Free Library Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Caitlyn Jenner | The Secrets of My Life Jul 16, 2018

Show notes

Watch the video here. In conversation with Buzz Bissinger, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of four books, including The New York Times bestsellers 3 Nights in August and Friday Night Lights. Caitlyn Jenner, formerly known as Bruce Jenner, is an Olympic gold medal-winning decathlete, reality television star, and businesswoman. When she came out in a 2015 television interview she also became the world's most famous transgender person. She subsequently received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPYs, was named one of Glamour magazine's women of the year, and was listed by Time magazine as one of 2016's 100 most influential people in the world. Millions of viewers tuned into the E! network's I Am Cait, a docu-series chronicling Jenner's transition and its effect on her many relationships. From childhood to the present, The Secrets of My Life tells her singular story. (recorded 4/28/2017)

Elizabeth Strout | Anything Is Possible* Jul 16, 2018

Show notes

Watch the video here. In conversation with Laura Kovacs, associate director, author events Possessed of ''a magnificent gift for humanizing characters,'' (San Francisco Chronicle), Elizabeth Strout won the Pulitzer Prize for the 2008 bestseller Olive Kitteridge, a linked collection of narratives about a woman in coastal Maine. It was adapted into a multi-Emmy-winning HBO miniseries starring Frances McDormand. A PEN/Faulkner Award finalist and Orange Prize nominee, Strout also penned the novels Amy and Isabelle, Abide with Me, and My Name is Lucy Barton, a no. 1 New York Times bestseller about an estranged mother and daughter's reconnection. Written in tandem with that book, Anything is Possible is a latticework of fiction that fleshes out the lives of the inhabitants of Lucy Barton's little town. *Optional book with ticket purchase Please allow extra time to get to Parkway Central, due to extensive road work in the area. (recorded 5/1/2017)

Richard Ford | Between Them: Remembering My Parents Jul 16, 2018

Show notes

Watch the video here. In conversation with Andy Kahan, Ruth W. and A. Morris Williams director of author events. ''A talent as strong and varied as American fiction has to offer" (The New York Review of Books), Richard Ford won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Faulkner Award for Independence Day, the sequel to his bestselling 1986 novel The Sportswriter. In 2006 and 2014 he returned to his most indelible character, famed everyman protagonist Frank Bascombe, in The Lay of the Land and the Pulitzer Prize finalist Let Me Be Frank With You. He is also the author of several other novels and story collections. His first memoir is an intimate portrait of his parents' travails across the panorama of mid-20th century America. Natalie Cohn Memorial Lecture (recorded 5/2/2017)

Gabourey Sidibe | This Is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare Jul 16, 2018

Show notes

Watch the video here. In conversation with longtime broadcaster and journalist, Tracey Matisak Gabourey Sidibe received a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for her debut role in the 2009 film Precious, based on the novel Push by Sapphire. Sidibe won instant fame for her heartbreaking portrayal of the movie's title character. Since then she has appeared on three seasons of American Horror Story, was a cast member of the Showtime series The Big C, has hosted Saturday Night Live, and has appeared in several films. She currently plays Becky on Fox's popular musical drama series Empire. This Is Just My Face tells the behind-the-scenes story of Sidibe's Bed-Stuy upbringing and rise to fame while proffering sensible dispatches on celebrity, depression, friendship, and self-image. (recorded 5/4/2017)

Amy Goodman | Democracy Now!: Covering the Movements Changing America Jul 16, 2018

Show notes

Watch the video here. After more than 20 years of bringing attention to progressive issues underreported by the mainstream media, Amy Goodman's Democracy Now! program now airs simultaneously on satellite and cable television, more than 1,400 radio stations throughout the world, and the internet. Her many honors include the first Right Livelihood Award, a lifetime achievement award from Harvard's Nieman Foundation for Journalism, and the George Polk Award. Goodman's five New York Times bestselling books include Breaking the Sound Barrier and her newest work, Democracy Now!: Twenty Years Covering the Movements Changing America. Now she returns to the Free Library to analyze and contextualize the last year's tempestuous political events. (recorded 5/8/2017)

Jo Nesbø | The Thirst: A Harry Hole Novel Jul 16, 2018

Show notes

Watch the video here. Starring a hard-bitten and self-destructive maverick Oslo police detective, Jo Nesbø's ''maddeningly addictive'' (Vanity Fair) Harry Hole novels have sold more than 23 million copies and have been translated into more than 50 languages. A musician, songwriter, economist, and former professional soccer player, the Norwegian native is the recipient of the Glass Key Award for best Nordic crime novel. In The Thirst, Nesbø's 11th installment in the Harry Hole series, the titular protagonist hunts for a nemesis from his past as he investigates a serial killer who targets Tinder daters. (recorded 5/9/2017)

Paula Poundstone | The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search for Human Happiness Jul 16, 2018

Show notes

Watch the video here. Paula Poundstone's decades-long stand-up comedy career has included multiple HBO specials, an Emmy Award, two comedy albums, and an American Comedy Award for Best Female Stand-Up. Renowned for her self-effacing wit and cheeky observations, she is a frequent panelist on NPR's Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me and a recurring guest on A Prairie Home Companion. She is the author of There's Nothing in This Book That I Meant to Say and has contributed articles to The Los Angeles Times, Glamour, and Mother Jones. In her new book, Poundstone embarks on a series of diverse adventures in search of long-term happiness. Barbara Gohn Day Memorial Lecture (recorded 5/11/2017)

China Miéville | October: The Story of the Russian Revolution Jul 16, 2018

Show notes

Watch the video here. In conversation with Joel Nichols, Data Strategy & Evaluation Administrator, Strategic Initiatives Acclaimed for his ''unparalleled inventiveness'' (Chicago Tribune), China Miéville is the author of a score of fantasy novels, comics, novellas, short story collections, Marxist nonfiction, and essay collections. Associated with the ''New Weird'' writing movement, his books include This Census-Taker, Railsea, The City & The City, and Perdido Street Station. A contributor to The New York Times, The Guardian, Granta, and a founding editor of the quarterly Salvage, he has won the Hugo, World Fantasy, and Arthur C. Clarke awards. In October, Miéville plunges into the extraordinary 1917 political tumult that led to the creation of the world's first socialist state. (recorded 5/16/2017)

Colm Tóibín | House of Names Jul 16, 2018

Show notes

Watch the video here. ''His generation's most gifted writer of love's complicated, contradictory power'' (Los Angeles Times), Colm Tóibín is the author of an impressive list of novels, short stories, essays, plays, poetry, and criticism. His novels The Master (2004) and The Testament of Mary (2013) were shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and Brooklyn (2009) was adapted into the popular BAFTA Award-winning film of the same name. The Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University, in 2011 Toibin received an Irish PEN Award. In House of Names, Tóibín brings a modern sensibility and sympathy to the story of Clytemnestra, the vengeful wife of Ancient Greece's King Agamemnon. (recorded 5/17/2017)

Dennis Lehane | Since We Fell Jul 16, 2018

Show notes

Watch the video here. Dennis Lehane's ''raw, harrowing, and unsentimental'' (Washington Post Book World) bestselling crime novels include Mystic River; Shutter Island; Gone, Baby, Gone; and Live by Night, all of which have been adapted into critically acclaimed films by Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese, and Ben Affleck. His other writing includes the story collection Coronado, several episodes of the television shows The Wire and Boardwalk Empire, and the screenplay for the film adaptation of his book The Drop. Lehane's latest novel tells the story of a shut-in, former television journalist who finds her sanity tested as she slips into a violent conspiracy. (recorded 5/18/2017)

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected