This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Naomi Kritzer, author of Obstetrix.
About Obstetrix: Doctor Liz has just been acquitted for performing the last abortion in North Dakota when she’s kidnapped.
They’re not just any kidnappers, but a fundamentalist cult, deep in the rural west, without respect for law or decency, and in desperate need of an OB/GYN.
Guarded, isolated, without access to the outside world, Liz nevertheless is treated with respect as the only doctor on the compound, but she is very aware of what happened to the last obstetrician they kidnapped.
She must escape, and bring help to the girls trapped at the compound, if it’s the last thing she does.
About Naomi Kritzer: NAOMI KRITZER has been re-reading favorite books since childhood, and probably still has passages from A Wrinkle in Time memorized. She writes for both adults and teens, including Catfishing on CatNet and Chaos on CatNet from Tor Teen and Liberty’s Daughter from Fairwood Press. Her writing has won the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, the Edgar Award, the Locus Award, and the Minnesota Book Award. Naomi lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, with her family and three cats. The number of cats is subject to change without notice.
This week’s picks:
- Naomi #1: Schmigadoon! (AppleTV)
- Naomi #2: A Dubious Clamor by Marissa Lingen
- Naomi #3: The Mirror Realm Cycle Series by Ariel Kaplan
- Tracy: Invincible (comics)
- Patrick: The Apothecary Diaries (Crunchyroll)
Links:
- Naomi Kritzer on BluSky
- Tracy Townsend on BluSky
- Patrick Hester on Instagram
- The Functional Nerds Patreon Page
© 2026 Patrick Hester
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