About Latoya Johnson

Latoya Johnson is an editor, writer, and bibliophile with a master's in Humanities. Her research and writing interests include books and reading in popular culture, the public history of women's fiction, and women in Greco-Roman mythology.

NBN Episodes hosted by Latoya:

Kareem Khubchandani, "Decolonize Drag" (OR Books, 2023)

February 14, 2024

Decolonize Drag

Kareem Khubchandani
Hosted by Latoya Johnson

Kareem Khubchandani’s book Decolonize Drag (OR Books, 2024) explores the intricate interplay among gender, colonialism, and drag performance. It illus…

Frederick V. Engram, "Black Liberation Through Action and Resistance: MOVE" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023)

October 30, 2023

Black Liberation Through Action and Resistance

Frederick V. Engram
Hosted by Latoya Johnson
Listen:

Black Liberation through Action and Resistance: MOVE (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023) serves as a call to action for Black millennials and co-conspirators…

Livia Arndal Woods, "Pregnancy in the Victorian Novel" (Ohio State UP, 2023)

October 18, 2023

Pregnancy in the Victorian Novel

Livia Arndal Woods
Hosted by Latoya Johnson

In Pregnancy in the Victorian Novel (Ohio State University Press, 2023), Livia Arndal Woods traces the connections between literary treatments of preg…

Ronna Detrick, "Rewriting Eve: Rescuing Women’s Stories from the Bible and Reclaiming Them as Our Own" (She Writes Press, 2023)

October 3, 2023

Rewriting Eve

Ronna Detrick
Hosted by Latoya Johnson
Listen:

In Rewriting Eve: Rescuing Women’s Stories from the Bible and Reclaiming Them as Our Own (She Writes Press, 2023), Ronna Detrick invites us into the p…

Andrew Chan, "Why Mariah Carey Matters" (U Texas Press, 2023)

September 5, 2023

Why Mariah Carey Matters

Andrew Chan
Hosted by Latoya Johnson
Listen:

Why Mariah Carey Matters (University of Texas Press, 2023) examines the creative and complicated evolution of the musical artist. In the 1990s, Carey …

Michael Jackson, "Friendship" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2023)

May 31, 2023

Friendship

Michael Jackson
Hosted by Latoya Johnson
Listen:

In Friendship (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2023), renowned anthropologist Michael Jackson draws on philosophy, biography, ethnography, and lite…

Landon Jones, "Celebrity Nation: How America Evolved into a Culture of Fans and Followers" (Beacon, 2023)

May 19, 2023

Celebrity Nation

Landon Jones
Hosted by Latoya Johnson

Writer and editor Landon (Lanny) Jones, a former PEOPLE magazine editor, reveals how the cult of celebrity has shaped our politics, culture, and perso…

Melvin Burgess, "Loki: A Novel" (Pegasus Books, 2023)

May 4, 2023

Loki

Melvin Burgess
Hosted by Latoya Johnson

In his new novel Loki (Pegasus Books, 2023), Melvin Burgess follows the antics of Norse mythology’s trickster god as he takes the reader on a wild rid…

Bettina Judd, "Feelin: Creative Practice, Pleasure, and Black Feminist Thought" (Northwestern UP, 2022)

April 8, 2023

Feelin

Bettina Judd
Hosted by Latoya Johnson

Feeling is not “feelin”. Feelin, in African American Vernacular English, is how Black women artists approach and produce knowledge as sensation: inter…

Elizabeth Marshall, "Wolves in Beowulf and Other Old English Texts" (Boydell & Brewer, 2022)

April 2, 2023

Wolves in Beowulf and Other Old English Texts

Elizabeth Marshall
Hosted by Latoya Johnson

Two perceptions about wolves are inherited from ancient and medieval European lupine motifs: the superstition that the wolf could steal a person's spe…

Suzanne Ferriss, "Lost in Translation" (British Film Institute, 2023)

March 31, 2023

Lost in Translation

Suzanne Ferriss
Hosted by Latoya Johnson

Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation (2003) brings two Americans together in Tokyo, each experiencing a personal crisis. In this close look at Coppola’…

Maya Phillips, "Nerd: Adventures in Fandom from This Universe to the Multiverse" (Atria Books, 2022)

February 14, 2023

Nerd

Maya Phillips
Hosted by Latoya Johnson

When Maya Phillips first saw the opening of Star Wars, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, she knew her life would change forever. She then spent her …