Podcast Episode Summary

Podcast: New Books Network — New Books in Fantasy
Episode: Mia Tsai, "The Memory Hunters" (Erewhon Books, 2025)
Host: A.E. Lanier
Guest: Mia Tsai
Date: January 23, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode features author Mia Tsai, discussing her new novel The Memory Hunters. The novel follows protagonist Kiana “Key” Strayed, an audacious archaeologist and religious figure with a unique ability to access “blood memories,” and her guardian Valerian “Vale” IV, whose job is to protect her—potentially even from herself. The conversation explores the book’s intricate world-building, the social and ethical implications of memory diving, questions of generational memory, institutions, class, climate disaster, and queer romance. Tsai and Lanier delve deeply into the novel’s inspirations, its speculative technology, and its nuanced characters.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Origins and Inspirations of The Memory Hunters

• "This is my kitchen sink book." — Mia Tsai [04:01]
  • Tsai describes her process as “picking up shiny things like a crow” and combining diverse inspirations—from climate disaster and post-apocalyptic ruins, to her volunteer work in botanical gardens and conversations with curators. The project examines what it means to uncover lost histories in a world layered with past civilizations.

Memory Diving: Magic, Technology, and Ethics

• Description of the System:

  • Memory diving involves consuming hallucinogenic mushrooms to experience another’s memories. Tsai playfully calls it “legal drug use... in the spine.” [04:11]
  • An economy and ethical debates spring up around the practice: who should have access to memories, what is safe to share, and what repercussions arise from exposure.
  • Tsai keeps some technical aspects mysterious intentionally, but notes she has worked out details “down to the percentages.” [05:34]

• Risks and Protections:

  • The human brain isn’t designed for implanted or borrowed memories, resulting in potential dissociation, rogue personalities, ungroundedness.

  • ”The hallucinations that are pulled up... become the foremost thing in the working memory.” [06:21]

  • Tsai draws on her background in psychology and neuroscience, describing techniques like grounding, art therapy, and reintegration as necessary safeguards for memory divers. Reintegration is “painting over the working memory” to help retain a stable sense of self. [08:01–09:13]

  • Quote:

    “Working memory is essentially like a toy chest...The more you retrieve that data, the more that toy stays on the top of the chest.” — Mia Tsai [08:22]

Institutions: The Museum and the Temple

• Dual Institutions:

  • The story features both the Institute of Human Memory (museum) and the temple, each playing distinct roles:
    • The museum/Institute is for public, collective history and research.
    • The temple maintains private, familial, and community memories (e.g., recipes, family history).
  • Tsai argues for multiple archival bodies because “it is kind of a horror show, actually, to think of anything that's in your house could one day be in a museum through, under no control of yours.” [10:13]
  • The institutions symbolize different stakes: public versus private knowledge, and raise questions about consent, cultural stewardship, and the shaping of history.

• Tsai also mentions further institutions, such as those for forensic memory hunting and the Academy—suggesting a rich, multifaceted social world. [11:57–12:35]

The Hunter/Guardian Relationship: Power, Care, and Queer Romance

• Dynamic Overview:

  • Every hunter is paired with a guardian for safety. Guardians serve as protector, therapist, and, if required, judge and executioner.
  • Tsai’s original intent: “I initially just wanted a Sapphic bodyguard romance.” — Mia Tsai [13:36]
  • The relationship is fraught: profound trust and intimacy are mandatory, but also comes with dramatic power imbalances and the ever-present risk that the guardian may turn against the hunter if mental integrity fails.

• “The Guardian will see the Hunter in their most sensitive moments...they also have to be the ultimate arbiter of whether or not this Hunter gets to live.” [14:00]

• Not all pairs become romantically involved; many are simply colleagues, but the book explores slow-burn intimacy and complex emotional terrain. [15:02]

Family, Class, and Climate Precarity

• Contrasting Backgrounds:

  • Kee is from a wealthy, established family—“she’s a Rockefeller, she’s a Vanderbilt, she’s a Carnegie...filthy rich.” Vale is from a poor, disaster-prone region and carries family responsibility.
  • Tsai deliberately centers class and geography, omitting race as a primary axis of discrimination. [15:51]
  • “How do we create the divisions in society? Oh, class and location, geographical location and class.” [15:56]

• Climate Change as Metaphor and Setting:

  • The world is shaped by recent and historic climate disasters, with profound effects on poverty, community disintegration, and knowledge loss.
  • Tsai references readings like Elizabeth Rush’s Rising and her personal family history with typhoons and natural disasters. [17:31]
  • "People who don't live on islands and people who don't live on a coast don't understand how quickly things can get out of control." [19:04]
  • The climate backdrop serves as metaphor for broader cycles of displacement, loss, and survival. [20:10]

Mentorship and Generational Cycles

• Both main characters are shaped by powerful mentors from their respective institutions. Tsai uses this to examine how cycles of violence or ideology perpetuate across generations.

  • “...the violence visited upon us is generational and you have to make choices to break those cycles.” [20:58]
  • Genevieve (Hunter) and Burdock (Guardian) are “the progenitors”—their dynamic echoes through the novel’s present. Additional pairs serve as mirrors or foils, illustrating different possible outcomes within the system. [22:38–22:57]

Setting as Love Letter

• The setting, “the Spine,” is based on North America, specifically Appalachia and the Piedmont around Atlanta.
  • Tsai describes it as a “love letter to the Appalachian region and also the Piedmont,” rarely represented in speculative fiction.
  • “I respect these mountains. They're very old and they're very angry. They're crotchety mountains.” [24:28]

Notable Quotes

• On Inspiration:

  "The way that I create books is like I pick up like a crow, bits and pieces of, like, shiny things here and there, and eventually they spin up and become a book." — Mia Tsai [02:00]

• On Memory Diving:

  "They take some shrooms and they trip and they hallucinate these memories...it is legal drug use here in the spine." — Mia Tsai [04:11]

• On Institutions:

  "It is kind of a horror show, actually, to think of anything that's in your house could one day be in a museum through, under no control of yours." — Mia Tsai [10:12]

• On Hunter/Guardian Relationship:

  "The Guardian will see the Hunter in their most sensitive moments, sometimes in their worst moments, sometimes when they don't even know who they are... they also have to be the ultimate arbiter of whether or not this Hunter gets to live." — Mia Tsai [14:00]

• On Class and Setting:

  "How do we create the divisions in society? Oh, class and location, geographical location and class." — Mia Tsai [15:56]
  "People who don't live on islands and people who don't live on a coast don't understand how quickly things can get out of control." — Mia Tsai [19:04]

• On Appalachia:

  "I respect these mountains. They're very old and they're very angry. They're crotchety mountains." — Mia Tsai [24:28]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 02:00 — Origins and inspirations behind The Memory Hunters
• 04:11 — Memory diving: mechanics and inspirations
• 06:21 — Psychological grounding and protections in memory diving
• 10:12 — The duality and purpose of memory institutions
• 13:36 — Hunter and guardian relationship dynamics
• 15:51 — Family dynamics and class tension in the novel
• 17:31 — Climate apocalypse and its impact on class, memory, and setting
• 20:58 — Mentorship, generational cycles, and the shaping of main characters
• 24:28 — The setting as an homage to Appalachia and the Piedmont

Memorable Moments

• Tsai’s irreverent, candid approach—mixing humor with scholarly references and neuroscience.
• The vivid analogy of working memory as a “toy chest.”
• The “kitchen sink” worldbuilding philosophy.
• Thoughtful dissection of class and climate—moving away from race as the driver of social division, and examining geographic and socioeconomic factors instead.
• Nuanced exploration of institutions, consent, and the multi-layered role of mentors.

Summary by section

This conversation is a rich, playful, and profound exploration of The Memory Hunters—touching on everything from wild world-building choices to sobering social themes, always in Tsai’s voice that blends warmth, expertise, and candor. It’s a must-listen for fans of speculative fiction, ethics, and complex queer relationships.