Jul 2, 2026 · 56 min · 9 segments
Abu and Obssa continue their read-through of Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor. This middle third is where the two of them split hardest: one is all in on Zelu, the other can barely stand her…
Welcome back, listeners.
Uh, as usual, let's begin with a brief summary.
And we've broken up this one into a coverage of the present day, mostly fo- focused on Zelu's perspective, uh, and then the Ankara and interview strands.
So we'll begin with Zelu finally making it to MIT after a pretty brutal send-off from her family.
Chinyere literally grabs her wheelchair to stop Zelu.
Yeah.
[laughs]
It's clear her entire family-
That's a bit too much.
It's, it's tough.
Uh, and Zelu-
[laughs]
... definitely barks back at her at that moment.
Uh, it's clear her entire family is fully opposed, and while at MIT, Zelu basically breaks contact with them.
Uh, at MIT, a lot of things happen, but the big thing, of course, is that Zelu gets her custom cyan aerographine exo, and it's scary and exciting and everything in between.
Uh, I found this to be honestly a, a super infectious series of moments.
Uh, we find that Zelu is taking very well to the, to the exo, and she's obviously kind of jubilant at this.
We also see some budding friendships developing, uh, between her and Hugo, the leader of the team, and, uh, some of the others on the team as well.
There's this excellent scene where they're kind of sharing laughter over this four-hour unauthorized Nigerian adaptation of her book [laughs]
[laughs]
... which was just-
I love it
...
so great.
Uh, and it's clear, at least this adaptation, she's, you know, she's not entirely unhappy with, it seems.
Welcome back, listeners.
Uh, as usual, let's begin with a brief summary.
And we've broken up this one into a coverage of the present day, mostly fo- focused on Zelu's perspective, uh, and then the Ankara and interview strands.
So we'll begin with Zelu finally making it to MIT after a pretty brutal send-off from her family.
Chinyere literally grabs her wheelchair to stop Zelu.
Yeah.
[laughs]
It's clear her entire family-
That's a bit too much.
It's, it's tough.
Uh, and Zelu-
[laughs]
... definitely barks back at her at that moment.
Uh, it's clear her entire family is fully opposed, and while at MIT, Zelu basically breaks contact with them.
Uh, at MIT, a lot of things happen, but the big thing, of course, is that Zelu gets her custom cyan aerographine exo, and it's scary and exciting and everything in between.
Uh, I found this to be honestly a, a super infectious series of moments.
Uh, we find that Zelu is taking very well to the, to the exo, and she's obviously kind of jubilant at this.
We also see some budding friendships developing, uh, between her and Hugo, the leader of the team, and, uh, some of the others on the team as well.
There's this excellent scene where they're kind of sharing laughter over this four-hour unauthorized Nigerian adaptation of her book [laughs]
[laughs]
... which was just-
I love it
...
so great.
Uh, and it's clear, at least this adaptation, she's, you know, she's not entirely unhappy with, it seems.
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