19.5 The Testaments by Margaret Atwood (Part Two)[Sequel to Episode 18: The Handmaid's Tale]

Part Two: Baby NicoleThis is the final chapter in our four-part journey through Gilead.By now, we understand something important: regimes like Gilead do not collapse overnight. They are weakened slowly and painfully through years of resistance, sacrifice and ordinary people refusing to let the bastards grind them down. Sometimes, the people fighting back never see victory. Sometimes they die believing they failed. But as Winston Smith understands in Orwell's 1984 (Episode 6 of this podcast), the truth must survive somewhere, for someone. Whether that future arrives in ten years or ten thousand, someone has to preserve the possibility that the world can be different. So people resist, some quietly, some loudly, imperfectly but relentlessly.In this final part of The Testaments, we follow the efforts of the Mayday resistance as they work to chip away at Gilead from within. We follow women risking everything because fear is no longer enough to stop them.This is not exactly a happy ending, but it is as close to hope as it can get in Gilead.The Testaments answers some questions from The Handmaid’s Tale, written 30 years after it. Remember to listen to Episode 18 (Part One and Two) and Part One of Episode 19 before listening to this one.