Siri Hustvedt

Siri Hustvedt

August 4, 2026 · 1h 1m

About this episode

Monica Lewinsky speaks with writer Siri Hustvedt about grief, love, and the process of reclaiming oneself after loss.

Writer, poet, and thinker Siri Hustvedt joins Monica this week on Reclaiming for a profound conversation about the physical reality of grief, the shared self created by long love, and finding language for what remains after someone dies. Siri opens up about losing her husband and creative partner, writer Paul Auster, after 43 years together and how writing her memoir Ghost Stories became an act of survival. She and Monica explore the trope of female hysteria, the misogyny Siri faced as a woman intellectual,  and what it took to stop feeling guilty for being outspoken. Together, they move between the body and the mind, science and mystery, devastating loss and sustaining humor—and consider the ways life asks us to reclaim ourselves over and over again.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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