What makes a crime story stay with you long after you've turned the final page? Is it the mystery? The characters? Or the emotional truth hiding underneath the story?

Michael sits down with writer, researcher, and author Rhonda Parker Taylor to explore the psychology behind compelling crime fiction—and how the experiences we carry through life can find their way onto the page.

New conversations return next week. In the meantime, we're reaching back for one of Michael's favorite conversations, exploring what happens when human behavior, emotional intelligence, and storytelling collide.

Rhonda's debut novel, Crossroads, may be a suspenseful crime thriller, but beneath the mystery are characters navigating emotion, relationships, difficult choices, and the consequences that follow.

Together, Michael and Rhonda explore how her experiences, academic research, encounters with law enforcement, and the people she's met have influenced the way she creates characters—and why emotional intelligence can make the difference between a character we simply read about and one we actually understand.

But this conversation goes beyond the mechanics of writing.

It's about why certain stories connect with us, why complicated characters feel real, and how the choices people make—on the page and in life—can reveal something about human nature.

Because sometimes the most compelling mystery isn't simply what happened.

It's why someone made the choice that changed everything.

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