Free Library Podcast

Kate Masur | Until Justice Be Done: America's First Civil Rights Movement, from the Revolution to Reconstruction Mar 26, 2021

Ellis Wachs Endowed Lecture In conversation with Tracey Matisak, award-winning broadcaster and journalist Kate Masur is the author of An Example for All the Land, a Lincoln Prize finalist that examined Washington, D.C.'s role as a 19th century laboratory for civil rights policy and justice. She is also the author of numerous academic articles and essays that focus on how Americans viewed race, abolition, and equality during this era. Praised by David W. Blight as a ''masterpiece of scope, insight, and graceful writing,'' Until Justice Be Done is a history of the fight against racist American laws and institutions-Southern and Northern-in the decades before the Civil War. Books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 3/25/2021)

Viet Thanh Nguyen | The Committed Mar 24, 2021

In conversation with Alexander Chee, author of Edinburgh, The Queen of the Night, and How To Write An Autobiographical Novel, and associate professor of English and Creative Writing at Dartmouth College Viet Thanh Nguyen won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Sympathizer, the ''intelligent, relentlessly paced and savagely funny'' (Wall Street Journal) tale of a South Vietnamese army captain who immigrates to Los Angeles and reports on his fellow military exiles to the Viet Cong. The novel was also awarded the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Fiction and the Edgar Award for Best First Novel, among many other honors. Nguyen is also the author of Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War, a nonfiction companion to The Sympathizer, and the acclaimed short story collection The Refugees. An English professor at the University of Southern California, he has earned fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur Foundations. With The Committed, Nguyen has created a literary thriller and a novel of ideas that continues the story of the The Sympathizer's main character titular sympathizer as he experiences the delights and dangers of Paris. (recorded 3/23/2021)

Don Lemon | This Is the Fire: What I Say to My Friends About Racism Mar 23, 2021

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition America's sole Black primetime news anchor, Don Lemon has hosted CNN Tonight since 2014. Before joining the respected cable network in 2006, he worked for NBC News and MSNBC, and earlier in his career as a reporter and anchor in Birmingham, Philadelphia, and Chicago, among other places. The recipient of an Edward R. Murrow Award and three regional Emmy Awards, Lemon was named one of EBONY magazine's 150 most influential African Americans of 2009 and one of Advocate's 50 Most Influential LGBTQ People in Media in 2014. This Is the Fire draws on personal experience, informed reporting, and historical research to examine the struggle to end racism in our lifetime. (recorded 3/22/2021)

Hala Alyan | The Arsonists' City Mar 17, 2021

In conversation with Alix Gerz, Vice President of Communications, Free Library of Philadelphia Hala Alyan's novel Salt Houses, a ''heart-wrenching, lyrical and timely'' (Dallas Morning News) study of three generations in a Palestinian family, won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Arab American Book Award. A clinical psychologist by profession, she is also the author of several award-winning poetry collections, including The Twenty-Ninth Year, Atrium, and Hijra. Alyan has also published work in the New Yorker, Guernica, and the New York Times Book Review, among other places. A look at war's intergenerational legacy in the Middle East, The Arsonists' City tells the tale of a scattered family's return to Beirut to save its ancestral home. Books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 3/16/2021)

Eddie Glaude, Jr. | Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own Mar 17, 2021

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition The chair of the Department of African American Studies and the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor at PrincetonUniversity, Eddie S. Glaude Jr. is the author of the acclaimed book Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul. "One of the most imaginative, daring books of the 21st century" (Los Angeles Times), it vehemently argues against the idea that America exists as a post-racial society. He is also the author of Exodus! Religion, Race, and Nation in Early Nineteenth-Century Black America and is a frequent contributor and commentator to a host of media outlets. In Begin Again, Glaude offers guidance in our current struggles with race and trauma through James Baldwin's political and personal evolution. Books and a limited number of signed book plates are available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop. (recorded 11/24/2020)

Madeleine Dean and Harry Cunnane | Under Our Roof: A Son's Battle for Recovery, a Mother's Battle for Her Son Mar 11, 2021

In conversation with Action News anchor, Jim Gardner On the eve of the biggest professional risk of her life-running for a seat in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives-Madeleine Dean discovered that her son, Harry Cunnane, was battling a severe painkiller addiction. What followed was a family struggle fought by countless American families caught in the grip of the opioid epidemic. Told with candor through the dual perspectives of mother and son, Under Our Roof offers a first-hand look at this public health crisis. Concurrently publishing with Under Our Roof is You Are Always Loved: A Story of Hope, a child's companion to the adult memoir. This is a picture book, featuring an evergreen message about hope and unconditional love. Dean currently serves as the U.S. Representative for Pennsylvania's fourth congressional district and Cunnane works as a resource director at the same treatment center at which he initially sought help for his addiction. Signed books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 3/10/2021)

Yaba Blay | One Drop: Shifting the Lens on Race Mar 05, 2021

In conversation with Imani Perry Referred to by Michael Eric Dyson as ''one of the most brilliant and committed critics and advocates writing and thinking and working on behalf of Black people today,'' Dr. Yaba Blay is a scholar, activist, and cultural consultant. Focusing on Black women and girls through topics like personal identity and body image, she has launched a number of viral media campaigns, produced the CNN documentary Who is Black in America?, and is an internationally renowned public speaker. Her work has appeared in publications such as the New York Times, Essence, and EBONY, and she has appeared on CNN, BET, and NPR, among other media outlets. In One Drop, Blay questions conventional perceptions of Blackness in order to create and understand a more diverse worldwide community. Imani Perry is the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies and faculty associate in the Program in Law and Public Affairs and Gender and Sexuality Studies at Princeton. She is the author of six books, most recently the award-winning titles, Breathe: A Letter to My Sons and Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry. Books available through Uncle Bobbie's Coffee and Books (recorded 3/4/2021)

Beth Kephart | Wife | Daughter | Self: A Memoir in Essays Mar 04, 2021

In conversation with Jacinda Barrett, Traveler, Actress on Netflix Bloodline, Writer, Mother, Wife and all the rest of it. Beth Kephart is the author of more than 30 books across a wide range of genres, including poetry, young adult fiction, and, most notably, the memoir. These works include the award-winning how-to-guide, Handling the Truth; A Slant of Sun, a National Book Award finalist; and Love, an ode to all things Philly. A writing professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Kephart is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant, a Pew fellowship, and the Speakeasy Poetry Prize, among other honors. Composed of interlocking essays about travel, everyday miracles, and family, her new memoir is praised by Carolyn Forché as a ''shimmering'' book in which ''that most sought, most elusive treasure is revealed: what it means to be human, and aware.'' Books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 3/3/2021)

Joby Warrick | Red Line: The Unraveling of Syria and America's Race to Destroy the Most Dangerous Arsenal in the World Mar 03, 2021

Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Endowed Lecture Joby Warrick won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction for Black Flags, ''a revealing, riveting and exquisitely detailed account'' (San Francisco Chronicle) of the rise of ISIS and its mastermind's life and death. He also won the 1996 Pulitzer for public service for his contribution to a series about the devastating effects of factory farming on the southeastern United States. A reporter at the Washington Post for the last 25 years, Warrick is also the author of The Triple Agent, the narrative nonfiction story of a 2009 suicide bombing that killed seven CIA employees in Afghanistan. Red Line is a true-life thriller that details the largely unreported American effort to find and destroy Syria's chemical weapons. Books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 3/2/2021)

Brontez Purnell | 100 Boyfriends Feb 25, 2021

In conversation with Kaitlyn Greenidge Brontez Purnell is the author of Since I Laid My Burden Down, a debut novel about growing up gay in 1980s Alabama that ''not only holds its own as queer literature, but also expands upon it'' (San Francisco Chronicle). The winner of a 2018 Whiting Award for Fiction, he is also the author of a graphic novel, a children's book, and a novella. The multi-talented Purnell is also the creator of a cult zine, the frontman for a punk band, the founder of the Brontez Purnell Dance Company, and the director of an array of short films, documentaries, and music videos. One of Vulture's ''46 Books We Can't Wait to Read in 2021,'' 100 Boyfriends is a funny, foulmouthed, and sensitive look into the messy lives of queer men navigating the pitfalls of modern dating. Kaitlyn Greenidge is the author of We Love You, Charlie Freeman, a finalist for The Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize and one of the New York Times ''Critics' Top 10 Books of 2016.'' A contributing writer for the Times, Greenidge has earned fellowships from the Whiting Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 2/24/2021)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

Charles Kenny | The Plague Cycle: The Unending War Between Humanity and Infectious Disease Jan 29, 2021

A senior fellow and the director of technology and development at the Center for Global Development, Charles Kenny has extensively contributed to policy reforms in global health, UN peacekeeping, and international financial corruption, among many other urgent issues. A contributing editor at Foreign Policy magazine and a contributor to Business Week, he is the author of Getting Better: Why Global Development Is Succeeding and How We Can Improve the World Even More and The Upside of Down: Why the Rise of the Rest Is Great for the West. In The Plague Cycle, Kenny reveals the precarious relationship between civilization and infectious disease over the past 5,000 years. Books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 1/28/2021)

Stephanie Schriock | Run to Win: Lessons in Leadership for Women Changing the World Jan 28, 2021

In conversation with Yvette Nicole Brown, star of screens big and small and known to audiences for her roles in Community, The Mayor, Supermansion, The Odd Couple, and many other films and TV shows. The president of EMILY's List since 2010, Stephanie Schriock has helped steer the five-million-member organization to some of the greatest victories seen in its 35-year history. These victories included the election of many pro-choice women Democratic U.S. senators, U.S. representatives, governors, and state and local officials. Currently on the Board of Advisors of the anti-voter suppression group Let America Vote, Schriock served as the national finance director of Howard Dean's presidential campaign and managed the Senate races of Jon Tester in 2006 and Al Franken in 2008. In Run to Win, she offers strategies women can use to succeed in politics and other male-dominated fields. Stacey Abrams writes, ''Run to Win demystifies how to tackle the challenges of campaigns, using authentic voices to welcome readers with honesty, compassion and humor.'' Books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 1/27/2021)

Salamishah Tillet | In Search of The Color Purple: The Story of an American Masterpiece Jan 27, 2021

In conversation with Errin Haines, founding member and editor at large at The 19th, a new, nonprofit newsroom focused on the intersection of women, politics and policy. Salamishah Tillet is the author of Sites of Slavery, an examination of how contemporary African American intellectuals utilize the subject of slavery to challenge African American exclusion from the narratives of American history. She is a contributing critic-at-large for the New York Times, the Henry Rutgers Professor of African American Studies and Creative Writing at Rutgers University-Newark, and cofounder of the Chicago-based arts nonprofit A Long Walk Home. An amalgam of literary history, memoir, cultural criticism, and biography, Tillet's latest book explores the impact of Alice Walker's 1982 novel and the circumstances of its creation. (recorded 1/26/2021)

VIRTUAL - Sadeqa Johnson | Yellow Wife Jan 26, 2021

In conversation with Jennifer Weiner, bestselling author of numerous books including In Her Shoes and most recently Big Summer Yellow Wife tells the harrowing story of an enslaved woman forced to barter love and freedom while living in the most infamous slave jail in Richmond, Virginia. Sadeqa Johnson is the award-winning author of four novels, each exploring themes of marital fidelity, friendship, and the difficulties of connecting in modern life. Her accolades include being the recipient of the National Book Club Award, the Phillis Wheatley Award and the USA Best Book Award for best fiction.'' (recorded 1/25/2021)

Gabriel Byrne | Walking with Ghosts Jan 22, 2021

In conversation with musician and novelist Wesley Stace, author of Misfortune, By George, Wonder Kid and most recently Out Loud with dancer and choreographer Mark Morris An actor renowned as much for his versatility as his depth, Gabriel Byrne has portrayed King Arthur, Satan, Pope Gregory X, Lord Byron, a heartless Irish-American gangster, a Viking chieftain, D'Artagnan the Musketeer, and an ersatz Keyser Söze, among hundreds of other screen and stage roles. He earned a Golden Globe Award and two Emmy nominations for his role as a self-doubting psychotherapist on HBO's In Therapy, and was thrice nominated for Tony Awards for his roles in Eugene O'Neill's plays. In Walking with Ghosts, Byrne traces his path as a boy wandering the outskirts of working-class Dublin, to his entrance and expulsion from the Catholic seminary, to his days in amateur theater that launched a 40-year career. A book and signed book plate are included with the price of your ticket. Books will be mailed after the event. Please allow 2 - 3 weeks for delivery. (recorded 1/21/2021)

Ijeoma Oluo | Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America Jan 20, 2021

In conversation with Tracey Matisak, award-winning broadcaster and journalist ''A nuanced analysis of White male America'' that ''deftly combines history and sociological study with personal narrative'' (Washington Post), Ijeoma Oluo's So You Want to Talk About Race took a frank look at America's institutionally racist political, economic, and social systems. A New York Times bestseller, it garnered wide critical acclaim and was named to a plethora of 2018's best-of-the-year lists. Named one of the Root's 100 Most Influential African Americans in 2017, Oluo has written for the Guardian, the Stranger, Time, and Elle, among other publications. In Mediocre, she investigates the costs and consequences of white male supremacy over the last 150 years of American history. Closed captioning and ASL Interpretation will be provided. A book and signed book plate are included with the price of your ticket. Books will be mailed after the event. Please allow 2 - 3 weeks for delivery. (recorded 1/19/2021)

George Saunders | A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Masterclass on Writing, Reading, and Life Jan 19, 2021

In conversation with Daniel Torday, Director of Creative Writing at Bryn Mawr College, author of The Last Flight of Poxl West, Boomer1, and The Sensualist, and two-time winner of the National Jewish Book Award. ''One of the most gifted, wickedly entertaining story writers around'' (New York Times Book Review), George Saunders won the Man Booker Prize for Lincoln in the Bardo, a kaleidoscopic tale of the 16th President's son's death and purgatorial afterlife. His surreal short story collections include the New York Times notable books Pastoralia and CivilWarLand in Bad Decline; and Tenth of December, a National Book Award finalist. A professor of creating writing at Syracuse University, Saunders is the recipient of Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellowships and has been honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Pairing iconic short stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol with seven corresponding essays, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is a meditative master class on what makes great fiction click. A signed book is included with the price of your ticket. Books will be mailed after the event. Please allow 2 - 3 weeks for delivery. (recorded 1/18/2021)

Tommy Lasorda | I Live for This: Baseball's Last True Believer Jan 12, 2021

In conversation with author, journalist, and editor Larry Platt After 20 years of managing and 57 years with one franchise, Tommy Lasorda still suits up in Dodger Blue every day. The embodiment of the American dream, Lasorda went from a scrawny, overlooked Italian kid of average ability to become one of the most successful managers in baseball history--a Hall of Famer who led the Dodgers to eight division titles and two world championships in his storied seasons as manager. (recorded 11/16/2007)

Katherine May | Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times Dec 11, 2020

In conversation with Tracey Matisak, award-winning broadcaster and journalist Katherine May's fiction and memoirs include The Electricity of Every Living Thing, Burning Out, and No-Stress Meditation. She was also the editor of The Best, Most Awful Job, an anthology of essays about motherhood. Her latest book is Wintering, a paean to how we muddle through life's inevitable fallow seasons and embrace the opportunities these moments offer. Melding lessons from literature, the natural world, and personal experience, it's referred to by Elizabeth Gilbert as ''every bit as beautiful and healing as the season itself.'' The former Programme Director for Creative Writing at Canterbury Christ Church University, May has published work in such varied periodicals as Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, and the Times of London. Books available through theJoseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 12/10/2020)

Jerald Walker | How to Make a Slave and Other Essays Dec 10, 2020

In conversation with author, essayist, and radio host Solomon Jones. Jerald Walker's recent How to Make a Slave and Other Essays was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award. A ''restless, brilliant'' collection that ''can alight on a truth without pinning it in place'' (New York Times), it examines such wide-ranging topics as the medical establishment's racial biases, the burden of cultural stereotypes, and other elements that speak to what it means to be a Black American male in this charged moment. A creative writing professor at Emerson College and the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, Walker is also the author of Street Shadows: A Memoir of Race, Rebellion, and Redemption; and The World in Flames: A Black Boyhood in a White Supremacist Doomsday Cult. (recorded 12/9/2020)

An Evening with Signe Wilkinson Dec 04, 2020

In celebration of thirty-five years of cartooning at the Philadelphia Daily News and Inquirer. The first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning, Signe Wilkinson is acclaimed for her distinctive and irreverent art. A widely syndicated cartoonist based at the Philadelphia Daily News since 1985, she previously worked as a freelance journalist for the Philadelphia Inquirer and an editorial artist for the San Jose Mercury News. She has also published two collections of her work and has contributed drawings to a variety of other publications and books. A former president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, Wilkinson is the recipient of four Overseas Press Club Awards, two Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards for Cartooning, and Moore College of Art & Design's Visionary Woman Award. Her latest book is Herstory: 19 Cartoons Celebrating the 19th Amendment. . (recorded 12/3/2020)

Catherine Coleman Flowers | Waste: One Woman's Fight Against America's Dirty Secret Dec 03, 2020

In conversation with Khaliah Ali Wertheimer Dubbed the ''Erin Brockovich of Sewage,'' Catherine Coleman Flowers is a hero of the environmental justice movement. She is the rural development manager at the Race and Poverty Initiative of the Equal Justice Initiative and the former founder and director of the Alabama Center for Rural Enterprise. A crusader against the lack of basic sanitation in the rural United States, Flowers claims that these conditions foster an array of ancillary negative consequences. Waste tells the story of her transformation from country girl to student civil rights organizer to MacArthur Fellowship-winning frontline activist. Books available through theJoseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 12/2/2020)

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o | The Perfect Nine: The Epic of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi Dec 02, 2020

In conversation with Ketu H. Katrak, Professor in the Department of Drama at the University of California, Irvine, and author of the forthcoming book Jay Pather, Performance, and Spatial Politics in South Africa Acclaimed Kenyan scholar and writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o is the author of the novels A Grain of Wheat; Weep Not, Child; and Petals of Blood, among several other works of fiction, memoirs, children's books, and essays. The Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature and the director of the International Center for Writing and Translation at the University of California, Irvine, he has been awarded 12 honorary doctorates, was nominated for the Man Booker Prize, and is annually tipped to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. In The Perfect Nine, Thiong'o spins a ''sinuous retelling'' of the origin of the Gĩkũyũ people of Kenya ''as an epic poem rivaling the Iliad in body count and surpassing it in whimsy'' (New Yorker). Books available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 12/1/2020)

Tamara Payne | The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X Nov 24, 2020

In conversation with Sarah Glover, veteran journalist and past president of the National Association of Black Journalists. In 1990, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Les Payne set out on a nearly 30-year crusade to write the most comprehensive biography of Malcolm X ever attempted. Through painstaking research and exhaustive interviews with anyone he could find who knew the human rights activist, he sought to separate fact from fiction in order to offer a revelatory and wholly new portrait of this uniquely American icon. A former editor at Newsday, syndicated columnist, and a founder of the National Association of Black Journalists, Payne passed away in 2018 before completing his opus. His daughter and principal researcher Tamara Payne completed the work, which won the 2020 National Book Award for non-fiction. Books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 11/12/2020)

André Gregory | This is Not My Memoir Nov 24, 2020

In conversation with co-author Todd London, Head of the MFA Playwriting Program at the New School, School of Drama A theater director in New York for more than 50 years, the legendary André Gregory has collaborated on film adaptations of his productions with the likes of Louis Malle and Wallace Shawn, with whom he made the 1981 cult classic My Dinner with André. His other work includes roles in Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ, Brian De Palma's Bonfire of the Vanities, and, most recently, Jonathan Demme's screen interpretation of Ibsen's The Master Builder. Not content with success in only two fields, he is also a painter, and the author of the play in verse, Bone Songs. In This Is Not My Memoir, Gregory takes a vertiginous trip through his memories of the wondrous places and remarkable people that have stirred him most. Horace W. Goldsmith Endowed Lecture Books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 11/23/2020)

Karen Russell | Sleep Donation with Charles Yu | Interior Chinatown Nov 20, 2020

Karen Russell's debut novel, Swamplandia!, the tale of a family's run-down alligator-themed Everglades amusement park, was a New York Times Best Book of the Year, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and a nominee for the Orange Prize. Her short story collections include Vampires in the Lemon Grove, Orange World and Other Stories, and St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves. She is the Endowed Chair in Creative Writing at Texas State University's MFA program, and her many honors include fellowships from the MacArthur and Guggenheim Foundations and the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novelette. A dystopian novella ''with a Swiftian sense of satire'' (Boston Globe), Sleep Donation tells the story of a corporate recruiter's battle against a lethal insomnia epidemic. Book and signed book plate available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop. ''A superhero of rendering human consciousness and emotion'' (New York Times Book Review), Charles Yu is the author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, a romp through quantum space-time that was one of Time magazine's best books of the year. A recipient of the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 Award, he has twice been nominated for Writers Guild of America Awards for his work on HBO's Westworld. A send-up and take-down of Tinseltown tropes and racial stereotypes, Interior Chinatown follows a protagonist who fights to see himself as the hero in his own life story. Yu won the National Book Award in Fiction for 2020. Book and signed book plate available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop. (recorded 11/19/2020)

Jess Walter | The Cold Millions Nov 20, 2020

Jess Walter's six acclaimed novels include the #1 New York Times bestseller The Beautiful Ruins, the National Book Award finalist The Zero, and Citizen Vince, winner of the Edgar Award. A former print journalist, he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his coverage of the infamous Ruby Ridge standoff. His short stories have been chosen three times for the Best American Short Stories anthology, and his other short fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, McSweeney's, and Esquire, among numerous other publications. In his latest novel, Walter follows the fortunes of two brothers caught in the class upheavals of early-and eerily familiar-20th-century America. (recorded 11/17/2020)

Antonio M. Johnson | You Next: Reflections in Black Barber Shops Nov 19, 2020

The nephew of a beloved neighborhood barber, West Philadelphian Antonio M. Johnson is the creator of You Next, a pictorial dive into one of African American men's most valued institutions. Part sanctuary, part cultural space, barber shops signify transformation, affirmation, and aspiration. Exploring these physical and intellectual salons all over the country, You Next is an amalgam of photos, essays, and interviews. A graduate of Baltimore's Morgan State University and now a resident of Atlanta, Johnson has seen his photos exhibited at the Hamilton Landmark Gallery in Harlem, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Watch the event on youtube. Books available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 11/18/2020)

Alex Ross | Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music Nov 17, 2020

In conversation with Simon Callow Music critic for the New Yorker since 1996, Alex Ross is the author of the international bestseller The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century. A trip down the rabbit hole of modern sound's biggest moments and personalities, it won the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Ross is also the author of Listen to This, an essay collection ranging in topic from Mozart to Led Zeppelin. A 2008 MacArthur Fellow and a 2015 Guggenheim Fellow, he is the recipient of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award and a Letter of Distinction from the American Music Center for his contributions to contemporary music. His latest book examines Richard Wagner's soaring music, vile politics, and complicated legacy. Acclaimed British actor Simon Callow is best known for his roles in films such as Amadeus and Four Weddings and a Funeral, though he has appeared in scores of other movies, television shows, and stage plays. He has also directed a wide variety of stage productions of operas, musicals, and dramas for such institutions as the Old Vic, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and the Scottish Opera. An accomplished author, Callow has written at length about Charles Dickens, whom he has played on both stage and screen. He has also penned an acclaimed book on acting, biographies of Orson Welles, Oscar Wilde and Richard Wagner, and articles about classical music for Gramophone magazine. Books available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 11/14/2020)

Issac J. Bailey | Why Didn't We Riot: A Black Man in Trumpland Nov 12, 2020

In conversation with Tracey Matisak, award-winning broadcaster and journalist ''A painful indictment of American inhumanity woven with threads of grace and love'' (Guardian) Issac J. Bailey's memoir My Brother Moochie offered a raw, first-hand account of the author's older brother's longtime incarceration for murder. The James K. Batten Professor of Public Policy at Davidson College, Bailey was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and taught journalism at Coastal Carolina University. His award-winning work has been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Time, amongst many other periodicals, and he has appeared on NPR, CNN, and MSNBC. Addressing such topics as Confederate iconography, police brutality, and white discomfort, Why Didn't We Riot? is an essay collection that explores what it means to be black in Trump's America. Books available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 11/11/2020)

H. W. Brands | The Zealot and the Emancipator: John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, and the Struggle for American Freedom Nov 11, 2020

''A terrific writer who commands'' his historical subject matter with ''authority and panache'' (New York Times), 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). He explores such diverse subjects as Aaron Burr, Ronald Reagan, the California gold rush, Andrew Jackson, the Vietnam War, Bill Gates, and the second generation of American statesmen in his more than two dozen books that ''weave together keen political history with anecdote and marvelous sense of place'' (Boston Globe). Brands returns with the story of two towering figures of American abolitionism. Register for the event here. Books and a limited number of signed book plates are available through The Joseph Fox Bookshop. Pine Tree Foundation Endowed Lecture (recorded 11/5/2020)

Ayad Akhtar | Homeland Elegies Nov 11, 2020

In conversation with Tracey Matisak, award-winning broadcaster and journalist Acclaimed for exploring complicated sociopolitical aspects of identity within the Muslim American experience, Ayad Akhtar won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Disgraced, a play in which racial and cultural prejudices persist in so-called progressive climates. His other work includes the play Junk, the screenplay for the film The War Within, and American Dervish, a novel that follows a pre-9/11 Wisconsin Muslim family wrestling with faith and inclusion. Among other accolades, he has earned an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Nestory Award, fellowships from a wide array of institutions, an Obie Award, and two Tony nominations. In his new novel, Akhtar peers at the rifts of a post-Trump America through the lens of a dispossessed immigrant father and son.* Books are available through The Joseph Fox Bookshop. *Note: there is slight ring during the introduction which ends when the discussion begins. (recorded 11/4/2020)

Nicole Krauss | To Be a Man: Stories Nov 11, 2020

In conversation with Nomi Eve, author of Henna House and The Family Orchard, Director of the Creative Writing MFA program, Drexel University. ''One of America's most important novelists and an international literary sensation'' (New York Times), Nicole Krauss is the bestselling author of the celebrated books Man Walks into a Room, The History of Love, Great House, and Forest Dark. She is the inaugural writer-in-residence at Columbia University's Mind, Brain, and Behavior Institute, and her other work has appeared in Harper's, Esquire, and the New Yorker. Krauss is the winner of the Saroyan Prize for International Literature and a finalist for the National Book Award, among many other honors. To Be a Man is a globe-hopping story collection that delves into the very nature of what drives men and women in their relationships. (recorded 11/10/2020)

Barbara Kingsolver | How to Fly (In Ten Thousand Easy Lessons) Oct 30, 2020

A ''gifted magician of words'' (Time), Barbara Kingsolver is the author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Poisonwood Bible, a postcolonial epic about an evangelical American family's undoing in the Congo. She is the author of several essays and works of creative nonfiction, and her other novels include The Lacuna, Flight Behavior, and Unsheltered. She is founder of the PEN/Bellwether Prize, winner of the National Humanities Medal, and recipient of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. How to Fly, Kingsolver's second collection of poetry, reflects on both the exquisitely noted and overlooked workaday wonders of the untamed worlds inside and around us. (recorded 10/29/2020)

Veronica Chambers | Finish the Fight!: The Brave and Revolutionary Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote Oct 28, 2020

In conversation with: Rachelle Baker, illustrator; Jennifer Harlan, writer; Steffi Walthall, illustrator Veronica Chambers is the editor for Narrative Projects at The New York Times and a co-author of "Finish the Fight!" She joined The Times in 2018 as the lead editor of the Past Tense project, which told stories using photographs unearthed from the paper's archives. Born in Panama and raised in Brooklyn, her other works include the critically acclaimed memoir "Mama's Girl," the anthology "Queen Bey: A Celebration of the Power and Creativity of Beyoncé Knowles-Carter," and the new children's book "Shirley Chisholm Is a Verb." Jennifer Harlan is a member of the Special Projects team at The New York Times and a co-author of "Finish the Fight!" As a reporter on the Past Tense project, she wrote about all sorts of overlooked histories, from private eyes to roller derby, with a focus on women's history. She also writes for The Times about books, board games, the opioid crisis and the coronavirus pandemic. She is from Louisville, Kentucky, but currently calls Brooklyn home. Rachelle Baker is a multi-disciplinary artist from Detroit, MI. In addition to "Finish the Fight!", her illustrations have been published in several books including "Making Our Way Home: The Great Migration and the Black American Dream" by Blair Imani, "Shirley Chisholm is a Verb" by Veronica Chambers, and the forthcoming "Motherlode: 100+ Women Who Made Hip-Hop,'' by Clover Hope, which comes out in February 2021. Steffi Walthall is a Virginia-based illustrator, a sometimes comic artist and all times storyteller that celebrates diversity in all forms. She loves working on character-centric stories whether they are fictional or historical. In addition to "Finish the Fight!" her work includes "The Field Guide To The North American Teenager" by Ben Philippe, "50 Fearless Women Who Made American History" by Jenifer Bazzit, and "The Story Of: Martin Luther King Jr" by Christine Platt. Books available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 10/28/2020)

Nikki Giovanni | Make Me Rain Oct 28, 2020

One of America's most celebrated poets, the ''outspoken, prolific, energetic'' (New York Times) Nikki Giovanni is the author of numerous collections of poetry including Acolytes; Black Feeling, Black Talk, Black Judgment; and Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea. Her recent nonfiction includes A Good Cry, a rumination on a life spent in the vanguard of social change. A standout activist and educator from the Civil Rights and Black Arts movements of the 1960s, she is the first winner of the Rosa Parks Woman of Courage Award, a seven-time winner of the NAACP Image Award, and one of Oprah Winfrey's 25 ''Living Legends.'' In Make Me Rain, Giovanni lifts up her loved ones, celebrates her black heritage, and illuminates the pervasive stains of American racial injustice and prejudice. Books available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 10/27/2020)

Colin Quinn | Overstated: A Coast-to-Coast Roast of the 50 States Oct 26, 2020

Comedian, writer, and actor Colin Quinn's decades-long career includes stints as anchor of Saturday Night Live's ''Weekend Update,'' his own titular talk show, numerous standup specials, and appearances in multitudinous sitcoms, movies, and talk shows. He is referred to by the likes of Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, and Tina Fey as the essential New York comic's comic, and his acclaimed one-man Broadway shows-addressing everything from the fall of world empires to his family-include My Two Cents, The Coloring Book, and Red State, Blue State. In Overstated, Quinn infuses insight with comedy to lambaste the sacred cows and quirks of 50 very dissimilar states. (recorded 10/23/2020)

Maria Hinojosa | Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America Oct 22, 2020

In conversation with: Helen Ubiñas, metro columnist at the The Philadelphia Inquirer In her nearly 30 years as a journalist, Maria Hinojosa has reported for PBS, CBS, and CNN, among other outlets, and is the longtime anchor and executive producer of NPR's Peabody Award–winning show Latino USA. A frequent guest on MSNBC and the founding co-anchor of the political podcast In the Thick, she is also the host of WGBH's talk show Maria Hinojosa: One-on-One. Her work has earned four Emmy Awards, two Robert F. Kennedy Awards, and the Edward R. Murrow Award. In Once I Was You, Hinojosa relates her experience of growing up Mexican American in Chicago to our current immigration crisis. Books may be purchased online in Spanish or in English through The Joseph Fox Bookshop. A limited number of signed bookplates will be available while supplies last. (recorded 10/21/2020)

Asha Lemmie | Fifty Words for Rain Oct 21, 2020

In conversation with Tracey Matisak, award-winning broadcaster and journalist Asha Lemmie's New York Times bestselling novel Fifty Words for Rain tells the decades and continents-spanning story of Nori, a child born to a married Japanese aristocrat and her African American GI lover. Concealed by her grandparents, Nori accepts a solitary life until she meets and forms a bond with her half-brother Akira-a bond that gives her the strength to claim her place in the world. The book was recently the Good Morning America Book Club pick for September. A classically trained musician from Washington D.C., Lemmie began writing Fifty Words for Rain when she was only 16 years old. Books may be purchased online through The Joseph Fox Bookshop. (recorded 10/20/2020)

B. Janet Hibbs and Anthony Rostain | The Stressed Years of Their Lives: Helping Your Kid Survive and Thrive During Their College Years Jun 29, 2020

In conversation wth Elizabeth Mosier A longtime faculty member at Drexel University, the Family Institute, and Widener University, B. Janet Hibbs is a renowned expert on family issues and partner relationships. A professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Anthony Rostain is one of America's leading authorities on ADHD, autism spectrum disorders, Tourette syndrome, and the learning disorders related to these conditions. He also treats patients at CHOP, where he is co-director of the Pediatric Neurodevelopmental Psychiatry Service. The Stressed Years of Their Lives is a guidebook for parents and college-age teens seeking a better understanding of mental health and the methods by which students can thrive. Elizabeth Mosier is the author, most recently, of Excavating Memory: Archaeology and Home. Her thirty-year career in higher education includes teaching creative writing, directing a pre-college program, and directing admissions communications at Bryn Mawr College. (recorded 6/25/2020)

Roddy Doyle | Love Jun 25, 2020

In conversation with Liz Moore, best selling author of Long Bright River Lauded for his ''marvelous'' and ''bloody brilliant'' (Toronto Star) works of fiction, prolific novelist, dramatist, children's author, and screenwriter Roddy Doyle's work is rooted in the vibrant colloquialisms and tight relationships of the Irish working class. His novel Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha won the Man Booker Prize, and his Barrytown series-comprised of The Commitments, The Snapper, The Van, and The Guts-were critical darlings and adapted into successful movies. In Love, Doyle tells an elegiac tale of two old drinking buddies who revisit the Dublin pubs and poignant pains of their youth. (recorded 6/24/2020)

Ezekiel J. Emanuel | Which Country Has the World's Best Health Care? Jun 24, 2020

Ezekiel J. Emanuel is Vice Provost for Global Initiatives and Chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. An oncologist and author of nine books on medical ethics and healthcare, he previously served as a special adviser for health policy in the Obama administration. He is also the author of Reinventing American Health Care and a memoir about his illustrious brothers. Emanuel's new book profiles 11 disparate countries' healthcare systems and shows how the U.S.-despite spending far more than any other nation-doesn't come close to having the best. (recorded 6/23/2020)

Chris Wallace | Countdown 1945: The Extraordinary Story of the Atomic Bomb and the 116 Days That Changed the World Jun 23, 2020

The popular anchor of Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace has reported on nearly every watershed national and international political event. During his 50-year career in journalism, he has earned three Emmys, the duPont-Columbia Silver Baton, and the Peabody Award. Wallace has interviewed seven presidents, was the first Fox News journalist to moderate a general election presidential debate, and in 2018 conducted a notably difficult interview with Vladimir Putin. In Countdown 1945, he looks at the meetings and machinations leading to the August 6, 1945, atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima. (recorded 6/22/2020)

Inga Saffron | Becoming Philadelphia: How an Old American City Made Itself New Again Jun 22, 2020

Architectural critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer for more than 20 years, Inga Saffron won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for her sagacious critiques of urbanism, planning, and Philly's hyper-rapid transformation after a half-century slump. An Inquirer writer since 1985, she worked as the paper's suburban reporter and Eastern European correspondent, was a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design in 2012, and in 2018 was awarded the prestigious Vincent Scully Prize by the National Building Museum. Becoming Philadelphia is a collection of Saffron's most insightful newspaper columns. (recorded 6/17/2020)

Stacey Abrams | Our Time is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America Jun 19, 2020

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition Stacey Abrams is the New York Times bestselling author of Lead from the Outside, a serial entrepreneur, nonprofit CEO, and political leader. After serving eleven years in the Georgia House of Representatives, seven as minority leader, Abrams became the 2018 Democratic nominee for governor of Georgia, where she won more votes than any other Democrat in the state's history. Over the course of her career, she has founded multiple organizations devoted to voting rights, training and hiring young people of color, and tackling social issues at both the state and national levels. Dedicated to civic engagement, her most recent endeavors include: launching Fair Fight to ensure every American has a voice in our election system, Fair Count to ensure accuracy in the 2020 Census and greater participation in civic engagement, and the Southern Economic Advancement Project, a public policy initiative to broaden economic power and build equity in the South. Abrams received degrees from Spelman College, the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, and Yale Law School. Born in Madison, Wisconsin, she and her five siblings grew up in Gulfport, Mississippi and were raised in Georgia. (recorded 6/16/2020)

Donna Rifkind | The Sun and Her Stars: Salka Viertel and Hitler's Exiles in the Golden Age of Hollywood Jun 12, 2020

A prolific book critic whose reviews appear in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the New York Times Book Review, Donna Rifkind was a 2006 finalist for the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing from the National Book Critics Circle. The Sun and Her Stars is her ''marvelous, knowledgeable'' (Boston Herald) look at the life of Salka Viertel, the until-now unheralded German Jewish expat screenwriter and Garbo confidant who created a Hollywood haven for scores of European émigrés-including Albert Einstein, Arnold Schoenberg, and Bertolt Brecht, among myriad others-who had escaped the horrors of Nazi Germany. (recorded 6/11/2020)

Imani Perry In Conversation with Kiese Laymon: On the Uprising since George Floyd's Murder and Black Struggles for Freedom in the United States Jun 10, 2020

Imani Perry is the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies and faculty associate in the Program in Law and Public Affairs and Gender and Sexuality Studies at Princeton. She is the author of six books, most recently the award-winning titles, Breathe: A Letter to My Sons and Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry. She was born in Birmingham, Alabama and currently lives outside Philadelphia with her two sons. Kiese Laymon is the Hubert McAlexander Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Mississippi. He is the author of the novel, Long Division, a collection of essays, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, and the award-winning Heavy: An American Memoir. Laymon was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. (recorded 6/9/2020)

Lauren Francis-Sharma | Book of the Little Axe May 29, 2020

In conversation with Erica Armstrong Dunbar, award-winning author of Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge and She Came to Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman. Lauren Francis-Sharma's acclaimed novel 'Til the Well Runs Dry tells the ''universally touching'' (New York Times) multigenerational sagaof asharp-tongued Trinidadian seamstress's travails and bittersweet triumphs. It was honored as the fiction selection of the 2015 Black Caucus of the American Library Association and one of O, The Oprah Magazine's ''10 Titles to Pick Up Now.'' She is also assistant director of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and the proprietor of the DC Writers Room. Her latest novel follows the journey of a rebellious young woman from Trinidad to a new life with the Crow Nation in 1830s Wyoming. (recorded 5/28/2020)

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio | The Undocumented Americans May 22, 2020

In conversation with Andrea González-Ramírez, Senior Writer at GEN and an Ida B. Wells fellow at Type Investigations. Read Ms. González-Ramírez's interview with Karla Cornejo Villavicencio. Originally from Ecuador, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio became one of the first undocumented students admitted to Harvard University. Now a fellow at Laurene Powell Jobs's Emerson Collective and a doctoral candidate in the American studies program at Yale, she has written about race, culture, and immigration in a variety of publications, including the New York Times, the Atlantic, and n+1. In her new book, Villavicencio ventures beyond combustive political rhetoric and alarmist headlines to reveal the remarkable, relatable lives of undocumented Americans in every corner of the country. (recorded 5/21/2020)

Seanan McGuire | Middlegame and Imaginary Numbers May 15, 2020

One of contemporary sci-fi/fantasy's most popular writers, Seanan McGuire won the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards for the Wayward Children series of books. Also the author of, among other books, the October Day series and the InCryptid series, she writes science fiction/horror under the pen name Mira Grant and has published several works of nonfiction. She is currently writing the Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider comic series for Marvel. Her other honors include the 2011 Shirley Jackson Award and the 2010 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. In Middlegame, McGuire introduces a polyglot, his numbers-obsessed twin, and an alchemist who pushes them toward godhood. Imaginary Numbers is the ninth book in the sprawling InCryptid urban fantasy series. *Production note: the interlocutor's audio is a bit muddled throughout but Seanan's audio sounds fine. (recorded 5/14/2020)

Jennifer Steinhauer | The Firsts: The Inside Story of the Women Reshaping Congress May 13, 2020

A reporter for the New York Times for 25 years, Jennifer Steinhauer has covered the United States Congress since 2010. Her former assignments include Los Angeles bureau chief and New York City Hall bureau chief. The winner of the Newswoman's Club of New York Front Page Deadline Reporting Award in 2006 for her coverage of Hurricane Katrina, Steinhauer is the author or co-author of two cookbooks and a novel about the entertainment industry. The Firsts follows the diverse stories of the 87 women in the House and the 23 in the Senate-the largest number in American history-elected to the 116th Congress. (recorded 5/12/2020)

Susan Choi | Trust Exercise with Jacqueline Woodson | Red at the Bone May 08, 2020

Winner of the 2019 National Book Award for fiction, Trust Exercise follows a star-crossed suburban teen romance in a 1980s performing arts high school. Susan Choi's novels are known for excavating the hidden corners of the human heart and acclaimed for their ''nuance, psychological acuity, and pitch-perfect writing'' (Los Angeles Times). Her books include the Asian American Literary Award–winning The Foreign Student; American Woman, a finalist for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize; A Person of Interest, a finalist for the 2009 PEN/Faulkner Award; and My Education, winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Fiction. A creative writing teacher at Yale, Choi has earned Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships. The author of nearly 30 books for young people and adults, Jacqueline Woodson has won three Newbery Honors, a Coretta Scott King Award and three Coretta Scott King Honors, and the 2014 National Book Award for Brown Girl Dreaming, a poetry collection about her upbringing in New York and South Carolina amidst the vestiges of Jim Crow. Her other books include After Tupac and D Foster, Feathers, and Another Brooklyn, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. Woodson's latest novel, ''a universal American tale of striving, failing, then trying again'' (Time), addresses a bevy of societal issues through the intergenerational saga of a family striving to escape the tug of history. (recorded 5/7/2020)

David Wallace-Wells | The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming May 06, 2020

In conversation with Dr. Rachel Valletta, Environmental Scientist at The Franklin Institute and director of all climate change education and outreach programming. A columnist and deputy editor at New York magazine, David Wallace-Wells has written extensively about the environment and the future of science, including a widely read-and hotly debated-2017 article about worst-case climate change scenarios. He formerly was a National Fellow at the New America Foundation and the deputy editor of the Paris Review. In his number-one New York Times bestseller The Uninhabitable Earth, Wallace-Wells issues a fervent call-to-arms to a world closer to the brink of climate-change Armageddon than many would care to admit. ''This generation's Silent Spring,'' (Washington Post), it is a travelogue of the crisis as it unfolds in real time and a rumination upon how it will affect the next generation. (recorded 5/5/2020)

Frank B. Wilderson III | Afropessimism May 01, 2020

Frank B. Wilderson III spent more than five years in South Africa, where he was one of two Americans elected to the African National Congress during the country's transformation after apartheid. His books include Incognegro: A Memoir of Exile and Apartheid and Red, White & Black: Cinema and the Structure of U.S. Antagonisms, and he served as a dramaturge for the Lincoln Center Theater in New York and the Market Theatre in Johannesburg. Chair of African American Studies and professor in the Culture & Theory Doctoral Program at the University of California, Irvine, he has been honored with the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Legacy Award for Creative Nonfiction and an NEA Literature Fellowship. In Afropessimism, Wilderson fuses innovative philosophy with trenchant memoir to argue slavery's unique historical social position and its pervasiveness even today. (recorded 4/28/2020)

Samantha Irby | Wow, No Thank You. May 01, 2020

In conversation with New Yorker writer Jia Tolentino, author of Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion In her popular long-running blog, bitches gotta eat, Samantha Irby offers raw, humorous takes on her sometimes difficult personal life, pop culture, and, of course, food. She is also the author of three essay collections: Meaty; New Year, Same Trash: Resolutions I Absolutely Did Not Keep; and the New York Times bestseller We Are Never Meeting in Real Life. She has contributed work to a variety of publications and written an episode of the television show Shrill. In her new essay collection, Irby ponders inspirational Instagram infographics, being friendzoned by Hollywood, living in a red state, and the discomfort of life as a 40-year-old. (recorded 4/30/2020)

Judith Heumann | Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist Apr 17, 2020

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition A world-renowned leader in the Disability Rights and Independent Living Movement, featured in the new film Crip Camp, Judith Heumann has spent four decades working with a wide array of governmental agencies, activist groups, and NGOs on legislation and policy to benefit disabled people. Praised by Hillary Clinton for her ''insights, knowledge, sass, and wit,'' Heumann served in Bill Clinton's administration, shaping disability policy in the Department of Education, and was appointed by Barack Obama as the Special Advisor on Disability Rights for the State Department. She is also a former Senior Fellow at the Ford Foundation and advisor to the World Bank. Being Heumann is a memoir of her early struggle for education equality and lifelong crusade for inclusion and community for disabled people everywhere. (recorded 4/16/2020)

David Fajgenbaum | Chasing My Cure: A Doctor's Race to Turn Hope into Action Apr 15, 2020

A professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and associate director of the university's Orphan Disease Center, Dr. David Fajgenbaum holds an MBA from the Wharton School, earned a master of science at Oxford, and graduated from Georgetown, where he was a football quarterback. Renowned on the field and in school for his mental and physical stamina, he was blindsided by a mysterious illness that baffled doctors and left him near death. Not content to leave his life in the hands of a too-slow medical community, he developed a treatment that put his condition in remission. The cofounder and executive director of the Castleman Disease Collaborative Network, he was named to prestigious Forbes ''30 Under 30'' list. He details his journey in Chasing My Cure. (recorded 4/14/2020)

Julia Alvarez | Afterlife Apr 09, 2020

Named ''Woman of the Year'' by Latina magazine in 2000, poet, essayist, and fiction writer Julia Alvarez is renowned for her lyrical, poignant, politically insightful books, including How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, which details the lives of four sisters before and after their exile from the Dominican Republic; In the Time of the Butterflies, a million-copy bestseller; and Return to Sender, a novel about the families of undocumented Mexican workers in Vermont. Her many awards include the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Achievement in American Literature and the 2013 National Medal of Arts. Afterlife, her first adult novel in 15 years, considers our political moment and asks: What do we owe those in crisis in our families, including members of our human family? How do we live in a broken world without losing faith in one another or ourselves? And how do we stay true to those glorious souls we have lost? Help us provide digital content during the closure with your contributions. (recorded 4/7/2020)

Katie Roiphe | The Power Notebooks Apr 01, 2020

Feminist author and journalist Kate Roiphe is the author of In Praise of Messy Lives, a ''daring, vivid, combative'' (Wall Street Journal) collection of essays that explores everything from Joan Didion to Mad Men. Her other books include The Morning After: Sex, Fear, and Feminism; The Violet Hour, and Uncommon Arrangements. Director of the Cultural Reporting and Criticism program at New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, she has contributed articles to such varied publications as the New York Times, Esquire, Vogue, and the Paris Review. Presented as a series of journal entries, The Power Notebooks chronicles Roiphe's charged personal history, weaving it together with deeper insights into the ways in which famous female writers such as Sylvia Plath and Simone de Beauvoir repeatedly saw their own power subjugated. Help us keep providing digital content during the closure through your contributions. (recorded 3/31/2020)

Emily St. John Mandel | The Glass Hotel Mar 31, 2020

In conversation with Beth Kephart, the award-winning author of more than twenty-five books, including Going Over, Handling the Truth: On the Writing of Memoir, and most recently The Great Upending. A finalist for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award, Emily St. John Mandel's bestselling Station 11 vacillates in time between the world that we know and the dystopic travails of a Shakespearean acting troupe in the years following a global plague. Her other novels include Last Night in Montreal, The Lola Quartet, and The Singer's Gun, winner of the 2014 Prix Mystère de la Critique in France. She is a staff writer for art and culture magazine The Millions. In The Glass Hotel, Mandel tells a tale of a gargantuan Ponzi scheme, cryptic threats, and the clandestine landscapes that exist just below the veneer of ordinary life. (recorded 3/26/2020)

James McBride | Deacon King Kong Mar 13, 2020

''Boisterous, highly entertaining,'' and ''altogether original'' (Washington Post), James McBride is the author of the National Book Award–winning The Good Lord Bird, in which a young boy born into slavery joins abolitionist John Brown's doomed crusade. His nonfiction books include the New York Times bestselling memoir The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother and Kill 'Em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul. His other fiction includes the novels Miracle at St. Anna and Song Yet Sung, and the short-story collection Five-Carat Soul. Also an award-winning composer, screenwriter, and saxophonist, he received the National Humanities Medal from President Obama in 2016. Deacon King Kong is a novel about a very public shooting in a 1960s Brooklyn housing project. (recorded 3/11/2020)

David Plouffe | A Citizen's Guide to Beating Donald Trump Mar 12, 2020

The campaign manager for Barack Obama's 2008 primary and general election victories, David Plouffe later served on the White House staff as a senior advisor and was largely credited with the 44th president's 2012 win. He formerly worked as a leading Democratic Party media consultant and a senior executive at Uber, and he currently heads policy and advocacy at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. His book The Audacity to Win detailed Obama's campaign victory over prominent and powerful conservative forces. In his latest book, Plouffe offers a practical and motivational playbook for defeating Donald Trump in the 2020 election. Pine Tree Foundation Endowed Lecture (recorded 3/10/2020)

John Feinstein | The Back Roads to March: The Unsung, Unheralded, and Unknown Heroes of a College Basketball Season Mar 06, 2020

''One of the best sportswriters alive'' (USA Today), John Feinstein is the author of the bestselling A Good Walk Spoiled, A Season on the Brink, and Where Nobody Knows Your Name, among almost two dozen other books. He has been a staff columnist for the Washington Post, Sporting News, and Golf Digest, and a regular on-air commentator for The Golf Channel, The Jim Rome Show, and the CBS Sports Radio Network. Three decades after changing the complexion of sportswriting with the publication of A Season on the Brink, Feinstein returns to his beloved college basketball to tell the story of the often-anonymous heroes of Division 1 hoops. (recorded 3/5/2020)

Adam Hochschild | Rebel Cinderella: From Rags to Riches to Radical, the Epic Journey of Rose Pastor Stokes Mar 06, 2020

Historian Adam Hochschild's ten ''carefully researched and vigorously told'' (Houston Chronicle) books include King Leopold's Ghost, a haunting portrait of Belgium's 19th-century brutal colonization of the Congo, and To End All Wars, the little-told story of the First World War's moral critics. Both were National Book Critics Circle Award finalists. His other books variously address the atrocities of Stalinist Russia, the perspectives of famous and little-known participants in the Spanish Civil War, and the history of the antislavery movement in the British Empire. He is cofounder of Mother Jones magazine, and his many awards include the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History. Rebel Cinderella details the life of an impoverished immigrant sweatshop worker who married the scion of one of New York's richest families and became one of America's great social justice crusaders. (recorded 3/4/2020)

Tom Fitzgerald and Lorenzo Marquez | Legendary Children: The First Decade of Rupaul's Drag Race and the Last Century of Queer Life Mar 04, 2020

The creators of the immensely popular eponymous blog Tom and Lorenzo, Tom Fitzgerald and Lorenzo Marquez entertain millions of readers a month with their singular perspective on fashion and pop culture. They are frequent guests on Sundance Channel's All on the Line with Joe Zee and Sirius XM Radio's show Derek and Romaine, and have been profiled, quoted, or interviewed by dozens of media outlets, including the New York Times, National Public Radio, and Vanity Fair. In Legendary Children, Fitzgerald and Marquez posit that RuPaul's Drag Race is the prism through which queer social history and modern culture can be understood. (recorded 3/3/2020)

R. Eric Thomas | Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America Feb 28, 2020

R. Eric Thomas is the creator of Elle's ''Eric Reads the News,'' a daily humor column that lambasts pop culture, celebrity, and politics that has been praised by Lin-Manuel Miranda as ''Sedaris-level laugh-out-loud funny.'' Also a renowned playwright, his work has been staged across America and has garnered a slew of awards, including the Barrymore Award and the Dramatists Guild Lanford Wilson Award. His writing has appeared in the New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer, among other periodicals, and he is the longtime host of The Moth StorySlams in Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia. In his debut essay collection, Thomas explores just what it means to be an ''other'' in the face of college code-switching, the reconciliation of his sexuality with his Christian identity, and the 2016 election. (recorded 2/27/2020)

Steven Levy | Facebook: The Inside Story Feb 27, 2020

In conversation with Michael A. Smerconish Editor at large at Wired and a technology writer for more than 30 years, Steven Levy is the author of seven books, including In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives; Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government Saving Privacy in the Digital Age; and Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, named by PC Magazine as the best sci-tech book of the last 20 years. He has contributed articles to such periodicals as Harper's, the New Yorker, and Rolling Stone, and is a former editor at Backchannel and Newsweek. Levy's latest book charts the juggernaut rise of Mark Zuckerberg's social media platform from the dorms of Harvard to becoming one of the world's most valuable and ubiquitous corporations. Michael A. Smerconish is the host of The Michael Smerconish Program on SiriusXM POTUS Channel 124, the host of CNN's Smerconish on Saturday mornings, a Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer columnist, and a New York Times bestselling author. (recorded 2/26/2020)

Gish Jen | The Resisters Feb 26, 2020

Gish Jen's many novels include Typical American, World and Town, and Mona in the Promised Land. She is also the author of two nonfiction works that explore the differences in East-West notions of art and culture, and her short stories have appeared dozens of publications, including the New Yorker, the New Republic, and the Atlantic. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Jen has earned a Lannan Literary Award for Fiction, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a National Book Critics Circle Award nomination, and her writing has appeared in four Best American Short Stories anthologies. A dystopian tale of rising sea levels, a segregated populace, and an underground baseball league, The Resisters is a novel set against an increasingly plausible American backdrop. (recorded 2/25/2020)

Dan Pfeiffer | UnTrumping America: A Plan to Make America a Democracy Again Feb 25, 2020

In conversation with Alyssa Mastromonaco, author of Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?: And Other Questions You Should Have Answers to When You Work in the White House and frequent guest on Pod Save America The White House director of communications in the Obama administration from 2009 to 2013, Dan Pfeiffer is the New York Times bestselling author of Yes We (Still) Can, an ''amusing and insightful'' (Esquire) account of the shifting tides of politics of the internet age and a guide to fighting back in the Trump era. He is also the cohost of the popular Pod Save America, a no-nonsense breakdown of the week's news. In UnTrumping America, Pfeiffer returns with a political roadmap for defeating the current president and putting America back on a steady path. (recorded 2/24/2020)

Sam Sifton | See You on Sunday: A Cookbook for Family and Friends Feb 21, 2020

The food editor at the New York Times and the founding editor of the Times's digital cookbook, NYT Cooking, Sam Sifton is one of America's most popular culinary writers. He formerly worked as the Gray Lady's national news editor, restaurant critic, and culture editor; held numerous positions at the New York Press; and was a founding editor of Talk magazine. He is the author of the cookbook Thanksgiving: How to Cook It Well and A Field Guide to the Yettie, a nonfiction look into the culture of young tech entrepreneurs. In his new cookbook, Sifton offers a salutation to the art of Sunday supper and the pleasures of communal meals. (recorded 2/20/2020)

Jenny Offill | Weather Feb 14, 2020

Jenny Offill's Dept. of Speculation, ''an effortless-seeming downhill ride that picks up astonishing narrative speed as it goes'' (New York Review of Books), tells the story of a once heady marriage at its breaking point. It was named to scores of 2014 ''Best of the Year'' lists and was shortlisted for the PEN/Faulkner Award and Folio Prize. Offill is also the author of the novel Last Things, a New York Times Notable Book and a finalist for the L.A. Times First Book Award. A writing teacher at Syracuse University and Queens University, she is also the author of four children's books. Her new novel is the story of a librarian who becomes increasingly obsessed with doomsday preparations. (recorded 2/13/2020)

Joseph ''Rev Run'' Simmons and Justine Simmons | Old School Love: And Why it Works Feb 13, 2020

Walk this way for an evening with Joseph ''Rev Run'' Simmons, frontman for the mega-influential hip-hop trio Run-DMC. Regarded as the driving force behind ushering rap into the mainstream, the group was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Joining Rev Run is his wife, Justine Simmons, his costar on the popular reality show Run's House and his coauthor of Take Back Your Family: A Challenge to America's Parents. The long-married couple knows one thing about love-it's tricky! In Old School Love, they share the secrets and principles that have kept them together for a quarter century. (recorded 2/12/2020)

Gretchen Sorin | Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights Feb 12, 2020

A curator with more than 30 years' experience, Dr. Gretchen Sorin has consulted for more than 250 institutions, including the Smithsonian, the Jewish Museum, and the New York State Historical Association. She is the director of the Cooperstown Graduate Program of the State University of New York, the author of In the Spirit of Martin: The Living Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Through the Eyes of Others: African Americans and Identity in American Art, and coauthor of Touring Historic Harlem: Four Walks in Northern Manhattan. In Driving While Black, Sorin tells the true story of the famous Green Book, which reshaped the notion of travel for African Americans and helped drive the nascent civil rights movement. (recorded 2/11/2020)

John Sayles | Yellow Earth Feb 11, 2020

Referred to by Roger Ebert as ''the conscience of American independent filmmaking,'' John Sayles is the writer/director of 18 movies, including Matewan, Lone Star, Eight Men Out, and Passion Fish. In addition to writing more than 100 screenplays, he is the author of four novels and two short story collections, including Pride of the Bimbos, Union Dues, and Dillinger in Hollywood. His work has earned two nominations for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, the Golden Globe, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. In Yellow Earth, Sayles spins a parable about Native American resistance to corporate and governmental forces. (recorded 2/10/2020)

EJ Dionne | Code Red: How Progressives and Moderates Can Unite to Save Our Country Feb 10, 2020

In conversation with Dick Polman ''Substantial'' and ''notably fair minded'' (New York Times Book Review), E.J. Dionne Jr. is a syndicated columnist who appears twice weekly in the Washington Post and nearly 100 other newspapers, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a visiting professor at Harvard University, and a professor at Georgetown University. A regular commentator on National Public Radio and on other radio and television programs, his New York Times bestselling books include Why the Right Went Wrong, the National Book Award–nominated Why Americans Hate Politics, and One Nation After Trump. In his latest book, Dionne advocates an alliance between progressives and moderates in order to reestablish America's prospects for a healthy future. Dick Polman, Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, writes national political columns at dickpolman.net (recorded 2/6/2020)

David Zucchino | Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy Feb 05, 2020

In conversation with Mark Bowden, most recently author of The Last Stone: A Masterpiece of Criminal Interrogation David Zucchino is a contributing writer for The New York Times. He has covered wars and civil conflicts in more than three dozen countries. Zucchino was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his dispatches from apartheid South Africa and is a four-time Pulitzer Prize finalist for his reporting from Iraq, Lebanon, Africa, and inner-city Philadelphia. He is the author of Thunder Run and Myth of the Welfare Queen. In his new book, Zucchino tells the story of the 19th-century North Carolina port city that, while once a burgeoning example of a mixed-race community, exploded into racial violence that erased the progress made by formerly enslaved people and their children. (recorded 2/4/2020)

Eoin Colfer | Highfire Feb 04, 2020

In conversation with Jon McGoran, author of Splintered Eoin Colfer is the internationally acclaimed author of the Artemis Fowl series, which chronicles the ''magical'' (Washington Post) adventures of a young antihero criminal mastermind. The novels and their companion books have sold millions of copies worldwide and have been adapted into a forthcoming film. Also the author of the sixth installment of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, several Marvel comics, a cyberpunk novel, and two children's books, Colfer was Ireland's Children's Laureate from 2014 to 2016. Telling the story of a high-flying vodka-swilling Louisiana dragon who happens across a teen on the run from a corrupt lawman, Highfire is a genre-warping adventure fantasy for adults. (recorded 2/3/2020)

Paul Krugman | Arguing with Zombies: Economics, Politics, and the Fight for a Better Future Jan 31, 2020

In conversation with Mark Zandi, Chief Economist, Moody's Analytics ''The most celebrated economist of his generation'' (Economist), Paul Krugman won the Nobel Prize in 2008 for his work in international trade and monetary geography. A New York Times op-ed columnist since 1999, he is the author or editor of more than two dozen books, including The Age of Diminished Expectations, The Conscience of a Liberal, and End This Depression Now!, as well as the former monthly columns ''No Free Lunch'' in Fortune and ''The Dismal Science'' in Slate. In his latest book, Krugman tackles common fiscal misunderstandings and offers a guide to the most vital economic policy issues of our time. Sandra Shaber Memorial Lecture (recorded 1/30/2020)

Jennifer S. Hirsch and Shamus Khan | Sexual Citizens: A Landmark Study of Sex, Power, and Assault on Campus Jan 30, 2020

In conversation with Dr. Jen Ashton, Chief Medical Correspondent for ABC News and author of The Self-Care Solution: A Year of Becoming Happier, Healthier, and Fitter--One Month at a Time A professor of sociomedical sciences at Columbia University, Jennifer S. Hirsch also codirects the school's Sexual Health Initiative to Foster Transformation (SHIFT), a research project that explored sexual health and sexual assault among undergraduates. Shamus Khan chairs Columbia's sociology department and codirects SHIFT's ethnographic team. Hirsch's books include A Courtship After Marriage: Sexuality and Love in Mexican Transnational Families and The Secret: Love, Marriage, and HIV. Currently the editor of the academic journal Public Culture and a former Time magazine columnist, Khan is the author of Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul's School. Built upon years of research, interviews, and observation, Sexual Citizens delves into the question of why sexual assault is so ubiquitous on college campuses. (recorded 1/28/2020)

Emma Copley Eisenberg | The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia Jan 24, 2020

In conversation with Sarah Marshall, journalist, writer, and co-host of the podcast You're Wrong About. In June 1980, two young middle-class women who had been hitchhiking to a nature festival called the Rainbow Gathering were found murdered in a remote clearing in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. Though no one was prosecuted for these crimes, suspicions turned on one local family, then on a convicted serial killer, and then seemed to melt away into time. Emma Copley Eisenberg moved to Pocahontas County for two years, combing through the hills for clues to the murders, discovering along the way how this violent act traumatized those affected and helped shape a complex narrative about the self-perceptions of Appalachians. Eisenberg's writing has appeared in such publications as Granta, McSweeney's, Tin House, Salon, and Slate. (recorded 1/23/2020)

Garth Greenwell | Cleanness Jan 17, 2020

In conversation with Carmen Maria Machado, most recently author of In the Dream House ''A subtle observer of human interactions'' with ''an inborn ability to cast a spell'' (New York Times), Garth Greenwell is the author of What Belongs to You, a novel that follows a gay man seeking to know his own heart. Winner of the British Book Award for Debut of the Year and a finalist for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award, it was named a Best Book of 2016 by more than 50 publications. His stories and criticism have appeared in a wide range of periodicals, including the Paris Review, the New Yorker, and the Atlantic. Cleanness revisits the characters and Bulgarian setting of What Belongs to You. Watch the video here. (recorded 1/16/2020)

Andrew Bacevich | The Age of Illusions: How America Squandered Its Cold War Victory Jan 16, 2020

Praised for their ''clarity of expression . . . devastating directness'' and ''coruscating wit'' (Washington Post), Andrew Bacevich's bestselling books include The Limits of Power, America's War for the Greater Middle East, and Twilight of the American Century. A professor emeritus of history and international relations at Boston University, he served in the U.S. Army for 23 years, retiring as a colonel.His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the London Review of Books, and the American Conservative, among other publications. In The Age of Illusions, Bacevich offers a comprehensive account of the post–Cold War American blunders and misconceptions that gave rise to the Trump era. (recorded 1/15/2020)

Liz Moore | Long Bright River Jan 15, 2020

In conversation with Mike Newall, metro columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer ''Incisive, insightful, and compassionate'' (Boston Globe), Liz Moore is the author of the acclaimed novels Heft and The Unseen World. She is the recipient of the 2014 Rome Prize in Literature, the University of Pennsylvania's ArtsEdge residency, and Philadelphia's Athenaeum Literary Award. A creative writing professor in the MFA program at Temple University, her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Tin House and the New York Times, among other places. Moore's new novel follows two sisters on opposite sides of the law in a Philadelphia neighborhood devastated by the opioid crisis and a string of related murders. (recorded 1/14/2020)

Elaine Sciolino | The Seine: The River That Made Paris Dec 13, 2019

A former Paris bureau chief and contributing writer for the New York Times, Elaine Sciolino is acclaimed for her ''deliciously detailed and smart'' (Vogue) chronicles of French culture and history. Her books include the bestsellers The Only Street in Paris: Life on the Rue des Martyrs, La Seduction: How the French Play the Game of Life, and Persian Mirrors: The Elusive Face of Iran. In 2010 Sciolino was decorated as a chevalier of the Legion of Honor, France's highest honor. The Seine plumbs the depths of the romantic river, exposing its long history, colorful characters, and how it made the City of Lights shine so brightly. (recorded 12/12/2019)

Salman Rushdie | Quichotte Dec 11, 2019

In conversation with novelist and musician Wesley Stace ''One of the major literary voices of our time'' (San Francisco Chronicle), Salman Rushdie is the author of more than a dozen novels, including The Satanic Verses, The Golden House, and Midnight's Children, winner of the ''Booker of Bookers'' Prize in 1993. His other works include a short story collection, East, West, and four works of nonfiction, including the memoir Joseph Anton, which chronicles his time in hiding during the fatwa against him. In his latest novel, Rushdie spins the humorous tale of a modern-day Don Quixote in midlife crisis tilting at the windmills of America's moral and spiritual turpitude. (recorded 12/10/2019)

William D. Cohan | Four Friends: Promising Lives Cut Short Dec 06, 2019

William D. Cohan is the bestselling author of The Last Tycoons, an inside history of Lazard Frères & Co., one of the country's most venerable investment banks. A former longtime Wall Street mergers and acquisitions banker, the topics of his other books range from the financial improprieties of Bear Stearns and Goldman Sachs to the Duke lacrosse scandal. He is a regular contributor to news outlets including the New York Times, the Financial Times, and CNBC. A portrait of four of his fellow Andover boarding school graduates, Cohan's new book is a group portrait of four vastly dissimilar men linked by the poignancy of their untimely demises. Pine Tree Foundation Endowed Lecture (recorded 12/5/2019)

André Aciman | Find Me Dec 04, 2019

In conversation with writer and film critic Gary Kramer André Aciman is the author of the nationwide bestseller Call Me by Your Name, a novel that chronicles the bittersweet love story of a teenage boy and the young academic staying at his family's mansion on the Italian Riviera. Named to a number of ''Best Book of the Year'' lists, it was adapted into an Oscar-winning film. Aciman is a professor of comparative literature at the City University of New York and the author of several other acclaimed novels and works of nonfiction. A tale of chance encounters, missed opportunities, and romantic longing, Find Me returns to the captivating circle of characters from Call Me by Your Name. (recorded 12/3/2019)

Ronan Farrow | Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators Nov 27, 2019

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition New Yorker writer Ronan Farrow has won the Pulitzer Prize for public service, a National Magazine Award, and a George Polk Award for his ''indefatigable and imaginative'' (Globe and Mail) reportage of some of the most important issues of our time. A former anchor and reporter for MSNBC and NBC News and a former State Department official in Afghanistan and Pakistan, he is the author of the New York Times bestseller War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence. In his new book, he offers a harrowing account of his plunge into the scores of abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein. (recorded 11/26/2019)

Deirdre Bair | Parisian Lives: Samuel Beckett, Simone de Beauvoir, and Me Nov 22, 2019

Deirdre Bair won the National Book Award for her ''blockbuster biography'' of Samuel Beckett, ''the best introduction to an enigmatic giant of 20th-century literature'' (Christian Science Monitor). Her other acclaimed biographies include portraits of Simone de Beauvoir, Carl Jung, and Al Capone. Her books have twice been finalists for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and she is the recipient of Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundation fellowships. In Parisian Lives, Bair travels nearly 50 years into the past in an exploration of the relationships she had with Beckett and de Beauvoir-literary peers but mortal enemies-and the disparate approaches she used to garner intimate insight into their lives and literature. (recorded 11/21/2019)

Jon Dorenbos | Life Is Magic: My Inspiring Journey from Tragedy to Self-Discovery Nov 20, 2019

In conversation with Larry Platt, co-founder/co-executive director of The Philadelphia Citizen and former editor of the Philadelphia Daily News and Philadelphia Magazine and co-author of Life is Magic Philadelphia Eagles long-snapper Jon Dorenbos played in two Pro Bowls and had an illustrious 14-year career in the NFL. Also a gifted magician, he was a finalist on the 11th season of America's Got Talent and is a frequent guest on The Ellen Show. Illusion and sleight-of-hand became an escape shortly after his father murdered his mother when he was 12 and he and his sister were thrust into foster care and then sent to live with a beloved aunt. From this early tragedy to success as a professional football player, magician, and motivational speaker, Life Is Magic is a memoir of Dorenbos's heartening journey. (recorded 11/18/2019)

Jeanine Basinger | The Movie Musical! Nov 20, 2019

In conversation with Carrie Rickey, former film critic for the Inquirer Mentor to some of contemporary cinema's top directors (Joss Whedon and Michael Bay) and founder of the department of film studies at Wesleyan University, Jeanine Basinger built the program into one of the best in the world. Her twelve books include works about silent films, women on the screen, and the studio system during Hollywood's Golden Age. A trustee emeritus of the American Film Institute, Basinger has appeared in numerous documentaries and on many DVD commentary tracks. Replete with revealing portraits of an array of Hollywood's brightest lights, lush illustrations, and penetrating analysis, The Movie Musical! is an authoritative guide to cinema's most whimsical genre. (recorded 11/19/2019)

Susan Orlean | The Library Book Nov 15, 2019

A staff writer for the New Yorker since 1992, Susan Orlean won wide acclaim for the 1998 New York Times bestseller The Orchid Thief, the story of a renegade Florida swamp plant poacher that was adapted into an Academy Award–winning film by Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze. Her many other books include Animalish, Saturday Night, and Rin Tin Tin, a nonfiction account of the beloved canine American icon. Orlean's latest book details the 1986 Los Angeles Public Library fire that consumed hundreds of thousands of books, a story writ small about the larger role this unique institution plays in American life. Carole Phillips Memorial Lecture (recorded 11/14/2019)

Saeed Jones | How We Fight for Our Lives with Clifford Thompson | What It Is: Race, Family, and One Thinking Black Man's Blues Nov 13, 2019

Saeed Jones is the author of the ''hard and glaring and brilliant'' (NPR Book Review) poetry collection Prelude to Bruise, winner of the 2015 Stonewall Book Award/Barbara Gittings Literature Award. He is also the co-host of BuzzFeed's morning show AM to DM and was the website's former LGBT editor. How We Fight for Our Lives is a memoir of Jones's life as a young, black, gay man in the South searching for his place in the American landscape. The recipient of the Whiting Award for nonfiction, Clifford Thompson's writing has appeared in a diverse array of publications, including the Washington Post, the Village Voice, and the Wall Street Journal. The author of an essay collection, Love for Sale, and a novel, Signifying Nothing, he teaches writing at New York University and Sarah Lawrence College. In the tradition of James Baldwin and Ta-Nehisi Coates, Thompson's latest book is ruminates on race in America amidst the tumult of Trump's America. (recorded 11/12/2019)

Carmen Maria Machado | In the Dream House Nov 08, 2019

In conversation with Emma Eisenberg, author of the forthcoming book The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia Carmen Maria Machado's bestselling debut short story collection, Her Body and Other Parties, was a finalist for the National Book Award and is being adapted by the FX network as a feminist spin on Black Mirror. The Artist in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania and a Guggenheim Fellow, her work has been published in the New Yorker, Granta, and Tin House, among other periodicals. Told with wit and bare self-reflection, In the Dream House is a candid account of Machado's relationship with a charming but psychologically abusive woman. (recorded 11/7/2019)

Erica Armstrong Dunbar | She Came to Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman Nov 06, 2019

In conversation with Lorene Cary, author of Black Ice, The Price of a Child, Ladysitting and the forthcoming Arden Theatre production of My General Tubman Erica Armstrong Dunbar is the author of the National Book Award finalist Never Caught, the story of Ona Judge, a young enslaved person who risked her life to escape servitude under President George Washington. Named the National Director of the Association of Black Women Historians and the first director of the Program in African American History at the Library Company of Philadelphia, she is the Charles and Mary Beard Professor of History at Rutgers University. Dunbar's latest book is a biography of the runaway enslaved person, abolitionist, Civil War heroine, conductor of the Underground Railroad, and women's suffragist known admiringly as ''Moses.'' (recorded 11/5/2019)

Paul Hendrickson | Plagued by Fire: The Dreams and Furies of Frank Lloyd Wright Nov 05, 2019

Paul Hendrickson's books include Hemingway's Boat: Everything He Loved in Life, and Lost, 1934–1961, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist; Sons of Mississippi, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award; and The Living and the Dead: Robert McNamara and Five Lives of a Lost War, a National Book Award finalist. A creative writing teacher at the University of Pennsylvania for more than 20 years and a feature writer at the Washington Post for the two decades before that, he has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize six times. In Plagued by Fire, Hendrickson ventures behind the façade of America's most iconic architect to reveal a life marked by tragedy and family secrets. (recorded 11/4/2019)

Sally Field | In Pieces Nov 04, 2019

In conversation with Marty Moss-Coane, host of WHYY's Radio Times The winner of two Academy Awards and three Primetime Emmy Awards, screen icon Sally Field is acclaimed for roles including a flying nun, a Depression-era Texas widow, a multiple-personality disorder sufferer, a union organizer, a soap queen, Spider-Man's aunt, Forrest Gump's mom, Mary Todd Lincoln, and a runaway bride hitchhiker. She is also a longtime advocate for human rights, has served since 2002 on the board of directors of the international women's NGO Vital Voices, was honored by President Obama with the National Medal of Arts, and is an inductee into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In Pieces is a memoir of Field's lonely but instructive childhood, her craft, and her most important roles: as a daughter, mother, and grandmother. Production note: the sound is a bit distorted toward the beginning but it clarifies as the event continues. (recorded 11/1/2019)

Sean Brock | South: Essential Recipes and New Explorations Oct 31, 2019

In conversation with author events editor and producer Jason Freeman Praised as ''an absolutely transformative figure'' by the late Anthony Bourdain, Sean Brock is the founding chef of the Husk restaurant group, which has four locations in South Carolina and Georgia. In 2015, he won the James Beard Award for Best American Cookbook and the IACP Julia Child First Book Award for Heritage, an ingredient-guided curation of heirloom Southern cuisine. Brock was also nominated for an Emmy Award for his work on the television show The Mind of a Chef. A celebration of one of America's most cherished cuisines, South shares the ingredients, methods, and regional twists home chefs can use to create their own spins on age-old recipes. Julie Dannenbaum Memorial Culinary Arts Lecture (recorded 10/29/2019)

Gail Collins | No Stopping Us Now: A History of Older Women in America Oct 31, 2019

A columnist for the New York Times and a member of its editorial board since 1995, Gail Collins was the Gray Lady's editorial page editor from 2001 to 2007, the first woman to hold that position. Her books include America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates and Heroines; Scorpion Tongues: Gossip, Celebrity and American Politics; and As Texas Goes ... : How the Lone Star State Hijacked the American Agenda. In her new book, Collins offers a history of American women and aging, drawing a bead on our evolving attitudes on the matter while proposing that for ladies of a certain age, the best is yet to come. (recorded 10/29/2019)

Joey Baldino and Adam Erace | Dinner at the Club: 100 Years of Stories and Recipes from South Philly's Palizzi Social Club Oct 30, 2019

In conversation with Michael Klein, editor/producer of inquirer.com/food and @phillyinsider Originally a meeting place for South Philly's Abruzzi-American community, the members-only Palizzi Social Club is now one of America's hottest restaurants. Since owner and chef Joey Baldino took over in 2017, this mecca for Southern Italian fare has been named Eater Philly's #1 restaurant of the year and Bon Appetit's #4 Best New Restaurant. A proud South Philadelphian, Baldino is also the owner of Zeppoli, a Sicilian BYOB in Collingswood, New Jersey. Dinner at the Club coauthor and fellow South Philadelphian Adam Erace is a food and travel writer who has contributed to dozens of publications, including Food & Wine and Travel + Leisure. The recipient of awards from the International Association of Culinary Professionals, Erace is also the owner of Green Aisle Grocery, a two-location gourmet market in Philadelphia. (recorded 10/28/2019)

James B. Stewart | Deep State: Trump, the FBI, and the Rule of Law Oct 24, 2019

Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist James B. Stewart is the author of the number-one New York Times bestseller Den of Thieves, the story of the most notorious insider-trading ring in financial history; DisneyWar, the boardroom imbroglio about the bitter struggle for control of the secretive corporation; and Blind Eye, the account of a coldblooded doctor who moonlighted as a serial killer. A New York Times columnist and journalism professor at Columbia University, he is a frequent contributor to the New Yorker and is a former editor at the Wall Street Journal. In Deep State, Stewart offers a definitive account of the war between the current President and America's largest law enforcement agencies, which ventures into new and disturbing territory the Mueller probe could not approach. (recorded 10/23/2019)

Hoda Kotb | I Really Needed This Today: Words to Live By Oct 21, 2019

The co-anchor of the flagship hour of the venerable Today show, Hoda Kotb has also been a Dateline correspondent for the past 21 years. Her New York Times–bestselling books include Ten Years Later and Hoda, and the children's books I've Loved You Since Forever and You Are My Happy. The winner of four Emmys, a Peabody Award, and the Edward R. Murrow Award, she has several times been honored with the Gracie Award by the Alliance for Women in Media. In I Really Needed This Today, Kotb offers a curated collection of quotes-by turns inspiring, wise, and funny-drawn from her wildly popular Instagram posts. (recorded 10/18/2019)

Adam Rippon | Beautiful on the Outside Oct 18, 2019

In conversation with award-winning broadcaster, Tracey Matisak The first openly gay U.S. male athlete to win a winter Olympics medal, Adam Rippon earned bronze as part of the figure skating team event at the 2018 games. He was also the winner of the 2016 U.S. National Championships and the 2010 Four Continents Championships. Last year he was named one of Time's 100 most influential people and to Out magazine's Power 50: The Most Influential Voices in LGBTQ America. From the athlete's impoverished homeschooled childhood in Scranton to Olympic glory and winning Dancing with the Stars, Rippon's new memoir is a showcase for his inspiring story and humorous outlook. (recorded 10/17/2019)

Tim O'Brien | Dad's Maybe Book Oct 16, 2019

In conversation with Andy Kahan, director, author events ''As good as any piece of literature can get'' (Chicago Sun Times), Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and stands as perhaps the most acclaimed book about the Vietnam War. His other books include If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home, In the Lake of the Woods, and Going After Cacciato, winner of the 1979 National Book Award. Penned one scrap of paper at a time, Dad's Maybe Book is a collection of O'Brien's advice for the two young sons who might never get to know him in adulthood. Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Endowed Lecture (recorded 10/15/2019)

Susan Rice | Tough Love: My Story of the Things Worth Fighting For Oct 11, 2019

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 2009 to 2013 and President Obama's national security advisor from 2013 to 2017, Susan Rice has been at the forefront of some of the 21st century's most consequential international challenges. Currently the Distinguished Visiting Research Fellow at the School of International Service at American University, she also sits on the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. From Rice's early family struggles to her becoming a champion of American interests on the world stage, Tough Love is not only a personal story, but a larger entreaty to bridge the domestic divides that threaten our global moral credibility. (recorded 10/10/2019)

Richard Vague | A Brief History of Doom: Two Hundred Years of Financial Crises Oct 08, 2019

In conversation with Joe Torsella, State Treasurer for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Venture capitalist and longtime Philadelphia-area philanthropist Richard Vague serves on the Penn Medicine board, is Chairman of the University of Pennsylvania Press, and is the president of the Philadelphia Live Arts and Fringe Festival. He is the author of The Next Economic Disaster: Why It's Coming and How to Avoid It, an examination of the role of public debt in financial crises. In his latest book, Vague employs insights gained through years spent in the banking industry and analysis of historical economic disasters spanning the last two centuries in order to illustrate how our current system can break the cycle of calamity. Meelya Gordon Memorial Lecture (recorded 10/7/2019)

Imani Perry | Breathe: A Letter to My Sons Oct 07, 2019

In conversation with Tracey Matisak, award-winning broadcaster and journalist Dr. Imani Perry is the author of Looking for Lorraine, a work of ''masterly syntheses of research and analysis'' (New York Times Book Review) of the life of Lorraine Hansberry, the author of A Raisin in the Sun. A professor of African-American studies, public affairs, and gender and sexuality studies at Princeton University, Perry is also the author of More Beautiful and More Terrible: The Embrace and Transcendence of Racial Inequality in the United States and May We Forever Stand: A History of the Black National Anthem. A meditation on black resilience and resistance, Breathe challenges America to see black children as deserving of humanity in an increasingly unjust society. (recorded 10/2/2019)

Gabby Rivera | Juliet Takes a Breath Oct 02, 2019

In conversation with Laurie Halse Anderson, bestselling author of Speak, Shout, Fever 1793, and the Seeds of America trilogy Introduced by the Poet Laureate of Philadelphia, Raquel Salas Rivera The first Latina to write for Marvel comics, Gabby Rivera created the popular AMERICA series, featuring the eponymous multiverse-hopping superpowered queer Latina dynamo Miss America, aka America Chavez. Honored as one of the SyFy network's top comic creators and one of NBC's #Pride30 Innovators, she has also contributed short stories to several anthologies, including The Secret Loves of Geeks, Sound Bites, and A People's Future of the United States. In Juliet Takes a Breath, Rivera offers up an audacious queer coming-of-age tale about a newly out young Puerto Rican from the Bronx who embarks upon an eye-opening internship with her idol. (recorded 9/27/2019)

Ta-Nehisi Coates | The Water Dancer Sep 27, 2019

SPOILER ALERT. A number of critical plot points are exposed during the discussion. In conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer David Blight, author of Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom Ta-Nehisi Coates won the 2015 National Book Award for Between the World and Me, a ''searing meditation on what it means to be black in America today'' (New York Times). A national correspondent for the Atlantic, he won the 2014 George Polk Award for his cover story ''The Case for Reparations.'' Coates is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and the author of We Were Eight Years in Power, a collection of new and previously published essays. His debut novel tells the story of an escaped enslaved person's journey from the barbaric Deep South to the misguided utopic movements of the North. (recorded 9/25/2019)

Malcolm Gladwell | Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don't Know Sep 27, 2019

With ''an uncanny ability to simplify without being simplistic'' (Seattle Times), Malcolm Gladwell synthesizes academic research and critical analysis with engaging prose and relatable anecdotes to fashion surprisingly counterintuitive conclusions about our everyday lives. His mega-bestselling books include The Tipping Point, Outliers, Blink, and David and Goliath. A former business and science writer for the Washington Post, Gladwell has been a staff columnist at the New Yorker since 1996 and is the host of the popular Revisionist History podcast. From Fidel Castro to Bernie Madoff to the death of Sandra Bland, Gladwell's latest book examines our interactions with strangers and why they often go awry. (recorded 9/26/2019)

Billy Bragg | The Three Dimensions of Freedom Sep 24, 2019

In conversation with Ian Zolitor, host of The Folk Show on WXPN Introduced by Cynthia Schemmer Legendary English singer-songwriter Billy Bragg's more than 40-year musical career melds facets of folk, punk, and protest music with political and romantic themes. Some of his most famous works include Brewing Up with Billy Bragg, Don't Try This at Home, and Tooth & Nail. A longtime left-wing activist, he has testified before a commission that debated reforming the House of Lords and founded an organization that gives musical instruments to prisoners. His recent book Roots, Radicals and Rockers tells the story of the music genre skiffle. In The Three Dimensions of Freedom, Bragg prescribes liberty, equality, and accountability as the antidotes to rising global authoritarianism. (recorded 9/23/2019)

Edwidge Danticat | Everything Inside Sep 20, 2019

In conversation with Glory Edim, author and founder of Well-Read Black Girl In ''fiercely beautiful'' novels, memoirs, and essay collections brimming with ''enchantments and surprises'' (Los Angeles Times), Edwidge Danticat bears witness to the complexities of Haitian life in stories of courage, brutality, family, and rebellion. These books include Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work; the National Book Award finalist Krik? Krak!; and Brother, I'm Dying, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. The MacArthur Fellowship recipient and Pushcart Prize winner's latest story collection explores the tidal forces of community that ebb and flow within us all. (recorded 9/19/2019)

Téa Obreht | Inland Sep 20, 2019

In conversation with Sara Nović, author of Girl at War and America is Immigrants The Tiger's Wife, Téa Obreht's bestselling debut novel, won the 2011 Orange Prize and was a National Book Award finalist. A ''graceful commingling of contemporary realism and village legend'' (Washington Post), it follows a young doctor's investigation into her grandfather's death in a Balkan country healing from war. One of the New Yorker's 20 best American fiction writers under 40, Obreht has published work in the Guardian, Harper's, and the Atlantic, and her short stories have been widely anthologized. In her second novel, a frontierswoman awaiting her family's return crosses paths with a world-weary former outlaw in the drought-baked barrens of 1890s Arizona. (recorded 9/18/2019)

Jonathan Safran Foer | We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast Sep 18, 2019

Renowned for placing ''his reader's hand on the heart of human experience'' (Philadelphia Inquirer), Jonathan Safran Foer is the bestselling author of the frenetically irreverent, emotionally urgent novels Everything Is Illuminated, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and Here I Am. Also the nonfiction author of Eating Animals, a philosophical investigation into the carnivorous human condition, Foer is the recipient of many literary honors, including the Guardian First Book Award and the National Jewish Book Award. In We Are the Weather, he issues an urgent call to sacrifice current relative comfort for the sake of humanity's future, one that begins with what we collectively eat and don't eat at breakfast. (recorded 9/17/2019)

Amy Gutmann and Jonathan D. Moreno | Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven But Nobody Wants to Die: Bioethics and the Transformation of Health Care Sep 18, 2019

In conversation with Action News anchor, Jim Gardner Dr. Amy Gutmann is President of the University of Pennsylvania, where she is also a professor of political science and communications. Formerly the provost at Princeton, she is the author of 16 books, which focus on topics ranging from higher education and healthcare access to ethics. Fellow Penn academic Jonathan D. Moreno is a professor of medical ethics and health policy, history and sociology of science, and philosophy. A member of President Obama's transition team and bioethics commission, his work has been published in scores of academic and popular journals. In their new book, Gutmann and Moreno examine the last 60 years of American healthcare to demonstrate the tough moral choices that accompany great leaps in medical progress. (recorded 9/16/2019)

Paul Tough | The Years That Matter Most: How College Makes or Breaks Us Sep 13, 2019

Paul Tough is the author of the bestselling How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character, a ''persuasive wake-up call'' (People) to the deprivations of knowledge suffered by American kids from both extremes of the economic spectrum. His other books include Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America and Helping Children Succeed: What Works and Why. His work has been published in the New Yorker, the Atlantic, and GQ, among other periodicals. In his latest book, Tough challenges conventional wisdom about higher education and explains what works and what doesn't in the American university. (recorded 9/12/2019)

Richard Russo | Chances Are . . . with Amy Hempel | Sing to It: New Stories Aug 07, 2019

Winner of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for his novel Empire Falls, Richard Russo is acclaimed for capturing the ''foolishness of this lonely world, but also the humor, friendship and love that abide'' (San Francisco Chronicle). His novel Nobody's Fool, starring the world-worn protagonist Sully and the irresistible residents of North Bath, New York, was adapted into a popular film starring Paul Newman and spawned a popular follow-up, Everybody's Fool. In Chances Are . . ., three 66-year-old men convene on Martha's Vineyard to reminisce about their college days and solve a mystery that has haunted them for decades. ''Among the strongest voices in American fiction'' (Los Angeles Times), writer's writer Amy Hempel is the author of the acclaimed short-story collections Reasons to Live, At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom, Tumble Home, and The Dog of the Marriage. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story, she teaches in the creative writing programs at Bennington College and Stony Brook Southampton. In Sing to It, Hempel employs her singular style of prose to reveal characters in search of connection, compassion, and reckoning. (recorded 8/6/2019)

Terry McAuliffe | Beyond Charlottesville: Taking a Stand Against White Nationalism Aug 06, 2019

In conversation with award-winning journalist, Tracey Matisak. The Democratic governor of Virginia from 2014 to 2018, Terry McAuliffe ''won praise even from Republicans for his tireless salesmanship'' (Washington Post) of the Old Dominion. A former chair of the National Governors Association, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and co-chair of Bill Clinton's 1996 reelection campaign, he is also the author of the New York Times bestseller What a Party! My Life Among Democrats, Presidents, Candidates, Donors, Activists, Alligators, and Other Wild Animals. In Beyond Charlottesville, McAuliffe offers a behind-the-scenes account and cautionary tale of the destructive Unite the Right rally that ultimately claimed a life and bared the ugliest facets of American racism. (recorded 8/5/2019)

Richard A. Clarke and Robert K. Knake | The Fifth Domain: Defending Our Country, Our Companies, and Ourselves in the Age of Cyber Threats Jul 19, 2019

In conversation with Michael A Smerconish Veteran counterterrorism czar and one of the world's leading experts on cyberspace security, Richard A. Clarke worked for seven presidents and devoted three decades of his professional life to combating threats to the United States. He is the author of four novels and four nonfiction books, including the New York Times bestseller Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror. From 2011 to 2015, Robert K. Knake served in the Obama administration as director for cybersecurity policy at the National Security Council. A senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and senior research scientist at Northeastern University's Global Resilience Institute, he is also a security advisor for a wide swath of businesses. In The Fifth Domain-the Pentagon's name for cyberspace-Clarke and Knake detail cyberattacks, web warriors and weapons fighting on the front lines of these incursions, and the ways that governments, businesses, and citizens can confront these threats. Michael A. Smerconish is the host of The Michael Smerconish Program on SiriusXM POTUS Channel 124, the host of CNN's Smerconish on Saturday mornings, a Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer columnist, and a New York Times bestselling author. (recorded 7/18/2019)

Julie Salamon | An Innocent Bystander: The Killing of Leon Klinghoffer Jul 17, 2019

Exploring an astonishing range of genres and subject matter, Julie Salamon is the author of a score of novels, children's books, and nonfiction books. Initially a longtime banking reporter and film critic for the Wall Street Journal, then a TV critic and arts reporter at the New York Times, she has also written hundreds of articles for such magazines as the New Yorker, the New Republic, and Vanity Fair. In An Innocent Bystander, Salamon tells the long-reverberating story of the 1985 slaying of disabled Jewish New Yorker Leon Klinghoffer at the hands of Palestinian terrorists aboard a luxury liner in the Mediterranean. (recorded 7/16/2019)

Andrew Shaffer | Hope Rides Again: An Obama Biden Mystery Jul 16, 2019

They're back! In Andrew Shaffer's sequel to the New York Times bestseller Hope Never Dies, the bromantic thriller that saw the former president and vice president tumble down a Delaware rabbit hole of conspiracy and murder, Obama and Biden are once again drawn into a web of intrigue only they can untangle. This time, when Biden joins his old friend and boss in Chicago, a stolen BlackBerry leads to a deeper cabal that unfolds in speakeasies, high-rises, and the streets of the Windy City's South Side. Shaffer's other genre-bending bestsellers include Fifty Shames of Earl Grey, How to Survive a Sharknado and Other Unnatural Disasters, and The Day of the Donald. (recorded 7/15/2019)

Mary Pope Osborne | Magic Tree House: To the Future, Ben Franklin! with Natalie Pope Boyce Jul 15, 2019

Mary Pope Osborne is the prolific author of the beloved Magic Tree House series of children's books. Featuring time-traveling brother and sister Jack and Annie, the wildly popular books have been translated into nearly three dozen languages and have sold more than 134 million copies worldwide. To the Future, Ben Franklin! finds the duo traveling back in time to meet America's most famous bespectacled inventor. Pope Osborne's sister, Natalie Pope Boyce, is her coauthor on the Magic Tree House Fact Tracker series, which give curious young readers more information about the historical time periods, people, places, and creatures encountered by the main series' young heroes. With a special appearance by Ben Franklin himself! (recorded 7/11/2019)

Jennifer Weiner | Mrs. Everything Jul 10, 2019

''One of the biggest names in popular fiction'' (USA Today), Jennifer Weiner is the beloved number-one New York Times bestselling author of more than a dozen novels-including Good in Bed, All Fall Down, and In Her Shoes, which was made into a major motion picture starring Cameron Diaz, Shirley MacLaine, and the city of Philadelphia. She is also the writer of two YA books about a diminutive Bigfoot and an essay collection titled Hungry Heart, an intimate and honest meditation on yearning, fulfillment, and her many identities. In her new novel, Weiner follows two sisters over the course of more than six decades as they search for their places in an ever-shifting American landscape. (recorded 7/9/2019)

Rachel Louise Snyder | No Visible Bruises: What We Don't Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us Jun 27, 2019

The recipient of an Overseas Press Award for her contributions to This American Life, Rachel Louise Snyder is the author of No Visible Bruises. A ''gut-wrenching'' (Esquire) and intimate investigation into the scope and root causes of one of America's most urgent social crises, it was awarded the prestigious J. Anthony Lukas Work-In-Progress Award. Her other books include Fugitive Denim: A Moving Story of People and Pants in the Borderless World of Global Trade and the novel What We've Lost Is Nothing, a chronicle of the intrigues and prejudices left in the wake of a mass burglary in a suburban Chicago neighborhood. An associate professor at American University, Snyder has published in a litany of periodicals, including the New Yorker, the Washington Post, and the New York Times Magazine. (recorded 6/26/2019)

Elaine Welteroth | More Than Enough: Claiming Space for Who You Are (No Matter What They Say) Jun 26, 2019

In conversation with Rakia Reynolds, founder and CEO of Skai Blue Media The firebrand former editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue and the first African American ever to hold the post of beauty and health director in Condé Nast's 107-year history, Elaine Welteroth ''masterminded the reinvention of the beauty and fashion magazine as a voice for social justice'' (Chicago Tribune). Also a former editor at Glamour and Ebony, she is currently a judge on Project Runway, has written for the show Grown-ish, and has appeared as a commentator in numerous media outlets. Welteroth's New York Times bestselling manifesto/memoir More Than Enough unpacks insights on barrier breaking, identity, and race for those seeking to claim space in the workplace and the world on their own terms. One of the most sought-after minds in strategic communications, Rakia Reynolds is a thought leader, tastemaker, and branding expert who advises top Fortune 500 companies on creative strategy. Rakia (pronounced RA-KEY-AH) has been guiding client successes with her own distinctive brand of authenticity and expertise for over 15 years. Recently, she served as creative director for Philadelphia's bid for Amazon H2Q- which has resulted in landing Philly as a top 20 finalist from contending cities across the country. Rakia is the Founder and CEO of strategic communications agency Skai Blue Media. A non-traditional agency, Skai Blue Media is a proudly eclectic group of storytellers, brand experts, and strategists. Her team works with lifestyle, technology, non-profit, entrepreneurs and brands, and is based in Philadelphia and New York. (recorded 6/25/2019)

Jason Baumann | The Stonewall Reader with Mark Segal, Karla Jay and Joel Hall Jun 24, 2019

On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the riots that started the fight for American LGBTQ+ rights, The Stonewall Reader highlights some of the movement's most iconic moments and figures in the years before and after those tumultuous events. Assembling archival research and first-person accounts, editor Jason Baumann-the New York Public Library's coordinator of humanities and LGBTQ collections-planned the book's release to coincide with Love & Resistance: Stonewall 50, the library's exhibition on the Stonewall riots and the ensuing gay liberation movement, open through July 14, 2019. He will be joined by Mark Segal, founder of the Philadelphia Gay News, who will discuss his contribution to the anthology, ''And Then I Danced,'' Karla Jay, author of Tales of the Lavender Menace: A Memoir of Liberation and a distinguished professor emerita at Pace University, and Joel Hall, part of the Third World Gay Revolution movement in Chicago, and a dancer, choreographer, and activist. (recorded 6/20/2019)

Frank Langfitt | The Shanghai Free Taxi: Journeys with the Hustlers and Rebels of the New China Jun 21, 2019

In conversation with Bill Marimow As NPR's Correspondent in Shanghai, Frank Langfitt created a free-taxi service where he offered rides in exchange for passenger's stories and candid conversation. He met a motley crew of characters whose lives he followed for years as they navigated the sea change in Chinese economic and political life. Langfitt, now NPR's London correspondent, got the idea for the free taxi while growing up outside of Philadelphia where he spent his summers off from college driving cabs and exploring his hometown. Langfitt has also served NPR's East Africa correspondent, the Baltimore Sun's reporter in Beijing, and got his start as a freelancer with the Philadelphia Inquirer. (recorded 6/19/2019)

Esi Edugyan | Washington Black Jun 19, 2019

Esi Edugyan's novel Half-Blood Blues, the story of a World War II–era mixed-race jazz band's abducted star trumpeter, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, among other honors. She is also the author of another novel, The Second Life of Samuel Tyne, and Dreaming of Elsewhere, a nonfiction meditation on home, identity, and belonging. ''A lush, exhilarating travelogue reminiscent of Jules Verne'' (New Yorker), Edugyan's new novel is the soaring tale of a young enslaved person who slips the bonds of Barbados through the miracle of flight. Named one of the best books of the year by a variety of periodicals, its eponymous protagonist finds physical and spiritual freedom amidst an uplifting hot-air balloon sojourn from the Caribbean to the Arctic. (recorded 6/18/2019)

Mark Kram Jr. | Smokin' Joe: The Life of Joe Frazier Jun 18, 2019

In conversation with longtime radio host Steve Ross Mark Kram Jr. won the 2013 PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing for Like Any Normal Day, the tragic story of two brothers bonded but separated by a devastating sports injury. He formerly wrote for the Philadelphia Daily News and Philadelphia Magazine and was honored by the Society of Professional Journalists with the 2011 Sigma Delta Chi Award for feature writing. Smokin' Joe explores the pugilistic and personal life of one of the sweet science's most misunderstood figures. (recorded 6/13/2019)

Jacob Shell | Giants of the Monsoon Forest: Living and Working with Elephants Jun 12, 2019

In conversation with Nikil Saval, an editor of n+1 and author of Cubed: A Secret History of the Workplace A professor of geography and urban studies at Temple University, Jacob Shell is the author of Transportation and Revolt: Pigeons, Mules, Canals, and the Vanishing Geographies of Subversive Mobility, a historical study of the connections between modes of transit and rebellion. Praised as ''fascinating'' by esteemed primatologist Frans de Waal, Shell's latest book explores the millennia-spanning working relationship between humans and elephants, journeying to the rugged and sometimes dangerous Southeast Asian forests where this partnership still exists. (recorded 6/11/2019)

Nicole Dennis-Benn | Patsy with Rebecca Makkai | The Great Believers Jun 07, 2019

Here Comes the Sun, Nicole Dennis-Benn's debut novel about a young Jamaican struggling to protect her sister and village as she experiences feelings for another woman, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the New York Public Library's Young Lions Fiction Award and was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, among other honors. Her new novel, Patsy, follows an undocumented Jamaican immigrant's travails in Brooklyn. Rebecca Makkai's books include The Borrower, Music for Wartime, and The Hundred-Year House, which won a Book of the Year Award from the Chicago Writers Association. Her stories have appeared in Harper's, Tin House, and The Best American Short Stories, among other publications. Shortlisted for the National Book Award and winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal, Makkai's latest novel interweaves fine art, the tragedy of the 1980s and '90s AIDS crisis, and the tumult of the contemporary world. (recorded 6/6/2019)

James Ellroy | This Storm Jun 05, 2019

In his bestselling L.A. Quartet mysteries and the Underworld USA trilogy, James Ellroy ''has vigorously redefined the well-shadowed turf of contemporary crime fiction'' (Atlanta Journal Constitution). He is also the author of the Lloyd Hopkins trilogy of novels, several collections of short stories and essays, and a memoir about his mother's 1958 still-unsolved murder. In This Storm, the second installment in the Second L.A. Quartet, Ellroy hammers out a sordid story of corrupt cops, war profiteers, Japanese internment, and fascism during the darkest days of World War II. (recorded 6/4/2019)

James Patterson | Unsolved in conversation with Elin Hilderbrand Jun 04, 2019

In conversation with nos. 1 bestselling author Elin Hilderbrand James Patterson holds the Guinness World Record for the most number-one New York Times bestsellers, and his books have sold more than 375 million copies worldwide. A tireless champion of the power of books and reading, Patterson created a new children's book imprint, JIMMY Patterson, whose mission is to foster lifelong reading habits. He has donated more than 1 million books to students and soldiers and funds more than four hundred James Patterson Teacher Education Scholarships. In Unsolved, a steely FBI agent struggles to find the pattern in a string of seemingly unrelated murders. (recorded 6/3/2019)

Rick Atkinson | The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775–1777 May 31, 2019

Rick Atkinson won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for An Army at Dawn, the first volume in his Liberation trilogy, a ''densely researched but supremely readable'' (New York Times Book Review) history of the Allied victory in World War II. His other bestselling books include The Day of Battle, The Long Gray Line, In the Company of Soldiers, and Crusade. A longtime reporter at the Washington Post, Atkinson has garnered two Pulitzer Prizes, a George Polk Award, and the Gerald R. Ford Award for Distinguished Reporting on National Defense. Recounting the chaotic first 21 months of the Revolutionary War, The British Are Coming is the first in a three-volume account of America's fight for independence. (recorded 5/30/2019)

John Waters | Mr. Know-It-All: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder May 30, 2019

In conversation with Jason Freeman, producer and editor of author events John Waters's transgressive movies include Pink Flamingos, Hairspray, Cry-Baby, Serial Mom, and Cecil B. Demented. He is also the author of Shock Value, Crackpot, Role Models, Make Trouble, and 2014's Carsick, in which-armed with his trademark loud suits, wit, and pencil-thin mustache-Waters mingled with America's denizens as he hitchhiked to the West Coast. In his new book, the ''Pope of Trash'' offers lessons on failing upward, developing wide-ranging cultural and sartorial tastes, loving without emotional peril, and cheating death itself. (recorded 5/23/2019)

Eve Ensler | The Apology May 23, 2019

One of Newsweek's ''150 Women Who Shake the World'' and the Guardian's ''Top 100 Women,'' Tony Award–winning playwright Eve Ensler is a performer, activist, and author. Her phenomenon The Vagina Monologues has been published in nearly 50 languages and adapted as an HBO film. She is the founder of V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women and girls; One Billion Rising, a global action to end gender-based violence; and co-founder of the City of Joy, an institution for survivors of violence in the Congo. The Apology is a transformative imagined apology from her father. (recorded 5/22/2019)

Adam Gopnik | A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism May 22, 2019

A staff writer at The New Yorker for more than three decades, Adam Gopnik is the author of Paris to the Moon, The Table Comes First, and At the Strangers' Gate, an ''elegant'' memoir of his 1980s move to a peculiar New York that ''effortlessly weaves in the city's cultural history'' (New York Times). A three-time recipient of the National Magazine Award and a winner of the George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting, Gopnik was decorated with the French Republic's medal of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters. An answer to dogmatic attacks on liberalism and its adherents, A Thousand Small Sanities is a manifesto about the great historical moral success of this philosophy and its necessity in an age of calcifying autocracy. (recorded 5/21/2019)

David Brooks | The Second Mountain May 17, 2019

A ''clever and insightful inspector of the American scene'' (Wall Street Journal), David Brooks has written an op-ed column for The New York Times since 2003. A former editor and columnist at The Weekly Standard, The Washington Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic Monthly, he frequently appears on PBS NewsHour, Meet the Press, and NPR's All Things Considered. His books include the bestselling Bobos in Paradise, The Social Animal, and The Road to Character, a look at the mélange of traits that can lead to the path of substantive living. In The Second Mountain, Brooks posits that those who embrace lives of deeper commitment and service to others find greater fulfillment. Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Endowed Lecture (recorded 5/16/2019)

Tommy Orange | There There: A Novel with Rachel Kushner | The Mars Room May 17, 2019

''Masterful. . . . A devastating debut novel'' (The Washington Post), Tommy Orange's There There has been lauded as a new American treasure by some of the country's greatest writers and esteemed publications. A New York Times bestseller and one of its 10 Best Books of the Year, it follows the convergence of 12 unforgettable Native American characters living in Oakland, California, building to a shocking but inexorable conclusion. An enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, Orange teaches in the MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Two-time National Book Award finalist Rachel Kushner is the author of The Flamethrowers, a ''white-hot ember of a book'' (Los Angeles Times) that traces the jagged trajectory of a young woman through the 1970s New York art scene, and Telex from Cuba, in which two American children in a gilded rural enclave sense the impending Castro revolution. In The Mars Room, a finalist for the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, Kushner tells the ''tough, prismatic'' yet ''surprisingly luminous'' (Wall Street Journal) story of a young woman at the outset of a double life sentence in a California prison. (recorded 5/15/2019)

George Packer | Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century May 15, 2019

George Packer won the 2013 National Book Award for The Unwinding, a biographical examination of the seismic shifts in economics and politics over the past three decades that have brought the United States to the brink. A longtime New Yorker staff writer possessed of a ''far more coherent worldview than most reporters'' (The New York Times Book Review), he was honored with two Overseas Press Club awards in 2003 for his coverage of the war in Iraq and his reporting on the civil war in Sierra Leone. His books include the bestselling The Assassin's Gate: America in Iraq, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; and Blood of the Liberals, winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. In Our Man, Packer charts the rise and fall of diplomat Richard Holbrooke, the brilliant but self-absorbed architect of the Dayton Peace Accords that ended the Balkan wars. Meelya Gordon Memorial Lecture (recorded 5/14/2019)

Madhur Jaffrey | Madhur Jaffrey's Instantly Indian Cookbook: Modern and Classic Recipes... May 13, 2019

In conversation with Anusha Balasubramanian. Anusha spends her days as an executive assistant at a Philadelphia investment firm, but her greatest passions are books, cooking, and her mother's idli. Lauded as the ''queen of Indian cooking'' (Saveur), Madhur Jaffrey is largely credited for bringing her home country's cuisine to America with 1973's An Invitation to Indian Cooking. She has since authored more than a dozen James Beard Award–winning cookbooks. Also an acclaimed actor, Jaffrey won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 1965 Berlin Film Festival for her role in the Merchant Ivory film Shakespeare Wallah. With more than 70 easy-to-replicate recipes, her new cookbook offers a guide to making Indian cuisine with one of America's new favorite kitchen gadgets. Join us to hear stories from her long and varied career. (recorded 5/10/2019)

Susan Hockfield | The Age of Living Machines: How Biology Will Build the Next Technology Revolution May 09, 2019

The first woman and the first life scientist to head the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dr. Susan Hockfield now serves as the esteemed institution's President Emerita. A pioneering neuroscientist whose work included the discovery of a gene linked to the spread of brain cancer, she has earned the Edison Achievement Award, a number of honorary degrees, and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is the chairman of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and recently served as science envoy with the U.S. Department of State. In The Age of Living Machines, Hockfield describes a contemporary biotech convergence leading to the bleeding edge products that will help us overcome some of our greatest human and environmental challenges. (recorded 5/8/2019)

Lorene Cary | Ladysitting: My Year with Nana at the End of Her Century May 08, 2019

''A powerful storyteller, frankly sensual [and] mortally funny" (New York Times), Lorene Cary is the author of the novels Pride, The Price of a Child, If Sons, Then Heirs, and the memoir Black Ice. A senior lecturer in creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania and the recipient of a Pew Fellowship in the Arts, she is the founder of SafeKidsStories.com and Art Sanctuary, a local African American lecture and performance program. In Ladysitting, Cary's irascible 100-year-old grandmother moves in, bringing with her tension, tenderness, and a unique perspective on forgiveness. (recorded 5/7/2019)

Susan Choi | Trust Exercise: A Novel with Myla Goldberg | Feast Your Eyes May 03, 2019

Excavating the hidden corners of the human heart and acclaimed for their ''nuance, psychological acuity, and pitch-perfect writing'' (Los Angeles Times), Susan Choi's novels include the Asian American Literary Award-winning The Foreign Student; American Woman, a finalist for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize; A Person of Interest, a finalist for the 2009 PEN/Faulkner Award; and My Education, winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Fiction. A creative writing teacher at Yale, Choi has earned Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships. Trust Exercise follows a star-crossed suburban teen romance in a 1980s performing arts high school. Myla Goldberg is the author of the bestselling Bee Season, the story of a family's disintegration told through the lens of a young spelling prodigy. It was a New York Times Notable Book, a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award and the New York Public Library's Young Lions Fiction Award, and was adapted into a film starring Richard Gere. Her other novels include The False Friend and Wickett's Remedy. Goldberg's new novel is a portrait of an ambitious 1950s-era photographer and mother formed through a collage of perspectives on the character's art and life. (recorded 5/2/2019)

One Book, One Philadelphia | Criminal Justice Reform Panel May 02, 2019

Inspired by the themes in the One Book, One Philadelphia 2019 selection, Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward, a panel of formerly incarcerated community advocates were joined in conversation by District Attorney Larry Krasner and Chief Public Defender Keir Bradford-Grey. Their discussions about criminal and juvenile justice reform in Philadelphia were moderated by Claire Shubik-Richards, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, and Arcadia University Professor Favian Martin. Panelists included Kempis Ghani Songster, Reuben Jones, and Cameron Holmes. (recorded 2/11/2019)

Nicole Weisensee Egan | Chasing Cosby: The Downfall of America's Dad May 01, 2019

In conversation with Annette John-Hall, cohost and producer of The Why on WHYY A 14-year veteran crime reporter for the Philadelphia Daily News, Nicole Weisensee Egan was the first journalist to delve into Andrea Constand's 2005 sexual assault allegations against Bill Cosby. As other news organizations lost interest, she dug deeper, developing sources and discovering details that ultimately influenced the prosecution of ''America's Dad'' a full decade later. Pulling back the curtain on pop culture, media responsibility, and an initially indifferent criminal justice system, Chasing Cosby is the ultimate insider's account of the stunning fall from grace of one of America most celebrated cultural icons. (recorded 4/30/2019)

Tyler Kepner | K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches Apr 30, 2019

The national baseball writer for the New York Times since 2010, Tyler Kepner began his career as a teenager, interviewing players for a homemade magazine that garnered him national attention. His first book, The Phillies Experience: A Year-by-Year Chronicle of the Philadelphia Phillies, came out in 2013. Praised by Bob Costas as ''analytical and anecdotal, insightful and entertaining,'' K explores the evolution of pitching through archival research and more than three hundred interviews with Hall of Famers and contemporary stars. (recorded 4/29/2019)

Melinda Gates | The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World In conversation with John Green Apr 26, 2019

Ranked by Forbes as the third most powerful woman in the world, Melinda Gates has been on a 20-year mission to solve some of the world's most pressing problems. Through her work as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-the world's largest philanthropic organization- one thing has become increasingly clear to her: If you want to lift a society up, invest in women. In The Moment of Lift, the former Microsoft executive introduces us to her heroes in the movement towards equality, offers startling data, shares moving conversations she's had with women from all over the world―and shows how we can all get involved. John Green is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of six books, including The Fault in Our Stars and Turtles All the Way Down . His books have been published in more than 55 languages, and adapted for popular feature films. (recorded 4/25/2019)

Mark Bowden | The Last Stone: A Masterpiece of Criminal Interrogation Apr 25, 2019

In conversation with Catherine M. Recker. ''One of the most intense, visceral'' (Philadelphia Inquirer) writers of our time, Mark Bowden is a national correspondent for The Atlantic and Vanity Fair and is the author of numerous New York Times bestselling books of investigative journalism, including Black Hawk Down. His other books include Killing Pablo, winner of the Overseas Press Club's Cornelius Ryan Award for book of the year; The Three Battles of Wanat, a collection of his best long-form essays; and Hue 1968, the story of the Vietnam War's bloodiest battle as told by participants from both sides. In The Last Stone, Bowden returns to a story he covered as a cub reporter in the 1970s as new evidence emerges in the case of two vanished children. (recorded 4/24/2019)

Julia Alvarez | In the Time of the Butterflies: 25th Anniversary Edition Apr 24, 2019

In conversation with Concepción de León, the digital staff writer for the Books desk at The New York Times. She also writes "El Espace," a news and culture column for Latino. A ''one-woman cultural collision'' (Los Angeles Times Book Review), poet, essayist, and fiction writer Julia Alvarez is renowned for her lyrical, poignant, politically insightful books, including How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, which details the lives of four sisters before and after their exile from the Dominican Republic; A Wedding in Haiti, an examination of three of Alvarez's most personal relationships; and Return to Sender, a novel about the families of undocumented Mexican workers in Vermont. Her many awards include the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Outstanding Achievement in American Literature and the 2013 National Medal of Arts. On the eve of the 25th anniversary of its publication, the new edition of Alvarez's novel In the Time of the Butterflies is a celebration of the four mariposa sisters who symbolized courage, love, and resistance. (recorded 4/23/2019)

Janny Scott | The Beneficiary: Fortune, Misfortune, and the Story of My Father Apr 23, 2019

In conversation with Bruce Weber, former obituary writer for the New York Times and author of the books As They See 'Em: A Fan's Travels in the Land of Umpires and Life is A Wheel: Memoirs of a Bike-Riding Obituarist. Janny Scott, a 15-year reporter for The New York Times, was part of a team that won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. She is also the author of the ''meticulous'' (Washington Post) biography A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother. She is the scion of a wealthy investment banker forebear who built the imposing 800-acre Androssan estate on Philadelphia's Main Line. In her new book, she tells the multi-generational story of the ways in which financial and genetic inheritance affected members of her family, including her grandmother, Helen Hope Montgomery Scott, a socialite and celebrated horsewoman said to have inspired Katherine Hepburn's character in the play and Academy Award-winning film The Philadelphia Story. (recorded 4/22/2019)

Emily Bazelon | Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration Apr 22, 2019

In conversation with State Representative Christopher M. Raab Emily Bazelon is the author of Sticks and Stones, ''a humane and closely reported exploration'' (Wall Street Journal) of school bullying and the empathetic steps students, parents, and teachers can take to mitigate this cruel phenomenon. A staff writer at The New York Times Magazine and a former senior editor at Slate, she is a lecturer at Yale Law School, where she is also the Truman Capote Fellow for Creative Writing and Law. In her new book, Bazelon proffers a major critique of the American criminal justice system, arguing that prosecutors have vast and unchecked power over defendants' charges and sentences. (recorded 4/18/2019)

Bill McKibben | Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? Apr 17, 2019

''The world's best green journalist'' (Time), Bill McKibben gave one of the earliest cautions about global warming with his 1989 book The End of Nature. His many other bestselling books about the environment include Deep Economy, Eaarth, and Oil and Honey; as well as a novel, Radio Free Vermont, which imagines a band of Vermont patriots who decide to secede from the United States. Recipient of the 2013 Gandhi Peace Award, McKibben is the Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In Falter, he offers a dire warning about the shrinking space in which civilization can exist. (recorded 4/16/2019)

Mary Norris | Greek to Me: Adventures of the Comma Queen Apr 16, 2019

''A rollicking adventure into the origins of the apostrophe, the proliferation of profanity in American culture, and everything in between'' (San Francisco Chronicle), Mary Norris's bestselling Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen was a raucous, cheery memoir about grammar, usage, and practical life advice gleaned from her three decades in The New Yorker's venerable and notoriously fastidious copy department. Her latest book is another paean to language and expression. In Greek to Me, Norris celebrates all things Greek-words, gods, wine, and waiters-as she offers a hot take on the distant but oddly familiar language that helped beget our own. (recorded 4/15/2019)

Patricia Marx and Roz Chast | Why Don't You Write My Eulogy Now So I Can Correct It?: A Mother's Suggestions Apr 12, 2019

A 30-year contributor to The New Yorker, Patricia Marx is the author of several books including Starting From Happy and Him Her Him Again the End of Him, both of which were Thurber Prize finalists. A former writer for Saturday Night Live and Rugrats, she has taught screenwriting and humor at a number of universities, and is the recipient of a 2015 Guggenheim Fellowship. Her new book, illustrated by Roz Chast, is a collection of bon mots passed down from her mother. Chast has published more than 800 cartoons in The New Yorker since 1978. She has written or illustrated more than a dozen books, including several collected volumes of her published cartoons, an illustrated love note to Manhattan titled Going into Town, and the memoir Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and a National Book Award Finalist. Natalie Cohn Memorial Lecture (recorded 4/11/2019)

Kwame Onwuachi | Notes from a Young Black Chef: A Memoir Apr 11, 2019

In conversation with Chef Elijah Milligan A former Top Chef star, the executive chef at Washington D.C.'s popular Kith and Kin, and a Forbes and Zagat's 30 Under 30 honoree, Kwame Onwuachi is one of America's most acclaimed young culinary personalities. Raised in the Bronx and Nigeria, he started a catering company with money he made selling candy on the subway, eventually training at the Culinary Institute of America and in the kitchens of some of the country's best restaurants. A memoir about food, celebrity, and race, Notes from a Young Black Chef serves up lessons about following your star even when it takes a wrong turn. (recorded 4/10/2019)

Richard Blanco | How to Love a Country: Poems Apr 10, 2019

Richard Blanco made history four times at Barack Obama's second presidential inauguration: He was the first immigrant, the first Latino, the youngest person, and the first openly gay person to be the U.S. inaugural poet. Exploring heritage and identity, his poetry collections include City of a Hundred Fires, Directions to the Beach of the Dead, and Looking for the Gulf Motel. He is also the author of The Prince of Los Cocuyos, a memoir that delves into his upbringing as the child of Cuban exiles, and his artistic, sexual, and cultural identities as an American. Through seemingly disparate historical events and motifs, his new poetry collection asks, ''How do we love this country?'' (recorded 4/9/2019)

Dave Barry | Lessons from Lucy: The Simple Joys of an Old, Happy Dog Apr 09, 2019

A 30-year writer at the Miami Herald whose column was syndicated in more than 500 newspapers, humorist Dave Barry won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1988. His more than 30 New York Times bestselling books include I'll Mature When I'm Dead, Insane City, You Can Date When You're 40, and Dave Barry Slept Here: A Sort of History of the United States. Two of Barry's books were used as the basis for the CBS TV sitcom Dave's World. Drawn from daily life's deeply personal but universally experienced humiliations, absurdities, and moments of grace, Lessons from Lucy urges us to find the joy in our lives. (recorded 4/8/2019)

Robert A. Caro | Working: Researching, Interviewing, Writing Apr 08, 2019

In conversation with Dick Polman, "Writer in Residence" at the University of Pennsylvania, national political columnist at WHYY News and contributor to The Atlantic Standing at ''the summit of American historical writing'' (Washington Post), Robert Caro is the author of biographies of New York power-brokering urban planner Robert Moses and Lyndon B. Johnson, the latter of which is part of a multi-volume series on the complicated ex-President. He has earned an astounding two Pulitzer Prizes, three National Book Critics Circle Awards, two National Book Awards, the Gold Medal in Biography from the American Academy of Art and Letters, and in 2010 President Obama awarded him the National Humanities Medal. In Working, Caro reflects on lessons gleaned from researching and writing his watershed books, as well as what it felt like to interview many of the people central to these works. (recorded 4/8/2019)

Michael Dobbs | The Unwanted: America, Auschwitz, and a Village Caught In Between Apr 05, 2019

A longtime foreign correspondent for The Washington Post, Michael Dobbs reported on some of the most important events of our time. His many books include Down with Big Brother: The Fall of the Soviet Empire, Saboteurs: The Nazi Raid on America, and One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War. His latest book details the story of the isolationist United States's handling of the refugee crisis of the 1930s and 40s, as seen through the desperate attempts of German Jews to acquire U.S. visas. The Unwanted complements the exhibition The Americans and the Holocaust that is now on view at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC (recorded 4/4/2019)

Valerie Jarrett | Finding My Voice: My Journey to the West Wing and the Path Forward Apr 04, 2019

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition ''The ultimate Obama insider'' (New York Times), Valerie Jarrett was the longest serving advisor in the 44th President's administration. Born in Iran and raised in 1960s Chicago, Jarrett originally practiced corporate law and left to enter local politics, where in 1991 she interviewed an up-and-coming lawyer named Michelle Robinson. And the rest is history, one she tells in Finding My Voice, a memoir of her rise to become one of the most consequential women in the United States. Barbara Gohn Day Memorial Lecture (recorded 4/3/2019)

Barry Lopez | Horizon Apr 03, 2019

Barry Lopez won the National Book Award for Arctic Dreams, a ''rich, abundant, vigorously composed'' (Boston Globe) meditation on his travels in the barren but beautiful far North. His other work includes Of Wolves and Men, Crow and Weasel, and Resistance. Texas Tech University's Visiting Distinguished Scholar, he has earned Guggenheim, Lannan, and National Science Foundation fellowships. In Horizon, Lopez immerses readers in six far-flung regions of the world as he ponders man's explorations and exploitations of nature amidst a very personal search for purpose in a fractured world. Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Endowed Lecture (recorded 4/2/2019)

Cecile Richards | Make Trouble: Stand Up, Speak Out, and Find the Courage to Lead-My Life Story Apr 01, 2019

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition A ''heroine of the resistance'' (Vogue), Cecile Richards was the president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund from 2006 to 2018. The daughter of legendary Ann Richards, she began her career in the labor movement, then helped her mother become Texas's first Democratic woman governor, and later served as Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi's Deputy Chief of Staff. One of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World, she serves on the board of the Ford Foundation and founded the Texas Freedom Network in order to counter the religious right. Make Trouble tells her indelible story and offers practical advice for a new generation of leaders. Sandra Shaber Memorial Lecture (recorded 3/28/2019)

Nathan Englander | Kaddish.com with Thomas Mallon | Landfall Mar 28, 2019

Nathan Englander is the author of the story collections For the Relief of Unbearable Urges and What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, a Pulitzer Prize finalist and winner of the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award. In addition to his widely anthologized short fiction, he is the author of the novels The Ministry of Special Cases and Dinner at the Center of the Earth. In Kaddish.com, to his Orthodox family's dismay, an atheist refuses to say the Jewish prayer for the dead for his recently departed father.. ''Historical fiction that unfolds with the urgency of a thriller'' (Newsweek), Thomas Mallon's acclaimed novels include Dewey Defeats Truman, Watergate, and Fellow Travelers, which was adapted into a popular opera. For this work he has earned Guggenheim and Rockefeller fellowships, the National Book Critics Circle award for reviewing, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters' Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award for prose style. Landfall is a fictionalized account of the stormy George W. Bush years between 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. (recorded 3/27/2019)

Albert Woodfox | Solitary: Unbroken by Four Decades in Solitary Confinement. My Story of Transformation and Hope Mar 27, 2019

In conversation with award-winning journalist Tracey Matisak. Falsely accused and convicted of a 1972 robbery in which a white guard was killed, Albert Woodfox served more than four decades in solitary confinement in Louisiana's notoriously brutal Angola prison. Finding solidarity and inspiration behind bars with members of the Black Panther Party, he was able to find inner peace and a spirit of resistance. After decades he was finally able to find a capable lawyer sympathetic to his plight, though it still took another 16 years to prove his innocence and gain his release. According to CNN's Van Jones, Woodfox's life and new memoir, Solitary, are an ''inspiring triumph of the human spirit and a powerful call for the necessity of prison reform.'' (recorded 3/26/2019)

Adam Rutherford | Humanimal: How Homo sapiens Became Nature's Most Paradoxical Creature A New Evolutionary History Mar 25, 2019

''A heady amalgam of science, history, a little bit of anthropology and plenty of nuanced, captivating storytelling'' (The New York Times Book Review), Adam Rutherford's A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived delves into the ages-spanning story of our species through the field of genomics. A National Geographic Best Book of 2017, it was a nonfiction finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. A University College London PhD and science writer for The Guardian, Rutherford has also written and hosted several programs for the BBC, including Inside Science, The Cell, and Playing God. His new book investigates just what it means to be human. (recorded 3/21/2019)

Carolyn Forché | What You Have Heard Is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance Mar 20, 2019

In conversation with Beth Kephart, the award-winning author of twenty-four books, including Going Over, Handling the Truth: On the Writing of Memoir, and Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia's Schuylkill River. ''An unflinching witness and eloquent mourner'' (The New Yorker), Carolyn Forché is the author of the poetry collections Blue Hour, The Angel of History, The Country Between Us, and Gathering the Tribes. For this body of work she has amassed an impressive list of honors, including fellowships from the Academy of American Poets and the National Endowment for the Arts, the Windham-Campbell Prize, and the Los Angeles Times Book Award. The Lannan Chair in Poetry at Georgetown University, Forché is also a respected translator, editor, and activist. What You Have Heard Is True tells the story of her journey with an enigmatic man into the chaos and horror of the Salvadoran Civil War. (recorded 3/19/2019)

Lidia Bastianich | My American Dream: A Life of Love, Family, and Food Mar 19, 2019

Renowned chef and restaurateur Lidia Bastianich is the owner and co-owner of celebrated Italian restaurants in Manhattan, Pittsburgh, and Kansas City. The author of a baker's dozen cookbooks, a judge on Masterchef Jr. Italy, and a regular contributor to television cooking shows for two decades, she currently hosts the Emmy-winning Lidia's Kitchen on PBS. Her other honors include recognition from the National Italian American Foundation, several James Beard Awards, and induction into the Culinary Hall of Fame. Her new memoir traces the route from her childhood in communist Yugoslavia and consequent emigration to New York at 12, to her first tentative steps in the restaurant business as a teen. (recorded 3/18/2019)

Frans de Waal | Mama's Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves Mar 15, 2019

Esteemed primatologist Frans de Waal is the author of The Bonobo and the Atheist, a ''tour de force'' (Nature) exploration of the biological roots of human morality found in primate social emotions, including empathy, reciprocity, and fairness. One of Time's 100 Most Influential People, de Waal is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences, directs the Living Links at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, and is the C. H. Candler Professor in Emory University's psychology department. Positing that humans are not the only species capable of love, hate, and everything in between, Mama's Last Hug explores the profound emotional lives of animals. (recorded 3/14/2019)

Darius James | Negrophobia: An Urban Parable Mar 13, 2019

In conversation with Gene Seymour, contributor to The Nation and former film critic and jazz columnist for Newsday. He has written for Bookforum, CNN.com, and The Washington Post. Author and spoken-word artist Darius James's 1992 masterpiece, the William S. Burroughs meets Thomas Pynchon meets Ishmael Reed fever-dream Negrophobia, is a raunchy, raucous, headlong dive into the many faces of American racism. With other works including That's Blaxploitation: Roots of the Baadassssss 'Tude, Voodoo Stew, and Froggy Chocolate's Christmas Eve, James is the cowriter and narrator of the of 2013 film The United States of Hoodoo. With a new introduction by film scholar Amy Abugo Ongiri and a new preface by the author, the multi-genre Negrophobia is dire, darkly comic, and more relevant than ever. (recorded 3/12/2019)

David Treuer | The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present Mar 08, 2019

An Ojibwe from the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota and an unromantic chronicler of Native American culture and literature, David Treuer is the author of the novels Prudence, Little, The Hiawatha, and The Translation of Dr. Appeles. He is a professor of literature and creative writing at the University of Southern California, a Pushcart Prize winner, and a Guggenheim Fellowship recipient. In The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee, Treuer offers an epic counter-narrative to the conventional histories of Native American life from the 1890 massacre to the present. (recorded 3/7/2019)

Brittney Cooper | Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower with Rebecca Traister | Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger Mar 06, 2019

In converation with Rebecca Traister, author of Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger Examining the intersections of race, gender, and politics in a popular monthly Cosmo column, Brittney Cooper is also a professor of women's and gender studies and Africana studies at Rutgers University. Praised by Michael Eric Dyson as ''the boldest young feminist writing today,'' Cooper is the author of Beyond Respectability, a map of the development of female African American intellectuals. Her new book celebrates the power of anger, dispels stereotypes, and reminds women of the power they possess. Rebecca Traister is the author of All the Single Ladies, The New York Times bestselling book about the intersection of sex, economics, and emotions related to the growing number of single women in 21st-century America; and Big Girls Don't Cry, an investigation of the 2008 American presidential election's effects on women and cultural feminism. A writer-at-large for New York magazine, Traister has contributed to many other periodicals, including The Nation, Vogue and The Washington Post. (recorded 3/5/2019)

Don Winslow | The Border Mar 01, 2019

The author of numerous international bestselling crime novels, Don Winslow is the recipient of dozens of awards and spots on myriad best-books-of-the-year lists. These books include The Winter of Frankie Machine, The Force, and Savages, for which he wrote the screenplay for the Oliver Stone-directed film adaptation of the same name. The conclusion to the Cartel trilogy that began with The Power of the Dog and The Cartel, ''an epic, gritty south-of-the-border Godfather for our time'' (Esquire), Winslow's latest book brings the blood-soaked War on Drugs onto American soil and into our highest corridors of power. (recorded 2/28/2019)

Sigrid Nunez | The Friend: A Novel with Keith Gessen | A Terrible Country: A Novel Feb 27, 2019

Sigrid Nunez won the 2018 National Book Award for The Friend, ''a penetrating, moving meditation on loss, comfort, memory'' (NPR) in which a woman is forced to adopt her deceased best friend's Great Dane. The recipient of a Berlin Prize, the Rome Prize in Literature, and a Whiting Award, Nunez is also the author of Salvation City, The Last of Her Kind, A Feather on the Breath of God, and Sempre Susan, a memoir about her friend and mentor Susan Sontag. A founding editor of the popular online magazine n+1, Russian-born polymath Keith Gessen is the author of the novel All the Sad Young Literary Men and the editor of three nonfiction books. A journalism professor at Columbia University, he has written for a wide variety of publications, including The New Yorker, The London Review of Books, and The Atlantic. Gessen's new novel tells the story of a New York émigré's return to Putin's Moscow to take care of his sick grandmother. ''[T]his earnest and wistful but serious book gets good, and then it gets very good... [and] is a gift for those who wish to receive it'' (The New York Times). (recorded 2/26/2019)

Steve Luxenberg | Separate: The Story of Plessy v. Ferguson, and America's Journey from Slavery to Segregation Feb 22, 2019

A 30-year writer and senior editor at The Washington Post, Steve Luxenberg has overseen reportage that has won a host of awards, including two Pulitzer Prizes for explanatory journalism. He is the author of Annie's Ghosts: A Journey in a Family Secret, the tale of his eponymous aunt who was locked away in a mental institution and seemingly erased from his mother's memory. In Separate, Luxenberg unearths the Philadelphia-born court case that established the idea of "separate but equal" in the courtroom, thus creating legal precedent for the landmark Plessy v. Ferguson case. (recorded 2/21/2019)

Pete Buttigieg | Shortest Way Home: One Mayor's Challenge and a Model for America's Future Feb 20, 2019

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition The multifaceted, 36-year-old progressive mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg is a Rhodes Scholar and Harvard graduate. Nearly a decade ago he left a successful career in business to return to his ''dying'' hometown with a dream of reinvention. During his two terms in office, he has transformed South Bend into a model of urban renewal, served a military tour in Afghanistan, and after coming out as a gay man, has found acceptance, love, and marriage. Once described by The Washington Post as ''the most interesting mayor you've never heard of,'' Buttigieg changes all that with this frank, inspiring memoir. Pine Tree Foundation Endowed Lecture (recorded 2/19/2019)

Bernard-Henri Lévy | The Empire and the Five Kings: America's Abdication and the Fate of the World Feb 15, 2019

In conversation with Carlin Romano, Critic-at-Large, The Chronicle of Higher Education, former literary critic The Philadelphia Inquirer and author of America the Philosophical. ''Perhaps the most prominent intellectual in France today'' (The Boston Globe), Bernard-Henri Lévy led the vanguard of the radical 1970s ''New Philosophy'' movement, a rejection of Marxism and the Left still debated today. This moralistic view culminated in 1979's controversial Barbarism with a Human Face and continued in Testament of God, in which he advocated an ''atheistic spirituality.'' He is also the author the internationally bestselling Who Killed Daniel Pearl?, Left in Dark Times: A Stand Against the New Barbarism, and The Genius of Judaism. Lévy's latest book offers an urgent look at the vacuum created by the United States' withdrawal from world leadership and the ambitious former empires seeking to fill it. Meelya Gordon Memorial Lecture (recorded 2/14/2019)

Howard Schultz | From the Ground Up: My Journey to Reimagine the Promise of America Feb 15, 2019

In conversation with William Kristol, founder and former editor-at-large of The Weekly Standard. The former chairman and CEO of Starbucks, Howard Schultz led the java giant from eleven cafes in the Seattle area to more than 28,000 locations worldwide and ranked fifth on Fortune's 2018 list of ''World's Most Admired Companies.'' He is the author of several books, including Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time; the former owner of the Seattle SuperSonics; and, with his wife Sheri, the founder of the Schultz Family Foundation, which supports national initiatives focused on employment and the needs of veterans. Part memoir and part manifesto of corporate social responsibility, From the Ground Up interweaves Schultz's inspiring trajectory from a Brooklyn housing project to leading one of the world's most iconic companies. (recorded 2/13/2019)

Victor LaValle with Justina Ireland, Sam J. Miller, and Alice Sola Kim | A People's Future of the United States: Twenty-five Visionary Stories Feb 14, 2019

Amidst a climate of division, tumult, and fear, what will the United States look like tomorrow? In A People's Future of the United States, 25 diverse writers synthesize hopeful, cynical, prescient visions of a country shaped by struggle and strife. Coeditor Victor LaValle's work-including four novels, two novellas, and a short story collection-has been named to a slew of best-of-the-year lists by The New York Times, The Nation, and The Washington Post, among others. Featured in this anthology are Justina Ireland, author of The New York Times bestselling Dread Nation; Sam J. Miller, whose The Art of Starving was one of NPR's Best Books of 2017; and 2016 Whiting Award winner Alice Sola Kim. (recorded 2/12/2019)

Chris Wilson | The Master Plan: My Journey from Life in Prison to a Life of Purpose Feb 08, 2019

In conversation with State Representative Jordan A. Harris Convicted of murder at 18 and sentenced to life in prison with no hope of release, Chris Wilson began to improve himself through study, physical fitness, and even started a business. For the next several years he followed the tenets of his ''master plan,'' and in his mid-thirties he convinced a judge of his reformation and earned an early release. Since then he has become a successful entrepreneur, public speaker, and mentor. Praised as ''an incredibly moving book that will change the way you look at the criminal justice system'' by Senator Bernie Sanders, The Master Plan tells the story of Wilson's metamorphosis and extols the power of second chances. (recorded 2/7/2019)

Feminista Jones | Reclaiming Our Space: How Black Feminists Are Changing the World from the Tweets to the Streets with DaMaris B. Hill | A Bound Woman is a Dangerous Thing Feb 06, 2019

Social worker, public speaker, community activist, and blogger Feminista Jones is the author of the novel Push the Button and the poetry collection The Secret of Sugar Water. She was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in Philadelphia (Philadelphia Magazine) and one of The Root's Top 100 Black Social Influencers. Her articles have appeared in a variety of periodicals, including the New York Times, Ebony, Time, and Essence. In Reclaiming Our Space, Jones examines the ways black women are using digital spaces to change the conventional dialogues of culture and social movements. DaMaris B. Hill is the author of The Fluid Boundaries of Suffrage, Jim Crow: Staking Claims, and the poetry collection Vi-ze-bel\Teks-chers. A double PhD in English and women and gender studies, she teaches creative writing and African American and Africana studies at the University of Kentucky. In A Bound Woman is a Dangerous Thing: The Incarceration of African American Women from Harriet Tubman to Sandra Bland, Hill evokes some of the most powerful incarcerated American women of color-from Assata Shakur to Zora Neale Hurston-to present an unflinching, unbridled celebration of struggle and transcendence. (recorded 2/5/2019)

Jane Brox | Silence: A Social History of One of the Least Understood Elements of Our Lives Feb 01, 2019

Penning ''nonfiction literature of a high and lasting order'' (Chicago Tribune), Jane Brox is the author of, among other books, Five Thousand Days Like This One, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light, named one of 2010's best books by Time magazine; and Here and Nowhere Else, winner of the L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award. Told through the intrinsically linked histories of the monastery and penitentiary (including a section on Eastern State), Silence traces the complex culturally transformative power of the concept of complete quiet. (recorded 1/31/2019)

Bridgett M. Davis | The World According to Fannie Davis: My Mother's Life in the Detroit Numbers Jan 30, 2019

Bridgett M. Davis is the author of Into the Go-Slow, the acclaimed story of a young woman traveling from Detroit to Nigeria as she mourns the death of her sister, and Shifting Through Neutral, a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. She is a professor of journalism and the writing professions at Baruch College and Director of the Sidney Harman Writer-in-Residence Program at CUNY. Davis's newest book is a tribute to her mother, a jill-of-all-trades bookie, banker, wife, and parent who bucked the ‘60s and ‘70s decay of Detroit to lead her family into prosperity. (recorded 1/29/2019)

Dani Shapiro | Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love Jan 28, 2019

In conversation with Beth Kephart, the award-winning author of twenty-four books, including Going Over, Handling the Truth: On the Writing of Memoir, and Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia's Schuylkill River. Delivering ''an eviscerating, raw honesty'' (New York Times Book Review), writer's writer Dani Shapiro is the author of the memoirs Devotion, Still Writing, and Hourglass. Her five novels include Black & White and Family History. She is a cofounder of the Sirenland Writers Conference and a former writing teacher at Columbia University, NYU, and Wesleyan University. A story of identity, family secrets, and love, Inheritance charts the staggering implications of Shapiro's discovery that her father wasn't her biological parent. (recorded 1/22/2019)

Kristen Roupenian | You Know You Want This: Cat Person and Other Stories Jan 18, 2019

Kristen Roupenian holds a PhD in English from Harvard and an MFA from the University of Michigan. Originally published in The New Yorker in 2017, her story ''Cat Person'' garnered national attention for its frank depiction of dating in the digital age. Included in The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2018, it is now the cornerstone of Roupenian's debut story collection. Genre-leaping and theme-bouncing from the supernatural to the super mundane, You Know You Want This explores sexuality, Schadenfreude, and gender power struggles. (recorded 1/15/2019)

Ha Jin | The Banished Immortal: A Life of Li Bai (Li Po) Jan 18, 2019

In conversation with Carlin Romano, Critic-at-Large, The Chronicle of Higher Education, former literary critic The Philadelphia Inquirer and author of America the Philosophical. Celebrated internationally for a prolific, ''achingly beautiful'' (Los Angeles Times Book Review) body of work across a variety of genres, Chinese émigré Ha Jin is the author of a score of novels, volumes of poetry, story collections, and a book of essays. His many honors include the National Book Award, two PEN/Faulkner Awards, the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, and election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Jin's books include Waiting, Under the Red Flag, and War Trash. The Banished Immortal is a biography of the 8th-century, Tang Dynasty poet whose verses remain an intrinsic element of Chinese language and culture. (recorded 1/17/2019)

One Book, One Philadelphia Kickoff Event | Featuring Jesmyn Ward Jan 17, 2019

One Book, One Philadelphia 2019 kicks off with a reading and conversation between Jesmyn Ward, author of the One Book featured selection Sing, Unburied, Sing, and WURD President/CEO Sara Lomax-Reese. Their talk will be followed by a performance of an original work from Curtis Institute of Music composer Elizabeth Younan. (recorded 1/16/2019)

In Conversation With The Rosenbach: The Legacy of the Thirteenth Amendment with Michele Norris Jan 17, 2019

Michele Norris is a Peabody Award-winning journalist, founder of The Race Card Project and Executive Director of The Bridge, The Aspen Institute's new program on race, identity, connectivity and inclusion. For more than a decade Norris served as a host of NPR's ''All Things Considered'' where she interviewed world leaders, American presidents, Nobel laureates, leading thinkers and groundbreaking artists. She has also produced in-depth profiles, interviews and series for NPR News programs as well as special reports for National Geographic, Time Magazine, ABC News and Lifetime Television. Norris created The Race Card Project, an initiative to foster a wider conversation about race in America, after the publication of her family memoir, The Grace of Silence. About the Legacy of the Thirteenth Amendment Mini-Series The Rosenbach collection includes an 1865 commemorative copy - signed by members of both houses of the United States Congress - of the proposal for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery. This series of programs will examine the historical circumstances of the amendment's passage and the complicated legacy of the amendment, from Jim Crow to mass incarceration. (recorded 1/9/2019)

Gregory B. Jaczko | Confessions of a Rogue Nuclear Regulator Jan 15, 2019

The Chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission from 2009-2012, Dr. Gregory Jaczko oversaw the U.S. government's response to Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster. An NRC commissioner from 2005-2009 and former science policy advisor to Senator Harry Reid, he is now an adjunct professor at Princeton University and Georgetown University, and has created a clean energy development company. In Confessions of a Rogue Nuclear Regulator, Jaczko blows the lid off the public and private controversies surrounding nuclear energy and explains how the U.S. government has allowed it to endanger our lives. (recorded 1/14/2019)

Mary Schmidt Campbell | An American Odyssey: The Life and Work of Romare Bearden Jan 02, 2019

President of Spelman College since 2015, and dean emerita of the Tisch School of the Arts, Mary Schmidt Campbell served as the vice chair of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities during the Obama administration. She has contributed to an array of scholarly and popular publications, is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was the commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Her new book delves into the life of artist Romare Bearden, a muralist and collagist whose large-scale public works came to symbolize the black experience during the Civil Rights era. Watch the video here. (recorded 12/6/2018)

Kirsten Gillibrand | Bold and Brave: Ten Heroes Who Won Women the Right to Vote Dec 14, 2018

In conversation with award-winning journalist Tracey Matisak. On the eve of the one-hundredth anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment, which granted women the right to vote, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand introduces children to ten suffragists who raised their voices for justice. With illustrations by The New Yorker contributor and artist Maira Kalman, Bold and Brave profiles courageous visionaries including Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, and Alice Paul. Senator Gillibrand is also the author of the 2015 New York Times bestseller Off the Sidelines: Speak Up, Be Fearless, and Change Your World, ''one of the most helpful, readable, down-to-earth, and truly democratic books ever to come out of the halls of power'' (Gloria Steinem). (recorded 12/13/2018)

Gary Shteyngart | Lake Success Dec 07, 2018

''Ridiculously witty and painfully prescient'' (Time), Gary Shteyngart is the author of the culturally reflective novels The Russian Debutante's Handbook, Absurdistan, and Super Sad True Love Story, which was named one of the best novels of the year by The New York Times Book Review. His other work includes the National Book Critics Award finalist Little Failure, a memoir of his experiences in the dramatically dissimilar worlds of uber-consumerist America and the perpetually deprived Soviet Union of his youth. His new novel, a penetrating exploration of the ultra-rich .1%, follows a billionaire hedge-fund manager who flees New York by bus in search of simpler life. Watch the video here. (recorded 9/17/2018)

Maxwell King | The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers with David Newell ''Mr. McFeely'' of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood Dec 07, 2018

In conversation with award-winning journalist Tracey Matisak It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood as we welcome Maxwell King, author of The Good Neighbor, a personal, professional, and artistic biography of Fred Rogers. A figure as deceptively sophisticated as the namesake television program that brought an unerring message of kindness, compassion, and equality to millions of children, Mr. Rogers remains one of America's most beloved cultural icons. King, CEO of the Pittsburgh Foundation, former president of Heinz Endowments, and editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer for eight years, weaves archival documents and original interviews into a portrait of the man who-spoiler alert-really was as gentle and empathetic as we all hoped he'd be. Speedy delivery! Mostly known for his portrayal of Mister Rogers' deliveryman, David Newell was also the director of public relations for The Fred Rogers Company. As an ambassador for everyone's favorite neighborhood he toured the world as Mr. McFeely until his retirement in 2015. Watch the video here. (recorded 9/24/2018)

Imani Perry | Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry Dec 07, 2018

A professor of African American studies, public affairs, and gender and sexuality studies at Princeton University, Dr. Imani Perry is the author of More Beautiful and More Terrible: The Embrace and Transcendence of Racial Inequality in the United States, May We Forever Stand: A History of the Black National Anthem, and Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop. Her latest book is a portrait of the short but extraordinary life of the writer of A Raisin in the Sun, whose network of friends, family, colleagues, and collaborators included the most prominent African American artists and activists of the 1960s. Watch the video here. (recorded 9/25/2018)

David Levering Lewis | The Improbable Wendell Willkie: The Businessman Who Saved the Republican Party and His Country, and Conceived a New World Order Dec 07, 2018

In conversation with Sam Katz, civic entrepreneur and executive producer of History Making Productions Professor emeritus of history at New York University, David Levering Lewis won the Pulitzer Prize in 1994 and 2001 for his ''superb'' (The Nation) two-volume biography of W.E.B. Du Bois, the polymath founder of the NAACP and a principal shaper of the Civil Rights Movement. His other books include God's Crucible, Race to Fashoda, and 1970's King, notable for being the first scholarly biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. His many honors include the Bancroft Prize, the Francis Parkman Prize, and the National Humanities Medal. His latest book is a biography of the unlikely Republican nominee who would lose to Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1940. Watch the video here. (recorded 9/26/2018)

Chris Hedges | America: The Farewell Tour Dec 07, 2018

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges is the author of a dozen books, including the bestsellers War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, Empire of Illusion, Wages of Rebellion, and Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt. For nearly two decades he was a New York Times foreign correspondent covering some of the most dangerous and impoverished international and domestic locales, earning wide acclaim for his eloquent and essential stories. Reported from disaffected and disenfranchised communities across the nation, America: The Farewell Tour maps the despair, xenophobia, and inequalities that have accompanied increased corporate influence on our politics. Watch the video here. (recorded 9/27/2018)

Deborah Harkness | Time's Convert Dec 07, 2018

Working ''her own form of literary alchemy by deftly blending fantasy, romance, history, and horror'' (Chicago Tribune), Deborah Harkness is the no. 1 New York Times bestselling author of the witches-meet-vampires All Souls book trilogy. Acclaim for this work's historical and technical accuracy is unsurprising, given that she holds a doctorate in the history of magic and science in Europe, has worked in some of the world's most prestigious libraries, and taught medical history at Northwestern University. From present-day Europe to the American colonies during the Revolutionary War, Time's Convert takes a bite into new material as it spins off from the All Souls universe. Watch the video here. (recorded 10/1/2018)

Sandeep Jauhar | Heart: A History Dec 07, 2018

Exploring little-known, behind-the-scenes work in hospitals and the all-too-human lives of doctors, Dr. Sandeep Jauhar is a practicing cardiologist and author of two bestselling medical memoirs, Intern: A Doctor's Initiation and the ''extraordinary, brave and even shocking'' (New York Times) Doctored: The Disillusionment of an American Physician. Jauhar is a frequent contributor The Wall Street Journal, Time, NPR, and MSNBC, and has written about medicine for The New York Times for more than 20 years. In Heart, Jauhar weaves his own work with historical research and the findings of groundbreaking new technologies to tell the story of our most colorful yet inscrutable organ. Watch the video here. (recorded 10/2/2018)

Rebecca Traister | Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger Dec 07, 2018

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition Rebecca Traister is the author of All the Single Ladies, The New York Times bestselling book about the intersection of sex, economics, and emotions related to the growing number of single women in 21st-century America; and Big Girls Don't Cry, an investigation of the 2008 American presidential election's effects on women and cultural feminism. A contributing editor at Elle and writer-at-large for New York magazine, Traister has contributed to many other periodicals, including The Nation, Vogue, The Washington Post, and Glamour. Good and Mad is an urgent and timely exploration of the power of women's anger to affect contemporary political change and its historical precedents in changing policies and minds. Watch the video here. (recorded 10/4/2018)

John Kerry | Every Day Is Extra Dec 07, 2018

In conversation with Michael Smerconish John Kerry is a decorated combat veteran thrice wounded in the line of duty, a five-term United States senator from Massachusetts, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, and four-year Secretary of State. He is currently the Distinguished Fellow for Global Affairs at Yale and the inaugural Visiting Distinguished Statesman for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His books include A Call to Service: My Vision for a Better America, The New War, and This Moment on Earth. His new book is a revealing memoir that follows his journey from son of a diplomat to disillusioned Vietnam vet, longtime legislator, and world leader. Michael A. Smerconish is the host of The Michael Smerconish Program on SiriusXM POTUS Channel 124, the host of CNN's Smerconish on Saturday mornings, a Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer columnist, and a New York Times bestselling author. Watch the video here. Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Endowed Lecture (recorded 10/5/2018)

Ray Didinger | The Eagles Encyclopedia: Champions Edition with Mark Leibovich | Big Game: The NFL in Dangerous Times Dec 07, 2018

Fly Eagles fly! Five-time Pennsylvania Sportswriter of the Year Ray Didinger updated his and late co-writer Robert S. Lyons's bestselling The Eagles Encyclopedia-''the definitive book for any Eagles fan'' (Philadelphia Daily News)-to reflect the quintessential underdog season that led to the Birds' Super Bowl LII victory. Didinger covered the NFL for The Philadelphia Bulletin and the Philadelphia Daily News for more than 25 years, has authored or coauthored ten books about sports and writing, and currently appears on Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia. Mark Leibovich's books include number-one bestselling This Town, a ''vastly entertaining and deeply troubling'' (The New York Times Book Review) exploration of the political culture in Washington, D.C. Chief National Correspondent for The New York Times Magazine and a former correspondent for The Washington Post, he won the National Magazine Award for profile writing. Venturing beyond the playing field into locker rooms, owners' meetings, draft days, culture wars, and the existential fears about the future of the game, Big Game is an in-depth analysis of professional football at its economic and social peak. Watch the video here. (recorded 10/13/2018)

Ben Fountain | Beautiful Country Burn Again: Democracy, Rebellion, and Revolution Dec 07, 2018

In conversation with Dick Polman, "Writer in Residence" at the University of Pennsylvania, national political columnist at WHYY News and contributor to The Atlantic Ben Fountain is the author of The New York Times bestseller Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, ''a bracing, fearless and uproarious satire of how contemporary war is waged and sold to the American public'' (San Francisco Chronicle). It won the National Book Critics Circle Award, was a finalist for the National Book Award, and was adapted by Ang Lee into a popular film. He is also the author of the PEN/Hemingway Award-winning Brief Encounters with Che Guevera. Exploring America's current existential crisis through wide-reaching reportage, Fountain's new essay collection Beautiful Country Burn Again narrates the shocking and polarizing events of the 2016 American presidential election. Watch the video here. (recorded 10/15/2018)

Joseph Ellis | American Dialogue: The Founders and Us Dec 07, 2018

In conversation with Jason Freeman, author events producer and editor A ''sure-handed and entertaining guide through the thickets of argument, personality and ideology out of which the American nation emerged'' (The Economist), historian Joseph Ellis won the Pulitzer Prize for Founding Brothers, a thoughtful exploration of the gifted but flawed men who conjured America; and the National Book Award for American Sphinx, a portrait of Thomas Jefferson. His body of work also includes His Excellency: George Washington, First Family: Abigail and John Adams, and Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence. His new book examines the profoundly relevant views of the Founding Fathers as they pertain to the current American landscape of turmoil and division. Watch the video here. Pine Tree Foundation Endowed Lecture (recorded 10/16/2018)

Jill Soloway | She Wants It: Desire, Power, and Toppling the Patriarchy Dec 07, 2018

In conversation with Hannah Gadsby The Emmy and Golden Globe-winning creator of the Amazon series Transparent, Jill Soloway is the director of the feature film Afternoon Delight, creator of the series I Love Dick, and was a writer and executive producer for Six Feet Under, How to Make It in America, and United States of Tara. They are also the author of Tiny Ladies in Shiny Pants and founder of the activism groups 5050by2020 and East Side Jews. Pondering the #MeToo movement, gender dynamics, and the nature of inclusion, She Wants It draws on Soloway's own unique truth, including their experience in the entertainment industry and their metamorphosis from a married mother of two to identifying as queer and nonbinary. Watch the video here. (recorded 10/17/2018)

Ben Macintyre | The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War Dec 07, 2018

Praised for his ''elegant, jaunty, and very British high style'' (New York Times), Ben Macintyre is the bestselling author of A Spy Among Friends, Agent Zigzag, Operation Mincemeat, and Double Cross, among other books. He has adapted several of these stories into popular documentaries for the BBC. Writer-at-large for The Times of London, Macintyre has twice been nominated for the Edgar Award in ''Best Fact Crime.'' The Spy and the Traitor tells the tale of real-life Russian double agent Oleg Gordievsky, the Soviet Union's top man in London for more than a decade whose disgust with his nation's communist system led him to covertly work with Britain's MI6 to turn the tables on the KGB. Watch the video here. Meelya Gordon Memorial Lecture (recorded 10/18/2018)

Barbara Kingsolver | Unsheltered Dec 07, 2018

With a ''special gift for the vivid evocation of landscape and of her characters' state of mind'' (New York Times Book Review), Barbara Kingsolver is the author of The Poisonwood Bible, a finalist for both the Pulitzer and the Orange prizes. Her other novels include The Bean Trees, The Lacuna, and Flight Behavior. She is founder of the PEN/Bellwether Prize, winner of the National Humanities Medal, and recipient of the James Beard Award. Unsheltered tells the story of a woman who, amid familial strife and sea change, researches the history of her rural New Jersey home and discovers a kindred spirit in its harried 19th century occupant. Watch the video here. (recorded 10/19/2018)

Julián Castro | An Unlikely Journey: Waking Up From My American Dream Dec 07, 2018

In conversation with award-winning broadcaster and journalist Tracey Matisak Former San Antonio mayor and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development during President Obama's second term, Julián Castro burst onto the national political stage as the keynote speaker at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. Castro's activist mother helped guide him and his twin brother, Joaquín, to Stanford and then Harvard Law School. From there he returned to his native San Antonio, which he helped transform into one of America's leading economies. In An Unlikely Journey, Castro echoes the transcendence and aspirational spirit of Obama's Dreams from My Father, affirming just what it means to be an American during an era of political cynicism and cultural divisiveness. Watch the video here. (recorded 10/22/2018)

Mitch Albom | The Next Person You Meet in Heaven: The Sequel to The Five People You Meet in Heaven Dec 07, 2018

''A writer with soul'' (Los Angeles Times) who captures the delicacies of the human condition, author, journalist, screenwriter, and nationally syndicated columnist Mitch Albom is best known for the phenomenon that is Tuesdays with Morrie, the best-selling memoir of all time. His debut novel, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, sold an only slightly more modest 10 million copies in 35 languages. His other books include Have a Little Faith, The Time Keeper, and The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto. The Next Person You Meet in Heaven reveals the continuing story of Annie, the little girl saved by Eddie, protagonist of the blockbuster original novel. (recorded 10/22/2018)

Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook | Israeli Soul: Easy, Essential, Delicious Dec 07, 2018

In conversation with Sam Sifton Acclaimed for ''cooking that bursts with freshly ground spices and complex flavors'' (New York Times), Michael Solomonov brought Middle Eastern, North African, Mediterranean, and Eastern European influences to bear in his Philadelphia flagship restaurant, Zahav, named an ''essential'' restaurant by Eater magazine. Together with partner Steven Cook, his other restaurants include Federal Donuts, Abe Fisher, Dizengoff, The Rooster, and Goldie. Solomonov's honors include 2011 and 2017 James Beard Awards, as well as recognition by Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, and Travel + Leisure. Solomonov and Cook's new cookbook is a zesty blend of history, photos, and recipes gleaned from their Israeli travels to bustling seaside cities, sleepy mountain villages, and everywhere in between. Sam Sifton is the food editor of The New York Times and the founding editor of NYT Cooking, the Times's digital cookbook. Formerly the newspaper's national news editor, restaurant critic, and culture editor, he is the author of the cookbooks Thanksgiving: How to Cook It Well and the forthcoming See You on Sunday: Recipes for Family and Friends. Watch the video here. Meelya Gordon Memorial Lecture (recorded 10/23/2018)

René Redzepi and David Zilber | The Noma Guide to Fermentation Dec 07, 2018

René Redzepi is chef and co-owner of Copenhagen's Michelin two-star restaurant Noma, recognized an astounding four times as the best in the world. He is one of Time's 100 Most Influential People in the World and the subject of two full-length documentaries. His book Noma: Time and Place in Nordic Cuisine-''an international sensation'' (New York Times)-won International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) and James Beard awards. Former sous-chef at Vancouver's Hawksworth Restaurant, David Zilber has worked at Noma since 2014 and has overseen its famous fermentation lab since 2016. In their new how-to guide, Redzepi and Zilber reveal the techniques used at Noma to bring fermented ingredients to every dish served. Watch the video here. Julie Dannenbaum Culinary Arts Lecture (recorded 10/24/2018)

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

''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

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

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

''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

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

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

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

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

''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

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)

Elaine Pagels | Why Religion?: A Personal Story Dec 07, 2018

In conversation with award-winning journalist, Tracey Matisak One of the most esteemed religious scholars of our time, Elaine Pagels is the author of Revelations, Beyond Belief, and The Gnostic Gospels. Her many honors include Rockefeller, Guggenheim, and MacArthur fellowships. Her new book draws upon the perspectives of science, history, and her own research, as well as the insight she gleaned from the shocking loss of both her son and husband in the same year. Lauded by Joyce Carol Oates as ''an extraordinary memoir of loss, spiritual struggle, illumination and insight,'' Why Religion? contemplates some of the modern world's most important questions about why so many still believe and how we reconcile faith with contemporary ideas of sex and culture. Watch the video here. (recorded 11/29/2018)

Gary Giddins | Bing Crosby: Swinging on a Star: The War Years, 1940-1946 Dec 07, 2018

Gary Giddins is the author of the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning Visions of Jazz: The First Century, ''a grand, brilliant history" (The New York Times Book Review). Jazz columnist at The Village Voice for 30 years, his other books include Weatherbird: Jazz at the Dawn of Its Second Century, Faces in the Crowd, and biographies of Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker. Giddins teaches at the City University of New York Graduate Center and was prominently featured on Ken Burns's landmark Jazz documentary series. Drawing on scores of interviews and unprecedented archival access, his latest book is the second installment of his multi-part biography of America's quintessential crooner. Watch the video here. (recorded 12/4/2018)

Nelson Díaz | Not from Here, Not from There/No Soy de Aquí ni de Allá: The Autobiography of Nelson Díaz Oct 15, 2018

In conversation with Sabrina Vourvoulias, journalist, short story author and novelist Introduced by Henry Cisneros A 1972 Temple University Law School graduate, Nelson Díaz was the first Puerto Rican lawyer admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar Association and became the state's first Latino judge and partner in a top-100 law firm. He was later appointed to a White House Fellowship by Jimmy Carter and as General Counsel to the Department of Housing and Urban Development by Bill Clinton. His honors include the Philadelphia Bar Association's Justice Sonia Sotomayor Diversity Award. From his childhood in a New York tenement to advocacy for human rights, housing reform, and neighborhood economic development, Not from Here, Not from There is a chronicle of Díaz's remarkable path toward the American Dream. (recorded 10/9/2018)

Jill Lepore | These Truths: A History of the United States Sep 21, 2018

An historian whose ''discipline is worthy of a first-class detective'' (New York Review of Books), Jill Lepore is the author of the National Book Award finalist Book of Ages, the story of Benjamin Franklin's beloved but often-overlooked sister Jane; New York Burning, winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Award and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; and The Secret History of Wonder Woman, a revelatory feminist origin story of one of the most popular superheroes of all time. Her new book is an ambitious biography of the United States, as told through the intersection of politics, technology, journalism, and sketches of greater- and lesser-known leaders, mischief makers, and visionaries. Watch the video here. (recorded 9/20/2018)

Andrew Shaffer | Hope Never Dies: An Obama Biden Mystery Jul 31, 2018

Crockett and Tubbs. Murtaugh and Riggs. Tango and Cash. Obama and Biden. In Hope Never Dies, this time it's personal as the former President and Vice President are on the case in this high-stakes thriller mystery from Andrew Shaffer, the New York Times best-selling author of Fifty Shames of Earl Grey and other fiction and nonfiction titles. When Biden, fresh into retirement, finds that his favorite railroad conductor has died in a suspicious accident, he calls the only man he ever fully trusted: the 44th President of the United States. From biker bars and fleabag motels to the heart of the opioid epidemic, these two rebels will risk everything to see just how far down the Delaware rabbit hole this thing goes. (recorded 7/30/2018)

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha | What the Eyes Don't See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City Jul 26, 2018

The dramatic story of the Flint water crisis-the signature environmental disaster of our time-and an inspiring tale of scientific resistance by a relentless physician who stood up to power. Internationally recognized for her 2015 study that exposed elevated lead blood levels in Flint children, Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, MD, MPH, FAAP, is a physician, scientist, and activist at the forefront of one America's most notorious public-health crises. She is the recipient of the Freedom of Expression Courage Award by PEN America, and one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People. What the Eyes Don't See tells the inspiring story of how a diverse group of researchers, parents, and community leaders fought bureaucratic indifference and proved that Flint's children were exposed to dangerous levels of lead. In partnership with the Heinz Endowment and the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading as a feature of GLR Week (recorded 7/25/2018)

Steven Johnson | Wonderland: How Play Made the Modern World Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. Exploring the intersection of science, technology, and experience, Steven Johnson is the author of the bestselling Where Good Ideas Come From, Everything Bad Is Good for You, and How We Got to Now, which he adapted into a popular PBS and BBC series. Johnson is also the creator of the influential online magazine FEED and the website plastic.com, and was one of Prospect magazine's Top Ten Brains of the Digital Future. A look at the ways novelty, wonder, and amusement have driven innovation, Wonderland is ''a swashbuckling argument for the centrality of recreation to all of human history'' (New York Times). Due to low sound levels, you will have to turn the sound up on your computer (after the introduction) in order to hear the podcast. We apologize for the inconvenience. (recorded 1/24/2017)

Melissa Fleming | A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea: One Refugee's Incredible Story of Love, Loss, and Survival Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. Melissa Fleming is Head of Communications and Chief Spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Her TED talk on the subject of refugees has been viewed more than 1.3 million times, and her advocacy has helped bring worldwide attention to the Syrian crisis. She is a frequent contributor to The Guardian, the New York Times, and The Washington Post. In her debut book, ''the human toll of the worst humanitarian crisis of our time is painfully, heartbreakingly brought home'' (Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner) through the harrowing journey of a young Syrian refugee and her family. (recorded 1/26/2017)

Michael Eric Dyson | Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. In conversation with Dr. James Peterson, Director of Africana Studies and Associate Professor of English at Lehigh University. MSNBC Contributor Possessed of ''intellectual heft, critical thinking depth and finesse with words and messages'' (Essence), Michael Eric Dyson is the author of 19 books, a frequent New York Times opinion writer, an MSNBC political analyst, and University Professor of Sociology at Georgetown. His many honors include an American Book Award and two NAACP Image Awards, and Ebony named him one of the 100 Most Influential African Americans. Tears We Cannot Stop is a no-holds-barred call for white America to face difficult truths about how it has ignored or dismissed African American grievances. (recorded 2/1/2017)

Jason Rekulak | The Impossible Fortress Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. In conversation with comedian Doogie Horner Jason Rekulak is the publisher of Philadelphia-based Quirk Books, where he has overseen acquisition of a number of, well, very quirky books, including the no. 1 New York Times bestseller Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, the Edgar Award-winning The Last Policeman, and the literary mashup Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, among many others. In his debut novel, Rekulak travels to 1987 to tell the coming-of-age story of three teenage boys, first love in the age of old school computer programming, and a master plan to heist their own version of the Maltese Falcon: a Playboy magazine containing nude photographs of Vanna White. (recorded 2/6/2017)

Daniel C. Dennett | From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. ''Perhaps America's most widely read (and debated) living philosopher'' (New York Times), Daniel C. Dennett is the author of a score of books that explore the intersection of human consciousness and evolutionary biology, including Consciousness Explained, Darwin's Dangerous Idea, and Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking. He is Co-Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies and Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University. Building on ideas from computer science and biology, From Bacteria to Bach and Back posits bold stances upon how we came to have conscious minds. A longtime writer for The New Yorker, Adam Gopnik is the author of Paris to the Moon and Angels and Ages: Lincoln, Darwin, and the Birth of the Modern Age, among other books. (recorded 2/9/2017)

George Saunders | Lincoln in the Bardo* Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. Having garnered wide readership and critical praise for his surreal, darkly funny fiction, ''it's no exaggeration to say that short story master George Saunders helped change the trajectory of American fiction'' (The Wall Street Journal). He is the author of the New York Times notable books Pastoralia and CivilWarLand in Bad Decline; Story Prize finalist In Persuasion Nation; and Tenth of December, a National Book Award finalist. One of Time magazine's 100 most influential people, Saunders is the recipient of Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellowships and has been honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Lincoln in the Bardo spins a kaleidoscopic tale of the 16th President's son's death and his bizarre purgatorial afterlife. (recorded 2/14/2017)

Mark Danielewski | The Familiar Volume 4: Hades Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. Mark Danielewski is best known for his 2000 debut novel House of Leaves, a profoundly unconventional love story of terror, claustrophobia, and a house that's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside, and for the book's unusual page layout, scores of footnotes, and color-coded words. His 2006 follow-up, Only Revolutions, was a National Book Award finalist, and his novella The Fifty Year Sword was performed on three consecutive Halloweens at REDCAT. Hades is the fourth installment in the planned 27-volume novel The Familiar, a characteristically peculiar multi-narrative story told against unique visuals and book structure. (recorded 2/16/2017)

Leading Voices: Amanda Steinberg | Worth It: Your Life, Your Money, Your Terms* Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. In conversation with longtime broadcaster and journalist, Tracey Matisak One of Forbes' 21 new American money masters, Amanda Steinberg is the founder and CEO of DailyWorth, a website devoted to helping women manage their financial lives. Launched from a Philadelphia attic office in 2009, its newsletter now reaches more than one million subscribers. She has discussed personal finance on a number of news outlets, including Good Morning America, CNN, Today, and MSNBC. In Worth It, Steinberg outlines the vital financial information women need to create a healthy financial future, and draws a direct line to the ways women can use money as a source of personal freedom and power. (recorded 2/21/2017)

Erica Armstrong Dunbar | Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. Named the first director of the Program in African American History at the Library Company of Philadelphia, Erica Armstrong Dunbar is a professor of Black American Studies and History at the University of Delaware. She has contributed commentary to several documentaries, including Philadelphia: The Great Experiment and The Abolitionists and is the author of A Fragile Freedom: African American Women and Emancipation in the Antebellum City. In her new book, Dunbar tells the story of the young slave who risked her life to escape servitude under the first American President. (recorded 2/23/2017)

Elizabeth LaBan and Melissa DePino | Pretty Little World Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. In conversation with John Timpane Elizabeth LaBan is the author of The Restaurant Critic's Wife, The Tragedy Paper, and The Grandparents Handbook. She teaches fiction writing at the University of Pennsylvania and her work has appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer, New York Newsday, and The Times-Picayune, among other publications. A former high school English teacher in Camden, New Jersey, Melissa DePino is the founder and editorial director of Leapfrog Group, a branding and marketing firm for nonprofits. Pretty Little World tells the story of three families who tear down the walls between each other's Philadelphia row homes and are forced to reimagine their relationships. (recorded 2/27/2017)

Christina Baker Kline | A Piece of the World Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. Christina Baker Kline is the author of The Orphan Train, the no. 1 New York Times bestseller and 2015 One Book, One Philadelphia selection. Her other novels include Bird in Hand, The Way Life Should Be, and Sweetwater. She has taught writing at some of the country's most prestigious universities and contributed articles to the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Psychology Today, among many other publications. A Piece of the World weaves fact and fiction into a portrait of the mysterious woman featured in Andrew Wyeth's iconic painting Christina's World. (recorded 2/28/2017)

Judy Collins | Cravings: How I Conquered Food Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. In conversation with Laura Kovacs, associate director, author events Popularly beloved as ''Judy Blue Eyes,'' eclectic singer-songwriter Judy Collins has delighted audiences for decades with such albums as A Maid of Constant Sorrow and Wildflowers. The latter album's lead single, ''Both Sides, Now''-penned for her by friend Joni Mitchell-brought her worldwide fame. She is a four-time Grammy nominee, a documentary Oscar nominee, and is currently a UNICEF representative on the campaign for the abolition of landmines. In Cravings, Collins tells the story of her charged history with food, the countless diet plans and weight-loss gurus she encountered over the years, and the measured solution she found to her addiction. (recorded 3/1/2017)

Yiyun Li | Dear Friend, From My Life I Write to You in Your Life Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. In conversation with Carmen Machado, author of the forthcoming story collection Her Body and Other Parties. Yiyun Li's ''remarkable'' (The Washington Post) debut fiction collection, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the PEN/Hemingway Award, and the Guardian First Book Award. She was a 2010 MacArthur Fellow, one of Granta's 21 best young American novelists under 35, and one of The New Yorker's top 20 writers under 40. She is also the author of the novel The Vagrants and the story collection Gold Boy, Emerald Girl. In her first nonfiction book, she weaves her identities as author, mother, and immigrant, and her treasured literary influences to confront questions about selfhood, art, and recovery. (recorded 3/2/2017)

James Rahn with Diane McKinney-Whetstone and Tom Teti | Rittenhouse Writers: Reflections on a Fiction Workshop Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. The founder and head of the Rittenhouse Writers' Group for its nearly 30-year existence, James Rahn has made this venerable workshop one of America's longest running and most prestigious. His eponymous memoir of the group details not only his growth as a writer and teacher to hundreds of students, but also his life as a husband and father. This volume also includes 10 current and former members' short stories. This event will feature Rittenhouse luminaries Diane McKinney-Whetstone, author of the novels Lazeretto and Tumbling; and Tom Teti, a longtime member and former board member of the People's Light theatre. (recorded 3/7/2017)

Mohsin Hamid | Exit West with Pankaj Mishra | Age of Anger: A History of the Present Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. ''One of his generation's most inventive and gifted writers'' (New York Times), Mohsin Hamid is the author of Moth Smoke, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and a PEN/Hemingway Award finalist; the novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist, named a Book of the Decade by The Guardian and shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize; and How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, ''a globalized version of The Great Gatsby'' (NPR). In Exit West, Hamid sets a love story of courage and escape against the backdrop of a country in the throes of civil war. Social intellectual Pankaj Mishra's numerous books include From the Ruins of Empire, A Great Clamour, and Kashmir: The Case for Freedom. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, one of Foreign Policy magazine's top 100 global thinkers, and winner of Yale's Windham-Campbell Literature Prize, he has written political and literary essays for the Guardian, The New York Times, the London Review of Books, Poetry, the Wall Street Journal, and too many others to list. Age of Anger traces the origins of modern paranoid threats to the 18th century in a look at marginalized populations who became susceptible to demagogues, invented enemies, and empowerment through violence. (recorded 3/9/2017)

Melissa Clark | Dinner: Changing the Game Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. In conversation with Maureen Fitzgerald, Food Editor, The Philadelphia Inquirer One of America's most beloved food writers, Melissa Clark writes the New York Times column ''A Good Appetite'' and hosts its weekly complementary video series. She frequently appears on the Today show, and has contributed to Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, and Martha Stewart. She has received IACP and James Beard awards, and her many cookbooks include Cook This Now and In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite. In her newest culinary guide, Clark serves up more than 250 inventive yet informal dinner recipes for chefs of all skill levels. (recorded 3/8/2017)

Camille Paglia | Free Women, Free Men: Sex, Gender, Feminism Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. ''At once outrageous and compelling, fanatical and brilliant'' (The Washington Post), Camille Paglia is the author of the 700-page seminal discourse on paganism, sex, and art, Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson. She is a professor of humanities and media studies at the University of the Arts, a regular contributor to Salon.com, and the author of Glittering Images; Break, Blow, Burn; Sex, Art, and American Culture; and Vamps & Tramps. In her new essay collection, Paglia employs her trademark fiery irreverence to celebrate and chastise modern feminism. Please allow extra time to get to Parkway Central, due to extensive road work in the area. (recorded 3/13/2017)

Cheech Marin | Cheech Is Not My Real Name: ...But Don't Call Me Chong Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. In conversation with Andy Kahan, director, author events In addition to the reams of Cheech and Chong comedy albums and films he and his partner wrote and starred in, Cheech Marin, half of the eponymous Grammy-winning stoner comedy duo, has dozens of other film and television roles under his belt, including a starring role on the show Nash Bridges and voice credits in a slew of Disney animated films. His long-awaited memoir delves not only into his legendary entertainment career, but also how he dodged the draft, acquired an expansive collection of Chicano art, and became a self-made icon. (recorded 3/16/2017)

Richard Holmes | This Long Pursuit: Reflections of a Romantic Biographer Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. ''Almost unfairly gifted both as a writer of living, luminous prose and as a tireless researcher'' (Time), Richard Holmes is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Fellow of the British Academy, and a knight in the Order of the British Empire. He is best known for his biographies of Romanticism's leading figures, including The Age of Wonder, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Royal Society Prize. This Long Pursuit is a meditation on the art of biography that fuses the author's own story as a biographer with a history of the genre that reveals how it expresses both fiction and fact. Horace W. Goldsmith Endowed Lecture (recorded 3/21/2017)

Chris Hayes | A Colony in a Nation Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. Chris Hayes is the titular host of MSNBC's news and opinion show All In with Chris Hayes. Formerly a frequent fill-in for Rachel Maddow and the host of the weekend morning show Up with Chris Hayes, in 2013 he became the youngest primetime cable news show host in the United States. An editor-at-large at The Nation, he is the author of Twilight of the Elites, ''one of the most compelling assessments of how soaring inequality is changing America'' (The Economist). In A Colony in a Nation, Hayes argues that racial parity hasn't improved in this country since the late 1960s. Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Endowed Lecture (recorded 3/23/2017)

Roxane Gay | Difficult Women Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. Roxane Gay's ''commanding debut'' (The New Yorker) novel An Untamed State, the tale of a willful Haitian kidnap victim, was a finalist for the Dayton Literary Prize for Fiction. She is also the author of the acclaimed essay collection Bad Feminist and the forthcoming memoir Hunger, and her other writing has appeared in dozens of publications, including the New York Times, Best American Short Stories, and McSweeney's. Gay is also the founder of Tiny Hardcore Press and co-editor of PANK, a nonprofit literary arts collective. A story collection of the privileged and impoverished, the loved and forsaken, Difficult Women portrays a beautiful, haunting cross-section of modern America. (recorded 3/24/2017)

Kory Stamper | Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. A lexicographer for the Merriam-Webster dictionary, Kory Stamper discusses the subtleties of the English language in the venerable volume's popular ''Ask the Editor'' video series. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and The Guardian, among other periodicals. A medievalist by training, Stamper knows a number of dead languages, has lectured on lexicography around the world, and was notably responsible for explaining Merriam-Webster's recent addition of the term ''F-Bomb'' to the dictionary. In Word by Word, she opens up the complicated, obsessive, and fun world of dictionaries and the quirky people who shape the way we communicate. (recorded 3/27/2017)

Leading Voices: Mo Gawdat | Solve for Happy: Engineering Your Path to Joy* Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. In conversation with longtime broadcaster and journalist, Tracey Matisak The Vice President of Business Innovation Google's [X], Mo Gawdat is a serial entrepreneur who has founded more than 20 businesses, started almost half of Google's operations worldwide, and sits on the boards of several tech, health, and consumer goods startups. He has spent the last 15 years making happiness his primary research focus, delving into the literature and science of this elusive pursuit. Ultimately, Gawdat formulated an equation for permanent happiness based on how the brain filters our joys and sorrows, an equation which would be put to the ultimate test after the sudden death of his son. Solve for Happy maps out this journey for lifelong contentment. (recorded 3/28/2017)

Anne-Marie Slaughter | The Chessboard and the Web: Strategies of Connection in a Networked World Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. In conversation with Dick Polman, "Writer in Residence" at the University of Pennsylvania, and national political columnist at WHYY's Newsworks.org The President and CEO of the non-partisan public policy think tank New America, Anne-Marie Slaughter is the author of the bestselling Unfinished Business, a ''mother of a manifesto for working women'' (Financial Times) that won widespread admiration for its broad-scale call for workplace change. Former Director of Policy Planning at the U.S. State Department and former Dean of Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, she is also the author of The Idea That Is America and A New World Order. In her latest book, Slaughter rethinks the complexities of international diplomacy in a post-Cold War world. (recorded 3/30/2017)

Colum McCann | Letters to a Young Writer: Some Practical and Philosophical Advice Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. In conversation with Jason Freeman, program associate, author events Colum McCann won the 2009 National Book Award for Let the Great World Spin, a tale of 1970s New Yorkers marveling at a tightrope walker's death-defying feats. His other novels include Song Dogs, This Side of Brightness, and the Man Booker Prize-shortlisted TransAtlantic, a ''beautifully constructed tapestry of life'' (The Seattle Times) spanning centuries, oceans, and continents. Currently a Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at Hunter College in New York, McCann has written for The New Yorker, Esquire, and the Paris Review, among other publications. His new essay collection brings this vast accumulation of experience to bear in a pragmatic guide for aspiring writers. (recorded 4/3/2017)

Lauren Grodstein | Our Short History with Tom McAllister | The Young Widower's Handbook Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. Employing ''agile prose and clever observations'' (New York Times Book Review), Lauren Grodstein is the author of four novels, including the New York Times bestseller A Friend of the Family and the Washington Post Book of the Year The Explanation for Everything. A professor of creative writing at Rutgers-Camden, Grodstein is also the author of the short story collection The Best of Animals. Our Short History tells a poignant and witty story of parenthood and sacrifice. Philadelphia area native Tom McAllister is the author of the memoir Bury Me in My Jersey: A Memoir of My Father, Football, and Philly. He is an English professor at Temple University, editor at Barrelhouse, and cohost of the podcast Book Fight!, and his stories have appeared in The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2015, among many other places. In The Young Widower's Handbook, a bereaved husband carries his late wife's ashes on a cross-country road trip replete with quirky characters and painful soul-searching. (recorded 4/4/2017)

Wendy Lesser | You Say to Brick: The Life of Louis Kahn Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. ''Consistently engaging, sly, witty, understated...and written with simple elegance'' (The New York Observer), Wendy Lesser's many essay collections, works of fiction, and edited volumes include The Pagoda in the Garden, Room for Doubt, and Why I Read, a celebration of the transcendent power of the written word. Founder of the celebrated Three Penny Review, she has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her new book is a biography of one of the 20th century's most revered architects. Meelya Gordon Memorial Lecture (recorded 4/6/2017)

Dr. Willie Parker | Life's Work: From the Trenches, a Moral Argument for Choice Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. In conversation with Dr. James Peterson, Director of Africana Studies and Associate Professor of English at Lehigh University. MSNBC Contributor An outspoken Christian reproductive justice advocate, Dr. Willie Parker is a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist who is one of the few abortion providers to women in Mississippi and Alabama. Chair-elect of the board of Physicians for Reproductive Health, winner of Planned Parenthood's Margaret Sanger award, and one of Ebony's Power 100 list, he has been profiled in NPR's Morning Edition, Esquire, and Slate, among other places. He is also the subject of the documentary film Trapped, a look at the legal battle to keep Southern abortion providers open. In Life's Work, Parker illustrates the complex realities of abortion in America. (recorded 4/12/2017)

Misty Copeland | Ballerina Body: Dancing and Eating Your Way to a Leaner, Stronger, and More Graceful You Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. In conversation with Tracey Matisak The first African American principal dancer in the 75-year history of the elite American Ballet Theatre, Misty Copeland is one of the world's most accomplished and recognizable artists. A recipient of the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship in the Arts, an inductee in the Boys and Girls Club Alumni Hall of Fame, and one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people, she is the author of the ''thorough, sensitive...clear-eyed'' (The Washington Post) memoir Life in Motion. In her first health and fitness book, Copeland offers tips and encouragement to help people achieve lean, powerful physiques. Due to a flaw in the recording medium, the full audio is not available in the podcast. Watch the entire event here: https://livestream.com/flp/Copeland Pine Tree Foundation Endowed Lecture (recorded 4/13/2017)

Jessamyn Stanley | Every Body Yoga: Let Go of Fear. Get On the Mat. Love Your Body Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. An internationally acclaimed yoga teacher whose body-positive approach encourages students to ask ''How do I feel?'' rather than ''How do I look?,'' Jessamyn Stanley has been featured on Good Morning America, Shape, People, and New York Magazine, among many other media outlets. She also is a regular contributor to Mind Body Green, Wanderlust, Elephant Journal, and is an award-winning Instagram star. Every Body Yoga illustrates and explains 50 yoga poses and 10 sequences to accomplish at home, and shares Stanley's paradigm-shifting philosophy of spirit and body acceptance. (recorded 4/18/2017)

Joan Nathan | King Solomon's Table: A Culinary Exploration of Jewish Cooking from Around the World Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. Joan Nathan is the author of 11 bestselling culinary guides, including The New American Cooking and Jewish Cooking in America, both of which won James Beard and IACP awards. The latter book was adapted into a PBS series produced by Nathan. A frequent contributor to the New York Times and Bon Appétit, she has appeared on Good Morning America, the Food Network, and NPR's All Things Considered. In King Solomon's Table, Nathan gathers more than 170 recipes that span the millennia and the far reaches of the global Jewish diaspora in a compendium of cooking and culture. (recorded 4/20/2017)

Joe Beddia | Pizza Camp: Recipes from Pizzeria Beddia Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. In conversation with Andrew Knowlton, Bon Appétit Joe Beddia is the owner and chef of Philly's own Pizzeria Beddia, named by Bon Appétit as the best pizza in America. This distinction is not surprising, considering that he devoted the last 10 years solely to the pursuit of the perfect pie. James Beard Award winner and fellow Philly chef Michael Solomonov says, ''Never have I encountered an individual so singularly focused on his craft. Joe Beddia is hilarious, intelligent, and lovingly produces the best pizza in the f*cking universe.'' In Pizza Camp, this pizza maestro begins with the pizza basics and moves on to more than 50 iconic and inventive recipes to bake at home. (recorded 4/24/2017)

David Grann | Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. David Grann is the no. 1 New York Times bestselling author of The Lost City of Z, the ''brilliant...impressively researched and crafted'' (Los Angeles Times) nonfiction tale of the deadly search for a fabled Amazonian civilization. His second book, The Devil and Sherlock Holmes, was named by Men's Journal one of the best true crime books ever written. An award-winning staff writer at The New Yorker, Grann has previously contributed to The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, and The New Republic, among other periodicals. Killers of the Flower Moon tells the chilling true-life story of one of the most sinister conspiracies in American history. (recorded 4/25/2017)

David Callahan | The Givers: Wealth, Power, and Philanthropy in a New Gilded Age Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. Blending liberalism with old values, David Callahan's many nonfiction books include Fortunes of Change, The Moral Center, and The Cheating Culture, a ''meticulously researched, thoughtful and damning look at our broken moral compass'' (Philadelphia Inquirer). He is founder of the website Inside Philanthropy and co-founder of the think-tank Demos, a frequent media commentator, and has contributed articles to the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post. In The Givers, Callahan delves into the secretive realm of elite philanthropists and the ways they shape governmental policy. Sandra Shaber Memorial Lecture (recorded 4/27/2017)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

William Hogeland | Autumn of the Black Snake: The Creation of the U.S. Army and the Invasion That Opened the West Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. Blending dramatic historical narrative with critical interpretation in order to make surprising connections to contemporary political and cultural struggles, William Hogeland's three books on founding American history include The Whiskey Rebellion, Founding Finance, and Declaration. He has also contributed articles and essays about history, music, and politics to a slew of publications, including The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times, and Salon, and has appeared on PBS's History Detectives, Book TV, and Good Morning America. In Autumn of the Black Snake, Hogeland tells the story of the creation of the U.S. Army and how its first victory against the indigenous people of the Ohio Valley opened the way to western settlement. (recorded 5/23/2017)

Joshua Ferris | The Dinner Party with Jim Shepard | The World to Come Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. Then We Came to the End, Joshua Ferris's ''truly affecting novel about work, trust, love, and loneliness'' (Seattle Times), won the 2008 PEN/Hemingway Award for best first novel and was a finalist for the National Book Award. His other works include The Unnamed and To Rise Again at a Decent Hour, which was shortlisted for the 2014 Man Booker Prize. One of The New Yorker's ''20 Under 40'' writers and winner of the International Dylan Thomas Prize, Ferris has published fiction in Granta, Prairie Schooner, and Best American Voices, among other places. The Dinner Party, his first story collection, is rife with characters searching for answers in the aftermath of life's pitfalls. ''Nailing entire worlds together with teeming, precise detail'' (The New York Times), Jim Shepard is the author of seven novels, including The Book of Aron and Project X. A writer's writer, he is perhaps more celebrated for his short fiction, which has appeared in publications ranging from The Paris Review to Playboy. His story collections include You Think That's Bad and Like You'd Understand, Anyway, a finalist for the National Book Award and winner of The Story Prize. His new collection explores the emotional hazards of everyday life writ large on the canvases of historic tragedy and triumph. (recorded 5/24/2017)

Thomas E. Ricks | Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. Military historian and journalist Thomas E. Ricks won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for his Wall Street Journal series on U.S. defense spending in the post-Cold War era. His books include The Generals, The Gamble, and the Pulitzer Prize finalist Fiasco, a bestselling account of America's tragic and reckless invasion of Iraq. A member of the Center for a New American Security defense policy think tank, he has reported on a wide variety of military activities for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Atlantic Monthly, among other publications. His new book is a dual biography of Winston Churchill's and George Orwell's farsighted fight for democracy during its darkest hours. (recorded 5/25/2017)

Yaa Gyasi | Homegoing with Kei Miller | Augustown Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. Yaa Gyasi's breakout debut novel Homegoing, a multigenerational tale that ''brims with compassion'' (NPR Books), follows two half-sisters on opposite sides of the 18th-century Ghanaian slave trade and their descendants. It was a New York Times bestseller and 2016 Notable Book and a Guardian Best Book, and it was nominated for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize. Gyasi, a native of Ghana who emigrated with her family to the U.S. in 1991, earned a Master of Arts from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and was selected by Ta-Nehisi Coates for the National Book Foundation's 2016 ''5 under 35'' award. Acclaimed for portraying the cultural and socio-political issues of his native Jamaica, Kei Miller is the author of the novels The Last Warner Woman and The Same Earth; the story collection The Fear of Stones; and several collections of poetry, including the award-winning The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion. A creative-writing teacher at the University of London, Miller is the recipient of the Forward Prize for Poetry and an International Writer's Fellowship at the University of Iowa, and he was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. Set in the Jamaican backlands, Augustown tells the story of a woman's struggle to overcome the weight of history, race, and violence. (recorded 6/8/2017)

Patricia Lockwood | Priestdaddy: A Memoir Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. Patricia Lockwood, ''The Poet Laureate of Twitter'' (unofficial), is the author of 2014's groundbreaking Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals, a book of obscene, angry, funny verse that ''is unforgettable, literally: once read, it cannot be forgotten'' (NPR). Her 2013 satirical poem ''Rape Joke,'' first printed on the website The Awl, ''reawakened a generation's interest in poetry'' (The Guardian). Her debut poetry collection Balloon Pop Outlaw Black was trumpeted as one of 2012's best by The New Yorker. Lockwood's new memoir Priestdaddy tells the story of her unconventional upbringing and irascible Catholic-priest father. (recorded 6/13/2017)

David Baron | American Eclipse: A Nation's Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. As NPR's science correspondent, David Baron received awards from the National Academy of Sciences, the American Medical Association, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, among many other organizations. He is the author of 2005's The Beast in the Garden, the harrowing story of the clash between suburban sprawl and mountain lions in Colorado. In his new book, Baron, a committed eclipse chaser, details the 19th-century celestial and terrestrial drama of a coast-to-coast total solar eclipse in which three distinctly American personalities-including a ruthless young Thomas Edison-jockey for discovery amidst the last days of the Wild West. (recorded 6/15/2017)

Richard Russo | Everybody's Fool and Trajectory Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. Winner of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for his novel Empire Falls, Richard Russo is acclaimed for capturing the ''foolishness of this lonely world, but also the humor, friendship and love that abide'' (San Francisco Chronicle). His many other novels include Bridge of Sighs, That Old Cape Magic, and Nobody's Fool, which was adapted into a popular film starring Paul Newman. ''Like hopping on the last empty barstool surrounded by old friends'' (Entertainment Weekly), Everybody's Fool catches up with the world-worn protagonist Sully and the irresistible residents of North Bath, New York. Trajectory is a collection of four sprawling short stories far outside the blue-collar realm Russo has mapped in his many novels. (recorded 6/20/2017)

Douglas Brunt | Trophy Son in conversation with Megyn Kelly Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. In conversation with Megyn Kelly, host of Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly Ghosts of Manhattan, Douglas Brunt's New York Times bestselling debut novel about a flawed but highflying Bear Stearns bond trader, took ''a smart shot at the absurdity of Wall Street and the long fall that brought us all down'' (Kirkus). He followed with The Means, an ensemble tale of political intrigue and boundless ambition. His latest work, Trophy Son, takes on the equally ruthless dynamic of father-son relationships in our achievement-consumed society. Former CEO of the security company Authentium, Brunt will be joined in conversation by his wife, former Fox News and current NBC journalist Megyn Kelly. (recorded 6/26/2017)

Harvey Sachs | Toscanini: Musician of Conscience Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. Music historian Harvey Sachs's many books include The Ninth: Beethoven and the World in 1824, a biography of Arthur Rubenstein, and two collections of essays on musical subjects. He has written for dozens of newspapers, magazines, and literary journals-including The New York Times and The New Yorker-and penned hundreds of items for record companies. A faculty member at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Sachs has lectured at universities and cultural institutions across North America and Europe. On the sesquicentennial of Toscanini's birth, Musician of Conscience looks at the great conductor's musical brilliance, political courage, and personal passions. (recorded 6/27/2017)

Mark Bowden | Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. In conversation with Bill Marimow, editor at large, The Philadelphia Inquirer ''One of the most intense, visceral'' (Philadelphia Inquirer) writers of our time, Mark Bowden is a national correspondent for The Atlantic and Vanity Fair and is the author of numerous New York Times bestselling books of investigative journalism, including the classic of war reporting, the National Book Award-nominated Black Hawk Down. Bowden's other books include Killing Pablo, winner of the Overseas Press Club's Cornelius Ryan Award for book of the year; Guests of the Ayatollah, listed by Newsweek as one of the ''50 Books for Our Times''; and The Three Battles of Wanat, a collection of his best long-form war, cultural, and sports essays. Using unprecedented archives and interviews with participants from both sides, Bowden's latest book narrates every stage of the Vietnam War's most pivotal and bloody battle. (recorded 7/11/2017)

Zinzi Clemmons | What We Lose Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. A cofounder and former publisher of Apogee Journal and a contributing editor for Literary Hub, Zinzi Clemmons has had work published in a variety of literary magazines, including Zoetrope: All Story, The Paris Review Daily, and Transition. Raised in Philadelphia to a South African mother and an American father, Clemmons teaches in Los Angeles at The Coleburn Conservatory and Occidental College. Her debut novel, What We Lose, tells the story of Thandi, a young woman caught between cultures as she struggles with love, unexpected motherhood, and the loss of the person who shaped her the most. (recorded 7/13/2017)

Kevin Hearne | Besieged with Chuck Wendig | Star Wars: The Aftermath Trilogy and Fran Wilde | Updraft Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. In conversation with Dena Heilik, Department Head of Philbrick Hall, the fiction department of the Central Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia. Kevin Hearne is the author of the New York Times bestselling Iron Druid Chronicles, the ancient-Celtic-meets-contemporary-mayhem action-adventure series featuring 2,000-year-old Atticus O'Sullivan. In his latest adventure, the immortal Irishman dodges traps in ancient Egypt and soul-stealing demons at a Kansas carnival. Chuck Wendig's many works include the YA Heartland series, Blackbirds, and the Atlanta Burns books; the Emmy-nominated digital narrative Collapsus; a popular blog, terribleminds.com; and several celebrated books about writing. Wendig's New York Times bestselling Star Wars: Aftermath trilogy tells the canon story of the events that occurred between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. Fran Wilde's Nebula Award-nominated debut novel, Updraft, won the 2016 Andre Norton Award and the Compton Crook Award. Cloudbound is the second installment in the inventive Bone Universe saga, a series that explores a lofty society of towers populated by residents who strap on wings and soar the skies in search of their destinies. (recorded 7/14/2017)

Lawrence Wright | The Terror Years: From al-Qaeda to the Islamic State Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. In conversation with Dick Polman, "Writer in Residence" at the University of Pennsylvania, and national political columnist at WHYY's Newsworks.org A longtime staff writer for The New Yorker, Lawrence Wright won the Pulitzer Prize for The Looming Tower, a ''wrenchingly intimate and boldly sweeping'' (The New York Times) narrative that explains the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and the intelligence mistakes that led to the 9/11 attacks. His other nonfiction books include In the New World, Thirteen Days in September, and Remembering Satan. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Society of American Historians, Wright has written and performed two one-man plays, co-produced the Emmy-winning documentary Going Clear, and is currently producing a television series based on The Looming Tower. In 10 watershed pieces first published in The New Yorker, his new book charts the course of Middle East terrorism since the 1990s. (recorded 7/27/2017)

Loudon Wainwright III | Liner Notes: On Parents & Children, Exes and Excess, Death & Decay, & a Few of My Other Favorite Things with Eileen Myles | Afterglow (a dog memoir) Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. With a career spanning four decades, 26 studio albums, and untold scores of concerts, Loudon Wainwright III is one of the world's most loved singer-songwriters. A prolific actor in a variety of television and film roles, he can also boast of being the father of Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright, and Lucy Wainwright Roche, three musical luminaries in their own right. In his new memoir, the folk patriarch and son of a celebrated Life magazine columnist reflects on the ups and downs of his career, the inspirations for his art, and the familial relationships that have marked him the most. ''A kick-ass counter-cultural icon'' (The New Yorker), Eileen Myles is the celebrated author of nearly two dozen books of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, plays, and performance pieces, including Chelsea Girls, I Must Be Living Twice, and The Irony of the Leash. Her lengthy list of honors includes a Guggenheim Fellowship in nonfiction, the Clark Prize for Excellence in Art Writing, and an Andy Warhol/Creative Capital Arts Writers Grant. Afterglow is a multi-genre examination of the pet/pet-owner relationship told through the prism of Myles's 16-year relationship with her beloved pit bull Rosie. (recorded 9/12/2017)

Edward Snowden in Conversation with Jeremy Scahill | The Surveillance State Then and Now Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. In 2013 NSA contractor Edward Snowden shook the pillars of the worldwide intelligence community when he revealed a trove of highly classified information that exposed astonishingly widespread mass U.S. surveillance overreach on a variety of international and domestic levels. Labeled a hero and whistleblower by some, he was formally charged with espionage and has been granted asylum in Russia, where he lives in an undisclosed location. In this one-of-a-kind interview, Snowden will discuss these revelations along with the current status of the surveillance state with Jeremy Scahill, investigative journalist, co-founder of the online journal The Intercept, and author of the bestselling books Blackwater, Dirty Wars, and The Assassination Complex. (recorded 9/11/2017)

Nicole Krauss | Forest Dark with Nathan Englander | Dinner at the Center of the Earth Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. A ''fiction pioneer, toying with fresh ways of rendering experience and emotion'' (NPR), Nicole Krauss is the bestselling author of the acclaimed novels Man Walks into a Room, The History of Love, and Great House. Named one of Granta's Best Young American Novelists and The New Yorker's ''20 Under 40,'' she is the winner of the Saroyan Prize for International Literature and a finalist for the National Book Award, among many other honors. In Forest Dark, Krauss interweaves the disparate paths of an older lawyer and a young novelist searching for transcendence in an Israeli desert. Nathan Englander is the author of the story collections For the Relief of Unbearable Urges and What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, a Pulitzer Prize finalist and winner of the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award. In addition to his widely anthologized short fiction, he is the author of the novel The Ministry of Special Cases, a play titled The Twenty-Seventh Man, and works that have appeared in The New Yorker and The Washington Post, among other places. In his new novel, Englander illustrates the Israeli–Palestinian conflict via a political thriller that hinges on the complicated relationship between a guard and his secret prisoner. (recorded 9/14/2017)

Stephen Greenblatt | The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award for The Swerve: How the World Became Modern, Stephen Greenblatt is widely acclaimed as the father of New Historicism, which strives to understand works of literature within their historical and social contexts. His other books include the New York Times bestselling Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare, Hamlet in Purgatory, and Learning to Curse: Essays in Early Modern Culture. A two-time Guggenheim fellow and former president of the Modern Language Association, Greenblatt is Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University. The Rise And Fall of Adam and Eve delves into the boundless creation story of the founding parents of all humanity. (recorded 9/15/2017)

Tom Perrotta | Mrs. Fletcher Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. ''A daring chronicler of our most profound anxieties and human desires'' (Washington Post), Tom Perrotta is the author of some of the most popular and critically acclaimed novels of our time, including Election, which was adapted into an Oscar-nominated film starring Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon; Little Children, which was adapted into a film for which he won an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay; and The Leftovers, named to several prominent best-of-the-year lists and adapted by HBO into a popular TV series. In Mrs. Fletcher, Perrotta tells the story of an empty-nester whose placid life is upended by an anonymous salacious text message. (recorded 9/19/2017)

Adam Gopnik | At the Strangers' Gate: Arrivals in New York Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. In conversation with Meg Wolitzer, bestselling author of The Interestings among many novels. A writer for The New Yorker for more than three decades, Adam Gopnik is the author of Paris to the Moon, Angels and Ages: A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life, and The Table Comes First, an ''unapologetically intelligent yet charmingly witty'' (The Atlantic) bite into the deeper truths of food culture. A three-time recipient of the National Magazine Award and a winner of the George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting, Gopnik was decorated with the French Republic's medal of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters. At the Strangers' Gate is a memoir of his 1980s move to a peculiar New York that is both romantically familiar yet light years from today's incarnation. (recorded 9/22/2017)

Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook | Federal Donuts: The (Partially) True Spectacular Story Jul 16, 2018

Watch the video here. Lauded for bringing the Middle Eastern, North African, Mediterranean, and Eastern European influences from Solomonov's titular Philadelphia restaurant to readers' home kitchens, Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook's Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking won the 2016 James Beard Book of the Year and Best International Cookbook award. Solomonov won the 2011 James Beard Award for ''Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic,'' and his restaurants have been recognized by Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, and Travel + Leisure. At once a madcap bio of their donut mini-empire, canticle to American passion, and collection of cult-favorite recipes, Solomonov and Cook's new book tells the ''hole'' story of all things ''Fednuts.'' In conversation with Tom Henneman, Bob Logue, and Felicia D'Ambrosio Moderated by culinary expert, food writer, and permanent judge on BRAVO's Emmy-winning series Top Chef, Gail Simmons. She also makes frequent television appearances on TODAY and Good Morning America, and is the author of the 2012 memoir Talking With My Mouth Full and the forthcoming cookbook Bringing It Home: Favorite Recipes from a Life of Adventurous Eating. She was named the #1 Reality TV Judge in America by the New York Post. (recorded 9/25/2017)

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