Karen Russell On Balancing Writing, Technology, and Boredom

Sustained periods of solitude. Many writers have said that this is the only way that they can get through the process of writing a book. Yet in our hyper-connected world, with apps that were programmed to hijack the pleasure centers of our brain, how can a fiction writer keep out the noise without becoming a hermit? On Tuesday's show, Gary Shteyngart admitted to not having read a book in 5 years, and today we talk to MacArthur fellow Karen Russell, whose debut novel Swamplandia! was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, about writing in the age of the smartphone.