Laila Lalami’s new book The Dream Hotel included with the ticket!
Novelist and essayist Laila Lalami joins us to discuss The Dream Hotel, her latest novel and a recent selection for the Read with Jenna book club. Set in a near-future America shaped by predictive surveillance, The Dream Hotel follows Sara Hussein, a Moroccan-American archivist and mother, who is detained upon returning to Los Angeles. An algorithm flags her dreams—captured via a neuroprosthetic device—as indicating she may harm her husband, triggering her long-term confinement in a privatized retention center.
Lalami uses this chilling dystopia to examine surveillance, algorithmic bias, privacy, and the commodification of consciousness. Sara’s efforts to regain control of her life offer a deeply humane lens on the consequences of sacrificing personal freedoms for security.
The author of Conditional Citizens and The Moor’s Account, Lalami continues to explore themes of identity, belonging, and justice in fiction and essays for outlets like The New York Times, The Nation, and The Washington Post.
In this conversation, she reflects on how fiction reframes urgent political questions and invites us to oppose systems that strip away autonomy under the guise of protection.
