In celebration of Jennifer Egan's new book, The Candy House, a sibling novel to her Pulitzer Prize-winning A Visit from the Goon Squad, Egan is joined by author, astrophysicist, and Pioneer Works Director of Sciences Janna Levin to discuss memories, the collective unconscious, and a dystopian present.

Possibly a reference to the sinister edible houses of folklore, The Candy House deftly interweaves stories, narrative styles, and incisive observations to inspire speculation as well as nostalgia about both the past and the future.

Jennifer Egan is the author of several novels and a short story collection. Her 2017 novel, Manhattan Beach, a New York Times bestseller, was awarded the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and was chosen as New York City’s One Book One New York read. Her previous novel, A Visit From the Goon Squad, won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Los Angeles Times book prize, and was recently named one of the best books of the decade by Time Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, and several others. Also a journalist, she has written frequently in the New York Times Magazine. She recently completed a term as President of PEN America.

Janna Levin is the Director of Sciences at Pioneer Works and the editor-in-chief of Pioneer Works Broadcast. She is also a professor of physics and astronomy at Barnard College of Columbia University, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a PEN-award winning novelist. She is the presenter of the NOVA feature Black Hole Apocalypse, aired on PBS—the first female presenter for NOVA in 35 years. She is the author of How the Universe Got Its Spots, A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines, and Black Hole Blues. Her latest book is Black Hole Survival Guide.

This project is supported by Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation initiative dedicated to engaging everyone with the process of science, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Program in Public Understanding of Science and Technology, bridging the two cultures of science and the arts.

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