that betrayal leads to a devastating accident, one that claims Alma’s arm and someone’s life. Alma is now stuck in a holding pattern, unable to move past her grief. But Alma’s life is turned upside down by an encounter just steps from home with an impossible person: the boy she watched die."