This podcast contains explicit content. The “genuinely, hauntingly, transgressive” (Guardian) navigator of underground realms of sex, drugs, and the Scottish working class, Irvine Welsh cooks up speedballs of kinetically subversive fiction laced with gritty vernacular and scalding social commentary. His first novel, Trainspotting, a mordantly funny portrait of the heroin-addicted fringe youth of 1980s Edinburgh, was adapted by Danny Boyle into a quintessential piece of British cinema. Welsh is also the author of more than a dozen other novels, including Ecstasy, Glue, Filth, Porno, and Skagboys. In his latest book, Welsh tells a dark story of obsessive weight-loss, abject codependency, and the media-driven transformation from hero to villain.