Stephen Fishbach — Escape! - with Dalton Ross
February 6, 2026
1 hr 1 min
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484 of 672

February 6, 2026
Stephen Fishbach — Escape! - with Dalton Ross
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Politics and Prose Episodes Around February 6, 2026
Episode 484 of 672 — walk the feed in the order it was published.
1:01:32This episodeStephen Fishbach — Escape! - with Dalton Ross
Summary
<p><strong>A propulsive debut novel following a has-been reality TV star and a disgraced producer who get one last shot at redemption on a show set on a remote island, only to discover that the plot twists are beyond what they ever imagined.</strong><br /><em>Everyone gets the story arc they deserve.</em><br />Kent Duvall, a faded reality show winner, just wants another chance at glory—to find his way out of his depressing life and back to his highlight reel. When a scandal is captured on camera at a charity event, he gets his shot, on a new jungle survival show with seven other contestants. Each of them has been cast as a type—Ruddy the bully, Miriam the nerd, Ashley the love interest—but everyone is more than they appear. <br />The contestants’ goals seem simple—survive the wild, build a raft, win treasure. But Beck Bermann, a reality producer who suffered her own public shaming, sees them as characters in her redemption arc.<br />As the schemes and strategies spiral out, breakout camps sabotage each other and rival producers struggle to control the storyline. Soon the question becomes less about who will win than who will make it out in one piece.</p><p><strong>Stephen Fishbach</strong> is a Pushcart Prize–winning writer and former television executive. A two-time <em>Survivor </em>contestant (voted onto the show the second time by more than ten million fans), he’s worked on the network side as a vice president at MTV and freelanced for a reality producers’ trade group. He cohosts a weekly <em>Survivor</em> podcast as well as the literary podcast <em>Paraphrase</em>. Stephen graduated with honors from Yale and received an MFA in fiction at NYU. In 2009 he was named one of <em>People </em>magazine’s hottest bachelors. His short story “To Sharks”—an excerpt from <em>Escape!</em>—was published by <em>One Story </em>and garnered Stephen the Pushcart Prize. He lives in Washington, DC, with his wife and two daughters.</p><p>Fishbach is in conversation with <strong>Dalton Ross</strong>,<strong> </strong>an Editorial Director at <em>Entertainment Weekly</em>, where he has covered all things pop culture for over 26 years. He has written several weekly columns for the magazine, including “What to Watch,” “The Hit List,” “Ask Dalton,” and a back page column titled "The Glutton" that alternated in a rotation along with writers Stephen King and Mark Harris. In addition to writing and editing for EW, Ross also hosted a daily morning radio show on SiriusXM for eight years titled <em>EW Live,</em> and has appeared on TV shows such as <em>American Idol, The View, The Talking Dead,</em> NBC’s<em> TODAY, </em>ABC’s <em>Good Morning America, </em>and <em>CBS This Morning</em>, as well as MTV, ESPN, VH1, Bravo, AMC, Fox News, and CNBC. </p><p>PURCHASE: https://politics-prose.com/book/9798217048151?ic_referral=ffE3Wc2r9VZWmgaUrkipP8T83oI_YGOfrNqYy-_1VLkwMzAax1JkgcNdVSW4Fe9g_aieuXUWBO8Eup4pQJbJgpzgUDmptETsSKArmpfxerzQFtEXKh2FU1-rBwv4Ug-lZfKnNDo</p>