Sanjana takes the stand as the self-proclaimed number one age-gap defender, arguing that the trope is really about power, that demanding moral instruction from romance is a fundamentally conservative impulse, and that &ldquo;reverse age-gap&rdquo; is not a thing. Then debut novelist Anna Maria Volkova joins to talk about Games, her romance about an economics grad student and a Soviet-born Wall Street banker: why his Russianness specifically matters to the story, the Hollywood villain problem, and what it looks like when a man shaped by political catastrophe becomes romantically persuasive. And: Tyler and Sanjana do a month-in-media check-in that includes both Cancer Ward and Kennedy Ryan. <ul> <li aria-level="1">On age gaps: why power is the whole point, when the trope works versus when shock replaces substance, and why the demand for capital-M Moral fiction is more conservative than it sounds.</li> <li aria-level="1">Anna Maria Volkova is the author of <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/games-a-love-story-anna-maria-volkova/eeb51d821144a223?ean=9780063437722&next=t">Games</a>, a debut romance about desire, grief, and neoliberal capitalism (out June 30). Referenced: <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/cancer-ward-a-novel-aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/80c91e644dec3015?ean=9780374534714&next=t">Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn</a> and <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/heated-rivalry-rachel-reid/82a2b8a1e28196b4?ean=9781335534637&next=t">Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid</a>.</li> <li aria-level="1">The month in reading: <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/score-kennedy-ryan/9fd190fda57d8475?ean=9781538769652&next=t">Score</a> and <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/reel-kennedy-ryan/43d150e8e49c7005?ean=9781538769621&next=t">Reel by Kennedy Ryan</a>, <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/long-island-girls-a-novel-gabrielle-korn/6db77424f1603659?ean=9781250432223&next=t">Long Island Girls by Gabrielle Korn</a>, <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/pool-house-a-novel-mary-h-k-choi/82db5d85fbf7deea?ean=9781250800442&next=t">Pool House by Mary H.K. Choi</a>, <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/in-every-possible-way-alicia-thompson/1a725a8b468fd447?ean=9798217187218&next=t">In Every Possible Way by Alicia Thompson</a>, <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-very-definition-of-love-sophia-benoit/66b97acb61bdf914?ean=9781638933557&next=t">The Very Definition of Love by Sophia Benoit</a>, <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-paris-match-kate-clayborn/b0922ea6eea23d4d?ean=9780593819371&next=t">The Paris Match by Kate Clayborn</a>, and <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/whitney-my-love-judith-mcnaught/81e5c975f408d11d?ean=9781668241745&next=t">Whitney, My Love by Judith McNaught</a>.</li> </ul>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.

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In Defense of Age Gaps, Anna Maria Volkova on Games and the Russian MC, and What We've Been Reading

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