Free Library Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Amelia Pang | Made in China: A Prisoner, an SOS Letter, and the Hidden Cost of America's Cheap Goods Feb 24, 2021

Show notes

In conversation with Tracey Matisak, award-winning broadcaster and journalist In 2017, Amelia Pang earned the first place award in investigative journalism from the LA Press Club for her undercover exposé on the exploitation of immigrants smuggled into America to work in Chinese restaurants. Covering topics such as sexual violence on Native American reservations, economic hardships for immigrant Americans, and organic import fraud, her writing has appeared in publications such as The New Republic and Mother Jones. Her debut book tells the true story of a Chinese political prisoner and forced laborer's desperate missive and the larger story of how a vast array of products come from brutal slave labor camps. Books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 2/23/2021)

Michael Eric Dyson | Long Time Coming: Reckoning with Race in America Feb 19, 2021

Show notes

In conversation with Jon Meacham Meelya Gordon Memorial Lecture Michael Eric Dyson is the author of Tears We Cannot Stop, an ''eloquent, righteous, and inspired'' (Philadelphia Inquirer) call for racial change that was named one of the best books of 2017 by multitudes of publications. His many books address Barack Obama's presidency, Hurricane Katrina, Jay-Z, and the effects of MLK's assassination, among other wide-ranging topics. A frequent New York Times opinion writer, MSNBC political analyst, and a professor at Vanderbilt University, his many honors include an American Book Award and two NAACP Image Awards. In Long Time Coming, Dyson employs the lives and legacies of five contemporary Black martyrs as catalysts for America's long-needed voyage toward a racial reckoning and redemption. An expert on history, politics, and religion in America, Jon Meacham won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for his biography American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. His other bestselling nonfiction includes American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation and The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels. Signed books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 2/18/2021)

Maria Kefalas | Harnessing Grief: A Mother's Quest for Meaning and Miracles Feb 17, 2021

Show notes

In conversation with Ashley Fox, Writer. Speaker. Entrepreneur. Athlete. Mom. ESPN alumna. In 2012, Maria Kefalas's daughter, Calliope, was diagnosed with a rare, degenerative, and incurable genetic disease called metachromatic leukodystrophy. Rather than succumbing to grief, Kefalas and her husband harnessed this powerful emotion in order to save other children and, ultimately, themselves. What followed was an incredible odyssey that included a fundraising bake sale of more than 50,000 cupcakes, a blog that blossomed into articles published in the likes of Slate and the Huffington Post, two groundbreaking charitable foundations, and advocacy in America's loftiest halls of power. Harnessing Grief maps this journey and how it affected 13 other families with similarly afflicted children. A sociology professor at Saint Joseph's University, Kefalas is also the author of the books Hollowing Out the Middle, Working-Class Heroes, and Promises I Can Keep. Books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 2/16/2021)

Melissa Broder | Milk Fed Feb 12, 2021

Show notes

In conversation with Nomi Eve, author of Henna House and The Family Orchard, Director of the Creative Writing MFA program, Drexel University. Melissa Broder is the author of The Pisces, a darkly erotic yet tender tale of academia, break-ups, and compulsive merman love. She is also the author of an essay collection, So Sad Today, and four collections of poetry. Her poems have appeared in a multitude of publications, including Tin House and Guernica, and she is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize. Following a calorie-obsessed lapsed Jew who falls under the spell of a zaftig Orthodox frozen yogurt store employee, Broder's new novel is a ''sensuous and delightfully delirious tale'' (O, The Oprah Magazine) of variously forbidden appetites. Books with signed book plates may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 2/11/2021)

Elizabeth Kolbert | Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future Feb 11, 2021

Show notes

Barbara Gohn Day Memorial Lecture In conversation with Tracey Matisak, award-winning broadcaster and journalist ''An astute observer, excellent explainer, and superb synthesizer'' (Seattle Times), Elizabeth Kolbert is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History. An amalgam of field reporting, scientific discovery, and natural history, it follows the ongoing legacy of the manmade global cataclysm that threatens the very existence of life on earth. A longtime staff writer at the New Yorker and a member of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' Science and Security Board, she has earned a Guggenheim Fellowship, two National Magazine Awards, and a Heinz Award, among other honors. In Under a White Sky, Kolbert returns to her study of humanity's impact on the world to examine how we might change nature in order to save it. For Book-with-Ticket purchases please allow 2 - 3 weeks for delivery Books with signed book plates will ship after the event (recorded 2/10/2021)

Victor Wooten | The Spirit of Music: The Lesson Continues Feb 10, 2021

Show notes

In conversation with novelist and musician Wesley Stace A founding member of jazz fusion super group Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, bass guitarist Victor Wooten is a five-time Grammy winner and has been called ''the Michael Jordan of the bass.'' A producer, songwriter, and solo touring artist, he is the only person to thrice be voted Bassist of the Year in Bass Player Magazine's readers' poll and was named one of the top ten bassists of all time by Rolling Stone. He is also the author of the novel The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music. His new book tells the story of three strangers who are mystically summoned to Nashville to save the sound of live music. Books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 2/9/2021)

John Ghazvinian | America and Iran: A History, 1720 to the Present Feb 05, 2021

Show notes

In conversation with Ambassador John Limbert, US Deputy Secretary of State for Iran (2009-10); former hostage in the US Embassy in Tehran (1979-81) An author, historian, and former journalist, John Ghazvinian is the Executive Director of the Middle East Center at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of Untapped: The Scramble for Africa's Oil, a ''riveting account and superb analysis'' (Boston Globe) of the competition between world powers for the emerging market of crude oil from a dozen African countries. The coeditor of American and Muslim Worlds before 1900 and a contributor to periodicals such as Newsweek, The Nation, and the Huffington Post, he has taught Middle East history at a number of colleges and universities. In his new book, Ghazvinian charts the tangled relationship between America and Iran from the Persian Empire of the 18th century to the often icy diplomacy of today. Books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 2/4/2021)

Nadia Owusu | Aftershocks: A Memoir Feb 04, 2021

Show notes

In conversation with writer and librarian Maisy Card, author of These Ghosts Are Family Nadia Owusu won a 2019 Whiting Award for her work on Aftershocks. ''A memoir that broods on lost identity and statelessness'' (Elle), this debut book tells the story of the nomadic childhood she spent following her Ghanaian diplomat father across Africa and Europe and her arrival in New York in the wake of his death. Her other writing has appeared or is forthcoming in the New York Times, Literary Review, and Epiphany, among other publications. Books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 2/3/2021)

James Oakes | The Crooked Path to Abolition: Abraham Lincoln and the Antislavery Constitution Feb 03, 2021

Show notes

In conversation with Eric Foner, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery and Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, winner of the Bancroft, Parkman, and Los Angeles Times Book prizes. James Oakes won the 2008 and 2013 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize for his scholarly work on the 16th President and the politics of abolition. His many books include Slavery and Freedom: An Interpretation of the Old South, The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics, and Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861–1865. He is the longtime Graduate School Humanities Chair at City University of New York. The Crooked Path to Abolition diagrams the Constitution-based course of Lincoln's antislavery strategies. Books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 2/2/2021)

Paul Farmer | Haiti After the Earthquake Feb 01, 2021

Show notes

Due to a technical issue, the first 15 minutes of the recording were inaudible. The podcast joins Dr. Farmer a little later in his presentation. A recipient of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation's Genius Award, Dr. Paul Farmer is the U.N. Deputy Special Envoy for Haiti and Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is also the co-founder of Partners In Health, a nonprofit organization that addresses the healthcare needs of the developing world by pioneering locally driven solutions. In Haiti After the Earthquake, Dr. Farmer-who has worked in Haiti for nearly 30 years-examines the devastating aftermath of the 2010 quake and explores the complex social issues that make the impoverished nation especially vulnerable to natural disaster. Dr. Farmer will be interviewed by Dr. Steven Larson, Assistant Dean for Global Health Programs and an Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. (recorded 12/6/2011)

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