Books & Writers: Novelists, Screenwriters, Poets, Journalists, Playwrights, Non-fiction Writers & Showrunners Talk Writing, Creativity & The Creative Process · Novelists, Screenwriters, Poets, Playwrights, Non-fiction Writers, Journalists & Showrunners Talk Writing - Creative Process Original Series

Finding Humanity Through Storytelling with Author & Filmmaker ETGAR KERET

·1 hr 8 min·4 clips

Keret calls his current position a “double whammy” and says everyone is living in “one strike, you're out.”

1. SHOW + EPISODE TOPIC centers on The Creative Process conversation with Etgar Keret about storytelling, humanity, war, and AI. 2. Host Mia and guest Etgar Keret frame the episode; Keret is introduced as an Israeli writer and filmmaker, and his work is linked to books, film awards, and teaching. 3. The episode asks what writing is for when the world feels broken: Keret says stories are a way to imagine escape, keep identity, and preserve humanity. 4. Keret says his parents, who were survivors, taught him to judge people by whether they look at you, listen to you, and understand your intention. 5. He says shared political views do not make people “your people” if they cannot see you as a human being. 6. Keret describes being blacklisted in Israel, with calls to boycott his work and Grossman’s book, and says he cannot hold public events in the city where he has taught for more than 20 years. 7. He also says tours in Australia and an appearance in Edinburgh were affected because he is Israeli. 8. Keret argues that he can live with disagreement about Palestinian civilians, but not with people who refuse him any opinion at all. 9. He says the culture has become “one strike, you're out,” and that young people fear a single wrong sentence will leave them excluded. 10. He tells a Boston student’s story about wanting a “safe space” and says there is no such thing, only safer spaces. 11. Keret says social media turns people into one-sentence judgments and creates a global road-rage version of public life. 12. He compares that loss of context to McCarthy-style witch hunts and says art suffers when a person is reduced to one incident. 13. The host connects Keret’s fiction to parallel universes and escape routes, and Keret agrees that stories let him imagine a way out rather than solve life. 14. He says the smell of doom was already present in Israel before October 7, even if it was not yet explicit on the page. 15. Keret uses a body-in-a-closet image to describe how writers can sense hidden menace before it appears publicly. 16. He says humor and brevity let him undercut grief and keep readers from living too long inside the darkness. 17. Keret describes his role as “playing in the bar of humanity life,” then says he is now “the band on the Titanic” while people fall down the stairs. 18. The conversation stays direct and reflective, with long answers, vivid metaphors, and a steady back-and-forth between host and guest. 19. People interested in literary fiction, political identity, and AI’s effect on storytelling will get the most from this episode. 20. People looking for light entertainment or a purely plot-driven interview may skip it.

As heard by us

A humane case for stories as survival, identity, and witness.

Etgar Keret treats storytelling as a refuge, a way to picture an exit when life feels shut tight, and that gives the conversation its emotional center.

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Why you'd press play

Press play for a reflective conversation about humanity, stories, and AI.

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