Jodi Picoult: Why Every Villain is the Hero of Their Own Story

Bestselling author Jodi Picoult discusses the central line from her new novel — that every villain is the hero of their own story — and how that insight shapes both her fiction and the way we all navigate life. She reveals the psychological cost of three decades spent climbing inside other people's minds, including people whose beliefs she can barely tolerate, and recounts a jarring interview that forced her to decide which version of herself would walk back into the room. The conversation also explores a finding from her research on lying that explains why even a small untruth becomes harder to take back over time, and where the boundary sits between sugarcoating your life and bending the truth to protect someone you love.