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Mary Louise Kelly on her memoir 'It. Goes. So. Fast. The Year of No Do-Overs' May 01, 2023

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In her new memoir, All Things Considered co-host Mary Louise Kelly talks about the time she got a call from her son's school nurse while she was boarding a Black Hawk helicopter in Baghdad. Kelly joined NPR's Scott Simon to discuss this and other stories she shares in It. Goes. So. Fast. The Year of No Do-Overs – which follows Kelly as she looks at the balance of work and motherhood, intention and memory
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Two novels offer new perspectives on the women of Greek mythology Apr 28, 2023

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Today's episode starts with a familiar feeling – the way your heart drops when a book character that you love doesn't get the outcome you wanted for them. But the authors we hear from both took that and ran with it, writing new outcomes for the women of Greek mythology they think are misunderstood. First, Madeline Miller tells NPR's Barrie Hardymon about her novel Circe, which details the goddess' backstory. Then, Tiziana Dearing at WBUR's Radio Boston speaks with Rebecca Caprara about Spin, her re-telling of Arachne the weaver's tale.
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'Redaction' examines criminal justice via portraits, poems written from legal papers Apr 27, 2023

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Reginald Dwayne Betts and Titus Kaphar knew they were meant to work together when they first met. In 2019, they exhibited a project at MoMA PS1 that explored criminal justice through redacted court documents turned into poems and visual artworks. Now, that exhibit is a book called Redaction. They tell NPR's Juana Summers about how they both employ their mediums to capture the effects of incarceration, and how their collaboration focuses on joy and community even amidst deep suffering.
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'The Queen of Dirt Island' captures the bond between women in an Irish family Apr 26, 2023

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Donal Ryan's new novel, The Queen of Dirt Island, centers its women characters. He tells NPR's Mary Louise Kelly that making the men peripheral wasn't his goal – "it just kind of happened." In today's episode, he explains how a childhood spent listening to his grandmother, sister and neighbors in his mom's kitchen inspired the voices in the book, and why he wrote with a strict word count in mind for each chapter.
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How Indian migrant workers escaped human trafficking in Mississippi Apr 25, 2023

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Today's episode is a true story that reads like a novel. In 2006, author and labor organizer Saket Soni received a call from an Indian migrant worker. He was one of hundreds of men hired by Signal International to fix hurricane-ravaged oil rigs in Mississippi and asked to pay $20,000 under the impression it would go towards green card expenses. But as Soni explains in his new book, The Great Escape, that was far from the truth. He tells Here & Now's Deepa Fernandes about the harsh conditions workers were forced to live in, and how they eventually marched all the way to D.C. to demand justice.
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NPR's Ari Shapiro looks back on reporting, singing and touring in new memoir Apr 24, 2023

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Ari Shapiro's voice might be familiar to listeners for a number of reasons. He's one of the hosts of All Things Considered; he also sings and tours with the band Pink Martini, sometimes in places with languages he doesn't speak – as he tells NPR's Steve Inskeep. In today's episode, the NPR journalist talks about his new memoir, The Best Strangers in the World, and opens up about the way he brings his personal experiences to his professional and creative endeavors – from being one of the only Jewish kids in Fargo, MN to covering the Pulse nightclub shooting.
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Two nonfiction books examine grief and its impact on memory Apr 21, 2023

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Today's episode covers two very different stories involving personal loss and what comes after. First, author Laura Braitman tells NPR's Sacha Pfeiffer about her memoir, What Looks Like Bravery, and how her father's death earlier in life pushed her to unhealthily lean into academic and professional achievements as a coping mechanism. Then, NPR's Rachel Martin sits down with The Atlantic's Jennifer Senior. Her new book, On Grief, expands on her Pulitzer-Prize winning essay about the diary left behind by a 9/11 victim, and the conflict it created between his family and girlfriend.
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'Decent People' is a murder mystery grappling with race in the segregated South Apr 20, 2023

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In a small North Carolina town in 1976, three siblings are shot to death. That's the mystery at the center of De'Shawn Charles Winslow's new book, Decent People – and it's one the segregated town's white police officers aren't paying much attention to. In today's episode, Winslow tells NPR's Scott Simon about the heroine who takes it upon herself to solve the case, and why - the author feels a need to paint a nuanced portrait of even the antagonists in his books.
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Author Azar Nafisi says books can help you really live Apr 19, 2023

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Author Azar Nafisi has written a love letter to literature and reading in Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times. She does this in a series of letters to her late father who passed on in 2004. Nafisi says that reading can help us really live and also help us, and has helped her, survive challenging times. Nafisi told NPR's Scott Simon that literature's purpose is to let us experience new worlds: "to come out of yourself, and join the other."
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In 'Romantic Comedy,' Curtis Sittenfeld flips the gendered tropes Apr 18, 2023

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From Notting Hill to the real-life relationships of several SNL writers with Hollywood starlets – to even the new Barbie movie tagline ("She's everything. He's just Ken.") – there's a recurring storyline in pop culture of ordinary guys dating up, falling in love with glamorous women who are seemingly out of their league. In her new book, Romantic Comedy, Curtis Sittenfeld shakes up these gender dynamics. She tells NPR's Juana Summers why she wanted her career-focused heroine – a comedy writer – to stumble into a romance with a global pop star.
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