Book Riot – The Podcast

Episode: Anthropic Settlement Portal Shows All. Mostly.

Hosts: Jeff O’Neal & Rebecca Schinsky
Release Date: October 6, 2025

Overview

In this episode, Jeff O’Neal and Rebecca Schinsky delve into the recent Anthropic AI copyright settlement, discuss a dramatic spike in sales for Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland following its new film adaptation, celebrate the return of Reading Rainbow with a modern twist, and debate the current challenges and quirks of the publishing industry. They also touch on book banning legal decisions, the surprising popularity of Kamala Harris’s memoir 107 Days, and share their recent reading experiences.

KEY DISCUSSION POINTS & INSIGHTS

The Anthropic AI Copyright Settlement Portal

• [07:01] Jeff introduces the massive Anthropic settlement—$1.5 billion to authors whose copyrighted works were used improperly by the AI company.
  • Authors can now check if their books are in the dataset, see if copyrights were filed properly, and submit claims up to March 23, 2026.
  • Many authors discovered their publishers never filed copyrights, causing missed compensation.
  • “A whole lot of authors found out by surprise that their publishers had not filed their copyright.” – Rebecca [07:26]
• Eligibility & Payouts:
  • Even obscure titles may be listed, and each eligible book counts as a “share”—payouts will be equal, not sales-based.
  • Estimated payout: initially $3,000/book (based on 495,000 eligible books), but could drop to ~$1,500 if claims approach one million titles.
  • Larger authors (e.g., Dan Brown, Stephen King) must decide whether to accept the payout (and waive future legal claims) or keep options open for larger lawsuits elsewhere.
• Opt-In/Opt-Out Complexity:
  • Authors must opt out before knowing exact payout amounts.
  • “Do I have to sign away my rights before knowing how much money I'm going to get?...That would seem to matter.” – Jeff [13:17]
• Model Implications:
  • Anthropic must remove pirated books from its AI training data, but can include copyrighted titles if they acquire legally.
  • “If they go legally acquire a copy…they can feed it right back in. It just has to be legally acquired.” – Rebecca [15:46]

Vineland Adaptation - Pynchon on Screen

• [16:52] Rebecca reviews One Battle After Another, a film adaptation of Pynchon’s Vineland.
  • Set mostly 15 years after the 2008 prologue; keeps the wild energy and political punch of the novel.
  • Describes a thrilling car chase in California’s hills as “so compelling…zany and weird and pointed and scary and political and so good.”
  • “That’s how I felt for the last 90 minutes of this movie. And the last needle drop is so glorious…” – Rebecca [18:19]
• Box Office & Book Sales:
  • Despite modest box office ($22 million), film has quadrupled Vineland’s 2024 sales—already at 8,000 units vs. 1,800 in all 2023.
  • “People will be discovering over and over again and they want to go back to Vineland and see what the deal is.” – Jeff [21:01]
• Book vs. Movie:
  • The book is “less legible” for casual readers—potentially surprising for new fans brought in by the movie’s accessibility.
  • “I think you need to be a little bit of a nerd…to go appreciate this movie…You need to be a certain kind of reader for Pynchon.” – Rebecca [21:58]
• Diversity & Adaptation Choices:
  • The film reframes much of the narrative around Black women and revolutionaries, drawing on the backgrounds of its creators.

Reading Rainbow Returns, Rebooted & Online

• [24:47] Announced reboot of Reading Rainbow with TikTok star and librarian Michael Threets as host.
  • Viral engagement: over 5 million people viewed Book Riot's announcement on Facebook.
  • Not on PBS: Will stream on Kidzuko, a Sony-run YouTube channel, due to copyright disputes.
  • The new show emphasizes libraries as inclusive community spaces and focuses on developing young readers’ identities.
  • “It’s all about engaging kids as readers, as library users with that curiosity and that joy that Reading Rainbow is all about.” – Rebecca [27:47]
• Cultural Commentary:
  Discussion of changing habits around reading, screen time for kids, and generational differences in consumption.

Publishing’s “Gambling Problem” & Track Record Crisis

• [29:53] In-depth discussion of Tajja Isen’s Walrus piece on the publishing industry’s obsession with “track,” or sales record.
  • Authors with a modestly selling first book are often penalized more than debut authors with no track record—bad sales data is worse than no data.
  • “An absence of data is better than having bad data.” – Rebecca [30:42]
  • Baked into this is risk aversion and “potential” as a sort of currency.
  • The conversation has sparked a wave of industry think pieces, with contributions from Kathleen Schmidt (marketing as gambling) and Neon Literary (readers’ need to take more risks).
  • To maintain a healthy, diverse publishing ecosystem, risk-taking must be shared between editors, marketers, media, and readers.
• Critique of “Spoonfeeding”:
  • Hosts challenge the notion that readers are only exposed to a handful of heavily marketed books—algorithmic discovery and media coverage play as much of a role as big publishers.

Book Bans and the Legal Status of “Government Speech”

• [39:44] The Florida district court’s ruling on And Tango Makes Three:
  • Removal from school libraries does NOT violate authors’ or students’ First Amendment rights, as school libraries represent “government speech.”
  • “A school library is not a public forum for expressing opinions.” – Judge Allen Windsor, summarized by Rebecca [41:10]
  • Removing a book does not make it unavailable; students can buy or borrow it elsewhere.
  • The result: administrations (and state governments) can curate library content to match their values—depicted as a troubling, Orwellian turn for public education and access.
  • “This is troubling in ways that a very direct New York Times reporting doesn’t quite convey…” – Rebecca [43:21]
  • Public libraries vs. school libraries—the former must host all viewpoints, the latter now increasingly controlled by local/state policies under this legal precedent.

Kamala Harris’s Bestseller & the State of Memoirs

• [43:43] 107 Days by Kamala Harris is on track to be 2025’s top-selling memoir.
  • “Throws more elbows” than expected—Harris critiques Biden, owns up to personal campaign missteps, and reflects on the chaos of 2024’s compressed campaign season.
  • “She does reveal some spikiness in her relationship with the Bidens near the end…She also owns a lot of responsibility for decisions.” – Rebecca [46:38]
  • Harris signals she’s done with electoral politics (“not a setup to run for something else”).
  • High initial sales likely front-loaded by Harris’s admirers; sales may taper quickly.
  • “...it is not a testament to Kamala Harris’s popularity as much as to...a pretty soft market for memoirs this year.” – Rebecca [49:10]

Frontlist Foyer – Recent Reads & Recommendations

• Cory Doctorow’s Insidification ([52:47])
  • Explores how platforms evolve to exploit users and creators for shareholder gain (“making everybody’s experience shitty in the end”).
  • “Wherever there is a platform, there is the likelihood that this will happen…here’s what to look out for and what we could do.” – Rebecca [55:51]
  • Focuses on competition and regulation as antidotes; readable even for non-industry readers.
• Mary Roach’s Replaceable Youe ([57:20])
  • Engaging, gross, and insightful about the history and science of body-part replacements; narrated by Roach herself for extra personality.
• Bora Chung’s Midnight Timetable ([57:20])
  • A “novel in ghost stories”—blends political themes, surreal scenarios, and dark humor in an accessible format.
  • “Creepy, strange, quite funny at times…I really enjoyed it.” – Jeff

NOTABLE QUOTES & MEMORABLE MOMENTS

• On copyright dereliction:
  “Does this fall into had one job territory?…Aren't you supposed to do that?” – Jeff [07:31]
• On the payout unknowns:
  “Do I have to sign away my rights before knowing how much money I'm going to get? That would seem to matter.” – Jeff [13:17]
• On Vineland the movie:
  “That's how I felt for the last 90 minutes of this movie…the last needle drop is so glorious that you just go out on a high.” – Rebecca [18:19]
• On adaptation faithfulness:
  “All the other stuff from the movie, like the zany cross-genre stuff, there are no alien aliens, there are no ninja sequences…they maintain a lot of the heart.” – Rebecca [21:58]
• On publishing’s problem:
  “When you can see that this book did not sell well, that feels heavier than this book could do anything.” – Rebecca [31:04]
• On book marketing myths:
  “To a first approximation, no one has heard of any book that comes out in a given week. I haven't been spoon fed anything.” – Jeff [35:23]
• On legal censorship logic:
  “…what happens in the school is government speech. And they…don’t choose to say that being gay is okay.” – Rebecca [42:00]
• On Harris’s campaign memoir:
  “She spills a little tea, she throws some elbows…I think she takes a lot of responsibility for things that she could have done better.” – Rebecca [46:38]
• On Doctorow’s message:
  “The real point…for the average reader and internet user is: wherever there is a platform, there is the likelihood that this will happen.” – Rebecca [55:51]

TIMESTAMPS FOR IMPORTANT SEGMENTS

• [07:01] – Anthropic Settlement Portal: What it means and how it works
• [16:52] – Review & cultural impact of One Battle After Another (Pynchon’s Vineland adaptation)
• [24:47] – Reading Rainbow reboot announcement and its viral reception
• [29:53] – Publishing’s “track record” philosophical crisis
• [39:44] – School book bans, “government speech,” and their legal/ethical implications
• [43:43] – Kamala Harris’s 107 Days: Elbows thrown, authorship, and industry context
• [52:47] – Recent reads: Doctorow’s Insidification; Roach’s Replaceable Youe; Chung’s Midnight Timetable

For further exploration, check the show notes linked in your podcast app for application information, articles referenced, and the Book Riot flagship newsletter.