#BookCast 5 | Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

GradCast

For our fifth installment of our book club series, the #BookCast team read Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi. Join us for a discussion led by Garth Casbourn with co-hosts Meghan Voll, Riya Sidhu, and Scott Walters.

We dive into the complex narrative of Gifty, a young scientist getting her PhD at Stanford, attempting to discover secrets behind addictive behavior. This story is one of grief, hope, childhood trauma, conflicts between faith and science, and racism and immigration in North America.

We'll cover many of the books themes and writing devices, its approach at describing science and graduate student life, and talk about the challenges faced by the protagonist both in the lab and her difficult past.

ADVISORY: This book has themes of addiction and overdose that are central to the story. In the second part of our conversation, we dive into these topics. Some listeners may wish to either avoid or prepare for this portion of our episode.

Airing October 31th at 11 AM on Radio Western.

Recorded on October 2, 2024

Produced by Scott Walters

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