Ursa Story Company
12 episodes listed below
Authors Deesha Philyaw and Kiese Laymon interview writers and dissect essays like Toni Morrison's.
Reckon True Stories is a warm, unhurried literary conversation about essays, memoirs, journalism, and the lives behind them. Deesha Philyaw and Kiese Laymon move between close reading, personal confession, co-host banter, and generous interviews with writers such as Samantha Irby and Roxane Gay.
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Reckon True Stories is co-hosted by authors Deesha Philyaw (The Secret Lives of Church Ladies) and Kiese Laymon (Heavy), who alternate between guest interviews and two-host discussion episodes. In interview episodes, the hosts talk with fellow published authors — Roxane Gay and Samantha Irby appear in the available sample — about the practice of writing memoir and essay, the emotional cost of publishing personal material, and the business realities of the publishing industry. In discussion-only episodes, Philyaw and Laymon read and unpack a single nonfiction work together, such as a Toni Morrison essay, using it as a starting point for conversations about labor, identity, and creative life. A recurring thread across episodes is the specific experience of Black writers: publishing pay gaps, the history of blogs and think pieces as a route around traditional gatekeepers, and the suppression of first-person voice in schooling. At least one episode moves from craft into cultural criticism, examining the online 'manosphere' and its effect on misogyny and relationships within the Black community, citing CDC intimate-partner-violence statistics and personal disclosures from both hosts. Sampled episodes run roughly 35 to 67 minutes and the show is produced by Ursa Story Company in partnership with Reckon. It is aimed at listeners interested in the craft of narrative nonfiction and memoir, particularly aspiring essayists and readers following contemporary Black literary culture. Guests are established, previously-published authors rather than first-time or unknown writers. The hosts speak candidly about their own relationships and personal histories rather than remaining strictly in an interviewer role. Overall the show functions as both a craft-talk series for writers and a broader cultural conversation series grounded in nonfiction and memoir.
Made for: Aspiring essayists, memoirists, and readers following contemporary Black literary and nonfiction culture.
What sets it apart: Pairs standard author interviews with episodes where the two hosts close-read a single classic nonfiction essay together, a text-driven format uncommon among author-interview podcasts.
Reckon True Stories is a celebration of new and classic nonfiction – the essays, journalism, and memoirs that inspire us, that change the world, and help us connect with each other. Join hosts and acclaimed authors Deesha Philyaw (The Secret Lives of Church Ladies) and Kiese Laymon (Heavy, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, Long Division) for in-depth discussions about the stories we tell and how they impact our culture. Produced by Ursa Story Company, in partnership with Reckon.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Deesha Philyaw and Kiese Laymon make literary craft legible as a series of ethical, emotional, and cultural choices.
Reckon True Stories turns literary conversation into an argument about what nonfiction asks of the person writing it. Deesha Philyaw and Kiese Laymon move between close attention to craft and candid talk about the life around the work, including permission, criticism, ambition,…
Like eavesdropping on Deesha Philyaw and Kiese Laymon when the book-club niceties expire.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Samantha Irby talks about comedy, grief, and what it costs to turn private hurt into an essay.
Reckon True Stories closes its first season with Samantha Irby in the chair, and the pleasure is in how quickly comedy gives way to harder truth without losing its snap.
A candid Morrison conversation on work, exhaustion, gratitude, and the uneasy guilt inside a creative life.
Reckon True Stories uses Toni Morrison's "The Work You Do, The Person You Are" as a way into the uneasy moral weather around work, fatigue, and gratitude.
A blunt, funny conversation about manosphere culture, Steve Harvey-style dating advice, and why women keep being told to fix men's behavior.
What's Happening with Men? is a candid Reckon True Stories conversation about the churn of anger, advice, and anxiety around men, women, dating, and accountability.
Roxane Gay and the Reckon True Stories hosts turn book criticism and social media manners into a warm, sharp conversation about honesty, care, and being heard.
Roxane Gay joins the Reckon True Stories hosts for a loose, candid conversation about criticism, generosity, and the strange etiquette of literary life online.
A warm, searching conversation about essays, selfhood, and the permission to write in the first person.
Personal essay becomes a question of permission in this conversation: when a writer can say "I," what has to happen before the self feels available, and how nonfiction can tell a story without dressing itself up as fiction.
Slow, unhurried Vermont conversations on gender, class, and aging, hosted by Erica Heilman.
Katie Herzog and Jesse Singal argue through media meltdowns, trans policy, and psychiatric skepticism.
Michael Buerk chairs a panel cross-examining witnesses on the week's contested moral question.
Authors Deesha Filyaw and Dawnie Walton reunite to discuss the success of their literary podcast Reckon True Stories and announce Walton's upcoming novel.
Samantha Irby comes in laughing.
Work can look glossy from the hallway.
Authors Deesha Filyaw and Kiese Laymon co-host Reckon True Stories to discuss the manosphere — defined as the online ecosystem promoting masculinity, misogyny, and opposition to feminism — with a specific focus on how it manifests among Black men and what it means for Black women.
Roxane Gay wants cheering, not criticism.
A mixed-up memoir starts the laughter.