Published just two days ago, Adam Ross’ second novel, Playworld — some dozen-plus years in the making — is one of the best books I’ve read in the last five years. I’m not alone! Sources no less venerable than The New York Times, the LA Times, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, are all lining up to sing its praises. “Dazzling and endearing,” writes Vogue. The Washington Post croons: “The book is quote so good, it will give readers hope for the year ahead.” Everyone is in love with this novel.

Here’s how it opens:

“In the fall of 1980, when I was fourteen, a friend of my parents named Naomi Shah fell in love with me. She was thirty-six, a mother of two, and married to a wealthy man. Like so many things that happened to me that year, it didn’t seem strange at the time.”

Set in New York, Ross’s bildungsroman (a pointy-headed word for “coming of age story”) follows a year in the unusual life of Griffin Hurt — a child actor, prep school 8th grader, aspiring wrestler and potential love interest of one Naomi Shah.

What sets it apart from similarly ambitious romps, like Cloud Cuckoo Land, or A Gentleman in Moscow? The sentences are better dancers, for one. And the world building is so delightfully specific. Picture a line of fourteen-year-old boys, silently lining up for a wrestling meet’s official weigh-in, some “hairy as fathers.” A minor character’s teeth are said to be “fantastic, separate unto him, like furniture in his mouth.”

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But great language and an evocative setting — it’s not enough that a book entertain, or even wow. What sets Playworld apart is this: the pages are suffused with love, the great and complicated and imperfect love between people who themselves are, in spite of their shortcomings, vanities, or outright crimes, worthy of it.

In this freewheeling conversation Adam and I discuss his approach to writing the novel, which I frame in the architect vs gardener approach. We talk about parenting in the 1980s versus now, and how Adam was careful not to allow Playworld to become the nostalgic celebration of yesteryear it might have otherwise been. We discussed one of the the themes: the tension many of us feel between filial loyalty and personal desire. And finally I asked him to read an excerpt from the book’s middle, one that gets at the complicated relationship between two of the story’s principle characters — Griffin and his dad — and also what makes Griffin’s particular feelings of deficit so painfully relatable.

Somewhere in there, I, fumbling around for a question that might get under some of the dazzling technique, the funny flawed characters, the dramatic surprises, finally asked him what personal quest — if any — he was on in writing Playworld.

“I wanted to write something beautiful,” he said.

I hope you enjoy this one — the book, and this conversation — as much as I did.

~korby

The end of the year is a good time to take a step back and think about what you're doing and why.

Among my various (well, three) enterprises, I've been doing the Morse Code Podcast for more than a year - more than 60 full length episodes and 200+ videos. Proud of Jared and Randa and me and what we’ve achieved!

I'm still figuring out the SEO and a bunch of other technical stuff I don't understand (like how to get substack to push the updated episode thumbnails to apple podcasts 🤬).

But as to the intention? I'm 100% in.

The podcast is evolving. I started doing it for one reason and now, that reason has changed.

Next week we’re about to shift into high gear with a new slate of um pretty ambitious projects — music, film, writing — but in this moment of quiet early morning end-of-year darkness, I wanted to take stock in what I’m doing and why. In typically earnest Korby fashion, I hope my message brings some cheer, encouragement and vision.

As always, thank you for being here with me. And if the Morse Code Podcast resonates with you, consider joining as a paid subscriber.

Something else that would be helpful? Giving us a five star review on Apple Podcasts and/or Spotify, or even writing a short review (on Apple) saying why you like what we’re doing. That goes a long way, not only to helping build the pod, but it makes me and Jared and Randa feel nice.

If you’re a patreon subscriber, I’m posting this video over there, but with a little more of the transparency, vulnerability that particular community fosters. There’s a particular question I’m asking over the patrons…

I wish you guys all the meaning and music your heart can handle. Happy New Year.

~Korby

Josh Plasse is an actor, producer and published author. The son of a Navy Seal, he’s appeared in more than 50 episodes of network television, including iCarly, Grey’s Anatomy and The Baxters. His first novel, Dust, drops February 4, 2025 on Resolve Editions.

In 2022, Josh co-wrote, produced, and acted in the feature film Ride, starring C. Thomas Howell, Annabeth Gish and Forrie J. Smith. Originally conceived as a television pilot, the script sold to a production house, who bobbled the project when the pandemic hit. Josh and his team then re-imagined it as a feature, raised the $2 million budget and set to work.

The story of Ride’s ride — its inception, production and promotional effort — is worth the listen alone. It’s a lesson not only in imagination and fortitude, but the critical role strategic planning plays in translating an original story into a commercial success. Sometimes you need to exercise as much creativity on the promotional side of your project as you do the art itself.

Langhorne Slim is a singer-songwriter based in East Nashville. His new single “We the People (F*** the Man)” is a jubilant reminder to cast a wary eye on our supposed political overlords and instead focus on those things that make a society a place worth living in: loving our neighbors, looking each other in the eye, being *actually* alive on planet earth in this our once and mysterious life.

Quinnlan Ashe is an actor, producer and podcaster based in Nashville, Tennessee. Among her credits are Ozark, I Want You Back, Chicago Fire, Brockmire *and* she played Lia in our own award-winning pilot, Morse Code, for which this podcast is named.

Quinn's latest project is called Re-Wined. It's a podcast she hosts with friends and industry colleagues Katie Garrett and Annie Moore, where they revisit the films of their youths and see how they hold up. I love the show. It’s funny and topical and has the chemistry and confidence of confidants. Addition to being one of the on-mic talents, Quinn also engineers and produces each episode.

Spencer Thomas is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in Athens, Georgia. He also plays keys for the beloved cosmic jamericana touring band Futurebirds. His new record, The Joke of Life, is shot through with contributions from members of My Morning Jacket, Drive-By Truckers, Futurebirds annd — it’s been getting a lot of play at the Lenker house. Listen above, scroll down to watch on YouTube.

But for a few short texts, Spencer and I hadn’t met until he pulled up in front in front of my joint in East Nashville. He'd had a long drive so we took a walk around the block to catch up, break the ice and enjoy the perfect fall weather. Once we started talking we didn’t stop. It was almost incidental, turning the mics on.

We riffed on his early and present influences — Warren Zevon’s name is an appropriate drop here — as well as the reasoning behind his decision to move to Athens — Athens, Georgia — during the pandemic. When I asked Why not Nashville? we charged into a chapter on the plusses and minuses living in a talent hotspot. That he chose an independent incubation makes sense when you listen to his music. You can't make a record like The Joke of Life in Nashville.

Even though I’ve lived here almost two decades, my own formative years as an artist were spent well away from commercial centers (shout out to Bellingham, Washington) — great for cultivating an individual voice, but maybe you sell more records (or streams I guess) the closer you snuggle up to the money teat.

Whatever the metric, Spencer and I tend toward the being apart, which is probably why I enjoyed this conversation so much. There was a lot of dishing on favorite bands — Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Dawes — and a thruline of mutual revelry in the joy of making art for its own sake.

We got so carried away talking and listening that I nearly forgot to ask him to play my favorite song from his record, Little Gold. Glad to say we got it in there.

Spencer is having a real artistic moment. You get the feeling that — after ten years of trying stuff, making up songs alone and with kindred, looking for his own orbit in the music of the spheres, he’s finally hitting on something. Teetering on the fulcrum of his own invention. It felt good for me to catch him mid-stroke on an upward swing.

On this day of thanks I want to thank YOU for being part of this Morse Code Community. Ours is a motley collective and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love you guys so much.

As Big Tech and Big Money and Bigness in general continue their march on our little patch of sacred humanity, I’m here for you, the artist. I have been in love my whole life with grouchy authors, unknown poets, quiet folksingers, radiant actors, the horse whisperers of culture, all, these fringey wonders who prioritize self-expression over self.

My purpose for Morse Code is to celebrate you, inspire you, encourage you to thrash around inside yourself and see what’s going on in there. The guests on this show are doing it. You can too.

Personally, whether I’m writing a song or a short story or making a film, I’m in the meaning business. And meaning isn’t something you find, once and for all. You discover a little bit more, every day. But only if you try.

If you get something out of the Morse Code Podcast, please like and subscribe on your favorite listening platform, follow us on IG, and if you have a sec, write us a five star review on apple podcasts. Anything you can do goes a long way to helping us bring this mission to more and more people. And if you’d like to become a paid subscriber, that would be wonderful too.

Whatever you do, we’ll keep showing up, week after week, to talk to these amazing talents and see what makes them glow so bright.

I wish you all the wonder of being alive. Thank you for being here.

-Korby