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Frances Haugen's memoir looks back on why she blew the whistle on Facebook Jun 26, 2023

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Frances Haugen came forward as the Facebook whistleblower in 2021, shortly after she exposed more than 20,000 documents proving that the company's algorithm boosted misinformation and extremism on the platform. In her new memoir, The Power of One, Haugen details how her life trajectory, from high school debate to Silicon Valley, poised her to speak up about what she saw during her time as an employee at Facebook. In today's episode, she tells Here & Now's Robin Young about losing her childhood best friend, navigating celiac disease, and prioritizing democracy and transparency over profit.
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'The Postcard' and 'Good Night, Irene' detail how WWII impacted two families Jun 23, 2023

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Today's episode features two novels intertwining family and wartime history. First, Anne Berest speaks with NPR's Scott Simon about The Postcard, based on the real-life holiday card her family received of relatives who'd been killed at Auschwitz years prior, and the journey that unfurled more than decade later to determine where the image came from. Then, Simon is joined by Luis Alberto Urrea, author of Good Night, Irene, who explains how his mother's real-life experience feeding and cheering on American soldiers during the war fueled his novel about the brave women on the frontlines of battle.
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In her memoir 'Wannabe,' Aisha Harris examines how '90s pop culture shaped her Jun 22, 2023

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As an NPR critic, Pop Culture Happy Hour host Aisha Harris helps make sense of how movies, music and TV inform our everyday lives. In her new book of essays, Wannabe, Harris applies that practice inward, reflecting on the impact Stevie Wonder and Sex and the City have had on her own upbringing. In today's episode, Harris speaks with NPR's Ayesha Rascoe about how relating her name to a certain pop song forced her to tackle some of her own discomforts with Black identity, and the challenges that come with being a Black critic reviewing work by Black creators.
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Greg Marshall's memoir 'Leg' recounts growing up with cerebral palsy Jun 21, 2023

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Greg Marshall grew up with parents battling health issues: cancer and ALS. Marshall had his own health scares – he struggled with his leg and mobility his whole life, which his mom and dad said was a result of tight tendons. As an adult, he found out he'd actually been diagnosed with cerebral palsy at birth. His memoir, Leg:The Story of a Limb and the Boy Who Grew from It, is an intimate, funny and honest look at Marshall's journey with his body and sexuality. He tells NPR's Scott Simon why he wanted to open up about living with a disability and why he wanted his leg to be the star of the show.
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'Loot' traces the love, war and art that shaped India's colonial history Jun 20, 2023

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In her new novel Loot, Tania James writes of a 17-year-old woodworker who's commissioned to build a tiger automaton for the Indian ruler Tipu Sultan in the 18th century. The story is inspired by the real-life Tippoo's Tiger, one of the most famous sculptures in London's Victoria and Albert Museum. James' tale of colonization, war, love and art stretches across India and Europe – and as she tells NPR's Ari Shapiro, it continues to raise questions about historical artifacts and who should own them.
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Paul McCartney's new book of photographs looks back at Beatlemania in 1964 Jun 19, 2023

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Between 1963 and 1964, The Beatles blew up to become one of the most internationally renowned bands in history. Though images of the screaming fans and the four musicians' swooping haircuts are part of pop culture, a new book shows that time period through Paul McCartney's perspective. 1964: Eyes of the Storm features photographs the guitarist took through many of those international performances. As McCartney tells NPR's Steve Inskeep, the band's first visit to the U.S. came amidst a period of charged political change.
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Two books examine the evolution of the English language Jun 16, 2023

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Today's episode features interviews with two authors who are very invested in the English language. First, NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with Hana Videen about her new book, The Wordhord, which collects words and phrases from Old English – like Beowulf – to examine and understand life during medieval times. Then, Here & Now's Robin Young is joined by linguist Valerie Fridland to discuss Like, Literally, Dude, which makes the case for how "like" and "um" are leading the charge of modernizing our language.
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'The Talk' is a graphic memoir about the experiences of Black children and parents Jun 15, 2023

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When Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Darrin Bell was six years old, he had an encounter with a police officer. That event, which he kept secret for much of his life, reaffirmed "the talk" he'd just had with his mother about the way white people and systems of power can cast hostility and harm onto Black children. That conversation – the way it shaped his own childhood, schooling and adulthood – is at the heart of Bell's new graphic memoir, The Talk. He spoke with NPR's Ayesha Rascoe about his own approach to discussing race and how it's led him to parent his own child.
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Inspired by P-22, 'Open Throat' follows a queer mountain lion's lonely survival in LA Jun 14, 2023

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When P-22 – the puma that lived in LA's Griffith Park – died in December, Angelenos mourned the loss of one of their wildest celebrities. In his new book, Open Throat, Henry Hoke pays homage to the late cat in a different way; he takes on the voice of a mountain lion living beneath the Hollywood sign, pondering community and climate change and gender identity. In today's episode, Hoke speaks with NPR's Scott Simon about what P-22 represented for Los Angeles residents, and why writing from his perspective raises so many questions about our own humanity and isolation.
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'Between Two Moons' is a coming-of-age story set during Ramadan Jun 13, 2023

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The summer after high school graduation is full of promise. But for twin sisters Amira and Lina, the return of their brother from prison complicates some of those teenage plans. In Aisha Abdel Gawad's new novel, Between Two Moons, the sisters' family finds it's struggling with tensions in and outside of the home during the holy month of Ramadan. In today's episode, Gawad speaks with NPR's Ari Shapiro about why she wanted to paint a nuanced portrait of the Muslim-American experience and how real-life NYPD surveillance of Arab communities played a role in her writing.
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