Writer Kennedy Ryan uses romance novels as a vehicle for discourse

Fresh Air

The romance books Kennedy Ryan read growing up rarely included characters who looked like her. Now she deliberately centers people the genre has left out – like women of color and women with chronic illness and disabilities. The award-winning novelist spoke with Tonya Mosley about her “Trojan horse” storylines, the value of the sex scene, and giving people happily-ever-afters. 

Also, TV critic David Bianculli reviews Craig Ferguson’s new CNN series ‘American On Purpose.’ 


Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter 
Follow us on Instagram 
Subscribe to our YouTube channel 
Check out the Fresh Air Archives

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy
2026-07-02 45 min

Available Results

Generated results are saved to the knowledge database for reuse and search.

No generated results are available for this episode yet.

Extract Knowledge

Pick what you want extracted first. Model, scope, and chapter options appear after a template is selected.

Generated results for public episodes are saved to the knowledge database so they can be reused and searched later.

Transcript

No transcript is available for this episode yet.
Sign in to generate a transcript for review.
Sign in

Chapters

No chapters available.