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Bookwild

Bookwild

By: Kate Hergott Bookwild Collective
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 On Tuesdays, Kate Hergott talks with authors about their books and writing processes. On Fridays, Kate talks with multiple co-host Bookstagrammers and BookTubers about a variety of bookish topics.2024 Bookwild Collective Art Drama & Plays
Episodes
  • Children Like Us: Family, Heritage & Cultural Erasure with Brittany Penner

    Children Like Us: Family, Heritage & Cultural Erasure with Brittany Penner
    Dec 23 2025

    This week, I talk with Brittany Penner about her memoir Children Like Us, a haunting, deeply reflective exploration of identity, faith, and survival. Brittany shares what it was like growing up as an Indigenous child adopted into a Mennonite family that fostered dozens of other children, unpacking the long-term impact of the Sixties Scoop, religious indoctrination, and being taught to feel “grateful” for circumstances rooted in colonial harm.

    We dive into dissociation, self-abandonment, storytelling as a tool for healing, and the complicated reality of holding love for family while confronting the systems that caused lasting damage.

    We discuss grief, nuance, and reclamation, ultimately asking what it means to trust your own memory, honor your pain, and slowly learn how to walk yourself home.

    Learn more about Brittany here

    Check Out Author Social Media Packages

    Check out the Bookwild Community on Patreon

    Check Out My Stories Are My Religion Substack

    Get Bookwild Merch

    Follow @imbookwild on Instagram

    Other Co-hosts On Instagram:

    Gare Billings @gareindeedreads

    Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland

    Halley Sutton @halleysutton25

    Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

    MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba
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    1 hr and 8 mins
  • 2025 Favorite Reads and Some 2026 Hopefuls with Gare

    2025 Favorite Reads and Some 2026 Hopefuls with Gare
    Dec 19 2025
    This week, Gare and I talk about what we've been watching lately, our favorite 2025 reads, and some 2026 books Gare already loves, as well as some 2026 hopefuls!Our 2025 FavesKate's BooksProject Hail Mary by Andy WeirJunie by Erin Crosby EckstineAnd Then She Fell by Alicia ElliotBlood Over Bright Haven by M. L. WangSky Full of Elephants by Cebo WilliamsThe Reformatory by Tananarive DueGare's BooksNight Watcher by Daphne WoolsoncroftThis Book Will Bury Me by Ashley WinsteadBoom Town by Nic StoneKeep This For Me by Jennifer FawcettHeated Rivalry by Rachel ReidToo Old for This by Samantha Downing2026 Books We Talked AboutBoring Asian Female by Canwen XuHelpless by Jessica KnollOn Sundays She Picked Flowers by Yah Yah ScholfieldThe Better Mother by Jennifer Van der KleutThe Future Saints by Ashley WinsteadSundown Girls by L.S. StrattonShows We Talked AboutThe Beast in MeDexter: ResurrectionSlow HorsesDown Cemetery RoadStranger ThingsHeated Rivalry Check Out Author Social Media PackagesCheck out the Bookwild Community on PatreonCheck Out My Stories Are My Religion SubstackGet Bookwild MerchFollow @imbookwild on InstagramOther Co-hosts On Instagram:Gare Billings @gareindeedreadsSteph Lauer @books.in.badgerlandHalley Sutton @halleysutton25Brian Watson @readingwithbrianMacKenzie Green @missusa2mba
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    1 hr and 5 mins
  • When Faith Becomes Fear: Hell, Control, and the Loss of Love with Brian Recker

    When Faith Becomes Fear: Hell, Control, and the Loss of Love with Brian Recker
    Dec 16 2025

    This week, I talk with Brian Recker about his book Hell Bent, which examines how fear-based teachings about hell distort Christian spirituality, replacing love, connection, and moral discernment with control, shame, and punishment avoidance. Drawing from his upbringing in fundamentalism and later work as an evangelical pastor, he shares how early indoctrination around hell fractures relationships with God, self, and others, discourages intuition and questioning, all while propping up systems of domination—from abusive religious authority to political movements rooted in fear. Rather than abandoning spirituality altogether, he reclaimed Jesus from these systems, reframing faith as a practice of love, justice, and liberation in this life instead of an anxious fixation on the afterlife.

    Check Out Author Social Media Packages

    Check out the Bookwild Community on Patreon

    Check Out My Stories Are My Religion Substack

    Get Bookwild Merch

    Follow @imbookwild on Instagram

    Other Co-hosts On Instagram:

    Gare Billings @gareindeedreads

    Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland

    Halley Sutton @halleysutton25

    Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

    MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 7 mins
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