Brent and Dave chat with Chinese-Canadian author Su Chang about the tension between exploring today's truth and the cost it has for those who went before, as well as what it means to write in the inspired shadow of a father who is a great writer himself. Su's journey reminds us that for Chinese emigrants, maintaining relationships with people still in China — as well as with China itself — is delicate, but is also a story worth telling.

Rejected Central is a human podcast hosted by bestselling novelist Brent van Staalduinen and educator and life-embracer Dave Parkinson. Listen wherever you get your podcasts, follow us online and social media, and let us know what you think. Thanks for listening!

Guest Links:

Su Chang's author website

The Immortal Woman's publisher page

Rejected Central Links:

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Brent's Author Website

Dave's LinkedIn

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Elizabeth Mateer is a former professional dancer and actor who now writes poetry as a diversion from her work as a fellow in neuropsychology at Harvard University. We chat about the inevitable rejections in the artistic life, what it's like to be a research-focused doctoral fellow in Trump's America, and how reject is about learning, or in her words, "failing upwards." Her book of poetry Searching for Home is titled after a poem she calls a "love letter to a friend."

Rejected Central is a human podcast hosted by bestselling novelist Brent van Staalduinen and educator and life-embracer Dave Parkinson. Listen wherever you get your podcasts, follow us online and social media, and let us know what you think. Thanks for listening!

The death of Pope Francis at the age of 88 has predictably generated a tsunami of emotions rushing in from around the globe. Looking past the shiny progressive tributes, flowery words, Vatican-generated propaganda, and wasn't-he-fabulous refrains, Brent & Dave pause for a moment to suggest that his work isn't nearly finished, and the Church still hasn't answered for an awful lot of horrors it has inflicted on the vulnerable and marginalized.

Rejected Central is a human podcast hosted by bestselling novelist Brent van Staalduinen and educator and life-embracer Dave Parkinson. Listen wherever you get your podcasts, follow us online and social media, and let us know what you think. Thanks for listening!