Tag Archives: Book Excerpt

Podcast

Saving Lives With Music: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

We talk with M.T. Anderson about his new book Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad. It tells the story of how Shostakovich’s 7th Symphony inspired the resistance of the people of Leningrad to one of the most brutal sieges in history, that mounted by Hitler’s Army in World War II.

And with the world climate talks happening in Paris, we consider the intersection between climate change — and terrorism. We air a clip from our 2011 interview with Christian Parenti about his book, Tropic of Chaos.

Continue reading →

Podcast

Angry White Men & Rape Culture: Michael Kimmel & Kate Harding

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Feminist sociologist and gender researcher Michael Kimmel talks about the “aggrieved entitlement” of so many white men in America. His book is Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era. Then, we look at the rise of rape culture in America with Kate Harding. Her book is Asking For It: The Alarming Rise of Rape Culture–and What We Can Do About It. Continue reading →

Podcast

Two Allegories: Michael Golding’s A Poet of the Invisible World & Robin Cook’s Host

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Michael Golding talks about A Poet of the Invisible World, his stunning new novel set in 13th century Persia. This fable explores the spiritual path taken by its main character, a Sufi poet with four ears.

Then, Robin Cook tells us about his new medical thriller, Host. It’s about what happens when medical research into the newest class of drugs — biologics — intersects with a greed-driven medical system. Continue reading →

Podcast

Is The World Running Out Of Food? Joel Bourne, THE END OF PLENTY

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

We spend the hour talking with journalist Joel K. Bourne, Jr. about population, the threat of famine and new ways to prevent it. His book is The End of Plenty: The Race To Feed A Crowded World. Continue reading →

Podcast

Juliana Barbassa on Rio on the brink & Ta Nehisi Coates on fathers and sons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

We take the pulse of Brazilian society with journalist Juliana Barbassa — the forces holding it back and the people’s push for more democracy. Her book is Dancing with the Devil in the City of God.

Then, Ta-Nehisi Coates just received a MacArthur “genius” fellowship. We re-air our 2008 interview with him about his memoir, The Beautiful Struggle. 

Continue reading →

Podcast

Marcel Theroux, STRANGE BODIES & Jessica Abel, OUT ON THE WIRE

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Marcel Theroux talks about his new novel Strange Bodies. It’s a fantastic multi-genre romp — part sci-fi, part thriller, part disquisition on literary immortality. And then we pivot to the renaissance in radio storytelling, talking with cartoonist Jessica Abel about her graphic book, Out On The Wire: The Storytelling Secrets of the New Masters of Radio.

Continue reading →

Podcast

Sci-fi Imagines Climate Change: Paolo Bacigalupi’s THE WATER KNIFE & SHIPBREAKER

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Paolo Bacigalupi talks about his new thriller, The Water Knife. It’s about the fight over water supplies in the American Southwest that erupts when a climate-driven mega-drought hits the region.

Then, we re-air portions of our 2011 interview with Bacigalupi about his sci fi novel for young adults, Shipbreaker. Also set in the climate-changed world of the near future, it takes place in Florida in a time of sea level rise. Continue reading →

Podcast

EmigrÁ©s from The USSR: Svetlana Stalin & Elena Gorokhova

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Rosemary Sullivan talks about her extraordinary new biography of Svetlana Stalin, Stalin’s Daughter (Harper Collins, June 2015.) 

Then, Russian Á©migrÁ© Elena Gorokhova explores the inner divide that splits the soul of the immigrant in her new memoir Russian Tattoo (Simon and Schuster, 2015). Continue reading →

Podcast

Why Diets Don’t Work And Supplements May Be Bad For You

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Catherine Price talks about her book VITAMANIA: Our Obsessive Quest For Nutritional Perfection (Penguin). Then food psychologist Traci Mann tells us why diets don’t work and how we can get to — and stay at — our leanest live-able weight. Her book is Secrets from the Eating Lab: The Science of Weight Loss, the Myth of Willpower, and Why You Should Never Diet Again. Continue reading →

Podcast

Social Insecurity: 401k’s & The Retirement Crisis

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

In 2008, WV guest James W. Russell got a big shock, like hundreds of thousands of other Americans who thought their 401k’s were going to give them a comfortable retirement. His retirement portfolio took a big hit, so he decided to investigate just why our retirement system is so insecure.

What he found out, he’s put into his explosive book, SOCIAL INSECURITY: 401(k)s and the Retirement Crisis. We spend the hour talking with Russell about 401k’s, pension plans, and social security — and what can be done to make sure we don’t end up poor in our old age. Continue reading →

Podcast

Meditation For The Rest Of Us

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

ABC anchorman and meditator Dan Harris talks about his book, 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works–A True Story. Then, renowned psychiatrist and author of Thoughts Without A Thinker Mark Epstein discusses his latest book, The Trauma Of Every Day Life. It’s about how Buddhist meditation can help us heal from trauma and use it to achieve greater wisdom. Continue reading →

Podcast

Rebel Girls & Boys

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Historian Lara Vapnek talks about her biography of the great labor organizer and champion of civil liberties, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. And later, we talk with civil liberties lawyer and journalist, Bill Newman about his collection of essays reprising his long engagement with civil liberties and social justice, When The War Came Home.

Continue reading →

Podcast

Master Thieves & Lethal Legacies

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Stephen Kurkjian talks about his new book Master Thieves. It’s about the record-breaking art heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in 1990 and who might have done it.

Then, forty years after the end of the Vietnam War, its lethal legacy continues. We talk with George Black about his story, “The Lethal Legacy of the Vietnam War” in the March 16 issue of The Nation. Continue reading →

Podcast

The Difference Between Men & Women? The Freedom To Choose

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Investigative journalist Jenny Nordberg talks about her book, THE UNDERGROUND GIRLS OF KABUL: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan. It’s about how some young girls in Afghanistan are disguised as boys — an ancient practice in a gender-apartheid society.

And feminist writer Katha Pollitt discusses how access to safe, legal abortions is under threat in America and what that means for women’s rights. Her book is PRO: Reclaiming Abortion Rights. Continue reading →