Zoe Kazan on Adapting East of Eden, Family Legacy, and the Art of Letting Go

Actress, screenwriter, and playwright Zoe Kazan joins this episode of Prose Society to discuss her Netflix adaptation of John Steinbeck's East of Eden — a project six years in the making. Zoe shares her approach to adaptation, why she centered the anti-hero Cathy Ames (played by Florence Pugh), and…

Culture Catch-Up: Justice for Millennials!

This week's a long one. We're recapping the iHeartRadio Music Festival in Vegas, the VMAs, Dancing With the Stars, and The Traitors — plus a deep dive into Taylor Swift's Showgirl Encore with a track-by-track review and thoughts on the fandom discourse. We're talking Martha Stewart at 85, the folda…

Book Review: Waist Deep by Linea Maja Ernst — Ensemble Casts, Existential Dread, and the Question of How We're Supposed to Live

This week we're reviewing Waist Deep, the debut novel by Danish author Linea Maja Ernst that became a smash hit across Scandinavia. Five university friends and their partners spend seven days at a lake house in Denmark, and old feelings of love and lust resurface as they confront the big question: …

Culture Catch-Up: The Emmys, The Sydney Sweeney Ad, and We Are the Assholes

This week's Culture Catch-Up is a big one. We dig into the 25th anniversary of 9/11 and what it means to reflect on it depending on where you grew up, unpack the backlash over the Sydney Sweeney sports betting ad and the "choice feminism" debate, and recap the Emmys (the best and worst looks, iconi…

Waist Deep, Love Island Drama & the Sociology of American Cheating with Josh Lora

This week on Prose Society, we're joined by writer, content creator, and sociologist Josh Lora (@tellthebeees) — one of our favorite voices covering books, culture, and internet discourse across TikTok and Substack. We dig into Josh's journey from viral book reviewer to cultural commentator, unpac…

Culture Catch-Up: Dolly Parton Tributes, Met Gala Fallout & the Ozempic-Fueled Celebrity Body Discourse

This week's Culture Catch-Up covers a lot of ground: personal life updates and housewarming plans, honoring Dolly Parton and the recent losses in music and theater, the Met Gala's controversial theme change, Ariana Grande's ongoing scrutiny and the double standards female celebrities face, the "Ton…

Book Review: With Friends Like You by Amy Chozick — New Motherhood and a Twist You Won’t See Coming

This episode is all about Amy Chozick's debut fiction novel, With Friends Like You — a sharp, darkly funny thriller about new motherhood, capitalist excess, and a narrator you can't quite trust. I'm breaking down the plot, the characters (including one seriously unsettling "Daisy"), the twist, and …

Amy Chozick: Trading Politics for Fiction, Pub Day Jitters, and Writing Her Debut Novel

Journalist-turned-novelist Amy Chozick (Chasing Hillary, The Girls on the Bus) joins us to discuss her debut novel, With Friends Like You. We talk about leaving hard-news journalism for fiction, the surprising freedom of writing something that isn't "about her," adapting her own memoir for HBO Max,…

Welcome to Prose Society: Why I Took a Break, Love Island Drama & What to Expect Each Week

Welcome to Prose Society — the book club, community, and weekly culture podcast you didn't know you needed. In this debut episode, Eli opens up about why it took months to bring the show back (hint: business negotiations), what to expect each month (Culture Catch-Ups, book reviews, and monthly gues…

Introducing: Prose Society with Eli Rallo

Welcome to Prose Society. Each month we pick one featured book together, then spend the weeks going far beyond the pages — the ideas, the characters, the culture, the conversations that make a great book worth obsessing over. New episodes every Wednesday, beginning August 12. Subscribe now to join …