EPISODE · Jul 9, 2026 · 50 MIN
S9 Ep. 38 Peter Hessler on the Implications of a Chinese Education
from fiction/non/fiction
Acclaimed nonfiction writer Peter Hessler joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about his new memoir, Other Rivers: A Chinese Education. Hessler, a New Yorker staff writer who first went to China as a teacher in the 1990s, explains how education there shifted between that era and 2019, when he returned to Sichuan Province with his wife and daughters to teach English again. He discusses the impact of his students’ shift from rural to urban lives, unpacks the differences between his twins’ schooling in Colorado and in China, and the relationship, in both places, to memorization, creativity, and authority. He also talks about keeping in touch with his students from the 1990s, many of whom became teachers, over decades. Hessler reads from Other Rivers.This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.Peter HesslerOther Rivers: A Chinese EducationThe Buried: An Archaeology of the Egyptian RevolutionStrange Stones: Dispatches from East and WestCountry Driving: A Chinese Road TripOracle Bones: A Journey Through Time in ChinaRiver TownPeter Hessler Latest Articles | The New YorkerA Teacher in China Learns the Limits of Free Expression The Double Education of My Twins’ Chinese SchoolChina’s Shifting Relationship to the CountrysideChina’s Reform Generation Adapts to Life in the Middle ClassOthersStoner by John WilliamsGossip GirlJohn McPheeThe Grapes of Wrath by John SteinbeckEast of Eden by John SteinbeckKaroline Leavitt: This is a full-blown communist revolutionFactory Girls by Leslie T. ChangSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
What this episode covers
Acclaimed nonfiction writer Peter Hessler joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about his new memoir, Other Rivers: A Chinese Education. Hessler, a New Yorker staff writer who first went to China as a teacher in the 1990s, explains how education there shifted between that era and 2019, when he returned to Sichuan Province with his wife and daughters to teach English again. He discusses the impact of his students’ shift from rural to urban lives, unpacks the differences between his twins’ schooling in Colorado and in China, and the relationship, in both places, to memorization, creativity, and authority. He also talks about keeping in touch with his students from the 1990s, many of whom became teachers, over decades. Hessler reads from Other Rivers.This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.Peter HesslerOther Rivers: A Chinese EducationThe Buried: An Archaeology of the Egyptian RevolutionStrange Stones: Dispatches from East and WestCountry Driving: A Chinese Road TripOracle Bones: A Journey Through Time in ChinaRiver TownPeter Hessler Latest Articles | The New YorkerA Teacher in China Learns the Limits of Free Expression The Double Education of My Twins’ Chinese SchoolChina’s Shifting Relationship to the CountrysideChina’s Reform Generation Adapts to Life in the Middle ClassOthersStoner by John WilliamsGossip GirlJohn McPheeThe Grapes of Wrath by John SteinbeckEast of Eden by John SteinbeckKaroline Leavitt: This is a full-blown communist revolutionFactory Girls by Leslie T. Chang See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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S9 Ep. 38 Peter Hessler on the Implications of a Chinese Education
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