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Booked Up with Jen Taub — Arts
Booked Up with Jen Taub

Booked Up with Jen Taub features intimate interviews with nonfiction authors. Jen’s guests include writers of current bestsellers and beloved backlist books. Conversations cover love, money, politics, early dreams, writing habits, reading tastes, procrastination techniques, self-doubt, and news of the day.

Creator and host, Jen Taub is a law professor, advocate, and author. Her nonfiction books include BIG DIRTY MONEY (Viking 2020) and OTHER PEOPLE’S HOUSES (Yale Press 2014). She focuses on “follow the money” matters— promoting transparency and opposing corruption.

Jen’s favorite poem is Prufrock (and yes she knows that Eliot held abhorrent views. She contains multitudes and can separate the dancer from the dance.)

Taub was the Bruce W. Nichols Visiting Professor of Law in fall 2019 at Harvard Law School and is now a professor of law at the Western New England University School of Law. A former associate general counsel at Fidelity Investments, she is a graduate of Yale College and Harvard Law School.

Copyright: © Jennifer Taub & Politicon LLC

Latest Episodes:

29: ACCEPTANCE by David L. Marcus Jun 11, 2023

Show notes

Today Jen’s guest is her long-time friend and Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist David L. Marcus. They talk about Dave’s latest book Acceptance: A Legendary Guidance Counselor Helps Seven Kids Find the Right Colleges –– and Find Themselves.
Dave also happens to be the cousin of Roy Cohn the disgraced and disbarred attorney who represented the late Senator Joe “Have you No Sense of Decency” McCarthy and more recently Fred and Donald Trump.
Dave wears many hats. He’s a writing coach, career counselor and of course, writer. He has been a newspaper and newsmagazine reporter, a high school teacher and a writing instructor at a business school. In between, he wrote two highly-praised nonfiction books. The first was What It Takes To Pull Me Through: Why Teenagers Get in Trouble and How Four of Them Got Out. And the second Acceptance. As a staff member of the Boston Globe, Dallas Morning News, Miami Herald, Newsday and US News & World Report, Marcus was a columnist, roving national reporter and foreign correspondent. Now he speaks to groups about what he learned covering education and parenting.
Contact Booked Up:
You can email Jen & the Booked Up team at: BOOKEDUP@POLITICON.COM or by writing to:
BOOKED UP
P.O. BOX 147
NORTHAMPTON, MA 01061
Get More from David Marcus
Twitter | Website | Author of ACCEPTANCE
Get More from Jen Taub:
Twitter | Follow the Money Substack | Author of BIG DIRTY MONEY

28: NAZI BILLIONAIRES by David de Jong Jun 04, 2023

Show notes

Jen’s guest is David de Jong, the author of a mindblowing new narrative nonfiction book called Nazi Billionaires: The Dark History of Germany’s Wealthiest Dynasties. Before he began researching for this book, David covered banking, finance, and hidden wealth for Bloomberg News.
This book puts the lie to the often-heard claims by descendants and apologists for the industrialists who collaborated for profit with Hilter. You’ve heard them too. That these business leaders did not know what was going on at the concentration and extermination camps, that they were helping Jews by buying businesses on the cheap, that they had not sought out to be members of the Nazi party but were forced to to stay in business. Piece by piece, David offers the proof that these are not just lies but that the truth is more horrific than any of us can imagine.
The glowing reviews have rolled in. Bradley Hope, author of the fabulous book Billionaire Dollary Whale (about the Malaysian wealth fund) had this to say:
“David de Jong’s explosive debut of narrative nonfiction is as riveting as it is disturbing. At times, it felt like reading the anti–Schindler’s List: instead of secretly helping the Jews, Germany’s most powerful tycoons brutally exploited their suffering for personal profit. The fact that some of Germany’s greatest fortunes are deeply intertwined with the ignominies of the Third Reich should be much better known.”
Yale Law Professor Samuel Moyn’s says, “David de Jong’s sleuthing has uncovered a remarkable and upsetting web of connections between the signature evil of the twentieth century and fabulous riches today. With its finely wrought stories of German individuals and families—including Jews who were expropriated—Nazi Billionaires suggests that even today amends have not yet been made for the profits that some reaped in an era of horror.”
Why so much kvelling? It’s well-deserved. How David did this and the toll it took on him is at the top of my mind. Can’t wait to speak with him. So, with no further delays. Let’s dive in.
Contact Booked Up:
You can email Jen & the Booked Up team at: BOOKEDUP@POLITICON.COM or by writing to:
BOOKED UP
P.O. BOX 147
NORTHAMPTON, MA 01061
Get More from David Dejong:
Twitter | Website | Author of NAZI BILLIONAIRES
Get More from Jen Taub:
Twitter | Follow the Money Substack | Author of BIG DIRTY MONEY

27: Maggie Smith, You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir May 28, 2023

Show notes

This week for the book club, we have poet Maggie Smith talking about her tell-most own new bestselling memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful.
You know Maggie from a poem she wrote in an Ohio coffee shop in 2015. That poem “Good Bones” was so deeply true and beautiful that readers passed it around. And it went viral a year or two later. Poems don’t go viral, but this one did, so much so that the unimaginable happened. First. In April of 2017, Meryl Streep read that poem, “Good Bones” at a Lincoln Center gala. But there’s a next. Next, her husband –– the father of her two young children –– the fellow writer, turned lawyer she met in a creative writing class in college. That guy. He blew up the marriage with a postcard and a pine cone.
Joining us in this conversation is one of Maggie’s and my mutual friends, activist and writer Charlotte Clymer. You know Charlotte from her regular appearances on the Mary Trump Show. She was previously the press secretary for rapid response at the Human Rights Campaign and director of communications and strategy at Catholics for Choice.
Contact Booked Up:
You can email Jen & the Booked Up team at: BOOKEDUP@POLITICON.COM or by writing to:
BOOKED UP
P.O. BOX 147
NORTHAMPTON, MA 01061
Get More from Maggie Smith
Twitter | Website | Author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful
Get More from Charlotte Clymer
Twitter | Website | Charlotte’s Web Thoughts Substack
Get More from Jen Taub:
Twitter | Follow the Money Substack | Author of BIG DIRTY MONEY

26: Steve Vladeck on THE SHADOW DOCKET May 21, 2023

Show notes

This week Jen’s guest is Professor Steve Vladeck, author of the sensational new book: The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic.
The Shadow Docket is a must-read book, not just for court-watchers and garden-variety nerds, but also for anyone and everyone who wants to sound smarter on Twitter. Okay, maybe that’s a low bar. But, you get the drift. Don’t just trust me. Publisher’s Weekly said “This insightful and accessible account raises an important alarm.” Plus, Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Purdue the Pharma book, Empire of Pain praised Steve for using “elegant, accessible prose” to “expose[] the degree to which significant battles, from abortion to immigration, are being adjudicated behind closed doors, in unseen, unsigned, unexplained decisions.”
Steve Vladeck is professor at the University of Texas, at Austin School of Law where he holds the Charles Alan Wright Chair In Federal Courts. He is a nationally recognized expert on the federal courts, constitutional law, national security law, and military justice. But, anyone can claim to be an expert. On paper. Steve is the real deal. Not just in the classroom and prestigious academic journals (like the Harvard Law Review and Yale Law Journal) but also in courtrooms. He has argued over a dozen cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Texas Supreme Court, and various lower federal civilian and military courts.
But most importantly, he’s a really nice person.
Contact Booked Up:
You can email Jen & the Booked Up team at: BOOKEDUP@POLITICON.COM or by writing to:
BOOKED UP
P.O. BOX 147
NORTHAMPTON, MA 01061
Get More from Steve Vladeck
Twitter | Website | Author of THE SHADOW DOCKET
Get More from Jen Taub:
Twitter | Follow the Money Substack | Author of BIG DIRTY MONEY

25: Ben Smith on TRAFFIC May 14, 2023

Show notes

This week, Jen’s guest is Ben Smith, author of Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral. This hot new book takes a close look at the people and the patterns behind the click-bait-journalism-world that helped inflate Donald Trump but also gave us a renewed faith in humanity with an endless supply of baby-animal rescue videos.
You know Ben from his role as the founding editor-in-chief for BuzzFeed News where he released the Steele Dossier to the world. Today, Ben is the editor-in-chief of Semafor, a new global news organization that launched last year. Just before that he was the media columnist for the New York Times. Jen and Ben recorded this interview just before Buzzfeed CEO Jonah Peretti announced plans to shutter Buzzfeed News.
Contact Booked Up:
You can email Jen & the Booked Up team at: BOOKEDUP@POLITICON.COM or by writing to:
BOOKED UP
P.O. BOX 147
NORTHAMPTON, MA 01061
Get More from Ben Smith
Twitter | Website | Author of TRAFFIC
Get More from Jen Taub:
Twitter | Follow the Money Substack | Author of BIG DIRTY MONEY

24: Anastasia Curwood on her new biography of Shirley Chisholm May 07, 2023

Show notes

This week, Jen’s guest on Booked Up is Anastasia Curwood. They discuss her insightful new biography Shirley Chisholm: Champion of Black Feminist Power Politics. As you likely know, in 1968, Shirley Chisholm became the first Black woman elected to Congress and in 1972, the first Black major party presidential candidate.
Anastasia Curwood is a beloved and brilliant professor at University of Kentucky and Interim Chair of the History Department. She also serves as director of the Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies at UK. Her scholarship focuses on the interface between private life and historical context for black Americans in the twentieth century. Her first book called Stormy Weather focused on marriages between middle-class African Americans between the two world wars.
Contact Booked Up:
You can email Jen & the Booked Up team at: BOOKEDUP@POLITICON.COM or by writing to:
BOOKED UP
P.O. BOX 147
NORTHAMPTON, MA 01061
Get More from Anastasia Curwood
Twitter | Website | Author of SHIRLEY CHISHOLM and STORMY WEATHER
Get More from Jen Taub:
Twitter | Follow the Money Substack | Author of BIG DIRTY MONEY

23: Book Club: YOUR BOOK! Apr 30, 2023

Show notes

Booked Up with Jen Taub has a special episode for April’s book club. The topic is your book.” You’re the author, it’s you. Today we are talking about how books get proposed, sold, written, edited, published and promoted.
It’s kind of like back in 2006 when TIME magazine announced their person of the year. On the cover of that issue of TIME was a drawing of a large desktop computer. In the center of the monitor was a reflective surface that functioned as a mirror. If you picked up the magazine in the supermarket checkout line, you would see yourself. In case you missed it. The text above the computer read, “Person of the Year.” And on the mirror-like surface was the word, “You.”
Guests are literary agent Jill Marr and book club regular, publicist Ivan Lett.
Jill is a literary agent at the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency. She looks for non-fiction by authors with a big, timely, smart message. Jill represents many names you would recognize including Dr. Jennifer Gunter, author of the bestseller THE MENOPAUSE MANIFESTO. Jill is always looking for fiction and non-fiction by unrepresented voices, BIPOC and Latinx writers, disabled persons, and people identifying as LGBTQ+. She loves food-centric novels, no matter what the genre.
Ivan, who is a regular on our Booked Up book club episodes, is a New York-based marketing, publishing, and communications professional; poet; and freelance writer. He advises fiction and nonfiction authors and researchers on strategies for print and digital publication. Ivan is currently a Publicity Manager at Basic Books, a publishing house founded in 1950 that has released award-winning books in history, science, sociology, psychology, politics, and current affairs.
Contact Booked Up:
You can email Jen & the Booked Up team at: BOOKEDUP@POLITICON.COM or by writing to:
BOOKED UP
P.O. BOX 147
NORTHAMPTON, MA 01061
Get More from Jill Marr
Twitter | Website | Facebook
Get More from Ivan Lett
Twitter | Website | Author of HAARLEM REBORN
Get More from Jen Taub:
Twitter | Follow the Money Substack | Author of BIG DIRTY MONEY

22: Wajahat Ali Go Back to Where You Came From Apr 23, 2023

Show notes

In his written work and public persona, Wajahat Ali is known for his quick wit. Humor seems to come naturally to him, and yet, he has turned his gift into a craft deployed deliberately. In Go Back to Where You Came From, he notes, “Humor, both sublime and silly, sophmoric and sophisticated, unleashed with purpose, can often help communicate very real, hard truths about American society.”
At times this book is laugh-out-loud funny. Consider Waj’s comment about his mother after she told him that Santa Claus did not exist. “That same year, she decided to become the serial killer of all imaginary creatures.” But beneath the jokes about his family, there is also tremendous hardship and tests of loyalty and limits. His words resonate, “Sometimes, a nod of approval, or a compliment from family or a friend is all it takes, the small gust of wind that lifts the sails.”
He opens up to his low moments. He was thirty, essentially homeless, helping his parents who had lost their home to criminal forfeiture, and were about to serve sentences for white collar crime convictions. Yet he had a successful play in production in New York. Friends thought he had “made it” and didn’t understand when he revealed a bit of his reality. “Eventually, I stopped telling anyone and just kept it all hidden.”
The enduring love of his wife Sarah is on display.Waj wrote this about proposing to his future wife, “I promised Sarah that one day I would ‘make it rain’ and to just be patient and that I had a lot of potential despite having very little at the moment. She looked at me and said, ‘Wajahat, I’m not marrying you for your potential. I’m marrying you for the man you are right now.’”
Contact Booked Up:
You can email Jen & the Booked Up team at: BOOKEDUP@POLITICON.COM or by writing to:
BOOKED UP
P.O. BOX 147
NORTHAMPTON, MA 01061
Get More from Waj Ali
Twitter | Website | Author of GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM
Get More from Jen Taub:
Twitter | Website | Author of BIG DIRTY MONEY

21: Carissa Byrne Hessick Apr 16, 2023

Show notes

Jen speaks with Professor Carissa Byrne Hessick about her remarkable book, Punishment without Trial: Why Plea Bargaining is a Bad Deal. Her book goes beyond just showing why plea bargaining is a bad deal. She also shines a light on several other types of punishments without trial. These are pre-trial detention, civil forfeiture, and assorted fees from pre-trial, booking and diversion programs.
Punishment without Trial shares the stories of heroes trying to address the inequities in the system and what they are up against, namely others trying to keep things the same or make them less just. We learn about how the search for truth and meaningful consequences is no longer the focus of the criminal justice system. Pressuring accused people into plea bargains is about valuing efficiency over due process.
Carissa teaches at the UNC School of Law and has a VERY fancy title –– the Anne Shea Ransdell and William Garland “Buck” Ransdell, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Law. She is also director of the Prosecutors and Politics Project.
Contact Booked Up:
You can email Jen & the Booked Up team at: BOOKEDUP@POLITICON.COM or by writing to:
BOOKED UP
P.O. BOX 147
NORTHAMPTON, MA 01061
Get More from Carissa Byrne-Hessick
Twitter | Website | Author of PUNISHMENT WITHOUT TRIAL
Get More from Jen Taub:
Twitter | Website | Author of BIG DIRTY MONEY

20: Elie Honig asks –– is Donald Trump Untouchable? Apr 09, 2023

Show notes

This week, Jen’s guest is her good friend Elie Honig. Elie is a former prosecutor and currently a Senior Legal Analyst at CNN. At the Southern District of New York Elie prosecuted federal cases involving organized crime, human trafficking, public corruption, and violent crime. Among his successes were prosecutions of 100 members and associates of La Cosa Nostra, including Bosses and other high-ranking members of the Gambino and Genovese Organized Crime Families.
But this program is called Booked Up, not Locked Up, so Elie is here to talk about his equally stellar writing career. He is the author of the national bestseller Hatchet Man about former Attorney General Bill Barr, and has a new must-read page-turner out now called Untouchable: How Powerful People Get Away With It.
It was Elie in Untouchable who broke the story about how the federal prosecutors decided not to charge Donald Trump in the Stormy Daniels hush money case. Yes, the very case that local prosecutor, District Attorney Alvin Bragg chose to pursue. But, there are some differences and Elie and Jen get into all of that. Plus he pulls no punches when it comes to critiquing Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Okay. Let’s dive in.
Contact Booked Up:
You can email Jen & the Booked Up team at: BOOKEDUP@POLITICON.COM or by writing to:
BOOKED UP
P.O. BOX 147
NORTHAMPTON, MA 01061
Get More from Jen Taub:
Twitter | Website | Author of BIG DIRTY MONEY
Get More from Elie Honig:
Twitter | Website | Author ofUNTOUCHABLE

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