The scientist The Social Club recently sat down with Real Life writer Brandon Taylor. His critically acclaimed debut novel accompanies a graduate student named Wallace through a late summer weekend in a university town in the Midwest. While dealing with the aftermath of a lab accident, Wallace, who is Black, also deals with subtle and less subtle racism and a sense of alienation from his friends, and struggles to decide whether to stick with his PhD program . We spoke to Taylor, who was himself a former graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, about how his own academic experiences had influenced history.

To join The scientist Social Club for more on future discussions, including our next Book Club event on August 20th: Pipe dreams with the author Chelsea Wald!