Ink vs Algorithm: The Writers' Pod
Creative writing in all forms has never been this exciting -- or frustrating. In a time when ChatGPT writes novels, TikTok “authors” go viral, and algorithms decide which stories live or die, Ink vs Algorithm is a podcast dedicated to writers who bleed ink and and publish their heart out.
Hosted by writer, ranter, and raconteur Mookie Spitz, each episode features lively conversations with flesh and blood authors who love what they do -- and hate competing with prompt-jockeys and viral Bots. Along the way more stories will be told and laughs shared, living proof the living still matter.
Whether you’re a novelist, journalist, pundit, poet, or just a cynic with a keyboard and an attitude, Ink vs Algorithm reminds us all why lived experience still matters — and how extracting and sharing it still takes relentless grit, determination, and a mountain of fought for and refined talent.
Episodes
16 episodes
The Jumper: 30 Seconds of Grief, 30 Years of Laughter
Mookie steps away from interviews for a solo episode of Ink vs Algorithm, reading one of his own short stories straight from Substack. "The Jumper" is set in a Chicago high-rise insurance office in the early 1990s, where a temp worker ...
Colleen Coffman: The "Crazy Ghost Lady" Haunts Us with Creativity and Empathy
Colleen Coffman spent decades as a special effects and makeup artist, building monsters for haunted houses and horror films, working alongside actors like Wes Studi and Lou Diamond Phillips, designing wigs for the Kansas City Ballet. But on thi...
Matthew Nelson & Mookie: Infinite Pynchon with Zero Restraint
Mookie's an "old veteran hoofer" Pynchon fan, having discovered the iconic author in the 1980s and obsessing ever since, while Matthew Nelson, now finishing his doctorate on Pynchon's fiction at the University of St Andrews, found him a differe...
Natalie Saar: 3 Books a Year, 1 Day Job, Zero Excuses
Natalie Saar joins Mookie for another episode of Ink vs Algorithm to share how she writes three books a year while also working, starting with the story of how her first published novel came out of a panic attack. She wrote her way thr...
Why Boys Stopped Reading, and How Malory & LitRPG Save Them
Reading fiction has become "a girl thing," and an entire generation of boys now pay for it. Mookie sits down with UK author Malory (yes, one name — think Sting, but with lots of typing) to dig into why literacy stats are cratering ...
Mary Rose on Memoir, Mortality, and Meaning
Mary Rose never expected a cancer diagnosis to become the catalyst for some of her most inspired and important writing.A former marketing executive, corporate storyteller, Mary Rose is a lifelong writer who joins Mookie to discuss her ba...
Bill Bernhardt Demands Truth & Justice for Superman’s Creators
Acclaimed and prolific author William Bernhardt joins host Mookie Spitz for a wide-ranging conversation that starts with the tragic origin story behind Superman and spirals into something much bigger: the brutal collision between creativity, co...
Jeff Krell & Jayson: 40 Years of Turning Life Into Story
In this episode of Ink vs Algorithm, Mookie sits down with cartoonist and writer Jeff Krell, the creator of Jayson: a comic strip turned graphic novel universe that started as pure survival and evolved into a living, breathing...
"Survey Says!" Indie Author Reality Check
In this episode of Ink vs Algorithm: The Writer’s Pod, author Mookie Spitz breaks down the 2025 Indie Author Survey from Written Word Media: a rare, data-intensive look at how over 1,300 indie authors worldwide are actually publishing, earning,...
Cornish Legend Bert Biscoe: Caring, Governing & Bringing Truth to Power
What do Cornish miners, the Mayflower, the American Constitution, World War II, and rock ’n’ roll have in common? Cornwall!In this 7th episode of Ink vs Algorithm, Mookie Spitz has tea with Bert Biscoe—Cornish poet, songwriter, ...
Dull Kings, Sharp Arrows: Mark Oldroyd's Chamberlain's Gambit
What happens when a retired logistics expert decides to write a historical murder mystery set at the most politically unstable moment in late-medieval England?In this episode of Ink vs. Algorithm, Mookie Spitz talks with British...
Ali Rizvi Celebrates His Atheist Muslim Anniversary
This episode of The Writers' Pod drops you right into the mix: ideology, apostasy, 9/11, the collapse of the New Atheist movement, and the cultural schizophrenia of post-Trump America — all through the lived experience of Ali A. R...
The Art of Undoing: The Poetic Rebirth of Hudson Plumb
In this episode of Ink vs Algorithm: The Writers' Pod, Mookie Spitz sits down with poet and healthcare strategist Hudson Plumb, whose new collection The Art of Undoing (Finishing Line Press) has already become a bestseller. Th...
TH Forest is the Maestro of MM Romance
In this episode of Ink vs Algorithm: The Writers' Pod, Mookie sits down with TH Forest, the author of Twinkies and Beefcake, Descendants of the Gods, and the Matt & Ollie queer romance saga to explor...
Julianne Weaves Her Creative Webb
Welcome to Ink vs Algorithm: The Writers' Pod, a conversational laboratory where the creative mind and the digital machine collide. Hosted by Mookie Spitz, a novelist, podcaster, and manic ranter, this show dissects what it means to wr...
Welcome to Ink v Algorithm: The Writers' Pod
Welcome to Ink vs Algorithm: The Writers' Pod, where flesh-and-blood writers face off against the machine age. Hosted by Mookie Spitz, himself a novelist, blogger, and ranter, this show dives headfirst into the creative chaos of 2025: ...
