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'The Rachel Incident' looks back on early-20s friendships, love and mistakes Dec 16, 2023

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The novel The Rachel Incident is rooted around a wonderful, messy friendship. Rachel and James live together, party, and get themselves into a peculiar situation with an older married couple. In today's episode, author Caroline O'Donoghue speaks with NPR's Miles Parks about how abortion and sexual repression in Irish society play a large role in Rachel's early adulthood. O'Donoghue also shares why it was important to her that the novel be told from an older Rachel's perspective, reflecting on her youth.
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Erica Jong and daughter Molly Jong-Fast reflect on 'Fear of Flying' Dec 15, 2023

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This year, the novel Fear of Flying — which broke all sorts of unwritten rules around marriage, sex, and women's bodily autonomy when first published — turned 50 years old. So for today's episode, we dug up a 1973 interview with author Erica Jong and NPR's Steven Banker where Jong speaks frankly about the constraints women felt at the time about making art, and how their husbands would be perceived as a result. Then, NPR's Sarah McCammon speaks with Jong's daughter, Molly Jong-Fast, about the legacy of Fear of Flying, second-wave feminism and the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
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Rose Previte, of Michelin star restaurant Maydān, releases her debut cookbook Dec 14, 2023

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Today's episode takes us inside the kitchen of Washington, D.C. Michelin-star restaurant Maydān. There, owner Rose Previte walks NPR's Asma Khalid through several recipes in her new cookbook, Maydān, which focuses on family dishes from a diverse array of influences. Previte and Khalid get to talking about how growing up in a Lebanese-Italian home in a small Ohio town — and later traveling across Russia and the Middle East with her husband, former NPR host David Greene — shaped her understanding of breaking bread across cultures.
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Raquel Willis reflects on her journey in Black trans rights activism in new memoir Dec 13, 2023

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The Risk It Takes To Bloom is a new memoir by journalist and activist Raquel Willis. In 2014, Willis navigated post-college life as she grappled with the "dehumanization" of Blackness and the importance of transgender visibility. Willis examined how to support the Black trans community and helped organize one of the largest marches for Black trans lives in 2020. In today's episode, Willis speaks with NPR's Brittany Luse about her journey as a Black trans woman emerging into adulthood and the intersectional framework that shapes her activism.
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Jordan Peele curates a new Black horror story collection 'Out There Screaming' Dec 12, 2023

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Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror is a collection of scary stories curated by horror filmmaker Jordan Peele. In today's episode, Peele speaks with NPR's Brittany Luse about the Black horror stories in this collection and the unique motif of eyes in this genre, including in his own 2017 film Get Out.
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Author David Wallace-Wells outlines the biggest climate change misunderstandings Dec 11, 2023

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As this year's United Nations Climate Summit wraps up, today's episode examines what people often get wrong about climate change. David Wallace-Wells' 2019 book The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming outlines three major misunderstandings: the speed, scope, and severity of climate change. Here, Wallace-Wells speaks with NPR's Rachel Martin back in 2019 about the worst-case scenario for human life in 2050 and the optimistic outcome we could expect if we take immediate action.
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'Idlewild' follows a queer, teen friendship in early 2000s New York Dec 09, 2023

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In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, two teenagers form a tight bond at their Quaker high school in Manhattan. That's the premise for Idlewild, the debut novel by James Frankie Thomas. But while the girls share an intense common interest in gay culture and fan fiction, their friendship blows up in unexpected ways — something they must reckon with years later. In today's episode, Here & Now's Deepa Fernandes speaks with Thomas about his take on the prep school novel and discovering some giant truths about himself while trying to understand the lives of his characters.
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Novels by Sigrid Nunez and Michael Cunningham tackle the pandemic Dec 08, 2023

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Today's episode finds two renowned authors who found solace in writing characters navigating the COVID-19 pandemic. First, NPR's Leila Fadel spoke with Sigrid Nunez about The Vulnerables, which follows a woman, a parrot, and a Gen Z college student unexpectedly taking care of another during lockdown in New York. Then, Michael Cunningham tells NPR's Scott Simon about Day, which chronicles three days — spread out over three years — in the life of a Brooklyn family, and how isolation and companionship changes them over that time.
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Patricia Evangelista's memoir revisits the aftermath of the Philippines' war on drugs Dec 07, 2023

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Some People Need Killing by Patricia Evangelista traces the aftermath of the Philippines' war on drugs. After Rodrigo Duterte was elected in 2016, thousands of people were killed in extrajudicial killings. In today's episode, NPR's Juana Summers listens to journalist Evangelista reflect on her country's news coverage during this time and the importance of language in honoring humanity.
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Norman Lear's memoir recalls a life and career that shaped American television Dec 06, 2023

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TV writer and producer, Norman Lear, died this week. He was 101 years old. In today's episode, we revisit Lear's 2014 interview with NPR's Arun Rath about his memoir, Even This I Get to Experience. From Lear's upbringing with a father incarcerated for white collar crime to his struggle to get All In the Family on air, the two discussed some of the biggest challenges Lear overcame on the path to becoming a television visionary.
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