259: Stephen Fishbach (ESCAPE!) & William Golding's LORD OF THE FLIES
In This Episode:
Two-time Survivor contestant, cohost of the Survivor podcast We Know Survivor, as well as the literary podcast Paraphrase, Stephen Fishbach drops onto the island SMDB and brings along the swashbuckling spirit of his novel Escape! As you might expect, Survivor is discussed, as is the jungle in general, and self-mythologizing, and then we tear into the savagery of William Golding’s classic, Lord of the Flies.
THE EP. 259 BOOKSHELF
WHAT'D YOU BUY?:
Christopher: Blow Yourself Up by Ankur Thakkar
Stephen: The Wayfinder by Adam Johnson
ALSO MENTIONED:
The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson
Fortune Smiles by Adam Johnson
The Instructions by Adam Levin
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
The Compound by Aisling Rowe
Small Game by Blaire Braverman
The Last One by Alexandra Oliva (the title Stephen couldn’t name)
We Eat Our Own by Kea Wilson
Book of Luke by Lovell Holder
The Witch (2015, dir. Robert Eggers)
”We’ve Become Too Savage for ‘Lord of the Flies’”
The Coral Island by R. M. Ballantyne
Lord of the Flies (BBC/Netflix, 2026)
”The real Lord of the Flies: what happened when six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months” by Rutger Brennan
The Simpsons (“Das Bus,” S09 E14)
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton
RECOMMENDATIONS:
Stephen: Go to your college reunion, The Eagle and the Heart by Helen Castor
Christopher: Earth 7 by Deb Olin Unferth, Strip Law (Netflix)
