Slow Reveal: Gayle Forman on Friends, Flaws, and Finding Immortality

All Episodes

June 25, 2025 • 36 mins

“Those moments of connection when you can have them with people who seem so different from you on the outside, I really do think that it braids a level of connectiveness and empathy, and it is much harder to harden your heart.” — Gayle Forman

What does it mean to rise to the occasion, not once, but over and over again? Sometimes it means reckoning with grief. Other times it means stumbling forward, messing up, and trying again. And sometimes it means simply showing up, imperfect, but still trying to be better.

Gayle Forman is the bestselling author of If I Stay, Frankie & Bug, Not Nothing, Afterlife and more. Whether it’s Mia in If I Stay, Alex in Not Nothing, or Amber in Afterlife, her characters often walk a jagged path toward healing, falling short, trying again, and inching closer to the people they hope to become.

In this episode, Gayle talks about growing up as a self-described “odd duck,” the Ramona books that shaped her childhood and parenting, and the formative years she spent traveling solo. She opens up about why she is so drawn to flawed characters and how fiction became a way to survive grief and stay connected to the people she has lost.

***

For her reading challenge, Flawed, Gayle is going to bat for the prickly, messy, not-here-to-be-liked protagonists. She points out that kids are used to reading about heroes, but it can be just as powerful, maybe even more so, to read about characters who fall short and grow anyway.

Peruse selected titles and Gayle’s full reading challenge for free at thereadingculturepod.com/gayle-forman.

This week’s Beanstack Featured Librarian is Lori Shallio, media specialist at Heritage Intermediate School in Middlebury, Indiana. She shares how a Hot Ones-style challenge involving her principal and spicy nuggets helped students smash their community reading goal.

Show Chapters

Chapter 1: What We Carry

Chapter 2: Odd Ducks

Chapter 3: Top School, Bottom Marks

Chapter 4: Beezus and Ramona

Chapter 5: University of Life

Chapter 6: What We Share

Chapter 7: Mind the Gap

Chapter 8: Embrace It

Chapter 9: Rise to the Occasion

Chapter 10: Reading Challenge

Chapter 11: Beanstack Featured Librarian

Links

Host and Production Credits
Host: Jordan Lloyd Bookey
Producers: Mel Webb and Lower Street Media
Script Editors: Josia Lamberto-Egan, Mel Webb, Jordan Lloyd Bookey