Our Job is to Live: Jasmine Warga on Belonging and Radical Hope
Our Job is to Live: Jasmine Warga on Belonging and Radical Hope  
Podcast: The Reading Culture
Published On: Wed Jul 09 2025
Description: "We all need to have radical hope. I have my really hopeless days too, but… it’s such a privilege to get to live and to survive. Our job is to live, and I think that’s a really amazing thing.” - Jasmine WargaWe all want to make the most of our time here. Not just survive, but dream big and live fully. For Jasmine Warga, that means carrying forward the strength of those before her while creating space for joy, curiosity, and self-discovery. It means letting go of perfection, holding on to radical hope, and writing stories that reflect kids’ realities. Jasmine Warga is a Newbery Honor winner and New York Times bestselling author of Other Words for Home, The Shape of Thunder, A Rover’s Story, and more. Her work explores identity, belonging, and how being different can be what unites us. In this episode, Our Job is to Live: Jasmine Warga on Belonging and Radical Hope, Jasmine shares what it was like growing up as a mixed kid and daughter of an immigrant in Ohio, her lightbulb moment while teaching sixth grade, and how Animorphs, surrealist art and a dash of Virginia Woolf shaped not only her voice as a writer, but also her commitment to living joyfully, and spreading joy to others.***For her reading challenge, Read Global, Jasmine invites adult readers to step outside the familiar and read more broadly, beyond their own borders.Peruse selected titles and Jasmine’s full reading challenge for free at thereadingculturepod.com/jasmine-wargaThis week's Beanstack Featured Librarian is Cassie Owens Moore, a middle school librarian in South Carolina at Seneca Middle School. She shares how a group of fired-up sixth graders convinced her that Marvel and manga deserved their own sections of her library, and why building a great library means working for your students.Show ChaptersChapter 1: Where Are You From?Chapter 2: The Other Side of HomeChapter 3: So Many QuestionsChapter 4: The HoursChapter 5: I Am The Mars RoverChapter 6: No One’s Gonna Read This BookChapter 7: Radical HopeChapter 8: Reading ChallengeChapter 9: Beanstack Featured LibrarianLinksThe Reading CultureThe Reading Culture Newsletter SignupFollow The Reading Culture on Instagram (for giveaways and bonus content)Jasmine Warga Jasmine Warga InstagramMr. Schu (Jasmine’s neighbor)Palestinians in JordanAnimorphsThe HoursCamille ClaudelBeanstack resources to build your community’s reading cultureJordan Lloyd BookeyHost and Production CreditsHost: Jordan Lloyd BookeyProducers: Mel Webb and Lower Street MediaScript Editors: Josia Lamberto-Egan, Mel Webb, Jordan Lloyd Bookey