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Nathaniel Philbrick | In the Hurricane's Eye: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown Dec 07, 2018

Show notes

''One of America's foremost practitioners of narrative nonfiction'' (The Wall Street Journal), Nathaniel Philbrick is the author of the National Book Award-winning In The Heart of the Sea, an account of the nearly mythic 19th-century maritime disaster that inspired Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. His many other books include Mayflower, a Pulitzer Prize finalist; The Last Stand, a chronicle of the clash at Little Bighorn; Bunker Hill, a fresh take on the first major battle of the Revolutionary War; and Valiant Ambition, an account of the tragic relationship between George Washington and Benedict Arnold. In his latest book, Philbrick narrates the epic year leading to Washington's decisive land and naval victory over Lord Cornwallis's forces in Yorktown. Watch the video here. Ellis Wachs Endowed Lecture (recorded 10/25/2018)

Lynsey Addario | Of Love & War Dec 07, 2018

Show notes

Often focusing on armed conflict, human rights issues, and women's roles in traditional societies, Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Lynsey Addario's work regularly appears in The New York Times, National Geographic, and Time. She is also the author of It's What I Do, ''an unflinching memoir'' (The Washington Post) illustrated with her photography about the uncompromising pursuit of truth and her fight to be taken as seriously as her male colleagues amid every major theater of war of the early 21st century, including Afghanistan, the Congo, and Libya. Of Love & War is a collection of more than 200 photos from far-flung and under-publicized corners of the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa. Watch the video here. (recorded 10/30/2018)

Anthony Tommasini | The Indispensable Composers: A Personal Guide Dec 07, 2018

Show notes

Covering orchestras, opera, major international festivals, and a wide variety of contemporary music, Anthony Tommasini is the chief classical music critic for The New York Times. His books include a biography of the composer and critic Virgil Thomson and The New York Times Essential Library: Opera: A Critic's Guide to the 100 Most Important Works and the Best Recordings. He also has covered musical theater, done Times Talks with musical celebrities, earned a Doctorate of Musical Arts at Boston University, and recorded two albums of music by Thomson. In The Indispensable Composers, Tommasini offers a very personal perspective on the canon of classical composers. Watch the video here. (recorded 11/8/2018)

H.W. Brands | Heirs of the Founders: The Epic Rivalry of Henry Clay, John Calhoun and Daniel Webster, the Second Generation of American Giants Dec 07, 2018

Show notes

''Master storyteller'' (Christian Science Monitor) H. W. Brands was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his bestselling biographies of Benjamin Franklin (The First American) and Franklin Roosevelt (Traitor to His Class). Exploring such diverse subjects as Aaron Burr, Ronald Reagan, the California gold rush, Andrew Jackson, the Vietnam War, and Bill Gates, his more than two dozen books ''weave together keen political history with anecdote and marvelous sense of place'' (The Boston Globe). Brands returns with the story of the early 19th--century political giants who took up the daunting challenge of completing the constitutional work begun by the Founding Fathers. Watch the video here. (recorded 11/13/2018)

Daniel Torday | Boomer1 with Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah | Friday Black: Stories Dec 07, 2018

Show notes

Exploring the nature of family and loss through the derring-do of a Czechoslovakian war hero, Daniel Torday's novel The Last Flight of Poxl West won the National Jewish Book Award, as did his debut novella The Sensualist. The Director of Creative Writing at Bryn Mawr College, Torday's work has appeared in Esquire, Tin House, The New York Times, and other publications. His new novel pits a disaffected and desperate 30-something with no job prospects against his Baby Boomer mother and successful punk bassist ex-girlfriend. Praised by writer's writer George Saunders as ''strange, crazed, urgent and funny,'' Nana Kwamei Adjei-Brenyah's explosive debut fiction collection, Friday Black, situates characters in extraordinarily surreal, Twilight Zone-esque, yet all-too-familiar positions of oppression within our criminal justice, consumerist, and pop cultural institutions. Adjei-Brenyah's work has been published in some of the country's most prestigious publications, including Guernica, Compose: A Journal of Simply Good Writing, and The Breakwater Review, where he was selected as the winner of the 2nd Annual Breakwater Review Fiction Contest. Watch the video here. (recorded 11/14/2018)

Jeff Tweedy | Let's Go (So We Can Get Back): A Memoir of Recording and Discording with Wilco, Etc. Dec 07, 2018

Show notes

In conversation with Talia Schlanger, host of World Cafe on WXPN Jeff Tweedy is the lead vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist for the Grammy Award-winning rock band Wilco, declared ''one of the most respected bands on the planet'' and lauded as ''paragons of good taste, masters of genre-bridging craftsmanship and chill independence'' (Rolling Stone). Their many studio albums include Summerteeth, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and Sky Blue Sky. Tweedy was also one of the founders of the trailblazing alt-country group Uncle Tupelo, and has recorded a solo album, a record with his son Spencer, and has collaborated with a score of other musicians. In Let's Go (So We Can Get Back), Tweedy tells the story of his Midwestern upbringing and current life as a husband and father, the early Chicago indie-rock scene that launched his career, and his musical process and perspective. Watch the video here. (recorded 11/15/2018)

David W. Blight | Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom Dec 07, 2018

Show notes

David W. Blight's many books of history include American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era, Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory, and two annotated editions of Frederick Douglass's first two autobiographies. Blight is a professor of American History and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University. He received the Bancroft Prize and the Abraham Lincoln Prize, and is a former president of the Society of American Historians. Drawing on newly discovered archival information, Blight's new book is a definitive portrait of the most important African American orator and politician of the 19th century. Watch the video here. (recorded 11/19/2018)

Jabari Asim | We Can't Breathe: On Black Lives, White Lies, and the Art of Survival Dec 07, 2018

Show notes

Editor-in-chief of The Crisis magazine, the NAACP's flagship periodical, and a former editor and syndicated columnist at the The Washington Post, Jabari Asim is a professor of creative writing at Emerson College. His many books include The N Word; What Obama Means...For Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Future; A Taste of Honey: Stories; and the debut novel Only the Strong, ''a heartfelt, polyphonic ode to 1970s black America'' (Wall Street Journal). He is also a Guggenheim Fellowship-winning poet, playwright, and acclaimed children's book author. We Can't Breathe is a collection of eight essays that disrupt the conventional narrative of black history in America. Watch the video here. (recorded 11/20/2018)

Andrew Delbanco | The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America's Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War Dec 07, 2018

Show notes

''America's best social critic'' (Time), Andrew Delbanco is the author of numerous books that explore American history, character, and ideals, including The Real American Dream: A Meditation on Hope, The Puritan Ordeal, and Required Reading: Why Our American Classics Matter. His essays on history and culture are frequently featured in The New York Review of Books. President Obama awarded him the National Humanities Medal in 2012. The War Before the War tells the antebellum story of how two Americas-one enslaved and the other free-created an inexorable path toward the Civil War. Watch the video here. (recorded 11/27/2018)

Margaret George | The Splendor Before the Dark: A Novel of the Emperor Nero with Madeline Miller | Circe Dec 07, 2018

Show notes

Margaret George's fictional biographies of towering world figures-brimming ''with lust, violence, cruelty and lively conversation'' (Detroit Free Press) while adhering as closely as possible to the factual historical record-include Helen of Troy, The Memoirs of Cleopatra, The Autobiography of Henry VIII, and Mary, Called Magdalene, among many others. All have been international bestsellers. The sequel to The Confessions of Young Nero, George's latest novel finds the titular tyrant earning his place in history as Rome's most notorious ruler. Madeline Miller is the author of The Song of Achilles, the ''fast, true and incredibly rewarding'' (USA Today) Orange Prize-winning reimagining of Homer's The Iliad and its doomed champion. An Ivy League-educated classicist, for the last decade she has taught Latin, Greek, and Shakespeare to high school students. Miller's latest novel, the New York Times number-one bestselling Circe, is a subversive revision of the story of the daughter of Helios, a witch, lover, and humanist who draws the ire of both gods and mortals. Watch the video here. Carole Phillilps Memorial Lecture (recorded 11/28/2018)

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