Late Night Lit: Sarah Hoover | Mike Scollins | Cazzie David

·45 min·4 clips

Sarah Hoover decided to stop hiding behind embarrassment and tell the brutal truth about her postpartum depression.

Spring semester, books stacked high. Sarah Jenks-Daly opens with Sarah Hoover's debut memoir The Motherload, then leaves room for Mike Scollins and Cazzie David. Hoover's book sounds raw: postpartum depression, grief, family strain, pregnancy, motherhood, and the slow climb out of a very dark stretch. Not exactly a breezy beach read, but the conversation finds warmth in the honesty. Hoover talks about writing like a reader who still gets carried away by books. She likes stories that hit the senses and make room for politics, pornography, and feminist questions without sounding like assigned reading. Suspense matters. So do rooms, clothes, celebrity texture, and ideas that move through a story without banging around for attention. Then Sylvia Plath comes up. The Bell Jar is treated less like optional canon and more like something a person should probably read before claiming to be done with the world. Big claim, but the room seems ready to allow it. Tayari Jones gets even more awe, with Kin and An American Marriage held up as work from another level. The tone turns more backstage when Cazzie David talks about whether she might write another book. Her answer lands cleanly: she would need enough time to forget how much it hurt, and she has not forgotten yet. That becomes the episode's quiet point. Writing can get the ugly thoughts out, but finishing a book does not mean wanting to go through it again. Late Night Lit closes by thanking Seth Meyers, Mike Shoemaker, Sarah Hoover, Mike Scollins, Cazzie David, Jay Johnson, Andrew Guastella, and the 8G Band before promising a July return.

As heard by us

A candid literary hour centered on Sarah Hoover, motherhood, depression, writing, and the books she recommends.

Late Night Lit turns a spring-semester reading list into a compact mix of backstage and writing-room talk. Sarah Hoover is the main draw, discussing The Motherload with frank attention to postpartum depression after the birth of her son, her relationships with her husband and…

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If you want a book conversation that moves from postpartum depression to The Bell Jar, press play.

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