S8 Ep. 19: Thomas Dai on Mapping, Naming, Borders, and Immigration
Essayist Thomas Dai joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss his new collection, Take My Name But Say It Slow, in which he writes about place and identity. Dai talks about the imperialist impulse behind Trump’s attempt to turn the Gulf of Mexico into the “Gulf of America,” the power of naming, and the appeal and uncertainty of mapping. He also reflects on the surprising history of border policing, queer cartographies, and the sometimes paradoxical relationship between inner self and physical space. Dai reads from Take My Name But Say It Slow.
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