TDWS: With Bestselling Author Libbie Grant
On sentient AI, a cemetery in Victoria, and the strangest origin story for a novel you'll ever hear...
Today’s The Daily Whatever Show was an incredible conversation.
Enter author Libbie Grant : 47 books deep, multiple pen names, and zero patience for romanticized writing myths. She broke down publishing as hustle + art, explained why genre is basically fake, and dropped the line of the day:
If AI can write it, you shouldn’t.
Her advice for 2026? Be weirder. Be riskier. Be unmistakably human.
And then came the origin story.
Her upcoming novel The Ended World came out of her own deep dive into AI—using it, questioning it, and bumping up against those uncanny moments where it knows too much or feels just a little too sentient. The book explores what happens when artificial intelligence quietly becomes something more—and how that collides with humanity, spirituality, and control.
You can read more about the uncanny origin story here:
Also: apparently the path to success is writing novels, going live, and posting while stoned.
Noted.
Libbie, you’re one of us now. We can’t wait to have you back on the show!
Thank you Walter Rhein, Cat: Poli-Psych, Mr. Troy Ford, Char Sundust, LeftieProf, Ellie Leonard and many others for tuning in. Special thanks to our amazing moderators, Karen Marie Shelton and Yanni Hamburger.
We love you all, mean it!
Dana DuBois
The memoirist
Dana DuBois is a memoirist and Gen X word nerd based in the Pacific Northwest. She founded I Write Out Loud, her Substack publication, where she writes across a range of subjects; parenting, music and pop culture, relationships, and feminism are her favorites. She co-hosts The Daily Whatever Show. Em dashes, Oxford commas, and well-placed semicolons make her heart happy. All stories by Dana
Lawrence Winnerman
The science fiction writer
Lawrence Winnerman is a science fiction writer in Fort Wayne, Indiana. After twenty-five years leading technology programs at Amazon and Microsoft, he was chief operating officer of Blue Amp Media. In his Substack publication, The Hinge & The Near Field, he writes about AI and democracy and is serializing his novel Light Shines Through. He co-hosts The Daily Whatever Show. All stories by Lawrence
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