Big Books & Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller
Sep 4, 2026 · 49 min · 11 segments
If you remember the first time you left your family to go to summer camp, you probably remember how that time marked you. You leave as a child, but after spending a week or two away from home and all…
Chang-Rae LeeGuest
Kerri MillerHost
Disclaimer, I don't usually spend a lot of time on a novel's title, but this one holds so much meaning and vulnerability and I think a sense of loss that I have to ask you about it.
I ultimately ended up on this one because I wrote a, I kind of rewrote a line in the book early on in the book about the tender ages and more meaning about a certain period in people's lives.
Vulnerability, yes, but also vulnerability in the other direction, which is one of... you know, exploration and discovery.
It's not, it's all the potential and promise, but it's also, you know, the tenderness of a bruise.
You can be easily hurt, but that's because you're so open and exploratory, right?
I mean, I remember, and just thinking back physically and viscerally, you know, to speak about it in the first sense, you know, I remember so well each day going out when I was, you know, under 10 years old and dealing with these little injuries, which were, you know, little marks of, you know, kind of signposts of the day.
You know, back then, of course, the playgrounds were not rubber coated as they are now.
They had that black asphalt that was kind of crumbly, and at least it was in the tenement that I grew up in.
And each day, you know, I'd basically pick out little bits of black material from my knees.
Really? And it wasn't, sure, it was a little painful, but it was a marker of, you know, how full the day was, how adventuresome it was.
You know, so much of our lives, our contemporary lives, are about safety and control.
And, of course, you know, that's a good thing in many ways, but also somehow we lose this sense of adventure and possibility.
Disclaimer, I don't usually spend a lot of time on a novel's title, but this one holds so much meaning and vulnerability and I think a sense of loss that I have to ask you about it.
I ultimately ended up on this one because I wrote a, I kind of rewrote a line in the book early on in the book about the tender ages and more meaning about a certain period in people's lives.
Vulnerability, yes, but also vulnerability in the other direction, which is one of... you know, exploration and discovery.
It's not, it's all the potential and promise, but it's also, you know, the tenderness of a bruise.
You can be easily hurt, but that's because you're so open and exploratory, right?
I mean, I remember, and just thinking back physically and viscerally, you know, to speak about it in the first sense, you know, I remember so well each day going out when I was, you know, under 10 years old and dealing with these little injuries, which were, you know, little marks of, you know, kind of signposts of the day.
You know, back then, of course, the playgrounds were not rubber coated as they are now.
They had that black asphalt that was kind of crumbly, and at least it was in the tenement that I grew up in.
And each day, you know, I'd basically pick out little bits of black material from my knees.
Really? And it wasn't, sure, it was a little painful, but it was a marker of, you know, how full the day was, how adventuresome it was.
You know, so much of our lives, our contemporary lives, are about safety and control.
And, of course, you know, that's a good thing in many ways, but also somehow we lose this sense of adventure and possibility.
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3 of 12
His Mother’s Lost Stature
His mother once starred for Korea’s team
When Children Become Family Guides
Immigrant children often become their families’ guides
The Scar Tissue Inside
Childhood wounds can harden us permanently inside
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