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We talk with novelist Nicole Krauss about her acclaimed first collection of stories, To Be A Man.
But first, we talk with short story writer Bryan Washington about his first novel: Memorial. He calls it a “gay slacker dramedy” but it’s really much more than that.
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We talk with Les Leopold about his Uncle Walter’s remarkable diary of life as Jew in Nazi Germany, Defiant German—Defiant Jew: A Holocaust Memoir from Inside the Third Reich. Les Leopold had the diary translated and has added much context and commentary to the book.
Then, we talk with acclaimed crime novelist Anthony Horowitz about his newest murder mystery confection, Moonflower Murders. It’s the second in the Susan Ryeland series, following Magpie Murders.
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We talk with translator Stephen Snyder about his translation of Yoko Ozawa’s acclaimed novel The Memory Police. It’s an allegory for our age.
Then we hear from Marian Lindberg about her book, Scandal On Plum Island: A Commander Becomes The Accused. It tells the neglected story of Major Benjamin Koehler, a distinguished Army officer who was blind-sided by charges of homoerotic behavior in 1914.
We also preview our post-Election Day interview with legal scholar Lawrence Douglas, author of Will He Go? Trump and the Looming Election Meltdown in 2020. (Listen to the full interview here.)
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We talk with Margot Livesy. Her new novel, The Boy In The Field, explores the limits of free will and how we respond to what happens to us.
Then, an emergency room doctor evaluates the lessons of 25 years in emergency medicine and their relevance to life and writing. We talk with Frank Huyler about his memoir, White Hot Light: Twenty-Five Years in Emergency Medicine. We also ask him what it’s like to be an ER doc in the midst of covid.
Finally, we talk with writer and English professor K.L. Cook about opening up the campus to in-person learning in the midst of the covid19 pandemic.
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With Trump’s paramilitary goon squads assaulting peaceful protestors in American cities, things are looking pretty grim for democracy in America.
But Joe McCarthy biographer Larry Tye is optimistic. He says: “The lesson of Joe McCarthy and our other demagogues is that they fell even faster than they rose — once America saw through them and reclaimed its better self.“
We talk with Larry Tye about his acclaimed new book, Demagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy.
Then, a novel that asks the question: how do we balance the risks of political protest with the consequences, especially when those protests turn violent? Ellen Meeropol tells us about her new novel, Her Sister’s Tattoo.
It’s about two sisters whose lives are marked by the choices they make during an antiwar demonstration in 1968. Meeropol uses history to explore the personal dimension of activism —and the thorny intersection of sibling loyalty and political beliefs.
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We talk with Sue Monk Kidd about her novel, The Book of Longings. It’s the story of a brilliant young woman who becomes the wife of Jesus Christ.
Then we re-air our 2016 interview with Monique Morris about her book Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools.
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We talk with Elizabeth Wetmore about her stunning debut novel, Valentine. Ann Patchett called it “a novel of moral urgency and breathtaking prose,” saying “This is the very definition of a stunning debut.”
Then we play excerpts from our 2017 interview with Carol Anderson about her award-winning book White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide.
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We talk with Dr. Abdul-El Sayed, former Michigan gubernatorial candidate and health director of Detroit’s public health department about his new book, Healing Politics: A Doctor’s Journey Into the Heart of Our Political Epidemic.
Then, a debut novel explores the power dynamics inside a county jail. We talk with David Moloney about his book, Barker House.
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We talk with Irish writer SinÁ©ad Gleeson about her award-winning collection of essays, Constellations: Reflections From Life.
Then, they say the road to Hell is paved with good intentions; that makes for a rich vein for fiction Therese Anne Fowler mines in her new novel, A Good Neighborhood. Continue reading
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We talk with Peter Heller about his terrific new novel, a thriller set on a river above the Arctic Circle. It’s called The River.
Then, we re-air our 2017 interview with historian Timothy Snyder about his cautionary tale about the descent into authoritarianism. The book is On Tyranny.
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We talk with Judy Foreman about her book Exercise is Medicine: How Physical Activity Boosts Health and Slows Aging. (Oxford University Press.)
Then, we talk with Michael Zapata about his acclaimed novel, The Lost Book of Adana Moreau (Hanover Square Press).
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On the menu this week are two books, both with roots in South Asia and America, touching on two of the most central issues of our time: climate and immigration.
We talk first with acclaimed novelist and writer Amitav Ghosh about his newest work of fiction, Gun Island. Then, NPR-correspondent Aarti Shahani tells us about her stunning memoir of immigration to America — the dream and the nightmare. It’s called Here We Are: American Dreams, American Nightmares. Continue reading
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We talk with naturalist, author, and award-winning wildlife filmmaker Paul Rosalie about how a real life encounter with a tiger turned into a page-turner of a novel. His book is The Girl And The Tiger.
But first, we explore the relationship of water to people and people to water. We talk with journalist and historian Jim Rousmaniere about his book Water Connections. Continue reading
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We spend the hour with science fiction novelist, blogger and technology activist, Cory Doctorow. First, we talk with him about his terrific new book, Radicalized. It brings together four speculative fiction novellas connected by social, technological, and economic visions of today — and what America could be in the very near future.
Then we re-air an edited version of our 2010 interview with Doctorow about his novel, Makers, which is about a movement of open source tech creators and their battle with the Disney Corporation.
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Eighty years ago on September 1, 1939 World War Two broke out. Today, we talk about a new novel and a surprising biography that illumine important but lesser known stories about that conflict: Julie Orringer’s acclaimed novel, The Flight Portfolio and Robert Matzen’s fascinating biography of the young Audrey Hepburn and her work with the Dutch Resistance against the Nazis, Dutch Girl.