In conversation with Niela Orr A ''hilarious, uncomfortable and compulsively readable story about race and class'' (TIME), Kiley Reid's novel Such a Fun Age tells the story of a young Black babysitter and her well-intentioned but misguided employer. A New York Times bestseller, a Reese's Book Club Pick, and named one of the best books of the year by a slew of publications, it was longlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize. Reid's other writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Playboy, and The Guardian, among other places. She teaches writing at the University of Michigan. A novel about wealth, bad behavior, and indelicacy, Come and Get It tells the story of an ambitious University of Arkansas resident assistant and her tangled relationships with a professor and three boisterous students. Niela Orr is a critic whose work has appeared in The London Review of Books, The Paris Review, and The Believer, among other places. She is a story editor for the New York Times Magazine. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! The views expressed by the authors and moderators are strictly their own and do not represent the opinions of the Free Library of Philadelphia or its employees. (recorded 1/31/2024)

Emily Nagoski is the author of the New York Times bestseller Come as You Are, a self-help manual lauded by critics and readers for its ability to ''offer up hard facts on the science of arousal and desire in a friendly and accessible way'' (The Guardian). With her sister, Amelia Nagoski, she is also the co-author of Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle. She earned an MS in counseling and a PhD in health behavior from Indiana University, where she has conducted clinical and research training at the renowned Kinsey Institute. She now teaches sex education and stress education to women across the country. In Come Together, Nagoski employs scientific rigor, compassion, and humor to create a pragmatic and specific guide for maintaining a fulfilling sex life while in a long-term relationship. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! The views expressed by the authors and moderators are strictly their own and do not represent the opinions of the Free Library of Philadelphia or its employees. (recorded 2/1/2024)

Susan Muaddi Darraj won the 2016 American Book Award, the 2016 Arab American Book Award, and was a finalist for the Palestine Book Award for A Curious Land, a collection of linked stories that follows the denizens of a Palestinian West Bank village. She is also the author of a story collection titled The Inheritance of Exile, and Farah Rocks, the first children's book series to feature a Palestinian-American character. A former Ford Fellow and winner of the Maryland State Art Council's Independent Artist Award, she teaches creative writing at Johns Hopkins University. In Behind You Is the Sea, Muaddi Darraj tells the story of three immigrant Palestinian families who experience very disparate versions of contemporary American life. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! The views expressed by the authors and moderators are strictly their own and do not represent the opinions of the Free Library of Philadelphia or its employees. (recorded 1/25/2024)

In conversation with Kristen Graham, education reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer Public education reporter Benjamin Herold's stories, features, and investigative exposés have appeared in Education Week, PBS NewsHour, The Hechinger Report, NPR, and the Public School Notebook, among other publications. The recipient of a master's degree in urban education from Temple University and first place awards from the Education Writers Association, Herold formerly worked as a researcher, documentary filmmaker, and training specialist for rape-crisis and domestic-violence prevention organizations. In Disillusioned, he offers a timely examination of the hope and hazards suburban public schools and school boards offer in the fight to renew the promise of historical American middle class ideals. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! The views expressed by the authors and moderators are strictly their own and do not represent the opinions of the Free Library of Philadelphia or its employees. (recorded 1/23/2024)

In conversation with CJ Hauser Featured as an Editor's Choice in The New York Times Book Review, Annie Liontas' debut novel, Let Me Explain You, follows the bridge-burning patriarch of a Greek American family who believes he has only days to live. Liontas is the co-editor of the anthology A Manner of Being: Writers on their Mentors, and has contributed writing to The New York Times Book Review, NPR, Gay Magazine, Guernica, and McSweeney's, among other places. The Gloss, her interview series with women and genderqueer writers, appears in BOMB, The Believer, and Electric Literature. A personal memoir in essays, Sex with a Brain Injury details the multiple concussions Liontas suffered in her 30s and their lasting effects, while offering a larger account of the roles brain injuries have played in historical and contemporary culture-particularly in relation to women and the LGBT community. CJ Hauser is the author of The Crane Wife, a popular memoir in essays that explores the many definitions of love. Also the author of the novels Family of Origin and The From-Aways, they have contributed writing to a wide array of periodicals, including The Paris Review, Tin House, The Guardian, Bon Appetit, Esquire, The New York Times, and Vogue UK. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! The views expressed by the authors and moderators are strictly their own and do not represent the opinions of the Free Library of Philadelphia or its employees. (recorded 1/18/2024)

Co-sponsored by Committee of Seventy In conversation with Cherri Gregg, host/news anchor for WHYY radio Dannagal Goldthwaite Young is the author of Irony and Outrage: The Polarized Landscape of Rage, Fear, and Laughter in the United States. A professor of communication and political science at the University of Delaware and a former Distinguished Research Fellow with the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, she is also a TED speaker and a member of the National Institute for Civil Discourse Research Network. Her writing about the effects of political entertainment has been published in a variety of media, including The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Columbia Journalism Review. In Wrong, Young explains how American politics and media reinforce our partisan views and offers a map out of this feedback loop. Cherri Gregg is an afternoon drive host/news anchor for WHYY radio. Prior to her current position, the award-winning journalist covered civil rights, social justice, race, and public affairs issues impacting marginalized communities in the Philadelphia region, spending nearly a decade on air at KYW Newsradio. She served as the station's community affairs reporter and was the creator, host, and executive producer of the weekly syndicated radio show and podcast ''Flashpoint with Cherri Gregg.'' Under her leadership, the show earned two regional Edward R. Murrow Awards in 2021. Cherri is also a past president of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 12/6/2023)

In conversation with Reem Kassis A chef, writer, video producer, and community advocate, Sohla El-Waylly hosts Mystery Menu for The New York Times Cooking YouTube channel and The History Channel's Ancient Recipes with Sohla, and serves as a judge on HBO Max's The Big Brunch. She formerly worked as an assistant food editor at Bon Appétit, where she frequently appeared in the magazine's cooking videos, and she has also been featured on Food52, Serious Eats, and on the popular Babish Culinary Universe YouTube channel. A graduate of the prestigious Culinary Institute of America, El-Waylly trained at various New York City restaurants, including Del Posto, Atera, and Battersby, before opening a restaurant in Brooklyn with her husband. In Start Here, the recipe developer serves up a transformative guide to the fundamentals of good cooking alongside a mix-and-match batch of recipe variations. Reem Kassis is a Palestinian writer and author of the award winning cookbooks The Palestinian Table (2017) and The Arabesque Table (2021) and the children's book We Are Palestinian (2023). Her writing regularly appears in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. She grew up in Jerusalem, then obtained her undergraduate and MBA degrees from UPenn and Wharton and her MSc in social psychology from the London School of Economics. She now lives in Philadelphia with her husband and three daughters. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 12/5/2023)

In conversation with Ernest Owens A writer, activist, and media strategist dedicated to Black transgender liberation, Raquel Willis has served as director of communications for Ms. Foundation for Women, a national organizer for the Transgender Law Center, and executive editor of Out magazine. In 2017, she spoke at the National Women's March that took place just after the presidential election of Donald Trump. She has contributed articles to Essence, VICE, The Cut, and Vogue, and her writing has been anthologized in Black Futures and Four Hundred Souls. Referred to by Elliot Page as ''deeply engaging with searing honesty and compassion,'' The Risk It Takes to Bloom recounts Willis' childhood in Georgia in a Black Catholic family, how her career in journalism and community organizing showed her the courage to come out, and how this particular moment can propel us all to collective liberation. Ernest Owens is editor-at-large for Philadelphia Magazine and editor for Eater Philly, host of the podcast Ernestly Speaking!, and president of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists. His book The Case for Cancel Culture was published in February, and his other work has been featured in a number of media outlets, including The New York Times, CNN, The Washington Post, and NPR. He teaches media and journalism at Cheyney University. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 11/29/2023)

Renowned for her ability ''to generalize from her personal experience to the greater human one'' (The Washington Post), Beth Kephart is the author of more than 30 books across a wide range of genres, including poetry, young adult fiction, and, most notably, the memoir. These works include the award-winning how-to-guide Handling the Truth; A Slant of Sun, a National Book Award finalist; Love, an ode to all things Philly; and Wife | Daughter | Self, an interlocking essay collection about her various identities. A writing professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the co-founder of Junction workshops, she is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Grant, a Pew Fellowship, and the Speakeasy Poetry Prize, among other honors. Exploring how various forms of paper tie to our memories, legacies, and inner archives, Kephart's new illustrated memoir My Life In Paper was born from the aftermath of her father's passing. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 11/28/2023)

In conversation with Dorothy Roberts One of the country's foremost authorities in civil rights, Black feminist legal theory, race, and the law, Kimberlé Crenshaw is a law professor at UCLA and Columbia Law School, where in 1996 she founded the African American Policy Forum. She is the co-author of Say Her Name: Resisting Police Brutality Against Black Women and Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced, and Underprotected, and her articles have appeared in Harvard Law Review, the National Black Law Journal, the Stanford Law Review, The New Republic, and The Nation. The coiner of the terms ''critical race theory'' and ''intersectionality,'' Crenshaw served on the legal team of Anita Hill during the confirmation hearing of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and wrote the background paper on race and gender discrimination for the United Nations' World Conference on Racism in 2001. Including a forward by Janelle Monáe, #SayHerName explains how Black women are especially susceptible to police violence and the ways in which various communities can help empower them. Addressing social justice issues of policing, state surveillance of families, and science, Dorothy Roberts's books include Killing the Black Body, Shattered Bonds, and Fatal Invention. She has also authored more than 100 scholarly articles and has co-edited six books on various legal issues. The George A. Weiss University Professor of Law and Sociology and the Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professor of Civil Rights at the University of Pennsylvania, Roberts is the director of the Penn Program on Race, Science, and Society. In her latest book Torn Apart she explains that the abolition of the U.S. child welfare system-which is designed to punish Black families-will liberate Black communities. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 11/14/2023)

In conversation with Airea D. Matthews The winner of three Grammy Awards and three NAACP Image Awards, Tariq Trotter, aka Black Thought, is the MC and co-founder of The Roots. The Philly-based hip-hop group has produced 11 albums and is the house band for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Trotter's solo work includes three volumes of Streams of Thought, collaborative albums with Danger Mouse and El Michels Affair, and guest appearances on dozens of other artists' tracks. He also co-wrote, co-composed, and starred in the off-Broadway play Black No More; acted in other such varied projects as The Deuce; Tick, Tick . . . Boom!; and Brooklyn Babylon; and, with Roots partner Questlove, founded the production company Two One Five Entertainment. ''Refined literary fire from the soulful furnace of pain and suffering'' (The New York Times), The Upcycled Self tells the story of Trotter's difficult early life, his redemptive steps toward success and happiness, and the lessons he gleaned that readers can use to move forward on their own paths. Airea D. Matthews is the 2022–23 Philadelphia Poet Laureate and directs the poetry program at Bryn Mawr College. Her collection Simulacra won the 2016 Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize and her work has appeared in The New York Times, Best American Poets, Gulf Coast, Harvard Review, and VQR, among other journals. Matthews' other honors include a 2022 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship, a 2020 Pew Fellowship, and the 2016 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award. Her latest work, Bread and Circus, addresses themes of income inequality, commodification, and conventional economic theories through poetry, prose, and imagery. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 11/18/2023)

Sigrid Nunez won the 2018 National Book Award for The Friend, a ''beautiful'' novel ''crammed with a world of insight into death, grief, art, and love'' (The Wall Street Journal) in which a woman is forced to adopt her deceased best friend's Great Dane. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Berlin Prize, the Rome Prize in Literature, and a Whiting Award, she is also the author of What Are You Going Through, Salvation City, The Last of Her Kind, A Feather on the Breath of God, and Sempre Susan, a memoir about her friend and mentor Susan Sontag. In The Vulnerables, Nunez offers a comic and elegiac study of a solitary female narrator who ponders questions of connection in our time of collective angst. A ''slim jewel of a novel'' that is ''what fiction should be'' (The New York Times Book Review), Henry Hoke's Open Throat follows the surreal Hollywood Hills wanderings of a lonely and inadvertently wise mountain lion grappling with desperate hunger, the intricacies of gender, and the challenges of urban living. Hoke is also the author of four other books, including a memoir titled Sticker, and his play At Sundown premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. His other work has appeared in No Tokens, Triangle House, Electric Literature, Carve, and the flash noir anthology Tiny Crimes. Co-creator of the Los Angeles-based Enter>text performance series and the humor editor at The Offing, he has taught at CalArts and the UVA Young Writers Workshop. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 11/16/2023)

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6abc Action News morning edition Jonathan Karl is the author of the instant New York Times bestsellers Front Row at the Trump Show and Betrayal, behind-the-scenes accounts of Donald Trump and his allies' unprecedented actions while in office and the chaotic events that followed the 2020 presidential election. The co-anchor of This Week with George Stephanopolous and chief Washington correspondent for ABC News, he has also covered some of D.C.'s most important beats, including four presidential administrations, Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, and the State Department. Karl was the president of the White House Correspondents' Association from 2019 to 2020 and has earned the Walter Cronkite Award for National Individual Achievement, an Emmy Award, and the Everett McKinley Dirksen Award, the highest honor for Congressional reporting. Replete with all new reportage, Tired of Winning examines the ways in which Trump has remolded the Republican Party in his own image, the damage he's left in his wake, and his improbable resurgence. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 11/15/2023)

In conversation with Errin Haines Stephanie Land is the author of the bestseller Maid, a memoir that ''nails the sheer terror that comes with being poor, the exhausting vigilance of knowing that any misstep or twist of fate will push you deeper into the hole'' (The Boston Globe). The inspiration for a popular and critically acclaimed Netflix series of the same name, Barack Obama picked it as one of the best books of 2019. Focusing on social and economic justice and parenting under the poverty line, Land's writing has been featured in numerous media outlets, including The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Washington Post. Picking up where Maid left off, Class follows Land's journey through college and into her writing career as she addresses the intricacies of the student loan system, financial burdens, and the judgments of her professors and peers. Errin Haines is a Founding Mother and Editor at Large for The 19th, a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom covering the intersection of women, politics and policy, and an MSNBC Contributor. An award-winning political journalist focused on issues of race, gender and politics, Errin was previously the Associated Press' National Writer on Race and Ethnicity. She has also worked at The Washington Post, The Orlando Sentinel and The Los Angeles Times. Errin was a Fall 2019 Ferris Professor at Princeton University, teaching a class on black women and the 2020 election. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 11/9/2023)

In conversation with Marc Lamont Hill Tanisha Ford's Our Secret Society is a biography of Mollie Moon, the socialite, powerbroker, and founder of the National Urban League Guild, who was a key fundraiser for the Civil Rights Movement. It also serves as a social history and who's who of Black Americans from the 1930s through the 1960s, as Moon moved in New York and Harlem society circles that included the likes of Lorraine Hansberry and Langston Hughes. A history professor at The Graduate Center, CUNY and a former Smithsonian research associate at the National Museum of American History, Ford was named to The Root's 2019 list of the ''100 Most Influential African Americans.'' Her other books include Dressed in Dreams, Kwame Brathwaite, and Liberated Threads, which was awarded the 2016 Organization of American Historians' Liberty Legacy Foundation Award. The Steve Charles Chair in Media, Cities and Solutions at Temple University, Marc Lamont Hill is the host of BET News and the Coffee and Books podcast. The recipient of honors from the National Association of Black Journalists, GLAAD, and the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, he is the author of six books, including Beats, Rhymes, and Classroom Life; Nobody: Casualties of America's War on the Vulnerable, from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond; and Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 11/8/2023)

In conversation with Nomi Eve ''Filled with so much universal experience, such haunting imagery, such urgent matters of life and death'' (The New York Times), Alice McDermott's bestselling novels include Someone; Charming Billy, winner of the 1998 National Book Award; That Night; At Weddings and Wakes; and After This, all of which were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. She is also the author of What About the Baby? Some Thoughts on the Art of Fiction, a collection of essays inspired from a lifetime of reading, writing, and teaching literature. For more than 20 years, McDermott was the Richard A. Macksey Professor of the Humanities at Johns Hopkins University and on the Sewanee Writers Conference faculty. She has contributed writing to The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, and The New York Times, among many other periodicals. A meditative novel about grace, sacrifice, and forgiveness, Absolution is a decades-spanning account of two women's peripheral experience with the Vietnam War and its permanent consequences. The director of the creative writing MFA program at Drexel University, Nomi Eve is the author of the novels Henna House and the National Jewish Book Award-nominated The Family Orchard. Her stories and essays have appeared in The New York Times, Conjunctions, and Glimmer Train, and she has published book reviews in The Village Voice and Newsday.  Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 11/7/2023)

Watch the video here. ''A marvelous epitaph to a monumental family, makers of several worlds and keepers of none'' (The Wall Street Journal), Joseph Sassoon's eponymous historical volume The Sassoons charts the remarkable 19th-century rise and 20th-century fall of his illustrious ancestors. During the 19th century, the Sassoon family, once known as ''the Rothschilds of the East,'' built a global empire based on shipping, opium, and banking, but experienced the loss of its dynastic fortunes during the 20th century. A professor of history and politics at Georgetown University, Sassoon is also a senior associate member at St. Antony's College, Oxford and a trustee of the Bodleian Library. His other books include the prize-winning Saddam Hussein's Ba'th Party, The Iraqi Refugees, and The Anatomy of Authoritarianism in the Arab Republics. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 11/2/2023)

Acclaimed for his ability to ''elevate the unseen aspects of private experience into a vigorous and challenging conversation about what we all share'' (San Francisco Chronicle), David Brooks has written an op-ed column for The New York Times since 2003. Also a writer for The Atlantic, he formerly served as an editor and columnist at The Weekly Standard and The Wall Street Journal. He frequently appears on PBS NewsHour, Meet the Press, and NPR's All Things Considered. His books include the bestselling Bobos in Paradise, The Social Animal, The Road to Character, and The Second Mountain, which posits that those who embrace lives of deeper commitment and service to others find greater fulfillment. In How to Know a Person, Brooks offers a creative guide for truly looking another person in the eyes and, through them, understanding something deeper about ourselves. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 11/1/2023)

In conversation with Rebeca L. Hey-Colón, Professor of Latinx Studies, Temple University Cristina García is the author of eight ''languid and sensual, curt and surprising'' (The New York Times Book Review) novels, including The Lady Matador's Hotel, The Agüero Sisters, and Dreaming in Cuban, which was a finalist for the National Book Award.  She has also written three books for young readers and a collection of poetry, edited two Latinx literary anthologies, and her work has been translated into 15 languages. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writer's Award, and an NEA grant, García is currently the playwright-in-residence at Central Works Theater in Berkeley, and has previously taught at universities across the country. A follow-up novel set 20 years after Dreaming in Cuban, Vanishing Maps tracks the diasporic generations of a Cuban family as they grapple with the pull of home and each other. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 10/26/2023)

Watch the video here. Renowned for her ''extraordinarily honest, searing and hilarious'' (San Francisco Chronicle) takes on modern life, Roz Chast has published more than 1,000 cartoons in The New Yorker since 1978. She has written or illustrated more than a dozen books, including Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?, a bestselling multi-genre narrative about her aging parents that won the National Book Critics Circle Award and was a National Book Award Finalist; Going into Town: A Love Letter to New York, an illustrated paean/guide/thank-you note to New York City; and several collected volumes of her published cartoons. Most recently, she illustrated New Yorker writer Patricia Marx's Why Don't You Write My Eulogy Now So I Can Correct It?: A Mother's Suggestions. In I Must Be Dreaming, Chast takes an illustrated journey to the enduring and elusive land of Nod to explore the secrets of the sleeping yet active mind. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 10/30/2023)

Melissa Broder is the author of Milk Fed, the ''sensuous and delightfully delirious tale'' (O, The Oprah Magazine) of a calorie-obsessed lapsed Jewish woman who falls under the spell of a zaftig Orthodox frozen yogurt store employee. Her other work includes the novel The Pisces, an essay collection titled So Sad Today, and four collections of poetry. Her poems have appeared in a multitude of publications, including Tin House and Guernica, and she is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize. In Death Valley, Broder weaves the tale of a woman who finds refuge from her sorrows through a mystical cactus in the high California desert. Hilary Leichter's novel Temporary, longlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award and a finalist for The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Prize, tells the tale of a young woman who fills increasingly bizarre temp job positions. It was named one of 2020's best books by NPR, Vulture, and Elle, and was a New York Times Editors' Choice. A creative writing professor at Columbia University, Leichter has earned fellowships from Yaddo, the Folger Shakespeare Library, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, n+1, The New York Times, and Harper's Magazine, among other places. Her latest novel, Terrace Story, tells the story of a family living in a cramped apartment who finds a miraculous and inexplicable terrace in their closet. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 10/25/2023)

In conversation with Julian E. Zelizer Rachel Maddow is host of the Emmy Award–winning The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, as well as the #1 New York Times best­selling author of Drift and Blowout, and the New York Times bestselling co-author of Bag Man. She has also written, produced, and hosted three original podcasts for MSNBC-Rachel Maddow Presents: Bag Man, Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra, and most recently the six-episode series Rachel Maddow Presents: Deja News, which debuted in June at #1 on Apple Podcasts. In Prequel, Maddow traces the century-long proliferation of authoritarianism in America-often by shockingly well-financed and powerful groups----and the lessons history offers as we navigate our own disquieting times. Political historian Julian E. Zelizer is the author and editor of 25 award-winning and bestselling books, including The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society; Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974; and The Presidency of Donald J. Trump: A First Historical Assessment. A professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, a CNN political analyst, a regular guest on NPR's Here and Now, and the writer of more than 1300 op-eds, he has received fellowships from the Brookings Institution, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the New York Historical Society, among others.  Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 10/15/2023)

In conversation with comedian and author James "Murr" Murray Surely You Can't Be Serious is a behind-the-scenes making-of oral history of the 1980 comedy classic Airplane!, as told by its equally legendary writers and directors David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker. Featuring anecdotes by the film's stars, it also delves into the making of fan-favorite scenes and the organic (read: pre-Internet) evolution toward its place in the pop culture pantheon. Zucker and company, also the auteurs of the cultishly adored Kentucky Fried Movie and Top Secret!, each branched out into further film success. Zucker himself went on to direct a plethora of film comedies, including The Naked Gun franchise, BASEketball, Scary Movie 3 & 4, and many others, as well as writing and producing Scary Movie 5. He is also the author of the memoir Before the Invention of Smiling, an unconventional version of his family history. What can we make out of his books? Well, we can make a hat, or a brooch, or a pterodactyl.... James Murray is one of the hosts of the long-running and popular TruTV improv program Impractical Jokers. Also the co-author of the Awakened and Area 51 Interns series of sci-fi novels, he has toured solo as a standup comedian, starred in TBS's The Misery Index, and appeared in numerous other television shows and films.  Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 10/23/2023)

In conversation with Andy Kahan Meelya Gordon Memorial Lecture ''As good as any piece of literature can get'' (Chicago Sun Times), Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award, and is one of the most acclaimed books about the Vietnam War. His other books include If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home; In the Lake of the Woods; and Going After Cacciato, winner of the 1979 National Book Award. O'Brien is also the author of Dad's Maybe Book, a collection of advice for his two young sons. His first novel in more than 20 years, America Fantastica follows a disgraced online disinformation troll turned bank robber and his irrepressible bank teller kidnappee on their cross-country flight from a motley cast of uniquely American pursuers. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 10/24/2023)

In conversation with author and Pennsylvania State Senator, Nikil Saval In Live to See the Day, Nikhil Goyal offers a searing portrait of three Puerto Rican children struggling to survive in Philadelphia's impoverished Kensington neighborhood. Drawing on nearly a decade of reportage, he follows the youths' personal-but not unique-journeys through violence, homelessness, incarceration, and substance abuse as they strive to defy their designated fate in the modern U.S.' socioeconomic system. A sociologist and policymaker, Goyal served as senior policy advisor on education and children for Chairman Senator Bernie Sanders on the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and Committee on the Budget, among other policy roles. He has contributed articles to such publications as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Nation, and he has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News.  Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 10/19/2023)

Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Endowed Lecture In conversation with David Boardman In Collision of Power, Martin Baron tells the inside story of the monumental power struggle between the venerable newspaper The Washington Post, its demanding and ultra-wealthy owner Jeff Bezos, and the ceaselessly attacking President Donald Trump. The former editor of The Miami Herald and The Boston Globe, Baron became executive editor of The Washington Post in 2013 and remained in his post until 2021. During this time, he presided over such events as the paper's shift in ownership from the family that had owned it for 80 years, the former president referring to the press as ''the lowest form of humanity,'' and groundbreaking coverage, including the Spotlight investigation of Catholic priest child sexual abuse that would earn the publication awards and acclaim. David Boardman is the dean of the Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple University. A former executive editor and senior vice president of The Seattle Times, he is founding chair of the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, the nonprofit that owns The Philadelphia Inquirer. He sits on the advisory boards of ProPublica and the New England Center for Investigative Reporting, and he has served six times as a juror for the Pulitzer Prizes. His many honors include the National Ethics Award from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Associated Press Managing Editors Public Service Award. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 10/17/2023)

In conversation with Binyamin Appelbaum Angus Deaton won the 2015 Nobel Prize in economics for his study of poverty, consumption, and welfare. The Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of Economics and International Affairs Emeritus and Senior Scholar at Princeton University, he is a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, the British Academy, and the Econometric Society. He is the co-author of The New York Times bestseller Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism, and he is the author of The Great Escape: Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality and Understanding Consumption, among other books. Inspired by the shocking gaps in wealth Deaton witnessed when he immigrated from Britain in the early 1980s, Economics in America offers a frank critique of how his field has failed to properly address such issues as income inequality, the U.S.' broken healthcare system, and minimum wage. A business and economics editorialist for The New York Times, Binyamin Appelbaum previously served as that newspaper's Washington correspondent. His writing on subprime lending for The Charlotte Observer won a George Polk Award and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. He is also the author of The Economists' Hour. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 10/12/2023)

In conversation with Rev. Dr. Jonathan Lee Walton A postwar coming-of-age memoir about life in a conservative family in segregated Virginia, Drew Gilpin Faust's Necessary Trouble recounts her break from the racial and gender norms of the era and the means by which her involvement in the civil rights and antiwar movements led to her career as a historian of those very fights. The Arthur Kingsley Porter University Professor at Harvard University and its president from 2007 to 2018, Faust formerly served as dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and taught at the University of Pennsylvania for 25 years. Her many books include This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, winner of the Bancroft Prize and a finalist for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize; and Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War, winner of the Francis Parkman Prize. Rev. Dr. Jonathan Lee Walton is the president of the Princeton Theological Seminary. He is the author of Watch This! The Ethics and Aesthetics of Black Telelevangelism and A Lens of Love: Reading the Bible in Its World for Our World. His other work has appeared across a range of media, including The New York Times, CNN, Time magazine, and PBS. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 10/11/2023)

In conversation with Asali Solomon Ayana Mathis is the author of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, ''a remarkable page-turner of a novel'' (Chicago Tribune) that follows the harrowing fortunes of a 15-year-old from Georgia to Philadelphia during the Great Migration. A New York Times bestseller, an NPR Best Book of 2013, and a selection for Oprah's Book Club 2.0, it has been translated into 16 languages. Mathis is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and has published fiction in The Atlantic, The New York Times, Guernica, and Rolling Stone, among other places. She teaches writing in Hunter College's MFA program. Set in turbulent 1980s Philadelphia and the small town of Bonaparte, Alabama, The Unsettled tells the tale of a mother, grandmother, and son struggling to save their identities, birthright, and future. Asali Solomon's latest novel, The Days of Afrekete has been called ''a feat of engineering'' by the New York Times. She is also the author of Disgruntled and Get Down: stories. Her previous novel, Disgruntled, was named a best book of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle and The Denver Post. She is the recipient of a Pew Fellowship, a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award, and the National Book Foundation's ''5 Under 35'' honor. Her work has appeared in O, The Oprah Magazine, Vibe, Essence, The Paris Review Daily, McSweeney's, on NPR, and in several anthologies including The Best Short Stories of 2021: The O. Henry Prize Collection. Solomon is the Bertrand K. Wilbur Chair in the Humanities at Haverford, where she is a Professor of English and director of Creative Writing. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 10/10/2023)

In conversation with Carl H. June, MD, Director of the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies, University of Pennsylvania Siddhartha Mukherjee won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction for The Emperor of All Maladies, a ''meticulously researched, panoramic history'' (The Boston Globe) of humankind's fight against cancer. It was awarded the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, was named to numerous media outlets' ''Best of the Year'' lists, and was adapted by Ken Burns into a PBS documentary. Mukherjee is also the author of the No. 1 New York Times bestseller The Gene: An Intimate History. An assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University and a staff cancer physician at the New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, he is a physician and researcher whose laboratory focuses on discovering new cancer drugs. His articles and commentary have been published in such places as Nature, New England Journal of Medicine, The New York Times, and The New Republic. In The Song of the Cell, Mukherjee takes readers through the centuries-spanning quest to understand cells, the tiny self-contained units that make up all life. Carl June is the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also the director of the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies at the Perelman School of Medicine and director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at the University of Pennsylvania. Acclaimed for his research into the treatment of leukemia, he has published more than 350 medical papers and has received numerous awards and honors. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 10/5/2023)

In conversation with Philadelphia Poet Laureate Airea D Matthews Hailed by Tara Westover as ''Dazzling. Potent Vital. A light shining on the path of self-deliverance,'' Safiya Sinclair's memoir How to Say Babylon recounts her struggle to break free from her rigid Rastafarian upbringing and her father's repressive control, set against the backdrop of a larger story of colonialism in Jamaica. Sinclair is also the author of the acclaimed poetry collection Cannibal, winner of a Whiting Writers' Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters' Metcalf Award in Literature, and the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry, among other honors. The recipient of a Pushcart Prize and fellowships from the Poetry Foundation, MacDowell, Yaddo, and the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, she teaches creative writing at the University of Arizona. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, The Nation, and Kenyon Review. Airea D. Matthews is the 2022–23 Philadelphia Poet Laureate and directs the poetry program at Bryn Mawr College. Her collection Simulacra won the 2016 Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize and her work has appeared in The New York Times, Best American Poets, Gulf Coast, Harvard Review, and VQR, among other journals. Matthews' other honors include a 2022 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship, a 2020 Pew Fellowship, and the 2016 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award. Addressing themes of income inequality, commodification, and conventional economic theories, Bread and Circus combines poetry, prose, and imagery to tell an intimate story about the author and her family. : Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 10/5/2023)

In conversation with comedian Chanel Ali Referred to by Amy Schumer as ''the funniest, smartest person I know,'' Sarah Cooper is best known for her hilarious lip-syncing videos of Donald Trump sound bites. The author of 100 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings and How to Be Successful without Hurting Men's Feelings, she is the star of the Netflix comedy special, Sarah Cooper: Everything's Fine; has appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Tonight Show, and Ellen; and is currently working on an upcoming Netflix comedy, titled Unfrosted, written and directed by Jerry Seinfeld. Named one of Variety's 10 Comics to Watch, she has more than 3.3 million followers across social media. In Foolish, Cooper brings a lifetime of obsessive perfectionism to bear in a starkly revealing and humorous memoir about such varied topics as her upbringing in a tight-knit Jamaican family, divorce, and career pivots. Chanel Ali is a standup comedian who blossomed on the Philadelphia circuit before taking her commanding stage presence to NYC. She has two Comedy Central specials, she was featured on MTVs Girl Code, and she can drink more than you. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 10/4/2023)

In conversation with Michael Eric Dyson One of pro football's all-time defensive greats, Malcolm Jenkins won Super Bowls with the Philadelphia Eagles and New Orleans Saints, and appeared in three Pro Bowls. He won the prestigious Jim Thorpe Award as a senior at the Ohio State University before entering the NFL as a first-round draft pick, where he would ultimately play for an impressive 13 seasons. The now-retired Jenkins has since become a media personality, executive producer, writer, racial justice advocate, and entrepreneur whose business ventures include the Listen Up Media conglomerate and an eponymous company called Malcolm Inc. His philanthropic organization, The Malcolm Jenkins Foundation, assists young people in underserved communities. A memoir about life on the playing field, advocating for Black Americans, and the highs and lows of his personal life, What Winners Won't Tell You is a meditation on what it means to find balance in that thin space between victory and defeat. Michael Eric Dyson is the author of the acclaimed and bestselling books Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America, Unequal: A Story of America, and Long Time Coming: Reckoning with Race in America. His many other works address Barack Obama's presidency, Hurricane Katrina, Jay-Z, and the effects of MLK's assassination, among other wide-ranging topics. A frequent New York Times opinion writer, MSNBC political analyst, and a professor at Vanderbilt University, his many honors include an American Book Award and two NAACP Image Awards. Dyson has also been an ordained pastor for the last 40 years and has preached, spoken, and lectured at religious and secular institutions around the world. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 10/3/2023)

In conversation with Heather Marold Thomason, Butcher & Founder of Primal Supply ''The cookbook author who changed the way Americans cook Italian food'' (The New York Times), Lidia Matticchio Bastianich is the author of 15 beloved culinary guides, as well a 2019 memoir, titled My American Dream. She is also the owner and co-owner of celebrated Italian restaurants in Manhattan, Pittsburgh, and Kansas City, and she hosts the Emmy-winning Lidia's Kitchen on PBS and co-hosts Nonna Senti Che Fame...Pensaci Tu, which airs on Discovery+ in Italy. Her honors include recognition from the National Italian American Foundation, several James Beard Awards, induction into the Culinary Hall of Fame, and the American Public Television Silver Award. In Lidia's From Our Family Table to Yours, Bastianich serves up traditional recipes from her childhood alongside new favorites she makes for her children and grandchildren. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 9/28/2023)

The Presidential Distinguished Professor and Director of the Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media at the University of Pennsylvania, climatologist and geophysicist Michael E. Mann has greatly contributed to science's understanding of humanity's 1,000-year role in global warming. His many honors include the Award for Public Engagement with Science from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Climate Communication Prize from the American Geophysical Union, and in 2002 he was named by Scientific American as one of the 50 leading visionaries in science and technology. He is the author of the acclaimed books Dire Predictions, The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars, and The Madhouse Effect. In Our Fragile Moment, Mann seeks to inform readers of the historically unique ecological conditions that have allowed humans to thrive and to embolden them to stave off the threat the climate crisis poses to human existence. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 9/27/2023)

In conversation with Sheila Murnaghan, chair of the classics department at the University of Pennsylvania ''A cultural landmark'' (The Guardian), Emily Wilson's 2017 translation of The Odyssey was hailed for its fresh and unpretentious rendition of the classical poem in modern parlance. A professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Wilson has also published translations of the works of Sophocles, Euripides, and Seneca, and is the author of books on the death of Socrates and the life of Seneca. She is the recipient of fellowships from the American Academy in Rome, the MacArthur Foundation, and the Guggenheim Foundation. In her latest work, Wilson presents a grounded yet galloping translation of The Iliad, Homer's other epic work and one of history's most revered war poems. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 9/26/2023)

In conversation with Marc Lamont Hill Bettina L. Love is the author of the bestseller We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom, winner of the 2020 Society of Professors of Education Outstanding Book Award. The William F. Russell Professor at Columbia University's Teachers College, she is a co-founder of the Abolitionist Teaching Network and a founding member of the task force that launched the program In Her Hands, an initiative that has distributed funds to Black women in Georgia and abolitionists across the country. She is one of the Kennedy Center's 2022 Next 50 Leaders and is a sought-after public speaker on such varied topics as anti-racism, queer youth, and educational reparations. In Punished for Dreaming, Love presents an unflinching account of the result of 40 years of racist public school policy on Black lives. The Steve Charles Chair in Media, Cities and Solutions at Temple University, Marc Lamont Hill is the host of BET News and the Coffee and Books podcast. The recipient of honors from the National Association of Black Journalists, GLAAD, and the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, he is the author of six books, including Beats, Rhymes, and Classroom Life; Nobody: Casualties of America's War on the Vulnerable, from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond; and Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 9/25/2023)

Pine Tree Foundation Endowed Lecture In conversation with Maiken Scott ''A historian of prodigious and varied gifts'' (San Francisco Chronicle), Simon Schama is the author of 20 books, including The Embarrassment of Riches; Scribble, Scribble, Scribble; and the National Book Critics Circle Award winner Rough Crossings, an account of the enslaved people who escaped to fight for the British during the American Revolutionary War. A professor of art history and history at Columbia University, he has written and presented more than 40 documentaries for the BBC, PBS, and The History Channel, including the seminal 15-part series A History of Britain, the Emmy-winning Power of Art, and The Story of the Jews, based on his two-volume millennia-spanning work. Schama is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and in 2018, he was knighted for his contributions to historical scholarship. In Foreign Bodies, he offers a vigorous cultural history of the complex relationship between pandemics and the crusaders who battle them. Maiken Scott is the host and executive producer of WHYY's The Pulse - a weekly, national health and science radio show and podcast that explores the people and places at the heart of health and science. Since its launch in December 2013, The Pulse has crafted a unique, ''ground-level'' approach to telling compelling stories and breaking down complicated issues. The show airs on more than 100 public radio stations across the country and its podcast is presented by NPR Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 9/20/2023)

In conversation with novelist and musician Wesley Stace Legendary English song lyricist Bernie Taupin has worked with Elton John since 1967 and has written the lyrics for most of the iconic performer's hits, including ''Rocket Man,'' ''Bennie and the Jets,'' ''Tiny Dancer,'' ''Your Song,'' ''I'm Still Standing,'' and far too many others to list. One of the most popular, long-lasting, and critically acclaimed partnerships in music history, Taupin and John are the recipients of a lifetime achievement Grammy, an Academy Award, and the Johnny Mercer Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame, among many other accolades. Taupin has also written songs for a wide variety of other artists, including Rod Stewart, Alice Cooper, and Heart. In 2022 he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to music, and this year he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. A memoir about life, rock 'n' roll, and collaboration, Scattershot tells the inside story of the famously private writer's art, struggles, and friendships.   Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 9/14/2023)

Jennifer Weiner is the no. 1 New York Times bestselling author of more than a dozen ''funny, fanciful, extremely poignant'' (The Boston Globe) novels, including That Summer, Mrs. Everything, Who Do You Love, All Fall Down, In Her Shoes, and Good in Bed. She is also the writer of two young adult books about a tiny Bigfoot and an essay collection titled Hungry Heart, an intimate and honest meditation on yearning, fulfillment, and her many identities. Her other work has been published in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, among other publications. In The Breakaway, Weiner tells the story of Abby Stern, a woman who finds empowerment during a group bike trip from New York City to Niagara Falls. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 8/30/2023)

Named one of the most anticipated books of the year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Newsweek, Jonathan Eig's King, an ''intimate, multidimensional biography'' (The Boston Globe) of Martin Luther King Jr., offers a fresh and sweeping portrait of the civil rights icon. Eig's other acclaimed biographies include Ali: A Life, winner of the PEN America Literary Award; the bestseller Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig, winner of the Casey Award; and Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season. His book The Birth of the Pill will soon be staged as a play by Chicago's Timeline Theatre. A former senior writer for The Wall Street Journal, he has appeared on the Today show, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and NPR's Fresh Air. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 8/29/2023)

In conversation with award-winning journalist and broadcaster Tracey Matisak A celebrated veteran of film, television, and the Broadway stage, Sheryl Lee Ralph won an Emmy Award, a Critic's Choice Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for her comedic supporting role on ABC's Abbott Elementary. In a career that spans almost 45 years, she also originated the role of Deena Jones in Dreamgirls, for which she earned a Tony Award; starred in the shows It's a Living, New Attitude, and Moesha, for which she was voted one of TV's Favorite Moms; and starred in dramatic and comedic films with some of Hollywood's biggest stars, including Eddie Murphy, Whoopie Goldberg, Danny Glover, and Robert De Niro. In Diva 2.0, Ralph offers a guide to elevating your journey to new heights through her personal recollections of the highs and lows of stardom, and she reveals the lessons of family love that have helped her soar. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 8/22/2023)

James McBride is the author of the National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird, ''a brilliant romp of a novel'' (The New York Times Book Review) in which a young boy born into slavery joins abolitionist John Brown's doomed crusade. He is also the author of the bestselling memoir The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother and the biography Kill 'Em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul. His other fiction includes the novels Miracle at St. Anna, Song Yet Sung, and Deacon King Kong, which was an Oprah's Book Club pick. Also an award-winning composer, screenwriter, journalist, and saxophonist, he is a distinguished writer in residence at New York University and received the National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama in 2016. In The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, McBride tells a story of small town secrets, cultural collisions, and the sustaining love of community-in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 8/10/2023)

R. Eric Thomas is the author of the Lambda Literary Award finalist Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul America, a bestselling essay collection that tackles just what it means to be an ''other'' in the maelstrom of modern America. For four years he wrote Elle's ''Eric Reads the News,'' a daily humor column that lambasted pop culture, celebrity, and politics. Also a renowned television writer and playwright, he has garnered many awards, including the Barrymore Award and the Dramatists Guild Lanford Wilson Award. Thomas is the longtime host of The Moth StorySlams in Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, and his writing has been published in The New York Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer, among other periodicals. In his latest essay collection, he reflects on whether or not we really can go home again as he makes a new life in his hometown of Baltimore. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 8/8/2023)

In conversation with award-winning journalist and broadcaster Tracey Matisak In American Whitelash, Wesley Lowery examines the cyclical pattern of violence that marks each watershed moment of racial progress in this country, most recently evidenced by the resurgence of white supremacist movements during and following Barack Obama's 2008 presidential election. Formerly The Washington Post's lead journalist in Ferguson, Missouri, during the aftermath of the murder of African American teenager Michael Brown, Lowery, together with his team, won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting for the paper's coverage of police shootings. He was a 2019 Pulitzer Prize finalist for his project ''Murder with Impunity,'' and he is currently a contributing editor at The Marshall Project and a journalist-in-residence at the CUNY Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. His New York Times bestseller, They Can't Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America's Racial Justice Movement won the Christopher Isherwood Prize for autobiographical prose by the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 7/20/2023)

Barbara Butcher is the former chief of staff and director of the Forensic Sciences Training Program at the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner (OCME). Only the second woman hired as a death investigator in Manhattan (and the first to last more than three months), during her 23 years there she investigated more than 5,500 death scenes. She also created and directed the federally funded Forensic Sciences Training Program at OCME, taught at the New York University School of Medicine and New York Medical College, consulted for governmental agencies around the world, and spoken at disaster planning conferences across the United States. In What the Dead Know, Butcher delves into the journey that led to her unlikely career, revealing some surprisingly useful life lessons and stories about some of New York's most notorious crime scenes. ''Impossible to outwit'' (Entertainment Weekly), Kate White is the New York Times bestselling author of the psychological thrillers The Second Husband, The Fiancée, and The Secrets You Keep. Her other works include the Bailey Weggins mystery series and numerous popular career advice books for women. White formerly served as editor-in-chief of five major magazines, including a 14-year stint at Cosmopolitan. In Between Two Strangers, she tells the twisting tale of a woman who receives a large inheritance from a man she'd only met once before. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 7/18/2023)

Join us at the Community College of Philadelphia for a celebration to conclude the One Book, One Philadelphia 2023 season. This event will feature an in-person conversation between Charles Yu and Dr. Michelle Myers, associate professor of English at the Community College of Philadelphia and one half of the poetry duo Yellow Rage. Note: portions of the introduction and the Q&A were deleted due to challenges with the recording. (recorded 6/22/2023)

In conversation with Jim Gardner Jake Tapper is the Washington, D.C., anchor and chief Washington correspondent for CNN, where he hosts the weekday program The Lead with Jake Tapper and the Sunday morning show State of the Union. He is the former White House correspondent for ABC News and contributor to Good Morning America, Nightline, and World News with Diane Sawyer. His many honors include an unprecedented three Merriman Smith Awards for presidential coverage. Tapper is the author of The Outpost, the tragic but inspiring true story of a small U.S. military group besieged by the Taliban. Tapper is also the author of The Hellfire Club and The Devil May Dance, political thrillers in which Charlie and Margaret Marder, a husband-and-wife team of unlikely political stars, unravel conspiracies in the halls of power of a bygone Washington, D.C. The third installment in this series, All the Demons Are Here finds Charlie and Margaret navigating some of the wildest and most dangerous events of the 1970s United States. Jim Gardner served for 45 years as the weekday news anchor for Philadelphia's 6ABC Action News. He covered every presidential convention since 1980 and reported from the scene of breaking news around the globe. A member of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia Hall of Fame, he is the recipient of the John Cardinal Foley Award for Excellence in Communication. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 7/11/2023)

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6abc Action News morning edition Central Park birder Christian Cooper is the host and consulting producer on the National Geographic channel's Extraordinary Birder and is on the board of directors of the New York City Audubon Society. Also a groundbreaking comics writer, he introduced the first openly lesbian character for Marvel, conceived the first gay male character in the Star Trek universe via the Starfleet Academy comics series, and created Queer Nation: The Online Gay Comic. In Better Living Through Birding, Cooper tells the story of his life leading up to the morning in May 2020 when he was engaged in the birdwatching ritual that had been a part of his life since he was a child-and what might have been a routine encounter with a dog walker exploded age-old racial tensions. Cooper's viral video of the incident would shock the nation. Also part travelogue and primer on the art of birding, the book follows his worldwide avian adventures, explores his unique career, and offers insights into the ways his long history of looking up have prepared him to be a gay, Black man in contemporary America. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 6/27/2023)

In conversation with Marc Lamont Hill Referred to by acclaimed author and academic Michael Eric Dyson as ''one of the most important works of history to come across my desk in a long time,'' Blair LM Kelley's Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class is an exhaustive coast-to-coast narrative that seeks to reclaim Black workers' central contribution to workers' rights throughout U.S. history. Kelley is also the author of Right to Ride: Streetcar Boycotts and African American Citizenship, winner of the Letitia Woods Brown Best Book Award from the Association of Black Women Historians. The director of the Center for the Study of the American South and co-director of the Southern Futures initiative at the University of North Carolina, she has contributed work to such publications as The New York Times and The Washington Post, and she has appeared on MSNBC's All In and NPR's Here and Now, among other media outlets. The Steve Charles Chair in Media, Cities and Solutions at Temple University, Marc Lamont Hill is the host of BET News and the Coffee and Books podcast. The recipient of honors from the National Association of Black Journalists, GLAAD, and the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, he is the author of six books, including Beats, Rhymes, and Classroom Life; Nobody: Casualties of America's War on the Vulnerable, from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond; and Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics. (recorded 6/26/2023)

A marine scientist, ocean explorer, conservation policy specialist, and submarine pilot, David E. Guggenheim, Ph.D. is the founder and president of Ocean Doctor, a nonprofit organization committed to advancing the conservation of the world's oceans. He also teaches ocean stewardship and sustainability at Johns Hopkins University; has spoken at an array of conferences, schools, and government hearings; and has appeared on numerous media outlets, including 60 Minutes, CNN, MSNBC, PBS Newshour, and NPR. Also an award-winning photographer, Guggenheim was inducted into the Explorer's Club as a national fellow, sat as board chair of the Great Whale Conservancy, and served as vice president at The Ocean Conservancy. Though the last 60 years have witnessed the worst decline in ocean health in human history, The Remarkable Reefs of Cuba offers a surprisingly optimistic vision for marine recovery by exploring the resilience of Cuba's coral reefs. (recorded 6/20/2023)

In conversation with Alexandra Auder, author of Don't Call Me Home: A Memoir Publishing industry veteran Christine Pride has held a variety of editorial positions at Doubleday, Simon & Schuster, and Crown, among other publishing companies. In this capacity she has championed and edited numerous New York Times bestselling memoirs and inspirational stories. Also a freelance editorial consultant, teacher, and coach, Pride writes the ''Race Matters'' column for the popular blog Cup of Jo. A journalist, editor, and podcast host, Jo Piazza is also the author of seven novels, including Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win, If Nuns Ruled the World, and Fitness Junkie. Her other writing has been widely published in a variety of places, including The Wall Street Journal, Marie Claire, and Slate. She formerly served as a managing editor for Yahoo! Travel, the executive news director for the print and digital editions of In Touch Weekly, and the senior digital editor at Current TV. Pride and Piazza's first collaborative novel and a Good Morning America Book Club pick, We Are Not Like Them told the dual-perspective story of two lifelong friends, one Black and one white, whose bond is forever changed when the latter's police officer husband is involved in the shooting of an unarmed Black teenager. In their follow-up novel, a Black woman, finds an abandoned white baby, setting up collisions with her own past and the child's mother. Alexandra Auder is a writer and actor and the author of Don't Call Me Home: A Memoir. Born in New York City to mother Viva, a Warhol superstar, and father Michel Auder, an award-winning filmmaker who directed Chelsea Girls with Andy Warhol. Alexandra  has been a featured character in HBO's High Maintenance and has acted in the films of Wim Wenders and Jodie Foster, among others. She resides in Philadelphia with her two children and husband, filmmaker Nick Nehez, with whom she co-produces and collaborates. (recorded 6/15/2023)

Geraldine Brooks won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for her novel March, an ''honorable, elegant, and true'' (The Wall Street Journal) retelling of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women from the point of view of the titular family's absent patriarch. Her other internationally bestselling works of fiction and nonfiction include Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women, Caleb's Crossing, Foreign Correspondence, The Secret Chord, and People of the Book. A former war correspondent for The Wall Street Journal who was stationed in the Middle East, Africa, and the Balkans, Brooks was awarded the 2010 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Lifetime Achievement and in 2016 she was named an Officer of the Order of Australia. Based on the incredible true story of a champion thoroughbred horse named Lexington, her latest novel finds three disparate generations of people tied together through both the horse and United States' ongoing reckoning with racism. (recorded 6/14/2023)

In conversation with Paul Hendrickson ''One of our most talented biographers and historians'' (The New York Times), David Maraniss is the author of bestselling portraits of some of America's most consequential figures, including Bill Clinton, Vince Lombardi, Barack Obama, and Roberto Clemente, as well as an acclaimed trilogy of books about the 1960s. An associate editor at The Washington Post, he has twice won the Pulitzer Prize for journalism. His other honors include three additional Pulitzer Prize nominations, The Robert F. Kennedy Book Prize, and the George Polk Award. Maraniss is currently a distinguished visiting professor at Vanderbilt University. In his latest bestseller Path Lit by Lightning, he offers a nuanced analysis of the life of Jim Thorpe, the man known as ''the world's greatest athlete,'' who, as a member of the Sac and Fox Nation in the early 20th century, faced some of his greatest challenges off the field of competition. Paul Hendrickson's seven acclaimed books include Hemingway's Boat: Everything He Loved in Life, and Lost, 1934–1961, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist; Sons of Mississippi, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award; and The Living and the Dead: Robert McNamara and Five Lives of a Lost War, a National Book Award finalist. A creative writing teacher at the University of Pennsylvania for more than 20 years and a feature writer at The Washington Post for the two decades before that, he has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize six times. (recorded 6/7/2023)

In conversation with Tracey Michae'l Lewis-Giggetts  Kwame Alexander is the author of The Crossover, a ''beautifully measured novel'' (The New York Times Book Review) that follows twin brother basketball stars coming to terms with the world. Winner of the 2015 Newbery Medal and the 2015 Coretta Scott King Honor Award, it was recently adapted for Disney+ into a television series. Also a poet, educator, and activist, Alexander is the author of 36 other bestselling books, including Rebound, The Undefeated, and The Door of No Return. He is also a regular contributor to NPR's Morning Edition, co-founder of a health clinic and literacy program in Ghana, and is the founding editor of Versify, a publishing imprint focused on changing the world through words. Both a memoir and collection of love poems, Why Fathers Cry at Night brings together the various parts of Alexander's past and present relationships to offer a larger narrative of his family's love. The author and co-author of 15 books that explore topics such as faith, race, social justice, and motherhood, Tracey Michae'l Lewis-Giggetts is a professor of English and Black Studies at the Community College of Philadelphia, hosts the podcast HeARTtalk with Tracey Michae'l, and is the founder of HeARTspace, a healing community for those who have experienced trauma. Her writing has been published in The Washington Post, Essence, The Guardian, and Ebony, among other publications. In her recent essay collection, Black Joy: Stories of Resistance, Resilience, and Restoration, Lewis-Giggetts celebrates the reaffirming power of Black joy. (recorded 6/6/2023)

In conversation with poet Phillip B. Williams Airea D. Matthews is the 2022–23 Philadelphia Poet Laureate and directs the poetry program at Bryn Mawr College. Her collection Simulacra won the 2016 Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize and her work has appeared in The New York Times, Best American Poets, Gulf Coast, Harvard Review, and VQR, among other journals. Matthews' other honors include a 2022 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship, a 2020 Pew Fellowship, and the 2016 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award. Addressing themes of income inequality, commodification, and conventional economic theories, Bread and Circus combines poetry, prose, and imagery to tell an intimate story about the author and her family. Phillip B. Williams is the Whiting Award-winning author of Thief in the Interior and Mutiny. A recipient of the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, Lambda Literary Award, and Whiting Award, he has also received fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University and the National Endowment for the Arts. He currently teaches at Bennington College and the Randolph College low-residency MFA. (recorded 6/1/2023)

In conversation with George Anastasia The director of the FBI from 2013 to 2017, James Comey captured international attention for his investigations into Hillary Clinton's emails, Russian interference into the 2016 presidential election, and Donald Trump, the last of which ultimately led to his dismissal. He is a former prosecutor, defense lawyer, general counsel, law teacher, and the author of two bestselling books, Saving Justice: Truth, Transparency, and Trust and A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership, which was adapted into a popular Showtime series. Central Park West, Comey's first work of fiction, draws upon the author's many decades in federal law enforcement as it follows a federal prosecutor's efforts to solve a disgraced former New York governor's murder amidst shocking revelations of high-powered politicians' ties to the mob. ''One of the most respected crime reporters in the country'' (60 Minutes), George Anastasia was a long-time writer for The Inquirer, where he earned two Pulitzer Prize nominations (and a hit contract from then-Philly crime boss John Stanfa) for his searing mafia exposés. He is the author of six crime books, including The Last Gangster, Blood and Honor, The Summer Wind, and Gotti's Rules. Anastasia's work has appeared in Playboy and The Village Voice, and he has been an organized crime consultant on projects for ABC and the History Channel, among others. (recorded 5/31/2023)

In conversation with Arwa Mahdawi Referred to by bestsstelling author Rebecca Traister as ''exhilarating, good humored, and forward looking,'' Kristen R. Ghodsee's Everyday Utopia is a two-millennia examination of diverse civilizations' boldest dreams of and experiments in ideal societies. Ghodsee is also the author of six other books, including the acclaimed and bestselling Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence, which has been translated into 14 languages. A professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, she has contributed articles to numerous publications, including The New Republic, The New York Times, and Le Monde Diplomatique; and she has appeared on dozens of television shows, radio programs, and podcasts. Arwa Mahdawi is a London-born, Philadelphia-based writer, speaker, and business consultant. Arwa is the author of Strong Female Lead, a book urging us to reconsider our preconceptions about leadership and laying out a blueprint for the types of leaders we need in a time of permacrisis. She writes a weekly column for The Guardian covering everything from politics to pop culture. She is also the creator of the viral website Rent-A-Minority, which is an ‘Uber for diversity.' (Yes, before you ask, it's satire.)  (recorded 5/18/2023)

In conversation with podcaster and author Kelsey McKinney ''America's most talented comic writer'' (The New Republic), Samantha Irby is the author of four essay collections, including Wow, No Thank you.; Meaty; New Year, Same Trash: Resolutions I Absolutely Did Not Keep; and the New York Times bestseller We Are Never Meeting in Real Life. In her celebrated long-running blog, bitches gotta eat, she offers hot takes on her sometimes messy personal life, pop culture, and, of course, food. Named one of the most anticipated books of 2023 by TIME magazine, Oprah Daily, and numerous other media outlets, Irby's latest essay collection delves into, among other issues, the minutiae of restaurant dress codes, speaking with teenagers, and the shifting moods of the insane dog she adopted during the pandemic. Kelsey McKinney is the host and writer of the podcast Normal Gossip, a features writer at defector.com, and a widely published freelance writer. She is also the author of God Spare the Girls, a 2021 debut novel that was recommended by Elle, Refinery29, and Oprah Daily, among many other media outlets. (recorded 5/16/2023)

A contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine and The 1619 Project, Linda Villarosa has won numerous awards for articles concerning issues of Black mother and infant health, medical myths, America's hidden HIV epidemic, environmental justice, and COVID-19's toll on Black American communities. She is the author of Body & Soul: The Black Women's Guide to Physical Health and the novel Passing for Black, which was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award. The director of the undergraduate journalism program at City College of New York, Villarosa formerly worked as executive editor at Essence magazine and as a science editor for The New York Times, and her articles have been published in numerous periodicals, including The Root, O Magazine, and Glamour. Relying on human stories and exhaustive research, Under the Skin exposes the powerful forces within healthcare and society itself that cause Black Americans to ''live sicker and die quicker'' than their white peers. (recorded 5/15/2023)

In conversation with Ernest Owens A consultant and writer in the fields of civic activism and government reform, Brett H. Mandel served as director of Philadelphia's Financial & Policy Analysis Unit in the city controller's office, was a member of the Tax Reform Commission, and was assistant policy director of the Philadelphia Independent Charter Commission. Co-authored during his stint in the city controller's office, his book Philadelphia: A New Urban Direction won the 1999 Association of Government Auditors Special Project Award. Mandel was also executive director of the National Education Technology Funding Corporation and executive director of the citizens' organization Philadelphia Forward. Told through the story of the corruption case of John Dougherty and the machine politics that foster corruption, his new book illustrates the ways our inattention gives way to corrosive politicians and policies, the effects this blight has on the soul of Philadelphia, and how collective action can lead to a better city for all.   Ernest Owens is editor-at-large for Philadelphia Magazine, host of the podcast Ernestly Speaking!, and president of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists. His book The Case for Cancel Culture was published in February, and his other work has been featured in a number of media outlets, including The New York Times, CNN, The Washington Post, and NPR. He teaches media and journalism at Cheyney University. (recorded 5/11/2023)

Hernan Diaz's bestselling and Pulitzer Prize winning novel Trust, "a genre-bending, time-skipping story about New York City's elite in the roaring '20s and Great Depression'' (Vanity Fair), presents a literary puzzle about the reality warping power of money. Named one of the top ten books of 2022 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Vogue, Esquire, and Barack Obama, it won the Kirkus Prize and was longlisted for the Booker Prize. Diaz is also the author of the 2017 novel In the Distance, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award. A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Award, and the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing, his writing has appeared in The Paris Review, Granta, The Yale Review, and McSweeney's, among numerous other periodicals. (recorded 5/9/2023)

With characters situated in surreal, Twilight Zone-esque, yet all-too-familiar positions of oppression within our most venerable institutions, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah's 2018 debut fiction collection, Friday Black, was praised as a "vivid, original'' portrait of ''America in all its racism, weirdness and abject consumerism'' (People). The winner of the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and the Saroyan Prize and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Award for Best First Book, Adjei-Brenyah has contributed work to some of the country's most prestigious publications, including Guernica, Esquire, The New York Times Book Review, and The Paris Review. In Chain Gang All-Stars, his debut novel, he follows the gladiatorial fortunes of two women inmates who compete for their freedom in highly profitable and popular officially sanctioned prison death matches. Praised by George Saunders as ''a prodigiously talented writer, with a huge heart,'' Daniel Torday won the National Jewish Book Award for both his debut novel The Sensualist and his follow-up, The Last Flight of Poxl West. His other work includes the novel Boomer1 as well as articles and essays published in Esquire, n+1, Tin House, and The New York Times, among other publications. A professor of creative writing at Bryn Mawr College, Torday is also the winner of the Sami Rohr Choice Prize. The 12th Commandment delves into the sins, redemptions, and secrets of an Ohio-based Jewish-Islamic religious sect grappling with the murder of its prophet's son. (recorded 5/8/2023)

A ''genuine genius'' (The New York Times Book Review), Dave Barry won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1988. He wrote for the Miami Herald for 30 years, where his column was syndicated in more than 500 newspapers. His dozens of bestselling works of fiction, nonfiction, and essay collections include I'll Mature When I'm Dead; Dave Barry Slept Here: A Sort of History of the United States; Lessons from Lucy: The Simple Joys of an Old, Happy Dog; and Best. State. Ever.: A Florida Man Defends His Homeland. Two of Barry's books were used as the basis for the CBS TV sitcom Dave's World. Mapping the intersecting fates of a young mother who stumbles upon treasure, a debauched newspaper man, a wannabe reality star, and other oddballs, Swamp Story is a quintessentially Floridian caper story. (recorded 5/3/2023)

In conversation with Eric Banks Acclaimed for ''wonderfully readable'' fusions of ''biography, philosophy, history, cultural analysis and personal reflection'' (The Independent), Sarah Bakewell is the author of At the Existentialist Café, a rousing and comprehensive account of the 20th century intellectual movement, which was named one of 2016's best books by The New York Times. She is also the author of How to Live: A Life of Montaigne, a National Book Critics Circle Award–winning biography of the 16th century essayist. She formerly worked as a curator of early printed books at the esteemed Wellcome Library for the History of Medicine, earned a postgraduate degree in artificial intelligence, and taught creative writing at London's City University. In her latest book, she delves into the vast history of humanist thought in order to illuminate its contributions to art, scientific inquiry, and the very nature of our individual spirits. Eric Banks is a writer and editor based in New York. He is director of the New York Institute for the Humanities at the New York Public Library and consulting editor of the forthcoming Robert Rauschenberg Catalogue Raisonné, the first volume of which is scheduled to appear in 2025. Banks is a former senior editor of Artforum, and from 2003 to 2008 he served as editor in chief of Bookforum.  (recorded 5/2/2023)

In conversation with Abra Lee Camille T. Dungy is the author of Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood, and History, a debut personal essay collection that was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is also the author of four collections of poetry, What to Eat, What to Drink, What to Leave for Poison; Suck on the Marrow; Smith Blue; and Trophic Cascade, winner of the Colorado Book Award. The editor of three poetry anthologies, Dungy is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Academy of American Poets Fellowship, and an American Book Award. She is an English professor at Colorado State University and hosts the podcast Immaterial, a podcast from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Magnificent Noise. In Soil, she delves into her seven-year quest to diversify her garden in spite of her community's strict horticultural rules, exposing larger truths about the danger homogeneity poses to our planet. Abra Lee is a storyteller, horticulturist, and author of the forthcoming book Conquer The Soil: Black America and the Untold Stories of Our Country's Gardeners, Farmers, and Growers. She has spent a whole lotta time in the dirt as a municipal arborist and airport landscape manager. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Fine Gardening, Veranda Magazine, and NPR. Lee is a graduate of Auburn University College of Agriculture and an alumna of the Longwood Gardens Society of Fellows, a global network of public horticulture professionals. (recorded 5/1/2023)

In conversation with Mia Bay Chad L. Williams is the author of Torchbearers of Democracy: African American Soldiers in the World War I Era, winner of the Liberty Legacy Foundation Award from the Organization of American Historians. The Samuel J. and Augusta Spector Professor of History and African and African American Studies at Brandeis University, he has earned fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, the Ford Foundation, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. He is the co-editor of Charleston Syllabus: Readings on Race, Racism and Racial Violence, and has contributed articles and opinion pieces to a variety of publications, including The Washington Post, Time, and The Atlantic. In The Wounded World, Williams draws from a deep pool of source material to recount the story of W. E. B. Du Bois' disillusionment with his country for its betrayal of Black American veterans of World War I. A scholar of American and African American intellectual, cultural and social history, Mia Bay is the Roy F. and Jeanette P. Nichols Professor of American History at University of Pennsylvania. Her books include The White Image in the Black Mind: African-American Ideas about White People, 1830-1925; To Tell the Truth Freely: The Life of Ida B. Wells; and Traveling Black: A Story of Race and Resistance, winner of the Bancroft Prize. She is currently finishing a book on the history of African American ideas about Thomas Jefferson. (recorded 4/27/2023)

Pine Tree Foundation Endowed Lecture Exuding ''the comfort and charm of a beloved encyclopedia come to life'' (The New Yorker), Simon Winchester is the bestselling author of nearly 30 nonfiction books that explore some of the world's most consequential people, places, and historical events, including The Professor and the Madman, Krakatoa, The Men Who United the States, Atlantic, Pacific, The Perfectionists, and Land. An Oxford-trained former field geologist in Uganda and a war correspondent for The Guardian and The Sunday Times, he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2006. Spanning in time from the creation of ancient Babylonian cuneiform tablets to the advent (recorded 4/26/2023)

''Unflinching but also irrepressibly humorous'' (The New York Times Book Review), Eileen Myles is the celebrated author of nearly two dozen books of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, plays, and performance pieces, including Pathetic Literature, For Now, Chelsea Girls, I Must Be Living Twice, The Irony of the Leash, and Afterglow (a dog memoir). Their lengthy list of honors includes a Guggenheim Fellowship in nonfiction, election to the American Academy of Arts & Letters, the Clark Prize for Excellence in Art Writing, and an Andy Warhol/Creative Capital Arts Writers Grant. Peering into the miracles hidden in our daily ablutions, a ''Working Life'' is a poetry collection that seeks to engage with our often-subsumed senses of mortality, fear, and wonder. (recorded 4/25/2023)

Charles Yu is the author of four books, including Interior Chinatown (the winner of the 2020 National Book Award for fiction), and the novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (a New York Times Notable Book and a Time magazine best book of the year). He received the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 Award and was nominated for two Writers Guild of America Awards for his work on the HBO series, Westworld. He has also written for shows on FX, AMC, and HBO. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired, among other publications. Together with TaiwaneseAmerican.org, he established the Betty L. Yu and Jin C. Yu Writing Prizes, in honor of his parents. Terence Washington is the Manager of Civic Engagement and Programs for the Free Library of Philadelphia. After leaving the Air Force, he got a master's in art history at Williams College before working as an arts administrator, curator, and educator. He has done full-time and freelance work with the National Gallery of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the NXTHVN residency, the Readying the Museum initiative, DC Arts Center, The Phillips Collection, Mass MoCA, and elsewhere. He thinks everyone should read Thick by Tressie McMillan Cottom. (recorded 4/20/2023)

David Grann is the No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, an account of the chilling true-life story of one of the most sinister conspiracies in U.S. history. A finalist for the National Book Award and winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award, it has been adapted into an upcoming film directed by Martin Scorcese. His other bestsellers include The Lost City of Z, the nonfiction tale of the deadly search for a fabled Amazonian civilization; and The Devil and Sherlock Holmes, named by Men's Journal as one of the best true crime books ever written. An award-winning staff writer at The New Yorker, Grann has previously contributed to The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, and The New Republic, among other periodicals. In The Wager, he details the wildly differing narratives offered by two groups of 18th century British naval castaways. (recorded 4/19/2023)

In conversation with Signe Wilkinson A Wall Street Journal correspondent for two decades, Neil King Jr. reported from more than 50 countries, served as the newspaper's chief diplomatic correspondent, national political reporter, and global economics editor in Washington, D.C., and was part of a Wall Street Journal team that earned a Pulitzer Prize for its 9/11 coverage. He formerly wrote for the Tampa Tribune and the Prague Post, and he is the founder and editor of Gotham Canoe, an online journal dedicated to exploring nature and nearby wildernesses. Inspired by his search for meaning amidst the nation's increasing political and social divides as well as by his own long battle with cancer, American Ramble follows King's revelatory 26-day walk from Washington, D.C., through Philadelphia and its surrounding environment, to New York's Central Park.  Signe Wilkinson is a widely syndicated cartoonist and the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning. Formerly based at The Philadelphia Inquirer, she is the recipient of three Overseas Press Club Awards. With Jonathan Zimmerman, she co-authored the book Free Speech: And Why You Should Give a Damn. (recorded 4/18/2023)

In conversation with Homay King The lead vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist of the indie rock outfit Japanese Breakfast, Michelle Zauner has garnered wide acclaim for her shoegaze-inspired pop earworms. These works include Psychopomp, Soft Sounds from Another Planet, and her 2021 breakthrough album Jubilee, for which she received Grammy Award nominations for Best Alternative Music Album and Best New Artist. Zauner is also the author of Crying in H Mart, a memoir based on her viral 2018 New Yorker essay of the same name. A New York Times bestseller and selected as one of 2021's best books by a wide range of periodicals, it offers an honest perspective on her identity as a Korean American, the death of her mother, and the struggles of her early musical career. She is currently adapting this memoir into a screenplay for MGM Studios. Homay King is Professor of History of Art at Bryn Mawr College. She is the author of Lost in Translation: Orientalism, Cinema, and the Enigmatic Signifier and Virtual Memory: Time-based Art and the Dream of Digitality, both from Duke University Press. Her essays have appeared in Afterall, Discourse, Film Quarterly, October, and elsewhere, including the catalogue for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's China: Through the Looking Glass. She is a member of the Camera Obscura editorial collective. Currently, she is working on a book project entitled Go West: A Mythology of California's Silicon Valley, for which she was awarded an Ailsa Mellon Bruce Visiting Senior Fellowship at the National Gallery of Art. (recorded 4/14/2023)

In conversation with award-winning journalist and broadcaster Tracey Matisak Barbara Gohn Day Memorial Lecture An NPR reporter for more than two decades, Mary Louise Kelly currently co-hosts the network's flagship program All Things Considered, the most listened-to radio news show in the United States. Also the author of two popular suspense novels, she has contributed articles and essays to a variety of publications, including The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Atlantic. Kelly created and taught a graduate course on national security and journalism at Georgetown University, served as a contributing editor at The Atlantic, and has moderated high-profile interviews at venues around the globe. In It. Goes. So. Fast., she reflects on life's joys, sorrows, and pivotal changes in the year leading up to her son's departure to college. (recorded 4/13/2023)

In conversation with Bill Marimow Renowned for his ''signature blend of deep reportage and character-driven storytelling (The New York Times Book Review),'' Mark Bowden is a former national correspondent for The Atlantic and a former longtime reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer. He is the author of 16 bestselling books of investigative journalism, including Black Hawk Down, adapted by Ridley Scott into a popular film; Guests of the Ayatollah: The Iran Hostage Crisis: The First Battle in America's War with Militant Islam; Hue 1968, the story of the Vietnam War's bloodiest battle as told by U.S. and Vietnamese soldiers; and The Steal, an account of former President Donald Trump and his allies' attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election that he co-authored with Matthew Teague. In Life Sentence, Bowden writes about the inner workings of one of Baltimore's deadliest gangs and details the painstaking FBI investigation that brought it down. As a reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Bill Marimow twice won the Pulitzer Prize for public service. The editor in chief of the Inquirer from 2006 to 2017 and formerly its vice president of strategic development, he also served as vice president of news at National Public Radio and editor in chief of The Baltimore Sun. His other honors include two Silver Gavel Awards from the American Bar Association and two Robert F. Kennedy awards. (recorded 4/11/2023)

In conversation with Mike Sielski A staff writer at The Atlantic, Jennifer Senior won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing for ''Twenty Years Gone,'' an account of a family still reeling from the loss of a loved one on 9/11. Her critically acclaimed 2015 book All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood spent eight weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, and in 2014 she delivered a popular TED Talk on happiness and child rearing. A frequent guest on numerous news programs, Senior formerly worked as a book critic and columnist at The New York Times and was a staff writer at New York Magazine for 18 years. On Grief is an Atlantic Edition volume of her Pulitzer-winning essay. A sports columnist at The Philadelphia Inquirer since 2013, Mike Sielski is the author of Fading Echoes, the true story of two Pennsylvania high school football rivals who later found brotherhood while in the U.S. military in in the battlefields of the Middle East, and is the co-author of How to Be Like Jackie Robinson, a collection of life lessons taken from the trailblazing baseball legend. In 2015 he was voted the best sports columnist in the U.S. by The Associated Press Sports Editors. His most recent book The Rise is about the life of Kobe Bryant and offers a thorough account of Bryant's identity as a sports and cultural figure and an assessment of his impact on our society. Bob Costas described the books as a ''story informed by meticulous research and rendered with clear-eyed insights.'' (recorded 4/10/2023)

In conversation with Pia Sarkar A former longtime columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, Vanessa Hua has written about Asia and the diaspora from countries such as China, Burma, and South Korea, and has contributed articles to The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic. She is the author of the bestselling novel A River of Stars, the award-winning story collection Deceit and Other Possibilities, and fiction that has been published in numerous literary journals. Hua's honors include a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Steinbeck Fellowship in Creative Writing, awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, and the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature. A national bestseller, longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, and named one of the best novels of the year by several publications, Forbidden City tells the story of a teenage girl in 1960s China who becomes a heroine of the Cultural Revolution and Mao Zedong's lover. Pia Sarkar is a longtime journalist with more than two decades of experience. She currently serves as deputy business editor for enterprise at The Associated Press, based in Philadelphia. She is also a board member of the South Asian Journalists Association and an executive committee member of the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. She previously worked as an editor and reporter for such media outlets as The American Lawyer, the San Francisco Chronicle and The Bergen Record. Sarkar received her bachelor's degree in English and communication from SUNY-Buffalo and her master's degree in journalism from Columbia University. (recorded 4/3/2023)

In conversation with Shane Claiborne Alex Mar is the author of Seventy Times Seven, a chronicle of the brutal 1985 Indiana murder of an elderly white woman by a fifteen-year-old Black girl.  ''A probing examination of the intersection of race, crime, and punishment (Kirkus), it delves into the crime's reverberating effects across the world and the victim's grandson's campaign to spare the perpetrator from execution. Mar's other work includes Witches of America, ''a genuine and touching'' (Los Angeles Times) five-year journalistic foray into modern day occult belief and her own relationship to mysticism. American Mystic, her feature-length documentary feature film about members of fringe religious sects, premiered to wide acclaim at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival. Her essays have appeared The New York Times Book Review, The Believer, The Guardian, and Wired, among many other outlets.  Shane Claiborne is a cofounder of The Simple Way, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that works in the New Monastic tradition to live, minister, and improve its Kensington community. Also an activist, prominent public speaker, and author, he is the author of many books, including The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical; Beating Guns: Hope for People Who Are Weary of Violence; and Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us. (recorded 3/30/2023)

Angela Saini is the author of Superior, an ''easy-to-read blend of science reporting, cultural criticism, and personal reflection'' (Slate) that explores the resurgence of the harmful and faulty study of race science. She is also the author of the critically acclaimed Inferior, a new portrait of women's minds, bodies, and evolutionary roles gained through an investigation of how science has failed to accurately understand them. Her print and television science journalism have appeared on the BBC, The Guardian, New Scientist, and Wired, among other places. In The Patriarchs, Saini investigates the surprising origins and history of gendered oppression, offers a historical examination of the brittle and constantly reasserted nature of patriarchy, and analyzes contemporary research and revolutionary efforts to combat these systems of control. (recorded 3/29/2023)

In conversation with Laura McGrath, Assistant Professor of English at Temple University A ''soul-quaking'' (Los Angeles Review of Books) meditation on the everyday miracles we take for granted set amongst the travels and travails of a Shakespearean acting troupe in the years following a global plague, Emily St. John Mandel's bestselling Station 11 was a finalist for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award. Her other novels include Last Night in Montreal, The Singer's Gun, and The Glass Hotel, included by Barack Obama on his 2022 summer reading list. Mandel is also a staff writer for art and culture magazine The Millions. Peripherally set in the same universe as Station 11 and The Glass Hotel, Sea of Tranquility follows interconnected time-hopping characters seeking love and metaphysical truth in such far-flung locales as the wilderness of 19th century British Columbia and the domed cities of the 25th century lunar surface. (recorded 3/28/2023)

In conversation with award-winning chef and restauranteur Michael Solomonov Ari Shapiro is the cohost of NPR's All Things Considered, the most listened-to radio news program in the country. Formerly NPR's White House correspondent and international correspondent based in London, he has earned two Edward R. Murrow awards, the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize, and recognition from the American Bar Association and the Columbia Journalism Review. Also an accomplished stage performer, Shapiro is the creator of the one-man show Homeward and the co-creator of the show Och and Oy, which he performs nationwide alongside collaborator Alan Cumming. A memoir in the form of an essay collection, The Best Strangers in the World reveals the deeper stories behind some of the globe-hopping journalist's most poignant reportage. (recorded 3/23/2023)

In conversation with Bessel van der Kolk, M.D.  Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Endowed Lecture A professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School for more than 40 years, Judith Lewis Herman, M.D., is one of the United States' foremost experts on the treatment of post-traumatic stress and incest. ''One of the most important psychiatry works to be published since Freud'' (The New York Times), her groundbreaking 1992 book Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence-From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror redefined medicine's understanding of trauma survivors. Herman is the director of training at the Victims of Violence Program at The Cambridge Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a founding member of the Women's Mental Health Collective. Her many honors include the 1996 Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, the 2000 American Medical Women's Association Award, and in 2003 the American Psychiatric Association bestowed upon her the title of Distinguished Life Fellow. A manifesto for a new framework of justice, Truth and Repair argues that survivors' voices should be central elements in our criminal justice system.  Bessel van der Kolk, M.D., is the author of the No. 1 New York Times bestseller The Body Keeps the Score, a watershed examination of the ways traumatic stress affects the physical health of human beings. The founder and medical director of the Trauma Center in Brookline, Massachusetts, he is a professor of psychiatry at the Boston University School of Medicine and is the director of the National Complex Trauma Treatment Network. (recorded 3/22/2023)

Featuring magician, Justin Gilmore A staff writer at The New Yorker for more than three decades, Adam Gopnik is the author of Paris to the Moon, The Table Comes First, At the Strangers' Gate, and A Thousand Small Sanities, a ''witty, humane, learned'' (The New York Times) defense of liberalism amidst the dogmatic divisions of our time. He is also a sought-after public speaker, widely anthologized essayist, and has collaborated as both a librettist and lyric writer on several musical projects. A three-time recipient of the National Magazine Award and a winner of the George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting, Gopnik was decorated with the French Republic's medal of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters. An examination of the fundamental question of just how it is that we acquire skills, The Real Work delves into the processes used by a variety of master artists, professionals, and instructors.  (recorded 3/21/2023)

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6abc Action News morning edition The former longtime CEO of Black Entertainment Television (BET), Debra Lee currently serves on the boards of several of the world's leading corporations, including Proctor & Gamble, Warner Bros. Discovery, Revlon, Burberry Group Plc, and Marriott International. She is the founder and chairwoman of Leading Women Defined Foundation, an organization of Black female thought leaders, and is the co-founder of Monarchs Collective, a group that empowers men and women of color to sit on corporate boards. One of the Hollywood Reporter's 100 Most Powerful Women in Entertainment and Billboard's Power 100, Lee is an inductee into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame. I Am Debra Lee charts her journey from girlhood in the segregated South to heading the first Black company traded on the New York Stock Exchange, along the way offering personal anecdotes, celebrity stories, and lessons about motherhood while trying to make a career. (recorded 3/9/2023)

Sandra Shaber Memorial Lecture In conversation with award-winning journalist and broadcaster Tracey Matisak The Sum of Us, Heather McGhee's 2021 odyssey across the American landscape of inequality, won wide acclaim for its empathetic and incisive imagining of a future that could offer more than our current racial paradigm. A New York Times bestseller, longlisted for the National Book Award, and named one of the best books of the year by numerous media outlets, it was recently adapted as a podcast on the Obama's Higher Ground network. One of the nation's foremost experts in economic and social policy, McGhee is the chair of the board of directors at Color of Change, the United States' largest online racial justice group. She is also the former president of the inequality-focused think tank Demos, where she currently serves as a distinguished senior fellow. (recorded 3/7/2023)

In conversation with Marc Lamont Hill British American journalist Mehdi Hasan hosts the eponymously titled The Mehdi Hasan Show, a news and politics program that airs on MSNBC and NBC's streaming channel Peacock. He is also the fill-in host for The Rachel Maddow Show, All in with Chris Hayes, and The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, among other programs. A former presenter on Al Jazeera English, a former columnist and podcaster for The Intercept, and former political director of the UK edition of The Huffington Post, he has published opinion pieces in a variety of publications, including The New York Times and The Washington Post. In Win Every Argument, Hasan not only presents a practical guide to the art of rhetoric, he shares a philosophical claim for good-faith argument's value to democracy and truth. The Steve Charles Chair in Media, Cities and Solutions at Temple University, Marc Lamont Hill is the host of BET News and the Coffee and Books podcast. The recipient of honors from the National Association of Black Journalists, GLAAD, and the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, he is the author of six books, including Beats, Rhymes, and Classroom Life; Nobody: Casualties of America's War on the Vulnerable, from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond; and Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics. (recorded 3/2/2023)

In conversation with Sharon G. Flake Camonghne Felix is the author of Build Yourself a Boat, ''an exquisite and thoughtful'' (Bustle) poetry collection that was longlisted for the National Book Award in poetry and shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award, among other honors. A contributing writer at The Cut, her poetry has appeared in or is forthcoming in numerous places, including The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, and Harvard Review. In Dyscalculia, Felix uses her childhood learning disorder that caused difficulties with math to explore the trauma of a monumental breakup, past troubles, and the concepts of self-love and acceptance. Acclaimed as a modern classic for middle and high school students, Sharon G. Flake's 1998 debut novel The Skin I'm In depicts the travails of a seventh grader dealing with self-esteem issues connected with race, economics, and academic success. It has been translated into several languages and has sold more than one million copies worldwide. Flake is also the author of a dozen other books of fiction, short stories, and poems, including Money Hungry, You Don't Even Know Me, and The Life I'm In, a companion piece to The Skin I'm In published in 2021. Her many honors include two Coretta Scott King Awards, the John Steptoe Award for New Talent, and the YWCA Racial Justice Award. (recorded 3/1/2023)

Veteran United States Secret Service Officer Leth Oun has protected presidents and vice presidents in four administrations in almost every state and more than a dozen countries. A political refugee who survived the genocidal Killing Fields of Cambodia, he arrived in America in 1983, became a citizen in 1990, earned a college degree from Widener University in 1998, and went to work for the federal government in 2000.  Joe Samuel Starnes three celebrated novels include Calling, Red Dirt, and Fall Line, which was named to The Atlanta Journal Constitution's 2011 ''Best of the South'' list. All of these works are featured in an essay in Twenty-First-Century Southern Writers: New Voices, New Perspectives. His articles have appeared in several periodicals, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe, and his essays, short stories, and poems have been published in numerous literary journals. A Refugee's American Dream recounts Oun's father's execution by the brutal Khmer Rouge, his almost four years of enslavement in the Killing Fields followed by more than three years in refugee camps, his arrival in America as a penniless 17-year-old, and his transcendent journey to the Secret Service that culminates with his return to Cambodia as part of President Obama's protection detail.  (recorded 2/28/2023)

In conversation with Airea D. Matthews A ''powerful work of lyric art'' and ''tour de force indictment of the carceral industrial state'' (The New York Times Book Review), Reginald Dwayne Betts' poetry collection Felon won the NAACP Image Award, the American Book Award, and was a finalist for the 2019 Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Also the author of two other poetry collections and a memoir, he received the 2019 National Magazine Award for his New York Times Magazine essay about his journey from prison inmate to Yale Law School. His other honors include a Guggenheim fellowship, a 2021 MacArthur ''genius grant'', and a Radcliffe fellowship from Harvard. Betts is the founder and executive director of Freedom Reads, a not-for-profit institution devoted to providing greater access to literature in prisons. Created in collaboration with visual artist Titus Kaphar, Redaction is a multimedia examination of the relationship between race and incarceration in America.  Airea D. Matthews is the 2022-2023 Philadelphia Poet Laureate and directs the poetry program at Bryn Mawr College. Her collection Simulacra won the 2016 Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize and her work has appeared in The New York Times, Best American Poets, Gulf Coast, Harvard Review, and VQR, among other journals. Her autobiographical poetry collection Bread and Circus will be published this spring. (recorded 2/27/2023)

Paul Harding won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Tinkers, ''an astringent meditation on loss, family ties, and the presence of the past'' (The Guardian) in which a dying elderly man wanders through the rooms of his life's large and quiet moments. He is also the author of the novel Enon and is an accomplished musician. The director of the MFA in Creative Writing & Literature at Stony Brook University, Harding is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize. Based on the true story of one of the first integrated towns in the Northeast, This Other Eden tells the multigenerational story of an isolated island community off the coast of Maine. Referred to by Yiyun Li as ''one of the most unique voices in American literature,'' Hanna Pylväinen is the author of the Whiting Award-winning debut novel We Sinners, the story of a devout but fragmented Midwestern family. A faculty member of Warren Wilson College's MFA writing program, she has earned fellowships from Princeton University's Lewis Center for the Arts and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, among others. Her work has been published in numerous periodicals, including Harper's Magazine, The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and The Wall Street Journal. In The End of Drum-Time, Pylväinen weaves the love story of a reindeer herder and a minister's daughter on the remote 19th century Scandinavian tundra. (recorded 2/23/2023)

Jamila Minnicks' debut novel Moonrise Over New Jessup tells the story of a 1950s-era, all-Black Alabama town that is resistant to desegregation and the opposing political viewpoints that threaten a young couple's burgeoning romance. Praised by Barbara Kingsolver for its dive into the ''deep complexity of the American Civil Rights movement'' by way of ''compelling characters and a heart-pounding plot,'' it won the 2021 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. Minnicks has published work in the literary journals CRAFT, The Write Launch, and The Silent World in Her Vase, and her short story ''Politics of Distraction'' was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. (recorded 2/22/2023)

In conversation with Elias Rodriques Referred to by Carmen Maria Machado as ''all blood and nerve and near-unbearable beauty,'' Joseph Earl Thomas' Sink is a coming-of-age memoir that chronicles the author's escape from an upbringing of deprivation and abuse to a geek culture in which he could build a family and community on his own terms. An excerpt of this work won the 2020 Chautauqua Janus Prize. His other writing has appeared or is forthcoming in n+1, The Kenyon Review, and Gulf Coast, among other literary journals, and he has received writing fellowships from the Fulbright program, Bread Loaf, and Tin House. A doctoral candidate in English at the University of Pennsylvania, Thomas is the Director of Programs at Blue Stoop in Philadelphia and an associate faculty member at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research.  Elias Rodriques is an assistant editor of n+1 and author of the novel All the Water I've Seen is Running. His work has been published or anthologized in The Guardian, The Nation, and Best American Essays. (recorded 2/21/2023)

In conversation with Marc Lamont Hill Professor emeritus of Music at the University of Pennsylvania, Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr. is a celebrated musicologist, composer, pianist, and music historian. He is the author of Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop and The Amazing Bud Powell: Black Genius, Jazz History and the Challenge of Bebop, the founder of the music blog Musiquology.com, and the former editor of the Music of the African Diaspora series at the University of California Press. Also a producer and bandleader, he has released numerous recordings, performed at venues around the world, written musical scores for various multimedia projects, and collaborated with museums and galleries such as The Whitney, The Museum of Modern Art, and the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. In Who Hears Here?, Ramsey brings 25 years of his art, commentary, and scholarship to a collection of essays that explore the unique history of Black musical expression. (recorded 2/15/2023)

In conversation with Jennifer Weiner Acclaimed for their explorations of marital fidelity, friendship, and the difficulties of connecting in modern life, Sadeqa Johnson's novels include And Then There Was Me, Second House from the Corner, and Yellow Wife, the harrowing tale of an enslaved woman forced to barter love and freedom while living in one of the Antebellum South's most infamous slave jails. A Kimbilio Fellow, former board member of the James River Writers, and a Tall Poppy Writer, she is the recipient of the National Book Club Award, the Phillis Wheatley Award, and the USA Best Book Award for best fiction, among other honors. In The House of Eve, Johnson follows two 1950s-era young Black women whose lives collide amidst taboo love affairs, ambition, and pregnancy. ''One of the biggest names in popular fiction'' (USA Today), Jennifer Weiner is the beloved number-one New York Times bestselling author of more than a dozen novels-including Good in Bed, All Fall Down, Mrs. Everything, and In Her Shoes. She is also the writer of two YA books about a diminutive Bigfoot and an essay collection titled Hungry Heart, an intimate and honest meditation on yearning, fulfillment, and her many identities.  (recorded 2/9/2023)

In conversation with Mark Bowden A Los Angeles Times columnist for the past 22 years and former columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Steve Lopez is a four-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for commentary, and is the winner of the H.L. Mencken, the Ernie Pyle, and Mike Royko Awards for his contributions to journalism. He is also the author of the One Book, One Philadelphia selection The Soloist, a national bestseller which was awarded the PEN USA Literary Award for Nonfiction for its tender portrayal of a former music prodigy who struggled with mental illness. The book was later made into a feature film starring Robert Downey, Jr. Lopez's other work includes the novels Third and Indiana, The Sunday Macaroni Club, and In the Clear, two collections of columns, and on-air reporting for KCET-TV in Los Angeles, which garnered him three local Emmys. Framed through the author's own ambivalence about retirement, Independence Day follows people across a wide spectrum of jobs, backgrounds, and identities to help provide insight into one of life's pivotal moments.   Mark Bowden is the author of 15 bestselling books of investigative journalism, including Blackhawk Down, adapted by Ridley Scott into a popular film; Killing Pablo, winner of the Overseas Press Club's Cornelius Ryan Award for book of the year; The Three Battles of Wanat, a collection of his best long-form essays; and Hue 1968, the story of the Vietnam War's bloodiest battle as told by participants from both sides. His forthcoming book Life Sentence: The Brief and Tragic Career of Baltimore's Deadliest Gang Leader will be published in April. (recorded 2/8/2023)

In conversation with Michael Simmons and Robert Saleem Holbrook Dan Berger is the author of the James A. Rawley Prize winning Captive Nation: Black Prison Organizing in the Civil Rights Era, an ''illuminating'' (The Nation) reevaluation of 20th century African American activism through the prism of mass incarceration. A professor of comparative ethnic studies and associate dean for faculty development and scholarship in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington Bothell, he has published op-eds and other work about critical race theory and social justice in a variety of newspapers, magazines, and scholarly journals. In Stayed on Freedom, Berger tells the story of the until-now unheralded Black Power activists Zoharah Simmons and Michael Simmons.  Alongside Zoharah and countless other organizers and activists, Philadelphia-raised Michael Simmons has fought for social justice and human rights for more than 55 years. His work includes time with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, imprisonment for draft resistance during the Vietnam War, assistance in the fair housing movement, and participation in the anti-Apartheid Movement. He spent more than two decades as a human rights organizer in Central Europe, both with the American Friends Service Committee and independently. Robert Saleem Holbrook is the executive director of the Abolitionist Law Center. (recorded 2/7/2023)

A professor of education, philosophy, and political science at the University of Pennsylvania, Sigal R. Ben-Porath is the co-author of Making Up Our Mind: What School Choice Is Really About, and is the author of Free Speech on Campus and Citizenship Under Fire: Democratic Education in Times of Conflict, among other works. She is an executive committee member of the Andrea Mitchell Center for the Study of Democracy and is a former fellow-in- residence at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. In Cancel Wars, Ben-Porath offers a balanced examination of the polarized condition of campus politics, explains how these formerly neutral spaces became battlegrounds in our current culture wars, and shares a guide for opposing sides to bridge their differences and encourage civic trust even beyond the boundaries of academia. (recorded 1/25/2023)

In conversation with award-winning journalist and broadcaster Tracey Matisak ''A public intellectual with much to offer about teaching (and unlearning) history'' (The Washington Post), Clint Smith, in his bestselling book How the Word Is Passed, takes the reader on a tour of monuments and landmarks that tell an intergenerational story about the continuing legacy of slavery in the United States. A staff writer at The Atlantic, he is also the author of the poetry collection Counting Descent, which was a finalist for the NAACP Image Award. Smith has earned fellowships from a variety of institutions, including the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Art for Justice Fund, and the National Science Foundation, and his essays, poems, and scholarly work have been published in The Paris Review, The New Yorker, and The New Republic, among other publications. A former National Poetry Slam champion, his poetry collection, Above Ground, will be published in March 2023. (recorded 1/26/2023)

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6abc Action News morning edition Ibram X. Kendi is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University and the founding director of the BU Center for Antiracist Research. He is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and a CBS News correspondent. He is the author of many books including Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction, and five #1 New York Times bestsellers including How to Be an Antiracist; Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, co-authored with Jason Reynolds; and Antiracist Baby, illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky. His latest books are How to Raise an Antiracist and Goodnight Racism, illustrated by Cbabi Bayoc. In 2020, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He was awarded a 2021 MacArthur Fellowship, popularly known as the ''Genius Grant.''  Nic Stone is an Atlanta native and a Spelman College graduate. Her debut novel for young adults, Dear Martin, and her debut middle-grade novel, Clean Getaway, were both New York Times bestsellers. She is also the author of Odd One Out, which was an NPR Best Book of the Year and a Rainbow Book List Top Ten selection, Jackpot, and Shuri: A Black Panther Novel. Dear Justyce, the sequel to Dear Martin, recently published. She is one of the authors in the New York Times bestselling book Black Out, recently optioned for as a new anthology program for Netflix by Barack and Michelle Obama's production company, Higher Ground. Find her online at nicstone.info or @nicstone  Based on Kendi's internationally acclaimed book and co-authored by bestselling author Stone, How to Be a (Young) Antiracist is a dynamic reframing of the concepts shared in How to Be an Antiracist, with young adulthood front and center. (recorded 1/31/2023)

In conversation with Robert Kolker John Hendrickson is the author of a 2019 Atlantic article titled ''What Joe Biden Can't Bring Himself to Say.'' An account of the President's-and his own-lifelong experience with stuttering, it was read by more than two million people, including multitudes of stutterers who responded with stories of their own journeys. Life on Delay is a memoir born from that article and the deeper questions it raised for Hendrickson, as well as an exploration of the wider personal, societal, and professional issues that can affect stutterers and their families. A senior editor at The Atlantic, he wrote and edited for Rolling Stone, Esquire, and The Denver Post, and has spoken about stuttering, politics, and journalism on a variety of media platforms and at universities across the United States.  Robert Kolker's Hidden Valley Road, the nonfiction account of a family's experience with schizophrenia, was an instant No. 1 New York Times bestseller, an Oprah's Book Club selection, and was named a best book of the year by scores of media outlets. He is also the author of Lost Girls, one of Slate's best nonfiction books of the quarter century. A National Magazine Award finalist, his articles have appeared in Wired, The New York Times Magazine, and Bloomberg Businessweek, among many other periodicals. (recorded 1/24/2023)

In conversation with Imani Perry Ilyon Woo is the author of The Great Divorce, the ''lively, well-written, and engrossing tale'' (The New York Times Book Review) of a young mother's five-year fight against her husband, the Shakers religious sect, and the norms of 19th century United States for her and her children's freedom. The recipient of a Whiting Creative Nonfiction Writing Grant and of fellowships from the American Antiquarian Society and the National Endowment for the Humanities, Woo has contributed writing to The Wall Street Journal and The Boston Globe. Her latest book recounts the remarkable true story of an enslaved husband and wife who posed as master and slave while trekking more than a 1,000 miles to freedom in mid-19th century United States. Imani Perry won the 2022 National Book Award for nonfiction for South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation. Her other books include, Vexy Thing: On Gender and Liberation, Breathe: A Letter to My Sons, and Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry. Perry is the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies and faculty associate in the Program in Law and Public Affairs and Gender and Sexuality Studies at Princeton University. (recorded 1/19/2023)

In conversation with Mike Sielski The star of ESPN's No. 1 morning talk show First Take, Stephen A. Smith is one of the U.S. sporting press's most popular and outspoken personalities. He is also the host of NBA in Stephen A's World on ESPN2 and ESPN+, the host and producer of the podcast K[no]w Mercy with Stephen A. Smith, and an NBA analyst on ABC's NBA Countdown and ESPN's Sportscenter. From his upbringing as the youngest son in an immigrant family in Queens, NY to the successes and challenges in his professional career, Smith is characteristically candid in Straight Shooter and offers hot takes on sports, politics, and his personal life.  A sports columnist at The Philadelphia Inquirer since 2013, Mike Sielski is the author of The Rise, an account of Kobe Bryant's life and impact as a sports and cultural figure. He is also the author of Fading Echoes: A True Story of Rivalry and Brotherhood from the Football Field to the Fields of Honor and is the co-author of How to Be Like Jackie Robinson: Life Lessons from Baseball's Greatest Hero. In 2015 he was voted the best sports columnist in the U.S. by the Associated Press Sports Editors.  (recorded 1/19/2023)

He started as Jerry Blavat, a half-Jewish, half-Italian kid from South Philadelphia. These days, he's better known as The Geator with the Heater, The Boss with the Hot Sauce.  After 50 years in the music business, the man former Governor Ed Rendell declared ''as Philadelphia as the cheesesteak'' is still going strong.  His life in show business began at the age of 13 as a dancer on Bandstand.  He brought rock n' roll to Philadelphia in the 1960s and keeps it here to this day.  His new biography details his life rubbing elbows with stars and mobsters and bringing The Music to the people.   Interviewed by Tom Moon, former music critic for The Inquirer and author of 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die. (recorded 8/1/2011)

In conversation with Nate Chinen The author of Dirty Blvd.: The Life and Music of Lou Reed and editor of Patti Smith on Patti Smith: Interviews and Encounters, Aiden Levy played the baritone saxophone in the Stan Rubin Orchestra for 10 years. His writing has been published in The New York Times, The Village Voice, and JazzTimes, among other publications. Formerly a fellow at the Leon Levy Center for Biography, he is a doctoral candidate at Columbia University in the Department of English and Comparative Literature, works with the Center for Jazz Studies, and was a co-convener of the African American Studies Colloquium. In Saxophone Colossus, Levy offers the first full-length biography of Sonny Rollins, one of jazz's most celebrated but enigmatic musicians and composers.  WRTI jazz radio's editorial director, a regular contributor to NPR Music, and a consulting producer with Jazz Night in America, Nate Chinen formerly worked as a critic for The New York Times and wrote a long-running column for JazzTimes. He is the author of Playing Changes: Jazz for the New Century, named one of the best books of 2018 by NPR, GQ, and Billboard. A 13-time winner of the Helen Dance-Robert Palmer Award for Excellence in Writing, Chinen has also had his work widely anthologized. (recorded 1/17/2023)

Julie Dannenbaum Memorial Culinary Arts Lecture In conversation with Dena Heilik, head of Philbrick Hall, the Fiction and Movie department at Parkway Central. She also cohosts a monthly library Cookbook Club that has been running continuously for six years. Receiving praise from outlets like The New York Times and NPR, and counting Martha Stewart and Rachael Ray among her many fans, self-taught home chef Deb Perelman is the creator of smittenkitchen.com, a candid, can-do, go-to blog for those who want to make and eat good food without using complicated methods or expensive ingredients. Adapted from the website, her bestselling The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook won the IACP Julia Child Award and was a Cooking Light Top 100 Cookbook of the Last 25 Years recipient. Perelman followed up this success with Smitten Kitchen Every Day, a 100-recipe guide for delicious and easy-to-make food. In her long-awaited, follow-up cookbook to these two bestsellers, Perelman serves up recipes for cakes, quiches, pastas, and dozens of other dishes intended to become a part of the readers' every day cooking. (recorded 12/6/2022)

The national baseball writer for The New York Times since 2010, Tyler Kepner began his career as a teenager, interviewing players for a homemade magazine that garnered him national attention. His national bestseller K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches earned praise from fans, fellow sportswriters, and Hall of Fame pitchers alike. Also the author of The Phillies Experience: A Year-by-Year Chronicle of the Philadelphia Phillies, Kepner formerly covered the Angels for the Riverside Press-Enterprise, the Mariners for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and the Mets for the Times. In The Grandest Stage, Kepner uses analysis, lore, humor, and behind-the-scoreboards anecdotes to offer a vivid 117-year history of the World Series. (recorded 12/1/2022)

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6abc Action News morning edition The first African American principal dancer in the history of the elite American Ballet Theatre, Misty Copeland is one of the world's most accomplished and recognizable artists. She is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Life in Motion, Ballerina Body, Black Ballerinas, and the children's books Bunheads and Firebird. A recipient of the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP, an inductee in the Boys and Girls Club Alumni Hall of Fame, one of TIME magazine's 100 most influential people, and one of Glamour's Women of the Year, Copeland also made her critically acclaimed Broadway debut in 2015 in On the Town. In The Wind at My Back, Copeland offers a memoir about her formative and enduring relationship with friend, mentor, and trailblazing ballet dancer Raven Wilkinson. (recorded 11/29/2022)

Pine Tree Foundation Endowed Lecture In conversation with Richard Vague David Rubenstein is the co-founder and co-chairman of The Carlyle Group, one of the world's most successful private equity firms. The host of The David Rubinstein Show and Bloomberg Wealth with David Rubenstein on Bloomberg TV, he is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The American Story, How to Lead, and The American Experiment. He is chairman of the boards of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the National Gallery of Art, and as a leader in patriotic philanthropy, he has provided long-term loans of his rare copies of the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, the Emancipation Proclamation, and other historical documents to the U.S. Government. Utilizing his own three decades' experience and conversations with some of the biggest names in finance, his new book is a master class in investing. Venture capitalist and longtime Philadelphia-area philanthropist Richard Vague serves on the Penn Medicine board, is Chairman of the University of Pennsylvania Press, and is the president of the Philadelphia Live Arts and Fringe Festival. He is the author of The Next Economic Disaster: Why It's Coming and How to Avoid It and A Brief History of Doom: Two Hundred Years of Financial Crises. (recorded 11/28/2022)

A couple of songs and stories from a memorable evening with Patti Smith and Tony Shanahan--and a great audience--at the library. (recorded 11/22/2022)

In conversation with former congressman Patrick Kennedy Neal Gabler is the author of Catching the Wind: Edward Kennedy and the Liberal Hour, a ''rich and insightful'' (The New York Times) account of the figure known as the most complex of the Kennedys. His other work includes An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood, Life the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality, and award-winning biographies of Walt Disney and Walter Winchell. The former chief nonfiction judge for the National Book Awards, Gabler has earned a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Shorenstein Fellowship, and a Woodrow Wilson Public Policy Scholarship, among other honors. The second volume in his acclaimed biography of Ted Kennedy, Against the Wind follows the ''lion of the Senate'' as he works to safeguard progressive ideals and legislation during an era of conservative dominance. For 16 years Patrick J. Kennedy served Rhode Island's First Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he was the lead sponsor of the landmark Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act. He also authored and co-sponsored dozens of bills aimed at treating neurological and psychiatric disorders and served on numerous committees and subcommittees, including the House Appropriations Committee, the Subcommittee on Labor, and the Subcommittee on Veterans Affairs. The founder of The Kennedy Forum, a nonprofit dedicated to transforming mental health and addiction care, Kennedy is also the founder of the parity rights advocacy group Don't Deny Me, the co-founder of the online learning platform Psych Hub, and is the co-chair of the Action Alliance's National Response to COVID-19, among many other public health groups. In 2015 he co-authored with Stephen Fried the New York Times bestseller A Common Struggle, a roadmap to health equity in the United States based on his personal and professional experiences. (recorded 11/21/2022)

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition Historian Kerri K. Greenidge is the author of Black Radical: The Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter, a portrait of the post-Reconstruction civil rights activist. A New York Times Critics Top Books of 2019, it won the 2020 Mark Lynton History Prize. Greenidge is a professor at Tufts University, where she is co-director of the African American Trail Project and the interim director of the American Studies program. Formerly a teacher at Boston University and the University of Massachusetts, she has conducted historical research for PBS, the Wiley-Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature, and the Oxford African American Studies Center. In her latest book, she offers a revealing counternarrative to the story of the famed abolitionist Grimke sisters that accounts for their long-ignored Black relatives. (recorded 11/16/2022)

In conversation with Varshini Prakash Active in grassroot campaigns for social change for more than seven decades, sociologist and Quaker organizer George Lakey was first arrested at a civil rights demonstration in 1963 and most recently arrested just last year during a march for climate justice. At 84, he only recently retired from Swarthmore College, where he was the Eugene M. Lang Visiting Professor for Issues of Social Change. He is the author of several books, including Viking Economics: How the Scandinavians Got It Right-and How We Can, Too; How We Win: A Guide to Nonviolent Direct Action Campaigning; and Are We Done Fighting?: Building Understanding in a World of Hate and Division, which he co-wrote with Matthew Legge. His many honors include the Peace Educator of the Year Award, the Paul Robeson Social Justice Award, and the Martin Luther King Peace Award. A memoir about the struggles and triumphs of a life spent on the front lines of social movements, Dancing with History tells the story of Lakey's singular life. Varshini Prakash is the executive director and co-founder of Sunrise, a youth-led political nonprofit dedicated to stopping climate change and electing leaders who promote environmental health for future generations. Named to the 2019 TIME 100 list and a co-winner of the 2019 Sierra Club John Muir Award, she is co-editor of the book Winning the Green New Deal: Why We Must, How We Can. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Democracy Now, and The Washington Post, among other places. (recorded 11/15/2022)

In conversation with Jason Freeman, author events producer and editor Ralph Macchio is best known for his portrayal of Daniel LaRusso in the 1984 film The Karate Kid. This iconic piece of pop culture has spawned a slew of sequels and the No. 1 ranked Netflix show Cobra Kai, and has entered such phrases as ''wax on, wax off'' and ''sweep the leg, Johnny'' into the cultural lexicon. Also acclaimed for his performances in Francis Ford Coppola's The Outsiders and the classic My Cousin Vinny, Macchio is a director and producer with a diverse list of credits. In his new memoir, he tells the stories of his relationships with beloved co-stars such as Noriyuki ''Pat'' Morita and William Zabka, the creation and enduring power of The Karate Kid, and how he keeps a Daniel-esque crane-kick balance in his personal life.  (recorded 11/10/2022)

Attorney, advocate, and podcaster Rabia Chaudry is the author of the New York Times bestseller Adnan's Story, a true-crime analysis into the 2000 conviction of a young Baltimorean for the murder of his ex-girlfriend. Also the executive producer of The Case Against Adnan Syed, the HBO documentary series based on the book, Chaudry is the co-host and co-producer of the popular podcasts Undisclosed, The 45th, and The Hidden Djinn. In addition to earning fellowships from the Aspen Institute, the Truman National Security Project, and the Shalom Hartman Institute, she is the founder and president of the Safe Nation Collaborative, an organization that promotes education about the Islamic faith. In her new memoir, Chaudry tells an intimate story of body positivity, societal expectations, and growing up in a loving but overly concerned Pakistani immigrant family. (recorded 11/9/2022)

In conversation with Colum McCann ''The heir to Nabokov'' (The Sunday Telegraph), Irish novelist John Banville won the Man Booker Prize for The Sea, a story of loss and the fickle nature of memory. His many other novels include The Book of Evidence, Mrs. Osmond, The Untouchable, and April in Spain. He has earned the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Irish PEN Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, and the Prince of Asturias Award, Spain's most prestigious literary honor. A fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Banville is also an acclaimed playwright, nonfiction writer, screenwriter, and crime novelist. In The Singularities, a mysterious man with a borrowed name returns to the estate of his youth to find it occupied by the descendants of a famous but controversial scientist. Colum McCann won the 2009 National Book Award for Let the Great World Spin. His other novels include Song Dogs, This Side of Brightness, and the Man Booker Prize-shortlisted TransAtlantic . His most recent novel, Apeirogon, was a New York Times bestseller and won the Prix Montluc, the Elle Prize, and the Jewish National Book Award.The Thomas Hunter Writer in Residence at Hunter College in New York and the co-founder of the non-profit global story exchange organization Narrative 4, McCann has written for The New Yorker, Esquire, and the Paris Review, among other publications. (recorded 11/4/2022)

Andrew K. Diemer is the author of The Politics of Black Citizenship: Free African Americans in the Mid-Atlantic Borderland, 1817–1863, an examination of the ways in which free Black Philadelphians and Baltimoreans fought to defend their liberty before and during the Civil War. A history professor at Towson University, his articles and reviews have been published in the Journal of Military History, Slavery and Abolition, The Journal of the Civil War, and the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, among other publications. Diemer's latest book recounts the extraordinary life of William Still, a monumental but until-now relatively obscure Black abolitionist who devoted his life to conducting the crucial Philadelphia section of the Underground Railroad.    (recorded 11/3/2022)

Ellis Wachs Endowed Lecture In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition A former longtime columnist and foreign correspondent for The New York Times, Anand Giridharadas is the bestselling author of Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World, which was selected to numerous publications' ''best books of the year'' lists. His other books include The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas, winner of the New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism; and India Calling: An Intimate Portrait of a Nation's Remaking. A regular on-air analyst for MSNBC, he has taught journalism at New York University and contributed articles to The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and TIME magazine. In The Persuaders, Giridharadas offers insider accounts of the dissenting politicians, activists, and everyday citizens working to heal and safeguard U.S. democracy. (recorded 11/2/2022)

In conversation with Valerie Erwin Charleston, South Carolina–based Kardea Brown hosts the Food Network's Delicious Miss Brown and OWN's The Great Soul Food Cookoff. She also is the creator of the pop-up New Gullah Supper Club, where her cuisine pays homage to her grandmother's cooking and her Gullah/Geechee heritage, which describes a distinct African American group that has preserved much of its West African culture in the coastal areas of South Carolina and Georgia. She has also appeared on Beat Bobby Flay, Chopped Junior, and Family Food Showdown, among other culinary programs. In her first ever cookbook, Brown shares her multi-generational recipes for Low Country favorites, accentuated with helpful tips, family anecdotes, and beautiful photos. The longtime owner of the Low Country-inspired restaurant Geechee Girl, longtime Philly chef Valerie Erwin was also the general manager of the innovative EAT Café. These ventures have been featured in The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Magazine, and on The Food Network and NPR. She currently managers Farm to Families, a produce access program for children; serves on the board of C-CAP, a culinary scholarship program for high school students; and is a member of the board of the anti-homelessness organization Philadelphia Interfaith Hospitality Network. (recorded 11/1/2022)

Ross Gay is the author of The Book of Delights, a life-affirming collection of short lyric essays that reminds readers to appreciate so-called ordinary wonders, even during turbulent times. His several volumes of poetry include Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award; Be Holding, winner of the 2021 PEN America Jean Stein Book Award; and Bringing the Shovel Down. A writing professor at Indiana University, Gay has earned fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Bread Loaf Writer's Conference, and Cave Canem. Inciting Joy explores the ways that people can inspire love and compassion by recognizing that which unites us. Major Jackson is the Richard Dennis Green and Gold Professor at the University of Vermont, a core faculty member of the Bennington Writing Seminars, and the poetry editor of the Harvard Review. He is the author of five books of poetry, including The Absurd Man, Holding Company, and Leaving Saturn, and his work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and Ploughshares, among numerous other periodicals and journals. Jackson's many honors include the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, a Whiting Writers' Award, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. A Beat Beyond is a collection of essays, interviews, and notes that delve into the intellectual and spiritual aspects of poetry in order to understand its political, social, and emotional functions. (recorded 10/27/2022)

In conversation with award-winning journalist and broadcaster Tracey Matisak Acclaimed for her ''balanced, perceptive, thoroughly researched and exceptionally well written'' (The New Yorker) nonfiction portraits of historical figures, Stacy Schiff won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for her biography Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov), a narrative of the 52-year marriage of the legendary writer and his even more vivid wife. She is also the author of A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America; the Pulitzer Prize finalist Saint-Exupéry; Cleopatra: A Life; and The Witches: Salem, 1692. Her other honors include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Schiff's latest book examines Samuel Adams' transformation from the idle son of a wealthy U.S. colonial family to one of the Revolutionary War's significant firebrands. (recorded 10/26/2022)

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition Maggie Haberman was part of a team that won a 2018 Pulitzer Prize for its reportage of the investigations into then-President Donald Trump's, and his advisers', connections to Russia. She has also twice been part of a Pulitzer Prize finalist team: in 2021 for reporting on the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic and in 2022 for reporting on the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. A former political reporter for Politico, The New York Post, and The New York Daily News, she became a CNN political analyst in 2014. In Confidence Man, Haberman uses hundreds of sources and interviews-including many with Trump himself-to offer a definitive account of the former Oval Office occupant's chaotic campaigns, tumultuous term in office, and tortured post-presidency. (recorded 10/25/2022)

In conversation with Dorothy Roberts Referred to by Jelani Cobb as ''a Dean of American journalism,'' Charlayne Hunter-Gault has chronicled some of the past half-century's most important moments in Black life, culture, and politics. Often the only Black woman in the newsroom, she wrote for The New Yorker and The New York Times, where in 1968 she established the paper's Harlem bureau. Also a broadcast journalist, Hunter-Gault served as a reporter and anchor for PBS's McNeil-Lehrer Newshour, NPR's chief Africa correspondent, and the South Africa bureau chief for CNN. Her many honors include two Emmy Awards, two Peabody Awards, and honors from the National Urban coalition and the National Association of Black Journalists. Ranging from the Civil Rights Movement to Barack Obama's presidential election, My People is a definitive compilation of reportage and commentary that explores the Black American experience.  Dorothy Roberts is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. She is also founding director of the Penn Program on Race, Science & Society in the Center for Africana Studies and the author of several books that focus on health, social justice, and bioethics. Her most recent book is Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families-and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World. (recorded 10/24/2022)

In conversation with Laura McGrath, Assistant Professor of English at Temple University The winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature, Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk ''is one of the great novelists of his generation'' (The Washington Post). Characterized by examinations of identity, tensions between the East and West, modernism's clash with tradition, and a fascination with the creative arts, his novels-translated into more than 60 languages-include The New Life, Snow, The Museum of Innocence, A Strangeness in My Mind, and My Name is Red, winner of the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Pamuk is also the author of several works of nonfiction, essays, memoirs, and screenplays. Part detective story, part historical epic, part contemporary political parable, Nights of Plague follows the efforts of the residents of a fictional island belonging to the Ottoman Empire to halt the spread of a deadly illness. (recorded 10/20/2022)

Tom Felton became internationally famous for his role as the bleach-blond bad guy Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter movie series. More than a decade after the premiere of the last film in the series, he and the other performers continue to cast a spell over fans around the world as an enduring pop culture phenomenon. Before his villainous turn at Hogwarts, he acted in such beloved films as The Borrowers and Anna and the King, and has followed up on his success in the wizarding world with roles in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Belle, The Flash, and The Forgotten Battle, among many other film and television projects. This year he made his West End theater debut in 2:22 A Ghost Story. In Beyond the Wand, Felton reflects on the highs and lows of navigating fame at a young age, living as a normal teenager through it all, and the lasting friendships he enjoys with his Harry Potter co-stars. (recorded 10/19/2022)

The 24th United States Poet Laureate, Ada Limón is acclaimed for her explorations of the ''frightening mysteries and hopeful uncertainties of the everyday'' (The New York Times Book Review). Her many poetry collections include the National Book Critics Circle Award winner The Carrying; Bright Dead Things, a finalist for the National Book Award; and Big Fake World, winner of the Pearl Poetry Prize. The host of American Public Media's podcast The Slowdown, Limón has contributed poems to The New Yorker, American Poetry Review, and the Harvard Review, among many other publications. The Hurting Kind is a collection of verse that ponders the filaments of joy, loss, and hope that connect us all. (recorded 10/17/2022)

In conversation with Airea D. Matthews, Philadelphia Poet Laureate and Co-Director of the Creative Writing Program at Bryn Mawr With an artist's perspective and a ground-level view of people in extremis across the world, writer Anna Badkhen offers ''rich and lucid prose [that] illustrates her journey as vividly as might a series of photographs'' (Christian Science Monitor). Her immersive investigations of the world's inequities have yielded seven books of nonfiction, including The World Is a Carpet: Four Seasons in an Afghan Village; Walking with Abel: Journeys with the Nomads of the African Savannah; and Fisherman's Blues: A West African Community at Sea. A contributor to Foreign Policy, The New York Times, and The New Republic, she has earned a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Barry Lopez Visiting Writer in Ethics and Community Fellowship, and the Joel R. Seldin Award for documenting the lives of civilians in warzones. In Bright Unbearable Reality, Badkhen offers 11 essays set across four continents that explore the human need for communion amidst the world's current emotional and political disruptions.  Airea D. Matthews is the Philadelphia Poet Laureate and Co-Director of the Creative Writing Program at Bryn Mawr College. Her collection Simulacra won the 2016 Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize and her work has appeared in Callaloo, Harvard Review, and American Poets, among other journals. The recipient of a 2022 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship, her latest collection, Bread and Circus, comes out next year. (recorded 10/18/2022)

Religion scholar Reza Aslan is the author of the No. 1 New York Times bestseller Zealot, ''a lucid, intelligent page-turner'' (Los Angeles Times) that sifts through centuries of mythmaking to present a clear account of the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth. His other books include No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, a finalist for the Guardian First Book Award and selected as the best book of the year by the Financial Times and the Los Angeles Times; How to Win a Cosmic War: Confronting Radical Religions; and Beyond Fundamentalism: Confronting Religious Extremism in a Globalized Age. His new book recounts the story of a U.S. missionary who fought for democracy in early 20th century Iran. (recorded 10/13/2022)

One of academia's leading authorities on African American literature, enslavement, gender studies, and the ways in which marginalized people are excluded in historical narratives, Saidiya Hartman is a University Professor at Columbia University. Her works include Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals; Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route; and numerous essays on feminism, film, and photography. Currently a member of the editorial board at Callaloo and a MacArthur fellow, Hartman has earned Fulbright, Rockefeller, and Guggenheim fellowships. A revised and updated edition of her ''audacious'' and ''provocative'' (The Nation) 1997 historical exploration of the lives of several Black women in Harlem and Philadelphia in the 1890s, Scenes of Subjection seeks to turn away from the ''terrible spectacle'' and toward the forms of routine terror and quotidian violence characteristic of slavery, illuminating the intertwining of injury, subjugation, and selfhood even in abolitionist depictions of enslavement. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor is the Leon Forrest Professor of African American Studies at Northwestern University. Formerly a professor of African American Studies at Princeton University for eight years, her books include From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation, How We Get Free, and Race for Profit, a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in history. Taylor has been named one of the hundred most influential African Americans in the United States by The Root and Essence Magazine named her among the top one hundred ''change makers'' in the county. She has been appointed as a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians by the Organization of American Historians.A guest on such outlets as Democracy Now!, The Intercept, and All Things Considered, she has contributed opinion pieces to The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Paris Review, among many other periodicals. (recorded 10/12/2022)

Yiyun Li's ''remarkable'' (The Washington Post) debut fiction collection, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the PEN/Hemingway Award, and the Guardian First Book Award. Her other work includes the novel The Vagrants, the story collection Gold Boy, Emerald Girl, and the memoir Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life. The recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Windham-Campbell Prize, Li teaches writing at Princeton University and is a contributing editor for A Public Space. A story of obsession and friendship, her new novel follows a woman's mental journey back to the war-ravaged French village of her youth. Acclaimed for their ''moments of joy and pure magic'' (Los Angeles Times), Elizabeth McCracken's seven books include Bowlaway, The Giant's House, Thunderstruck & Other Stories, and The Souvenir Museum, a story collection that was longlisted for the National Book Award. A former faculty member at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and currently the James Michener Chair for Fiction at the University of Texas at Austin, McCracken has earned the PEN New England Award, three Pushcart Prizes, and an O. Henry Prize, among other honors. Her latest novel finds a woman wrestling with grief, history, and her craft as she takes a trip to her recently departed mother's favorite city. (recorded 10/6/2022)

In conversation with Jo Piazza A ''quite prescient and worthwhile'' writer who ''understands her characters inside and out'' (The New York Times Book Review), Jodi Picoult has authored many No. 1 bestsellers that are renowned for combining controversial topics with nuanced characters and precise descriptions of suburbia's fraught reality. Her 28 novels include House Rules, Handle with Care, Wish You Were Here, Nineteen Minutes, My Sister's Keeper, and Small Great Things, as well as the young adult novel Between the Lines, co-written with her daughter, Samantha van Leer. The author of more than a dozen books, Jennifer Finney Boylan achieved great literary success in 2003 with her critically acclaimed memoir She's Not There, the first bestselling book by a transgender American. Her other works include You Are You, Long Black Veil, and I'm Looking Through You, a memoir about her upbringing in a dilapidated mansion on Philadelphia's Main Line. Currently the inaugural Anna Quindlen Writer-in-Residence at Barnard College of Columbia University, a fellow at Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and a trustee of PEN America, Boylan is a former longtime national co-chair of GLAAD. In their first collaborative novel, Picoult and Boylan tell the story of a woman who flees with her son to her sleepy New Hampshire hometown only to face the possibility that the teenager shares his father's explosive tendencies. (recorded 10/5/2022)

In conversation with Mark Krotov, publisher and editor of n+1  Vladimir Sorokin is one of contemporary Russian literature's most popular writers. Banned by the Soviet Union, his numerous novels include The Queue, The Blizzard, Day of the Oprichnik, and the controversial Blue Lard. His work also includes several screenplays, plays, short story collections, art exhibitions, and an opera libretto, and his writing has been translated into more than 30 languages. The subject of a 2019 documentary and famed for his outspoken criticism of Vladimir Putin's government, Sorokin has earned an O. Henry Award, the Andrei Bely Award for outstanding contributions to Russian literature, and a nomination for the Russian Booker Prize. His latest novel, Telluria, imagines a fractured future in which a holy war between Europe and Islam has sent the world spiraling into a state of feudalism and disarray. Max Lawton has translated eight of Sorokin's novels and has translated his stories for n+1 and The New Yorker. The recipient of the prestigious Clarendon Scholarship for the University of Oxford, he is also a novelist and musician. (recorded 10/3/2022)

In conversation with Tracey Matisak Margaret A. Burnham is the founding director of the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project, an initiative to document every racially motivated killing in the South between 1930 and 1970. Also a law professor at Northeastern University and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve on the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board, she formerly worked as a lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, as a staffer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and as a judge in the Boston Municipal Court. In By Hands Now Known, Burnham expands her analysis of the astonishing violence of the Jim Crow era to investigate the legal apparatus that held up this infamously cruel system and its still-reverberating legacy. (recorded 9/29/2022)

In conversation with Edwin Mayorga and Sharif El-Mekki  For 20 years Camika Royal was a middle and high school teacher and a teaching coach for her fellow educators in Baltimore, Washington, DC, and her hometown of Philadelphia. Currently an associate professor of urban education at Loyola University Maryland, she examines the racial, historical, and sociopolitical contexts of school reform ideologies, policies, and practices. A sought-after speaker and education consultant, she taught at Lincoln University of Pennsylvania and other colleges and universities in the Philadelphia and Baltimore areas.    Associate Professor in Swarthmore College's Department of Educational Studies and the Program in Latin American and Latino Studies, Edwin Mayorga is the founder of the Education in Our Barrios Project (BarrioEdProject) research study and after school club, and the Philadelphia Community, School and College Partnership Research Project. The co-editor of What's Race Got to do With It?: How Current School Reform Policy Maintains Racial and Economic Equality, he is the recipient of several research grants and fellowships.   The Director of the Center for Black Educator Development, Sharif El-Mekki has served as an administrator and teacher in Philadelphia schools for nearly three decades. The co-creator of The Fellowship-Black Male Educators for Social Justice, he was a 2013 U.S. Department of Education Principal Fellow Ambassador and an America Achieves Fellow. His other projects include Philly's 7th Ward blog and the 8 Black Hands podcast. (recorded 9/28/2022)

Meelya Gordon Memorial Lecture ''John le Carré's nonfiction counterpart'' (The New York Times), Ben Macintyre is the bestselling author of A Spy Among Friends, Agent Zigzag, Operation Mincemeat, and The Spy and the Traitor, among other books. He has adapted several of these stories into popular documentaries for the BBC. Writer-at-large for The Times of London, Macintyre is the recipient of the Spears Book Award, has twice been nominated for the Edgar Award in best fact crime, and was shortlisted for Baillie Gifford Prize. Prisoners of the Castle recounts the harrowing story of the infamous Colditz Castle prison, wherein the Nazi's held some of WWII's most diverse, defiant, and resourceful Allied soldiers. (recorded 9/27/2022)

In conversation with Tracey Matisak, award winning broadcaster and journalist Tommie Smith and John Carlos made history at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics when they stood at the winners' podium and raised their black-gloved fists to protest racial injustice in the United States. Smith, gold medalist in the 200-meter sprint, and Carlos, the bronze medal winner, were forced to leave the games and faced a swift and brutal backlash at home. In his illustrated memoir for young readers, Smith tells the story of his rural Texas childhood, early career, Olympic victory, and internationally famous protest. In addition to his Olympic gold medal, Tommie Smith held the record for the 200-meter sprint for more than 44 years, held an additional six running world records, won the 1966 NCAA Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championship, and was drafted into the NFL. The author of the memoir Silent Gesture, he coached track and taught sociology at Oberlin College. Smith is an inductee to the United States National Track and Field Hall of Fame and the California Black Sports Hall of Fame. Derrick Barnes is the author of more than a dozen bestselling children's books that celebrate African American culture, including The Making of Dr. Truelove, Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut, and the Ruby and the Booker Boys series. He has been honored with a Newbery Award and a Coretta Scott King Award Emmy Award–-winning illustrator Dawud Anyabwile designed storyboards for Cartoon Network, TBS, TNT, and Boomerang. He illustrated the graphic novel adaptation of Walter Dean Myers' book Monster and is the illustrator of the Brotherman: Dictator of Discipline comic series, among numerous other projects. His many other honors include an Eisner Award and a Glyph Comics Award. (recorded 9/23/2022)

In conversation with Chenjerai Kumanyika Ruth Wilson Gilmore is largely credited with creating carceral geography, the study of how the interplay between space, institutions, and political economies shape modern incarceration. The author of Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California and several often-anthologized essays, she is the co-founder of several social justice organizations, including the California Prison Moratorium Project and Critical Resistance. She is a professor of earth and environmental sciences and American studies at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where she is also director of the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics. Gilmore's many honors include the Angela Y. Davis Prize for Public Scholarship from the American Studies Association and the Association of American Geographers' Harold Rose Award for Anti-Racist Research. A collection of Gilmore's work from the last three decades, Abolition Geography offers scholars, activists, and all interested people a new way of reacting to the incarceration crisis. (recorded 9/22/2022)

In conversation with Wesley Stace ''The most psychologically astute writer working today, our era's Jane Austen'' (Esquire), Ian McEwan won the Booker Prize for his novel Amsterdam. His 16 other novels include Atonement, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and later adapted into an acclaimed Oscar-nominated film; The Comfort of Strangers and Black Dogs, both Booker Prize finalists; and Nutshell. McEwan's other work includes two children's books, a work of nonfiction, two plays, five screenplays, and four short story collections, including First Love, Last Rites, winner of the Somerset Maugham Award. His new novel tells the story of a man careening through some of the 20th century's most turbulent events as he searches for answers about his family history. (recorded 9/21/2022)

In conversation with Kevin Werbach Acclaimed for their intersectional explorations of cyberculture, religion, currency, and politics, Douglas Rushkoff's 20 bestselling books include Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus, Program or Be Programmed, Present Shock, and Media Virus. He also is the host of the Team Human podcast, writes a column for Medium, and created the PBS Frontline documentaries Generation Like, The Persuaders, and Merchants of Cool. A professor of media theory and digital economics at City University of New York, Queens College, he was selected as one of the world's 10 most influential intellectuals by MIT, was the first winner of the Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity, is a recipient of the Marshall McLuhan Award, and has received many other accolades. In Survival of the Richest, Rushkoff reveals the flawed mindset that has led out-of-touch tech titans to prepare for a societal catastrophe they could simply avert through practical measures. Chair of the Department of Legal Studies and Business Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, Ken Werbach is the author of For the Win: How Game Thinking Can Revolutionize Your Business and The Blockchain and the New Architecture of Trust. He served on the Obama administration's presidential transition team and helped develop the Federal Communications Commission's approach to internet policy. (recorded 9/20/2022)

In conversation with David Fricke, senior editor for Rolling Stone and SiriusXM host The co-founder, co-editor, and publisher of Rolling Stone, Jann Wenner has influenced the ways in which the world perceives music, politics, and pop culture for nearly 50 years. Also the founder and publisher of Outside, US Weekly, Family Life, and Men's Journal, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the American Society of Magazine Editor's Hall of Fame. Praised by Bruce Springsteen as ''a touchingly honest memoir from a man who recorded and shaped our times and of a grand life well lived,'' Like A Rolling Stone tells the story of Wenner's life and generation as it charts his association with rock stars, journalists, artists, politicians, and thought leaders. (recorded 9/15/2022)

In conversation with Laura McGrath, Assistant Professor of English at Temple University ''Quirky and often darkly hilarious'' (Mother Jones), Gary Shteyngart is the author of the culturally reflective novels The Russian Debutante's Handbook, winner of the Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction; Absurdistan, named a ''best book of the year'' by slews of periodicals; the New York Times bestseller Super Sad True Love Story; and Lake Success, a critically acclaimed satire of the emptiness of materialism. His other work includes the National Book Critics Award finalist Little Failure, a memoir of his experiences in the dramatically dissimilar worlds of uber-consumerist America and the perpetually deprived Soviet Union of his youth. Shteyngart has contributed articles and essays to Esquire, GQ, and The New Yorker, and his work has been translated into more than 20 languages. In his latest novel, a group of friends navigates the rocky shoals of love, betrayal, and K-pop while in pandemic lockdown. (recorded 9/13/2022)

In conversation with Mark Bowden A Pulitzer Prize–-winning journalist and author of four books, Buzz Bissinger is perhaps best known for the New York Times bestseller Friday Night Lights, the 1990 nonfiction chronicle of a Texas high school football team that has since been adapted into a successful film and a long-running television series. His other popular books include 3 Nights in August, A Prayer for the City, and Father's Day, a memoir about his cross-country journey with his extraordinary son. A contributing editor for Vanity Fair and a sports columnist for The Daily Beast, Bissinger is a longtime contributor to The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and The Philadelphia Inquirer, among other periodicals. The Mosquito Bowl tells the story of two United States Marine regiments that play a bloody game of football on the eve of the WWII invasion of Okinawa, a battle from which many of the players would not return. Renowned for his ''signature blend of deep reportage and character-driven storytelling (The New York Times Book Review),'' Mark Bowden is the author of 15 bestselling books of investigative journalism, including Blackhawk Down, adapted by Ridley Scott into a popular film; Killing Pablo, winner of the Overseas Press Club's Cornelius Ryan Award for book of the year; The Three Battles of Wanat, a collection of his best long-form essays; and Hue 1968, the story of the Vietnam War's bloodiest battle as told by participants from both sides.  (recorded 9/14/2022)

In conversation with Tracey Matisak, award-winning journalist and interviewer Co-star of the ABC mega-hit show Black-ish, Jenifer Lewis' nearly 35-year career has featured roles in some of Hollywood's most beloved films and television shows. These include such diverse projects as What's Love Got to Do With It, Pixar's Cars series, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, among dozens of others. Titled after her unofficial nickname, her memoir The Mother of Black Hollywood charts her journey from a childhood of poverty in the Midwest to the acting roles that have made her an icon. Lewis earned two Critics' Choice Television Award nominations for her work on Black-ish and her previous work has garnered an NAACP Image Award. Walking in My Joy is an essay collection that celebrates the importance of perseverance in the face of adversity and our need for self-love. (recorded 9/12/2022)

In conversation with Tracey Matisak, award winning journalist and broadcaster The United States Representative for California's 28th Congressional District and the Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Adam Schiff was the lead manager for the first impeachment proceedings against former President Donald Trump. He is a former member of the House Appropriations Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee, and served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles from 1987 to 1993 and a California State Senator from 1996 to 2000. In Midnight in Washington, Schiff reveals an inside look at American democracy's darkest moment, his own path to becoming one of the former president's most prominent antagonists, and the principles we need to renew and reinvigorate in the struggle against autocracy. (recorded 8/29/2022)

In conversation with Marc Lamont Hill W. Kamau Bell is the host and executive producer of the Emmy Award–winning CNN docuseries United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell, and also directed and executive produced the recent four-part Showtime documentary We Need To Talk About Cosby. He has appeared as a guest and comedian on many television shows, has two comedy specials, hosts the radio show Kamau Right Now, co-hosts two podcasts, and hosted the FXX series Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell. The author of the memoir The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell, he has contributed writing to The New York Times, Vanity Fair, The Hollywood Reporter, and The LA Review of Books, among other places. Kate Schatz is the author of The New York Times bestselling Rad Women book series. Her other books include the work of fiction Rid of Me, articles and essays in an array of publications, and ''Folsom, Survivor,'' which was anthologized in The Best American Short Stories 2011. A political organizer and frequent public speaker, she is the co-founder of Solidarity Sundays, a nationwide network of more than 200 feminist activist groups. Schatz is the former chair of the School of Literary Arts at the Oakland School for the Arts, and she taught women's studies, literature, and creative writing at University of California, Santa Cruz; San Jose State; Rhode Island College; and Brown University. Filled with activities, ideas, games, illustrations, resources, comics, and prompts for conversations, Do the Work! challenges readers and the people in their lives to better understand systemic racism in order to dismantle it. (recorded 8/3/2022)

In their illustrated children's book, Brian Westbrook Sr. and Lesley Van Arsdall tell the story of a determined little critter named Brian who overcomes his small size to become a star in the Mouse Football League. Brian Westbrook, Sr. played nine seasons in the NFL, including eight seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles. He was a two-time Pro-Bowl running back and was named first team All-Pro after the 2007 season, in which he led the league with over 2,000 yards from scrimmage. He now makes regular broadcast appearances in addition to his charity work with the Brian Westbrook Foundation and speaking engagements. Lesley Van Arsdall is a seasoned TV news veteran who has covered Philadelphia sports, local and headline news as both an anchor and a reporter. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, she lives outside Philadelphia with her husband and two sons. This is her first children's book. (recorded 8/4/2022)

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition One of the world's foremost chroniclers of the intersection of the human and natural worlds, Michael Pollan is a No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of eight books. These works include How to Change Your Mind, an examination of the science of psychedelics; Cooked, which was adapted into a Netflix series; Food Rules: An Eater's Manual; and A Natural History of Four Meals, which won the James Beard Award and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. A contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine for 35 years, Pollan has earned two James Beard Awards, the Reuters-I.U.C.N. 2000 Global Award for Environmental Journalism, and the Genesis Award from the Humane Society of the United States, among numerous other honors. He is the co-founder of the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics and is the Knight Professor of Science and Journalism at UC Berkeley. A challenge to rethink traditional notions of drugs, This Is Your Mind on Plants explores the allure, taboos, and effects of three very different psychoactive plants. (recorded 7/18/2022)

In conversation with Tracey Matisak, award winning broadcaster and journalist Mark Leibovich's books include the No. 1 bestseller This Town, a ''vastly entertaining and deeply troubling'' (The New York Times Book Review) exploration of the political culture in Washington, D.C.; and Big Game, a beyond-the-playing-field analysis of professional football at its precarious economic and social peak. Former chief national correspondent for The New York Times Magazine and a former correspondent for The Washington Post, Leibovich recently joined The Atlantic as a staff writer and is a contributing political analyst for NBC and MSNBC. He won the 2011 National Magazine Award for his profile of journalist Mike Allen. A sequel to This Town, Thank You for Your Servitude is a no-holds-barred account of Donald Trump's collaboration with the Republican Party to transform the once-proud party into a cult of personality mired in corruption and anti-democratic values. (recorded 7/26/2022)

In conversation with Renée Chenault Fattah In The XX Edge, Patience Marime-Ball and Ruth Shaber envision a new paradigm of gender-focused investing where more women are placed in decision-making roles and able to optimize their skills across all capital markets-leading to higher returns for individual investors and greater economic growth. Patience Marime-Ball is the founder and CEO of Women of the World Endowment, an investment nonprofit focused on centralizing women changemakers as economic, environmental, and social changemakers while delivering market-rate, risk adjusted returns and impact at scale. She has more than two and half decades of investment experience across capital markets – including debt and equity financing, large scale infrastructure, distressed assets, as well as venture stage opportunities. Patience has led many ''firsts'' in the investing space; she developed the Banking on Women platform at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and was responsible for co-designing IFC's multi-billion dollar Global Trade Liquidity Program, as well as the first-ever gender bond issued on the Uridashi market. Ruth Shaber is the founder and president of the Tara Health Foundation, a nonprofit organization that promotes and invests in programs aimed at health, well-being, and opportunities for women and girls. She is also the co-founder and board chair of Rhia Ventures, a group of foundations and investors devoted to reproductive health in the United States, and was a gynecologist and obstetrician at Kaiser Permanente for 22 years. Selected as a Forbes 2020 Impact 50: Investors Seeking Profit-and Pushing for Change for her work in impact investing, Shaber, is also the founder of the Women's Health Research Institute. A former longtime co-anchor of the WCAU NBC 10 News, Renée Chenault Fattah also worked at several other stations across the country and as a lawyer at the New York firm of Hughes Hubbard & Reed. She serves on the board of directors of Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity and on the board of trustees of Johns Hopkins University, and in 2020 was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia Hall of Fame. (recorded 7/20/2022)

Acclaimed for crafting ''sharply drawn characters, exuberant prose,'' and ''plenty of period detail'' (Los Angeles Times Book Review), Diane McKinney-Whetstone is the author of six novels, including Tumbling, Tempest Rising, Trading Dreams at Midnight, and Lazaretto, a historical novel set in a legendary 19th-century Philadelphia quarantine hospital. A two-time recipient of the American Library Association Black Caucus Literary Award for fiction and winner of a Zora Neale Hurston Society Award, she taught creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania for 12 years and has contributed writing to The Atlantic, Essence, and Philadelphia Magazine. In Our Gen, McKinney-Whetstone follows the residents of a Philadelphia-area active-living retirement community who revert to the passions and excesses of their youth. (recorded 7/19/2022)

In conversation with Marc Lamont Hill A world-renowned counterterrorism expert and former career intelligence officer who has deployed in the Balkans, the Middle East, and sub-Saharan Africa, Malcolm Nance is a longtime consultant for the U.S. government's Special Operations and Homeland Security agencies. His New York Times bestselling books include The Plot to Hack America, Hacking Isis, The Plot to Betray America, and Defeating ISIS. The founder and executive director of the think tank Terror Asymmetrics Project on Strategy, Tactics and Radical Ideologies, he is a frequent commentator on MSNBC. In They Want to Kill Americans, Nance describes the existential threat to democracy posed by Donald Trump, his collaborators, and their followers. The Steve Charles Chair in Media, Cities and Solutions at Temple University, Marc Lamont Hill is the host of BET News and the Coffee and Books podcast. The recipient of honors from the National Association of Black Journalists, GLAAD, and the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, he is the author of six books, including Beats, Rhymes, and Classroom Life; Nobody: Casualties of America's War on the Vulnerable, from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond; and Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics. (recorded 7/14/2022)

In conversation with Beth Kephart Alice Elliott Dark is the author of the critically acclaimed novel Think of England and the short story collections In the Gloaming and Naked to the Waist. Her stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, Ploughshares, and The New Yorker, and her story ''In the Gloaming'' has twice been adapted into feature films. A writing professor in Rutgers University-Newark's MFA program, Dark has earned a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, an O. Henry Award, and inclusion in several literary anthologies. A novel about friendship, class differences, and societal expectations for women, Fellowship Point tells the story of a a delicate but devastating rift between two lifelong friends. Beth Kephart is the author of more than 30 books across a wide range of genres, including Going Over, Handling the Truth: On the Writing of Memoir, and most recently Wife | Daughter | Self. A writing professor at the University of Pennsylvania, she is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant, a Pew Fellowship, and the Speakeasy Poetry Prize, among other honors. (recorded 7/13/2022)

In conversation with Asali Solomon Nigerian American author Chinelo Okparanta's acclaimed debut novel Under the Udala Trees celebrates the act of loving fearlessly, even amidst the strife of prejudice and civil war. Selected for more than a dozen periodicals' 2015 ''best of'' lists, it won a Lambda Literary Award, was a finalist for the International Dublin Literary Award, and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award in fiction. Okparanta is also the author of the short story collection Happiness, Like Water, winner of an O. Henry Prize, and a finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award and the Etisalat Prize for Literature. The director of the creative writing program at Swarthmore College, she has published fiction in various publications, including The New Yorker, Granta, and Tin House. Her latest novel delves into a young white man's journey from his prejudiced smalltown to a life of freedom in New York City. Asali Solomon is the author of the novels The Days of Afrekete and Disgruntled, the short story collection Get Down, and stories published in a wide array of periodicals, including McSweeney's, Essence, and O, The Oprah Magazine. A professor of fiction writing and literature of the African diaspora at Haverford College, she is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award and the National Book Foundation's ''5 Under 35'' honor.  (recorded 7/12/2022)

In conversation with Karen Heller, national features writer for The Washington Post, formerly a metro and features columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and a finalist for the 2001 Pulitzer Prize in commentary. ''A master of narrative nonfiction'' (Rolling Stone), Patrick Radden Keefe is the author of the New York Times bestseller Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty. A critical history of the family responsible for making and marketing painkillers that led to the opioid crisis, it won the 2021 Baillie Gifford Prize and was a National Book Critics Circle nominee. Keefe is also an award-winning staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of three other books, including the National Book Critics Circle Award winner Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland. His other honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship and the National Magazine Award for feature writing. He wrote and hosted the podcast Wind of Change, selected as the No. 1 podcast of 2020 by The Guardian. Writing about disreputable figures such as wine counterfeiters, arms dealers selling weapons illegally, and Swiss money launderers, Rogues is a collection of 12 of Keefe's New Yorker articles about corruption, fraud, and power. (recorded 6/29/2022)

Meelya Gordon Memorial Lecture In conversation with Marjorie Margolies, President, Women's Campaign International and author of And How Are the Children?: Timeless Lessons from the Frontlines of Motherhood The younger sister of President Joe Biden, Valerie Biden Owens led his seven consecutive successful campaigns for the U.S. Senate, was campaign manager for his presidential bids in 1988 and 2008, and was his principal campaign trail representative and a senior advisor for his 2020 bid for the White House. She is the chair of the Biden Institute at the University of Delaware, a partner at Owens Patrick Leadership Seminars, a board member of The Ministry of Caring, and formerly served on the national board of the Women's Leadership Forum of the Democratic National Committee. In her new memoir, Biden Owens shares stories of growing up in a close-knit Irish Catholic family, being a confidante and advocate in her brother's life and career, and learning lessons about overcoming gender barriers and achieving professional goals while raising children. (recorded 6/28/2022)

In conversation with Sayeeda Rashid, Director of the Center for Gender Resources and Sexual Education at Haverford College Hugh Ryan is the author of When Brooklyn Was Queer, a ''boisterous, motley ... entertaining and insightful'' (The New York Times Book Review) analysis of the famous borough's LGBTQ+ history from the 1850s to present. Winner of a New York City Book Award and a New York Times Editors' Choice, it was a finalist for the Randy Shilts and Lambda Literary Awards. Ryan earned the 2020 Allan Berube Prize from the American Historical Association and residencies or fellowships from Yaddo, The Watermill Center, the New York Public Library, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. In The Women's House of Detention, he examines the history of the United States's current crisis of incarcerating queer and transgender people through the story of the notorious mid-20th century Manhattan prison that held tens of thousands of women, transgender men, and gender-nonconforming people. (recorded 6/23/2022)

In conversation with Hayden Dunbar, assistant editor, The Sewanee Review Lisa Taddeo is the author of the No. 1 New York Times bestseller Three Women, the ''staggeringly intimate'' (Entertainment Weekly) and extensively researched true story of the sex lives of three unconnected women in the U.S. Winner of the best narrative nonfiction book of the year at the British Book Awards, it was chosen as the best book of the year by numerous media outlets and was adapted into a television series by Showtime. Taddeo is also the author of the acclaimed novel Animal, worked as an associate editor at Golf Magazine, and has contributed work to The New York Times, Esquire, Elle, and Glamour, among several other publications. A collection of nine stories-two of which were awarded Pushcart Prizes-Ghost Lover is about the obsessions, manias, and fevered desires inherent to love and sex in the digital age. (recorded 6/21/2022)

In conversation with Herman Beavers Gene Andrew Jarrett is the author of Representing the Race: A New Political History of African American Literature and Deans and Truants: Race and Realism in African American Literature. He is the editor of an additional eight books of African American literary studies, including two about 19th century U.S. poet Paul Laurence Dunbar. Dean of the faculty and William S. Tod Professor of English at Princeton University, last year he was appointed to the Association of American Universities' Advisory Board for Racial Equity in Higher Education. On the 150th anniversary of Dunbar's birth, Jarrett's latest book is a nuanced biography of Dunbar as the Gilded Age celebrity, acclaimed as the ''poet laureate of his race,'' whose improbable success hid profound private struggles. A professor of English and Africana studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Herman Beavers teaches 20th Century and Contemporary African American literature and poetry writing. He is the author of the scholarly monograph Geography and the Political Imaginary in the Novels of Toni Morrison, the poetry chapbook Obsidian Blues, and his poems have appeared in Cleaver Magazine, Versadelphia, and The American Arts Quarterly, among other publications.  (recorded 6/16/2022)

In conversation with Melinna Bobadilla A story collection featuring Latinas of Indigenous heritage experiencing the challenges of friendship and family in the American West, Kali Fajardo-Anstine's Sabrina & Corina won an American Book Award and was a finalist for the National Book Award, the PEN/Bingham Prize, and The Story Prize, among other honors. Fajardo-Anstine has contributed writing to an eclectic array of periodicals and journals, including The New York Times, Harper's Bazaar, O the Oprah Magazine, and Boston Review. The 2022/2023 endowed chair of Creative Writing at Texas State University, she has earned fellowships from MacDowell, Yaddo, and Tin House. Her debut novel Woman of Light is a Western saga that spans five generations of Chicana women. Melinna Bobadilla is an actor & activist  best known for roles like ‘Santos' on Orange is The New Black and fierce immigration attorney ‘Melinna Barragan' on the Peabody nominated series Gentefied, both on Netflix . Melinna is a multi-hyphenate culture maker and critic, as her work aside from acting includes being an educator, public speaker, VO artist and host/co-producer with Futuro Media's Latino Rebels Live. Melinna is an alumni of UC Berkeley & NYU and is a proud 1st gen daughter of parents born in Mexico. You can find her work on Netflix, Apple TV Plus (Little America), HBO Max (For Rosa), and coming up on Showtime & Amazon Freevee. IG @MelinnaBobadilla (recorded 6/15/2022)

In conversation with Tracey Matisak, award winning broadcaster and journalist A two-time world champion debater and a former coach of the Harvard College Debating Union and the Australian national debating team, Bo Seo has won the World Schools Debating Championship and the World Universities Debating Championship. He formerly served as a national reporter for the Australian Financial Review and has contributed writing to The New York Times, The Atlantic, and CNN, among other media outlets. Currently a law school student at Harvard, he has a master's degree in public policy from Tsinghua University. In Good Arguments, Seo describes how debate empowered him to find his voice amidst his family's emigration from Korea to Australia when he was only 8, the ways in which many other people have utilized spoken rhetoric on their paths to success, and the specific debate strategies anyone can use to improve their lives.  Books will be mailed after the event. Please allow up to three weeks for delivery. U.S. orders only. Books provided by Uncle Bobbie's Coffee and Books (recorded 6/14/2022)

In conversation with Annie Liontas, author of Let Me Explain You and co-editor of the anthology A Manner of Being: Writers on their Mentors Praised by Carmen Maria Machado as ''a sharp, flawless ... sexy and dark and strange and absolutely perfect'' debut novel, Rebecca Rukeyser's The Seaplane on Final Approach is about the increasingly elaborate erotic desires of a young woman working on a remote and chaotic Alaskan tourist island. A professor of fiction writing at Bard College Berlin and the recipient of the inaugural Berlin Senate Endowment for non-German literature, Rukeyser has published stories in a variety of publications, including ZYZZYVA, The Massachusetts Review, and The Best American Nonrequired Reading. Annie Liontas' debut novel, Let Me Explain You (Scribner), was featured in The New York Times Book Review as Editor's Choice and was selected by the ABA as an Indies Introduce Debut and Indies Next title.  She is the co-editor of the anthology A Manner of Being: Writers on their Mentors.  Annie's work has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, NPR, Gay Magazine, BOMB, Guernica, McSweeney's, and elsewhere.  The Gloss, her interview series with women and genderqueer writers, is running at BOMB, The Believer, and Electric Literature.  Her informed memoir, Sex with a Brain Injury will be published in January 2024.  Annie is a member of The Claw, a Philadelphia salon for women and genderqueer writers. (recorded 6/9/2022)

Maxine Hong Kingston is the distinguished author of The Woman Warrior (winner of the 1976 Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction), Tripmaster Monkey and China Men. The Fifth Book of Peace is Kingston's own creation, based on the three "books of peace" that were lost to a fire in Chinese legend. In it, she combines her own narratives with those drawn from writing workshops with Vietnam veterans. The result is "a powerfully emotional book that moves through tragedy to peace of both mind and heart." (recorded 10/8/2003)

In conversation with volume editor, Viet Thanh Nguyen Acclaimed for her contributions to feminism and Chinese American literature, Maxine Hong Kingston won the 1976 National Book Critics Circle General Nonfiction Award for her first book, The Woman Warrior, and the 1981 National Book Award for general nonfiction for China Men. Her many other books of nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and essays include Tripmaster Monkey, The Fifth Book of Peace, and I Love a Broad Margin to My Life. A professor emerita at the University of California, Berkeley, Kingston is a recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, the National Humanities Medal, and a lifetime achievement award from the Asian American Literary Awards. Her latest work collects three of her classic books, a collection of essays about her time living in Hawaiʻi, and difficult-to-find writings in which she examines her creative process. Viet Thanh Nguyen won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in fiction, the Dayton Literary Prize, and the Edgar Award for best first novel for The Sympathizer. His other work includes the novel The Committed, the story collection The Refugees, two books of nonfiction, and a children's book. The Aerol Arnold Chair of English and professor of English and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California, he has earned fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur Foundations. (recorded 6/8/2022)

In conversation with Liz Moore Zakiya Dalila Harris is the author of the instant New York Times bestseller The Other Black Girl, a thriller in which a young Black editorial assistant slowly realizes there are more sinister forces in her publishing house than the microaggressions that hurt her career. It was chosen as Good Morning America and Read with Marie Claire book club picks, and was selected as one of the best books of 2021 by TIME, The Washington Post, Vogue, People, and NPR, among other media outlets. A former editorial assistant and assistant editor at Knopf and Doubleday, Harris has contributed essays and book reviews to Guernica and The Rumpus. The Other Black Girl is currently being adapted into a Hulu series. Liz Moore is the bestselling author of Long Bright River, The Words of Every Song, Heft, and The Unseen World. A creative writing professor in the M.F.A. program at Temple University, her fiction and nonfiction have been published in Tin House and The New York Times, among other publications. (recorded 6/6/2022)

''The world's best green journalist'' (TIME), Bill McKibben gave one of the earliest cautions about climate change with his 1989 book The End of Nature. His many other bestselling books about the environment include Falter, Deep Economy, Eaarth, and Oil and Honey; as well as a novel, Radio Free Vermont, which imagines a group of Vermont patriots who decide to secede from the United States. Recipient of the Gandhi Prize, the Thomas Merton Prize, and the Right Livelihood Prize, McKibben is the Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the founder of the global grassroots climate campaign 350.org. Part memoir of an upbringing during which the promise of the U.S. seemed limitless to him, part history of the racial, economic, and environmental failings that have led to our current crises, his latest book bluntly asks, ''What happened?'' (recorded 6/2/2022)

In conversation with Benjamin Todd Jealous A political enterprise and investigations reporter for The Washington Post since 2011, Robert Samuels has chronicled the impact of national policies and controversies from across the United States. He formerly worked at the Miami Herald, where he reported on politics, poverty, and crime. His work has earned the 2020 George Polk Award in Justice Reporting and a 2020 Peabody Award, among other honors. Toluse Olorunnipa has been a political enterprise and investigations reporter for The Washington Post since 2019. He previously reported on the White House, the first correspondent of native African and Nigerian descent to do so. A former political and policy reporter at Bloomberg News and crime, real estate, and natural disasters reporter at the Miami Herald, he is also currently an on-air contributor for CNN. In His Name Is George Floyd, Samuels and Olorunnipa reveal how systemic racism led to tragic murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and inspired worldwide protests and policy changes. Referred to by Henry Louis Gates Jr. as ''an essential work of history,'' it uses hundreds of interviews and original research to tell George Floyd's story as a father, partner, friend, and man constantly in search of a better life. The current president of the People for the American Way, Benjamin Todd Jealous teaches social innovation at The University of Pennsylvania's School of Social Policy and Practice. He is the former national president and CEO of the NAACP, the former executive director of the National Newspaper Publisher's Association, and was a visiting professor at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. The coeditor of the national bestseller Reach: 40 Black Men Speak of Living, Leading and Succeeding, he is an investor in social impact startups and advises Citizen, an app that provides real-time 911 alerts. (recorded 5/24/2022)

In conversation with Adnan A. Zulfiqar Haroon Moghul's many books include My First Police State, The Order of Light, and How to Be Muslim: An American Story, a ''profound and intimate'' (The Washington Post) memoir about life in the United States during the immediate aftermath of 9/11. A former member of the cohort of the Muslim Leadership Initiative, a fellow in Jewish-Muslim Relations at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, a Friday preacher, and public speaker, Moghul's writing investigates the topics of pop culture, faith, futurism, and philosophy. He has contributed essays to The New York Times, The Guardian, CNN, Foreign Policy, and NPR's Fresh Air, among several other media outlets. In Two Billion Caliphs, Moghul uses his Muslim perspective to answer some of life's biggest questions and to address Islam's misunderstood past, its present challenges, and the hope it can offer for the future. Adnan A. Zulfiqar is a legal historian working on Islamic law, criminal law and law in the Global South, with specific interests in legal obligation, jihad & revolution, policing and criminal codes. He previously helped draft and implement criminal codes in the Maldives and Somalia. He regularly provides expert media commentary for various outlets, is proficient in multiple languages and has spent over a decade in the Middle East, South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. (recorded 5/19/2022)

In conversation with Liz Moore Jason Rekulak's Edgar Award–nominated debut novel The Impossible Fortress tells a coming-of-age story of first love, old school computer programming, and the heist of a Playboy magazine that features Vanna White. Rekulak is the former publisher of Philadelphia-based Quirk Books, where he managed the acquisition of a number of, well, very quirky books, including the #1 New York Times bestseller Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, the Edgar Award–winning novel The Last Policeman, and the literary mashup Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, among many others. A spin on the supernatural thriller, Hidden Pictures follows a nanny who becomes increasingly disturbed by the drawings created by her five-year-old charge. Liz Moore is the bestselling author of Long Bright River, The Words of Every Song, Heft, and The Unseen World. A creative writing professor in the M.F.A. program at Temple University, her fiction and nonfiction have been published in Tin House and The New York Times, among other publications. (recorded 5/18/2022)

In conversation with Ramesh Ponnuru, editor of National Review A senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, Matthew Continetti works in the field of American political thought and history, with an emphasis on the Republican Party and the history of 20th-century conservatism. His books include The Persecution of Sarah Palin: How the Media Elite Tried to Bring Down a Rising Star and The K Street Gang: The Rise and Fall of the Republican Machine. The founding editor of The Washington Free Beacon, the former opinion editor at The Weekly Standard, and currently a contributing editor at National Review and a columnist for Commentary Magazine, his writing has been published in The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times, among other places. In The Right, Continetti provides a survey of the U.S. conservative movement's evolution and intellectual history. Ramesh Ponnuru is the editor of National Review, a columnist for Bloomberg View, and a contributing editor to National Affairs. A visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute since 2012, he has been a commentator on a wide array of media outlets, including Meet the Press, Face the Nation, and PBS NewsHour, among many others. He is the author of The Party of Death and his articles have been published in numerous newspapers and magazines.  (recorded 5/17/2022)

In conversation with Tracey Matisak, award winning broadcaster and journalist The United States attorney general from 2009 to 2015, Eric Holder is the first African American to hold that position. In his 30-year career in government he also served in the Department of Justice's Public Integrity Section and as an associate judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Currently the chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, he also works as senior counsel at the law firm of Covington & Burling. He was named to Time magazine's list of most influential people, referred to by Legal Times as one of the greatest Washington, D.C. lawyers of the past 30 years, and honored by Columbia University, his alma mater, with an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. In Our Unfinished March, Holder presents a history of the struggle for voting rights in the U.S. and offers an actionable plan to safeguard our most essential right in the midst of unprecedented attacks on U.S. democracy. (recorded 5/13/2022)

In conversation with Isaac Fitzgerald Freelance journalist Chloé Cooper Jones was a 2020 Pulitzer Prize finalist in feature writing for ''Fearing for His Life,'' a profile of the man who filmed NYPD officers killing Eric Garner. Also a philosophy professor, she has published articles in a wide array of periodicals, including The Believer, GQ, Vice, and New York magazine. She is the recipient of the 2020 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant and the 2021 Howard Foundation Grant from Brown University, and her work has been anthologized in The Best American Travel Writing and The Best American Sports Writing. A memoir about motherhood, disability, and underlying societal expectations, Easy Beauty follows Jones's painful literal and figurative worldwide journeys to reclaim spaces she'd been denied. Isaac Fitzgerald appears frequently on The Today Show and is the author of the bestselling children's book How to Be a Pirate as well as the co-author of Pen & Ink: Tattoos and the Stories Behind Them and Knives & Ink: Chefs and the Stories Behind Their Tattoos (winner of an IACP Award). His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Best American Nonrequired Reading, The Boston Globe and numerous other publications. His debut memoir, Dirtbag, Massachusetts, is forthcoming in July, 2022. He lives in Brooklyn. (recorded 5/12/2022)

In conversation with Nathaniel Popkin The ''rare writer who can combine keen, grounded, psychological observation with visionary headiness'' (Salon), Ken Kalfus is the author of the novels The Commissariat of Enlightenment, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year; A Disorder Peculiar to the Country, a National Book Award finalist; and Equilateral. His short story collections include Coup de Foudre, Thirst, and PU-239 and Other Russian Fantasies. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Pew Fellowship for the Arts, Kalfus's works have been translated into more than 10 languages. In 2 A.M. in Little America, Kalfus imagines a plausibly dystopian future in which young people from the United States are forced to emigrate to other countries because of large-scale civil unrest. Nathaniel Popkin's many books of fiction and nonfiction include Everything is Borrowed, The Year of the Return, and To Reach the Spring: From Complicity to Consciousness in the Age of Eco-Crisis. He is co-editor of the literary anthology Who Will Speak for America?, was the fiction editor of Cleaver Magazine, and the writer/editor of the Emmy-winning documentary film series Philadelphia: The Great Experiment.  (recorded 5/11/2022)

One of the ''Indigenous novelists reshaping North American science fiction, horror, and fantasy'' (The New York Times), Rebecca Roanhorse is the bestselling author of the fantasy books Storm of Locusts, Trail of Lightning, and Race to the Sun. Inspired by pre-Columbian American cultures, her fantasy novel Black Sun was nominated for the 2021 Locus Award, 2021 Nebula Award, and the 2021 Hugo Award. Roanhorse's other work includes the Star Wars novel Resistance Reborn, contributions to Marvel Comics, and numerous short stories that have won Nebula, Hugo, and Locus Awards. Fevered Star is a sequel to Black Sun in the Between Earth and Sky series. (recorded 5/10/2022)

In conversation with Pam Jenoff ''A comedy writer with a heart of gold'' (The New York Times), Adriana Trigiani is the bestselling author of 20 books of fiction and nonfiction that have been published in 38 countries. These works include The Shoemaker's Wife; Very Valentine; Cooking with My Sisters; and Lucia, Lucia. Also an award-winning filmmaker, playwright, and television writer and producer, she directed the documentary Queens of the Big Time and wrote and directed the film adaptation of her debut novel, Big Stone Gap. Trigiani serves on the New York State Council on the Arts and is the founder of The Origin project, an in-school writing program in her home state of Virginia. Her latest novel, The Good Left Undone, follows three generations of Tuscan artisans struggling with a long-held family secret that emerges as the aged matriarch reflects on her family at the end of her life. Pam Jenoff's New York Times bestselling novels include The Woman wth the Blue Star, The Lost Girls of Paris, The Orphan's Tale, and The Diplomat's Wife. A law professor at Rutgers University, she formerly served as special assistant to the Secretary of the Army, a diplomat for the State Department, and as a labor and employment attorney. (recorded 5/9/2022)

''One of the best thriller writers on the planet'' (Esquire), Don Winslow is the author of 22 bestselling crime novels that explore such broad-ranging topics as the socio-political underpinnings of the war on drugs, law enforcement, criminal hierarchies, and international politics. These books include  the Cartel Trilogy, (The Power of the Dog, The Cartel, and The Border), The Force, and Savages for which he wrote the screenplay for the Oliver Stone-directed film adaptation of the same name. Winslow formerly worked as a private investigator, antiterrorist trainer, arson trial consultant, and safari guide. In City on Fire, this ''master of thrills shows his range, and his bite'' (The New York Times) with a fictionalized account of the real-life warring Irish and Italian criminal organizations that have controlled the New England region for generations. (recorded 5/5/2022)

In conversation with Solomon Jones. Lawrence Jackson's award-winning books include The Indignant Generation: A Narrative History of African American Writers and Critics, biographies of Chester Himes and Ralph Ellison, and a memoir about his family history, titled My Father's Name: A Black Virginia Family after the Civil War. A Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of English and history at Johns Hopkins University, he is also the founder of the Billie Holiday Center for Liberation Arts and a recipient of a 2019 Guggenheim Fellowship. Shelter is an essay collection that begins with Jackson's initial struggle to make Baltimore his home and how his later adoption of the Charm City became a means to reexamine his personal history. An award-winning Philadelphia Daily News columnist and morning host for 900 am WURD radio in Philadelphia, Solomon Jones is the author of the Essence bestselling novel The Bridge, as well as the critically acclaimed books Pipe Dream, Ride or Die, Payback, and Ten Lives, Ten Demands: Life and Death Stories, and a Black Activist's Blueprint for Racial Justice. He is also a blogger and frequent on-air commentator for NPR-affiliate WHYY and is the founder of Words on the Street Literacy Program and the Rally for Justice Coalition. (recorded 5/4/2022)

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition ''A national treasure'' (Vanity Fair), Margo Jefferson won the National Book Critics Circle Award for her memoir Negroland, an examination of her upbringing and education amongst a small segment of privileged Black society in the United States. She is also the author of On Michael Jackson, an analysis of Jackson's cultural legacy as a pop star and celebrity. A former longtime theater and book reviewer for Newsweek and The New York Times, she won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for her cultural criticism. Her essays and reviews have been published in a variety of other periodicals, including Vogue, Harper's Magazine, and New York Magazine, among many others. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Rockefeller Foundation grant, Jefferson currently teaches writing at Columbia University. In Constructing a Nervous System, she brings to life the family members, artists, athletes, intellectuals, and activists who have influenced her the most.  (recorded 5/4/2022)

In conversation with Tracey Matisak, award winning broadcaster and journalist The host of BET News, Black News Tonight, and UpFront, Marc Lamont Hill is the Steve Charles Chair in Media, Cities, and Solutions at Temple University. His books include Nobody: Casualties of America's War on the Vulnerable, from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond and Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics. Hill is the owner of Philadelphia's Uncle Bobbie's Coffee & Books and is the founder and director of the People's Education Center, a Germantown-based nonprofit organization devoted to community education. Todd Brewster is the co-author, with Peter Jennings, of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Century. His other work includes the books Lincoln's Gamble and In Search of America, and articles published in Vanity Fair, Time, and Life, where he served as a senior editor. Currently the senior visiting lecturer in journalism at Mount Holyoke College, he taught journalism at Temple University, was a Knight fellow at Yale Law School, and was the founding director of the Center for Oral History at West Point. Brewster is also the executive producer of the awardwinning documentary Into Harm's Way. In Seen and Unseen, Hill and Brewster analyze the role of visual media in the ongoing struggle for racial justice while examining what makes this moment unique in the overall history of civil rights movements in the United States.  (recorded 5/2/2022)

In conversation with Mitchell Orenstein, Department Chair and Professor of Russian and East European Studies, University of Pennsylvania In 2019, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch was the focus of international interest when then-President Donald Trump and his allies targeted Yovanovitch amidst their efforts to pressure Ukrainian officials to investigate Joe Biden's family. This scandal led to the first impeachment proceedings against Trump, a major aspect of which was Yovanovitch's impassioned and steadfast congressional testimony. The child of parents who fled Nazi and Soviet atrocities, she has served in numerous senior State Department positions, including U.S. ambassador to Armenia, U.S. ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, under secretary of state for political affairs, and principal deputy assistant secretary for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. Yovanovitch retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in 2020 and is currently a diplomat in residence at Georgetown University's Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. Lessons from the Edge uses experiences from her life and career to offer lessons about the ways in which corruption can endanger democracy. (recorded 4/28/2022)

To launch the 20th annual program season of One Book, One Philadelphia, join us for a conversation with Quiara Alegría Hudes, author of My Broken Language--the 2022 One Book featured title--and Lilliam Rivera, author of Never Look Back, the 2022 One Book youth companion title. After their discussion, students from the Curtis Institute of Music will perform an original work of music inspired by My Broken Language. (recorded 4/27/2022)

In conversation with Marc Lamont Hill Addressing social justice issues of policing, state surveillance of families, and science, Dorothy Roberts's books include Killing the Black Body, Shattered Bonds, and Fatal Invention. She has also authored more than 100 scholarly articles and has co-edited six books on various legal issues. The George A. Weiss University Professor of Law and Sociology and the Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professor of Civil Rights at the University of Pennsylvania, Roberts is the director of the Penn Program on Race, Science, and Society. In Torn Apart she explains that the abolition of the U.S. child welfare system-which is designed to punish Black families-will liberate Black communities. The Steve Charles Chair in Media, Cities and Solutions at Temple University, Marc Lamont Hill is the host of BET News and the Coffee and Books podcast. The recipient of honors from the National Association of Black Journalists, GLAAD, and the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, he is the author of six books, including Beats, Rhymes, and Classroom Life; Nobody: Casualties of America's War on the Vulnerable, from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond; and Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics. (recorded 4/26/2022)

Meelya Gordon Memorial Lecture In conversation with John Holloway One of the United States's foremost experts on forensic sciences and the criminal justice system, M. Chris Fabricant is the director of strategic litigation at the Innocence Project, a nonprofit organization that uses DNA testing to release wrongly convicted individuals from prison. He is a former longtime public defender and law professor, frequently serves as a public speaker on legal reform and social justice, is featured in the Netflix documentary series The Innocence Files, and has published numerous articles in journals such as Fordham Law Review and New York University Law Review. In his new book, Fabricant examines the role that faulty scientific evidence has in continuing and strengthening an unjust and racist criminal justice system. John Holloway is the associate dean and executive director of the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. (recorded 4/21/2022)

In conversation with Asali Solomon, author of the novels Disgruntled and Days of Afrekete Using ''gorgeous, compassionate prose'' to continue ''our national conversation about people working together to heal our communities'' (The Washington Post), Dolen Perkins-Valdez is the author of The New York Times bestselling novels Wench and Balm. She has been a finalist for two NAACP Image Awards, the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award, and the Robert Olen Butler Fiction Award, and she won the 2011 First Novelist Award from Black Caucus of the American Library Association. The current chair of the board of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, she teaches creative writing at American University in Washington, D.C. In Take My Hand, inspired by shocking real-life events, Perkins-Valdez tells the story of Civil Townsend, a Black doctor who seeks justice for wrongs done to her patients decades before in 1970s Alabama. (recorded 4/20/2022)

''A pioneer in primate studies'' (The Wall Street Journal), Dr. Frans de Waal is the author of The Bonobo and the Atheist, an exploration of the biological roots of human morality found in primate social interaction. His other 16 books include Mama's Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves, Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?, and The Age of Empathy: Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society. De Waal is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences, the C. H. Candler Professor in Emory University's psychology department, and the former director of the Living Links Center at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center. Based on decades of human and animal research, Different argues that biology doesn't necessarily support traditional gender roles in human communities. (recorded 4/14/2022)

Carole Phillips Memorial Lecture Maggie Shipstead is the bestselling author of the novels Astonish Me and Seating Arrangements, the latter of which won the Dylan Thomas Prize and the L.A. Times Book Prize for First Fiction. A former Wallace Stegner fellow at Stanford University and the recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, she is a longtime travel writer and has frequently contributed articles to Condé Nast Traveler and Departures. Shipstead's latest bestseller, Great Circle, tells the parallel stories of a bold woman aviator and the actor who portrays her on film almost a century later. ''A fat, juicy peach of a novel ... epic in spirit and scope'' (The Telegraph UK), it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and chosen as one of 2021's best books by NPR, The Washington Post, and Time, among others. (recorded 4/12/2022)

In conversation with Jamila Robinson Chef and educator Bryant Terry is the author of four vegan cookbooks, including Grub, Afro-Vegan, and Vegetable Kingdom, winner of an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work. In 2015 he earned a James Beard Foundation Leadership Award for his food justice activism. The chef-in-residence at the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, his writing and recipes have been published in periodicals such as Gourmet, Food and Wine, and The New York Times Magazine, among many other places. San Francisco Magazine selected him as one of the 11 smartest people in the Bay Area food scene and Fast Company referred to him as one of 9 People Who Are Changing the Future of Food. In Black Food, Terry offers a tribute to Black culinary creativity with more than 100 esteemed contributors from around the globe. The assistant managing food editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer, Jamila Robinson is the chair of the James Beard Foundation Journalism Committee, where she is also a coach and mentor for the JBF fellowship program. She formerly worked as an editorial director for Atlantic Media, as a senior content strategist for the USA Today Network, and as a senior editor for features at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. (recorded 4/12/2022)

Introduced by Denice Frohman In conversation with Cynthia Dewi Oka The 2018–19 Poet Laureate of Philadelphia, Raquel Salas Rivera is the author of five full-length books of poetry. These poetry collections include lo terciario/the tertiary, longlisted for the 2019 National Book Award for Poetry and winner of the 2018 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Poetry; while they sleep (under the bed is another country), longlisted for the 2020 Pen America Open Book Award; and x/ex/exis, winner of the inaugural Ambroggio Prize. The recipient of a 2021 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and a grant from the Mellon Foundation, he serves as the principal translator for El proyecto de la literatura puertorriqueña/ The Puerto Rican Literature Project. In his latest poetry collection, Salas Rivera imagines a future decolonialized Puerto Rico. Originally from Bali, Indonesia, Cynthia Dewi Oka is the author of Fire Is Not a Country (2021) and Salvage (2017) from Northwestern University Press, and Nomad of Salt and Hard Water (2016) from Thread Makes Blanket Press. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, POETRY, Academy of American Poets, Hyperallergic, Guernica, The Rumpus, ESPNW, and elsewhere. A recipient of the Leeway Foundation's Transformation Award and the Tupelo Quarterly Poetry Prize, she is currently Poet in Residence at the Amy Clampitt House. (recorded 4/11/2022)

In conversation with Ariel Delgado Dixon Jennifer Egan won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for the novel A Visit from the Goon Squad, ''a new classic of American fiction'' (Time) that follows an aging punk rocker and his young employee. Her other books of fiction include the National Book Award Finalist Look at Me, the bestselling The Keep, The Invisible Circus, and the historical novel Manhattan Beach, winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. Her work has been published in The New York Times Magazine, Harper's, and The New Yorker, among many other publications. Imagined as a ''sibling novel'' to A Visit From the Goon Squad, Egan's new novel conjurs a reality only a few advancements away from our own in which technology will allow users to download and share all their memories. In Ariel Delgado Dixon's debut novel Don't Say We Didn't Warn You, two sisters endure a childhood of deprivation in a decaying warehouse and in a wilderness camp where troubled teenage girls are sent as a last resort. Referred to by author Joy Williams as ''eventful, complex, admirably structured, relentless, and spooky'', this novel tells a story of trauma and the struggles of family relationships. Delgado Dixon has published writing in Kenyon Review, O: The Oprah Magazine, The Mississippi Review, and The Greensboro Review, among other periodicals. (recorded 4/7/2022)

In conversation with Nydia Han, Consumer Investigative Reporter and co-anchor of 6ABC Action News Sunday mornings A reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer for 31 years, Jennifer Lin worked as an international correspondent in China, a national correspondent in Washington, D.C., and a financial correspondent on Wall Street. She is the author of the family memoir Shanghai Faithful: Betrayal and Forgiveness in a Chinese Christian Family. Her documentary Beethoven in Beijing, co-directed with Sharon Mullally, recently premiered on PBS's Great Performances. In her companion book of the same name, Lin uses interviews and news stories to recount the Philadelphia Orchestra's 1973 historic tour of China, which at that time still banned Western music. (recorded 4/5/2022)

In conversation with John M. Cooper Historian Neil Lanctot is the author of Campy: The Two Lives of Roy Campanella and Negro League Baseball: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution, a ''prodigiously researched'' and ''enormously important historical corrective to feel-good versions of baseball integration'' (The New York Times). The recipient of the Seymour Medal from the Society for American Baseball Research, he has published articles in Smithsonian magazine, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Baltimore Sun, among other periodicals. In The Approaching Storm, Lanctot details the early-20th century rift between three of the U.S.'s most important progressives as the country struggled to respond to the global consequences to World War I.    John M. Cooper's many historical works include Pivotal Decades: The United States, 1900-1920; The Vanity of Power: American Isolationism and the First World War, 1914-1917; and Woodrow Wilson: A Biography, which was a finalist for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize. The recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship and a Fulbright professorship in Moscow, Russia, he is professor-emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. (recorded 3/29/2022)

In conversation with Peter Dobrin, classical music critic and culture writer, The Philadelphia Inquirer One of classical music's most celebrated pianists, Jeremy Denk has performed with ensembles such as the National Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and he has frequently appeared at Carnegie Hall. His recordings have been number one on Billboard's Classical Chart and have been selected in best-of-the-year lists for several media outlets, including The Washington Post, BBC, The New Yorker, and NPR. A member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, Denk is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, Musical America's Instrumentalist of the Year Award, and the Avery Fisher Prize. His writing on music has been published in The New York Times Book Review, The Guardian, and The New Republic, among other periodicals. In Every Good Boy Does Fine, Denk explores the composers, teachers, and professional struggles that have most influenced not only his career, but also his larger concept of what music means to us.  (recorded 3/28/2022)

Hannah Tinti is the author of the bestselling novels The Good Thief and The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley and the short story collection Animal Crackers. A creative writing professor in New York University's M.F.A. program, she is the co-founder of the Sirenland Writers Conference and the co-founder and executive editor of One Story magazine. Jai Chakrabarti's debut novel A Play for the End of the World was selected as one of 2021's best books by numerous periodicals. Formerly an emerging writer fellow with A Public Space, he has had his Pushcart Prize–winning short fiction anthologized in The O. Henry Prize Stories and The Best American Short Stories. Marie-Helene Bertino is the author of the novels Parakeet and 2 A.M. at the Cat's Pajamas, and the story collection Safe as Houses. A creative writing teacher at NYU and The New School, she has earned The O. Henry Prize, The Pushcart Prize, and fellowships from MacDowell, Sewanee, and The Center for Fiction. Mira Jacob is the author of the celebrated novel The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing and Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations. A fiction teacher at NYU, The New School, and Randolph College, her articles, drawings, and short fiction have been published in The New York Times Book Review, Tin House, and Literary Hub. Edited by Tinti and published in partnership with the Selected Shorts literary radio program and live show, Small Odysseys presents never-before-published short stories by some of contemporary fiction's most acclaimed authors. (recorded 3/24/2022)

A Dublin native and a 34-year columnist and drama critic for The Irish Times, Fintan O'Toole is the author of nearly two dozen books, including A History of Ireland in 100 Objects, Enough is Enough: How to Build a Republic, and Heroic Failure: Brexit and the Politics of Pain. He is also a professor at Princeton University, a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books and The Guardian, and formerly worked as the drama critic for the New York Daily News, The Sunday Tribune, and In Dublin magazine. Named to The Observer's list of ''Britain's top 300 intellectuals'', O'Toole is the recipient of the 2017 Orwell Prize for Journalism, the 2017 European Press Prize, and three Irish Book Awards. Combining memoir and national history, We Don't Know Ourselves documents the turbulence that has transformed Ireland over the past half century. (recorded 3/23/2022)

Donna Leon is the author of the internationally bestselling Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery novels, the ''endlessly enjoyable'' long-established series of books that combines ''deep thoughts about justice and vengeance and charming classical allusions'' (The New York Times Book Review). Born and raised in New Jersey, Leon is a 30-year resident of Italy and current resident of a small Swiss village. She worked as a copywriter in London, and taught literature in universities in Iran, China, and Saudi Arabia. In the series' 31st installment, Leon's dapper Venetian detective questions the bounds of loyalty as an innocent request reveals corruption and financial wrongdoing. (recorded 3/21/2022)

In conversation with Michael Kulikowski ''A national treasure, and easily the world's most famous classicist'' (The Guardian), Mary Beard ''radiates authority and expertise'' in guiding her readers through the world of Ancient Roman civilization. She is a professor at the University of Cambridge, a fellow of Newnham College, and a Royal Academy of the Arts professor of ancient literature. Some of her seminal works include Rome in the Late Republic, The Parthenon, The Fires of Vesuvius, and S.P.Q.R.: A History of Ancient Rome. Beard is also the classics editor of the Times Literary Supplement, where her column ''A Don's Life'' is regularly published. A frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books, she has written and presented several BBC historical documentaries. Twelve Caesars explores the ways in which images of Roman emperors have influenced artists and thinkers for more than 2,000 years. The head of the history department and the Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of History and Classics at Pennsylvania State University, Michael Kulikowski is the author of Rome's Gothic Wars, Late Roman Spain and Its Cities, The Triumph of Empire, and The Tragedy of Empire. He has appeared in several History Channel documentaries, has published numerous academic articles, and is a regular contributor to the London Review of Books and The Wall Street Journal. (recorded 3/17/2022)

In conversation with Danielle M. Conway The Nation's legal analyst and justice correspondent, Elie Mystal is an Alfred Knobler fellow at the Type Media Center and is the legal editor of More Perfect, Radiolab's podcast about the U.S. Supreme Court. A Harvard Law School graduate and former litigator at Debevoise & Plimpton, he was the executive editor of Above the Law, a news site sharing details and original commentary about the legal profession. Mystal is a frequent guest on MSNBC and Sirius XM. Referred to by Don Winslow as ''a powerful and important book of brightly alive ideas,'' Allow Me to Retort is a guidebook for how the U.S. Constitution should accurately be interpreted in opposition to Republican claims. Dean and Donald J. Farage Professor of Law at Penn State Dickinson Law, Danielle M. Conway is an expert in procurement law, entrepreneurship, intellectual property law, and licensing intellectual property. She formerly was the dean of the University of Maine Law and served on the faculties at several other law schools. The author of numerous books, articles, and essays, Conway is the co-recipient of the Association of American Law Schools' Impact Award, and in 2016 she retired from the U.S. Army as a lieutenant colonel after 27 years of service. (recorded 3/15/2022)

The Hobbs Research Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Howard Gardner is the author of 30 books, including A Synthesizing Mind, The App Generation, and Responsibility at Work. He is the recipient of MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships, honorary degrees from 31 colleges and universities, and the Brock International Prize in Education. A project director at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Wendy Fischman has written about development and learning for several scholarly and popular periodicals. She is the lead author of Making Good: How Young People Cope with Moral Dilemmas at Work, co-developed a classroom curriculum for teachers and students, and has consulted on school reforms. In The Real World of College, Gardner and Fischman utilize more than 2,000 interviews with students, faculty, parents, alumni, and administrators from a variety of colleges and universities to examine why students consider learning secondary to their résumés, job prospects, and earning potential. (recorded 3/16/2022)

In conversation with Jason Freeman, editor and producer, author events Lee Kravetz's acclaimed nonfiction books include Supersurvivors: The Surprising Link Between Suffering and Success and Strange Contagion: Inside the Surprising Science of Infectious Behaviors and Viral Emotions and What They Tell Us About Ourselves. He has contributed writing to a wide array of publications, including The New York Times, Psychology Today, The San Francisco Chronicle, and The Daily Beast. In the debut novel The Last Confessions of Sylvia P., Kravetz creates three interwoven narratives to reimagine the time in which poet Sylvia Plath wrote her renowned semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar. (recorded 3/14/2022)

In conversation with comedienne, actor, and author Catherine "Cat" Cohen An acclaimed playwright, screenwriter, and actor, Harvey Fierstein is the Tony Award–winning author of Torch Song Trilogy and La Cage aux Folles. His play A Catered Affair was nominated for 12 Drama Desk Awards and he received Tony nominations for Kinky Boots, Newsies, and Casa Valentina. He also won Tonys for his performance in the Torch Song Trilogy and as Edna Turnblad in Hairspray. Fierstein has appeared in dozens of films and television shows, including Mrs. Doubtfire, Independence Day, Cheers, and The Good Wife, and he has voiced animated characters in Mulan, The Dark Crystal, and Big Mouth, among many others. In I Was Better Last Night, he reveals details of his personal trials and triumphs, explores his status as a cultural icon and gay rights activist, and reflects on his best-loved roles and writings. Catherine "Cat" Cohen hosts the weekly cabaret show at Alan Cumming's East Village venue, Club Cumming, and co-hosts the popular weekly podcast Seek Treatment with Pat Regan. Her Netflix comedy special The Twist...? She's Gorgeous will hit screens on March 15, and last year she joined the cast of the FX series What We Do in the Shadows. Winner of the best newcomer title at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, she recently published her first book with Knopf, titled God I Feel Modern Tonight, a collection of comedic poetry. (recorded 3/13/2022)

Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Endowed Lecture In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition Michael Kazin's many critically acclaimed books include War Against War: The American Fight for Peace, 1914–1918, selected as an editor's choice by The New York Times Book Review; American Dreamers: How the Left Changed a Nation, chosen as a best book of 2011 by The New Republic, Newsweek, and The Progressive; A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan; and The Populist Persuasion. A history professor at Georgetown University, Kazin is editor emeritus of Dissent magazine, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and editor of The Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political History. In What It Took to Win he offers a thorough history of the Democratic Party and its historically imperfect but recently reinvigorated journey towards making genuine progress for U.S. society. (recorded 3/8/2022)

In conversation with Major Jackson Garrett Hongo was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for the poetry collection The River of Heaven. His other books of poetry include Yellow Light and Coral Road. The distinguished professor in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oregon and a regular contributor to SoundStage! Ultra, Hongo also authored Volcano: A Memoir of Hawaiʻi and The Mirror Diary: Selected Essays. Writing about his lifelong passion for sound reproduction equipment, music in many formats, and the poetic voices that influenced him most, The Perfect Sound is a celebration of all things audio. The Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in the Humanities at Vanderbilt University and the poetry editor of The Harvard Review, Major Jackson is the author of five books of poetry, including The Absurd Man and Leaving Saturn. His many honors include the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, a Whiting Writers' Award, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. He has published poems and essays in a wide variety of periodicals, including The New Yorker, Paris Review, and Ploughshares. (recorded 3/2/2022)

In conversation with Cajetan Iheka, Associate Professor of Literature, Yale University, and author of African Ecomedia: Network Forms, Planetary Politics One of Nigeria's most celebrated authors, Ben Okri is the author of many post-colonial novels, poetry, short story collections, and essays. He rose to international fame in 1980 upon the publication of his first novel, Flowers and Shadows, and is perhaps best known for The Famished Road, winner of the 1991 Booker Prize. A fable about the realities we create for ourselves, Astonishing the Gods was included, almost 25 years after its publication, in the BBC's ''100 Novels That Shaped Our World'' list. Every Leaf a Hallelujah, the tale of a young girl searching for a special flower that can cure her ill mother, is a modern-day fairytale written to be read by adults and children alike. Cajetan Iheka is Associate Professor of English at Yale University, author of Naturalizing Africa: Ecological Violence, Agency, and Postcolonial Resistance in African Literature, editor of Teaching Postcolonial Environmental Literature and Media, and coeditor of African Migration Narratives: Politics, Race, and Space. (recorded 2/28/2022)

Education historian Erika M. Kitzmiller has conducted research in the city of Philadelphia, its public schools, and the Free Library for nearly two decades. The result of her investigation is The Roots of Educational Inequality, a decades-spanning report of the factors contributing to one school's path from first-rate institution to its 2014 closure. An assistant professor of education at Columbia University's Barnard College, her writing has appeared in the Harvard Educational Review, Dissent, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and Reuters, among other places. Her work has received funding from the National Academy of Education, the National Science Foundation, and the Russell Sage Foundation. In conversation with: Ted Domers, School District of Philadelphia, Assistant Superintendent, Germantown High School Teacher Janel Moore-Almond, School District of Philadelphia Graduate and Teacher, Carver High School Akira Drake Rodriguez, Assistant Professor, Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania (recorded 2/24/2022)

Barbara Gohn Day Memorial Lecture In conversation with Tracey Matisak, award winning broadcaster and journalist In her 20 years as a columnist and assistant editor at The Times of London, Mary Ann Sieghart won a popular following for her pieces on politics, feminism, economics, and parenthood. Also a frequent broadcaster, she has presented several programs on BBC Radio 4 and hosted Newshour on the BBC World Service. Sieghart is chair of the judges for the 2022 Women's Prize for Fiction, recently served as a visiting professor at King's College London, chaired the Social Market Foundation think tank, and sat on several corporate, arts, and public policy boards. The Authority Gap uses data, analysis, and interviews with important women leaders, thinkers, and artists to uncover and fight the unconscious biases that continue systemic sexism. Books will be mailed after the event. Please allow up to three weeks for delivery. U.S. orders only. Books provided by Uncle Bobbie's Coffee and Books (recorded 2/23/2022)

In conversation with Sara Nović  In Ariel Delgado Dixon's debut novel Don't Say We Didn't Warn You, two sisters endure a childhood of deprivation in a decaying warehouse and in a wilderness camp where troubled teenage girls are sent as a last resort. Referred to by author Joy Williams as ''eventful, complex, admirably structured, relentless, and spooky'', this novel tells a story of trauma and the struggles of family relationships. A 2017 nominee for the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Award for Emerging Writers and shortlisted for the Masters Review Anthology Prize, Delgado Dixon has published writing in Kenyon Review, O: The Oprah Magazine, The Mississippi Review, and The Greensboro Review, among other periodicals. Sara Nović teaches in the Popular Fiction MFA program at Emerson College, and is an instructor of Deaf studies at Stockton University. Her first novel, Girl at War, won the American Library Association's Alex Award, and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Nović has an MFA in fiction and literary translation from Columbia University, and lives with her family in Philadelphia. (recorded 2/22/2022)

In conversation with Lise Funderburg The director of the M.F.A. Creative Writing program at Emerson College, Jabari Asim is the author of the novel Only the Strong, the story collection A Taste of Honey, and several works of nonfiction, including We Can't Breathe, The Art of Survival, and What Obama Means...For Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Future. Also a Guggenheim fellowship-winning poet, playwright, and children's book author, he formerly served as the editor-in-chief of the NAACP's official publication The Crisis, and was an editor and syndicated columnist at The Washington Post. In his new novel, Asim tells the story of a group of enslaved Black people seeking love, friendship, and independence in the 19th century United States South. Lise Funderburg is the author of Black, White, Other: Biracial Americans Talk about Race and Identity and Pig Candy: Taking My Father South, Taking My Father Home. A lecturer in creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania and a teacher at the Paris Writers' Workshop, her achievements include a Nonfiction Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Her work has been published in The New York Times, The Nation, Salon, and The Washington Post, among many other periodicals. Her most recent book is Apple, Tree: Writers on Their Parents. (recorded 2/17/2022)

In conversation with Geoffrey Dyer Tessa Hadley's many ''strange, unsettling-eerily beautiful, discomfiting, stay-up-late-addictive, sometimes hair-raising'' (San Francisco Chronicle) novels about the complexities of family relationships include Clever Girl, Accidents in the Home, The Past, and Everything Will be All Right. Two of her short story collections, Sunstroke and Married Love, were New York Times Notable Books and her fiction regularly appears in The New Yorker. A creative writing professor at England's Bath Spa University and a regular reviewer for the London Review of Books, Hadley has twice been longlisted for the Orange Prize and the Wales Book of the Year. Free Love tells the story of a compliant homemaker's intellectual and sexual awakening in a vibrant 1960s London. Geoffrey Dyer is the author of four novels and numerous works of nonfiction. Writer-in-residence at the University of Southern California, a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, his honors include the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism, the Somerset Maugham Award, and a Lannan Literary Fellowship. (recorded 2/16/2022)

In conversation with Nell Irvin Painter Barbara Chase-Riboud's watershed 1979 novel Sally Hemings told a fictionalized story based on the true account of the life of Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman with whom Thomas Jefferson had children. It was the winner of the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for best novel by an woman writer in the United States and through DNA evidence, the novel's premise about Heming and Jefferson's relationship has since been proven true. Chase-Riboud's other novels include Echo of Lions, The President's Daughter, and Hottentot Venus. She is also a celebrated poet and widely exhibited sculptor and visual artist. In the spirit of Sally Hemings, her new novel breathes life into the previously enigmatic Hannah Elias, one of early 1900s America's richest black women, and the murder that precipitated her rapid downfall. Historian Nell Irvin Painter's books include Sojourner Truth, Creating Black Americans, and the bestseller The History of White People. The Edwards Professor of American History, Emerita, at Princeton University, Painter directed that institution's Program in African American Studies from 1997 to 2000. She has also published numerous essays, reviews, and articles, and is the author of the memoir Old in Art School. (recorded 2/15/2022)

Catherine Price discusses her new book with #1 best selling author, Gretchen Rubin Catherine Price is the author of How to Break Up with Your Phone, a book that ''gives practical advice on how to forge a healthier relationship with technology-without the fear mongering." (Refinery29). Her other books include the parody travel guide 101 Places Not to See Before You Die, Vitamania, The Big Sur Bakery Cookbook, and Mindfulness: A Journal. A public speaker, teacher, and consultant, Price has contributed work to The Best American Science Writing, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Outside, and Men's Journal, among many other periodicals. A mix of science and personal experience, The Power of Fun argues that having fun is crucial to our mental and physical health and presents a practical guide for having more of it. Gretchen Rubin is one of today's most influential and thought-provoking observers of happiness and human nature. She's known for her ability to distill and convey complex ideas with humor and clarity in a way that's accessible to a wide audience. She's been interviewed by Oprah, eaten dinner with Daniel Kahneman, walked arm-in-arm with the Dalai Lama, had her work written up in a medical journal, been the subject of a ''The Talk of the Town'' piece in The New Yorker magazine, and been an answer on the game show Jeopardy! She's the author of many books, including the blockbuster New York Times bestsellers, The Four Tendencies and Better Than Before. Her book The Happiness Project has sold more than one million copies, been published in more than thirty languages, and spent more than two years on the New York Times bestseller list, including at #1. (recorded 2/10/2022)

Co-promoted with Asian Arts Initiative and Blue Stoop In conversation with Elizabeth McCracken A debut ''work of gorgeous, enduring prose'' (The Washington Post), Lan Samantha Chang's Hunger explored the lives of immigrant families haunted by the past. Her other writing includes the novels Inheritance and All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost, as well as several other works of short fiction and nonfiction. The first Asian American and the first woman director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Chang was a Berlin Prize fellow, won the PEN Open Book Award, and earned grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. In The Family Chao, a Chinese American family's long-simmering resentments bubble to the surface amidst the mystery of its stern patriarch's murder. Evoking ''moving depictions of marriage and parenthood, and love, betrayal, and loneliness'' (The Boston Globe), Elizabeth McCracken's seven books include Bowlaway, The Giant's House, and Thunderstruck & Other Stories. A former faculty member at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and currently the James Michener Chair for Fiction at the University of Texas at Austin, McCracken has earned the PEN New England Award, three Pushcart Prizes, and an O. Henry Prize, among other honors. Longlisted for the National Book Award, The Souvenir Museum is a story collection in which characters begin transformative journeys that test the strange relationships that bind families together. (recorded 2/9/2022)

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition Bernardine Evaristo won the 2019 Man Booker Prize and the Dublin Literary Award for Girl, Woman, Other, ''a breathtaking symphony of Black women's voices'' that explores the merging of identity and Britain's African and Caribbean colonial history. Her other novels include The Emperor's Babe and Hello Mum, both of which were adapted into BBC radio programs, in addition to her short fiction, poetry, literary criticism, and drama. A longtime advocate for greater inclusion of artists of color, she co-founded Britain's first Black women's theater company, first major Black theater conference, and first major conference on Black writing. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts and was awarded an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for services to literature. An exploration of identity, race, class, aging, and the power of persistence, Manifesto is a memoir of Evaristo's intertwined life and multi-decade effort to share her work with the world. (recorded 1/20/2022)

In conversation with Priya Joshi, Professor of English at Temple University in Philadelphia  Economist Amartya Sen received the Nobel Prize for his ''fascinating ... eloquent, and probing'' (The New York Times) work on social choice theory, welfare economics, development economics, and economics during peacetime and war. Advocating for ethical economies that prioritize tolerance, pluralism, and harmony, his many books include An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions, Development as Freedom, and Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny. The Lamont University Professor at Harvard University, Sen is the recipient of many honors, including the Bharat Ratna, which is the most distinguished honor awarded by the president of India, the Eisenhower Medal, the French Legion of Honor, and the National Humanities Medal. ''A portrait of a citizen of the world'' (The Spectator), Home in the World recounts how his experiences in Asia, Europe, and the United States continue to shape his moral vision for the future. Priya Joshi is a scholar of narrative who studies the social work of popular culture from the nineteenth- to twenty-first centuries. Priya's books include In Another Country:  Colonialism, Culture, and the English Novel in India which won the Modern Language Association's First Book Prize, and Bollywood's India:  A Public Fantasy, both published by Columbia University Press.   She's currently completing a study called Good Bad Books about the titles that everybody loved to read but hated to admit that they did.   (recorded 2/7/2022)

In conversation with Stanford Thompson, founder and executive director of Play On Philly A public and private school music educator for more than 20 years, Brendan Slocumb has performed on violin with the Washington Metropolitan Symphony, the Prince George's Philharmonic, and the Alexandria Symphony. He is the concertmaster for the NOVA-Annandale Symphony Orchestra, has frequently served as guest conductor for orchestras throughout Virginia and North Carolina, and is the founder of the Philippines-based nonprofit organization Hands Across the Sea, which has the mission to provide instruments, lessons, and financial support to young music students. The Violin Conspiracy, Slocumb's debut novel, follows a Black musician as he confronts the injustices of U.S. history, racism in the profession of classical music, and the theft of his great-great-grandfather's priceless Stradivarius violin. (recorded 2/3/2022)

In conversation with Jonathan Tamari Born in Philadelphia to an immigrant family, Democrat Ro Khanna has served as the U.S. representative for California's 17th congressional district-better known as Silicon Valley- since 2017. The deputy assistant secretary of commerce during the Obama administration and a national co-chair for Bernie Sanders's 2020 presidential campaign, he was an economics professor at Stanford University and worked in private practice as a lawyer for technology companies. In Congress, Khanna has championed environmental causes, jobs programs, campaign finance reform, and anti-monopoly economic reforms, among other progressive issues. Dignity in a Digital Age presents Rep. Khanna's objective to achieve opportunity and access for people in the parts of the United States whose lives have been shaped by the growth of 21st technology while not necessarily experiencing the industry's economic benefits. Jonathan Tamari is the national political reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Based in Washington, D.C., he writes about policy and politics on Capitol Hill and helped lead the Inquirer's coverage of Pennsylvania's critical role in the 2020 presidential election. A North Jersey native, he previously reported on New Jersey state politics and the Philadelphia Eagles. When he can disconnect, you'll find him running or walking his dog. (recorded 2/2/2022)

In conversation with Bernice McFadden The author and co-author of 15 books that explore topics such as faith, race, social justice, and motherhood, Tracey Michae'l Lewis-Giggetts is a professor of English and Black Studies at the Community College of Philadelphia, hosts the podcast HeARTtalk with Tracey Michae'l, and is the founder of HeARTspace, a healing community for those who have experienced trauma. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Essence, The Guardian, and Ebony, among other publications. In her new essay collection, Lewis-Giggetts celebrates the reaffirming power of Black joy as a means of restoration, resilience, and resistance. Bernice McFadden won the 2017 American Book Award and the 2017 NAACP Image Award for outstanding literary work for The Book of Harlan. Her other novels include Praise Song for the Butterflies, Sugar, and Gathering of Waters. She was a finalist for the NAACP Image Award and a four-time finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. (recorded 2/1/2022)

In conversation with Jacob S. Hacker Political scientist Barbara F. Walter is the author of Reputation and Civil War: Why Separatists Conflicts are So Violent; Globalization, Territoriality, and Conflict; and Civil Wars, Insecurity, and Intervention. The Rohr Chair in Pacific International Relations at the School of Global Policy & Strategy, she is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is on the editorial boards of the American Political Science Review, the Journal of Conflict Resolution, and International Studies Quarterly, among other academic journals. Walter has received grants and fellowships from the National Science Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the United States Institute of Peace. How Civil Wars Start examines the substantial increase in violent extremism around the globe in order to explore the rising possibility of a second U.S. civil war. The Stanley B. Resor Professor of Political Science and the director of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies at Yale University, Jacob S. Hacker is the author of The Great Risk Shift and The Divided Welfare State, and the co-author of Let Them Eat Tweets and American Amnesia, among several other books. He is a board member of The American Prospect, the Economic Policy Institute, and The Century Foundation.  (recorded 1/31/2022)

In conversation with Liz Moore Co-sponsored by Blue Stoop A former reviews editor at Publishers Weekly, Jessamine Chan has published short stories in Tin House and Epoch. She has received residencies and fellowships from various organizations, including the Elizabeth George Foundation, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Ragdale Foundation. In The School for Good Mothers, praised by Carmen Maria Machado as ''a timely and remarkable debut'' novel, Chan tells the story of an otherwise dedicated mother who, due to a single lapse in judgment, finds herself pitted against the government and in danger of losing custody of her child. Liz Moore is the bestselling author of Long Bright River, The Words of Every Song, Heft, and The Unseen World. A creative writing professor in the M.F.A. program at Temple University, her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Tin House and The New York Times, among other places. (recorded 1/27/2022)

Holocaust survivor Nechama Tec is professor emerita of sociology at the University of Connecticut and the author of six books, including In the Lion's Den and Dry Tears, her memoir of growing up during the Nazi occupation of Poland. Recently adapted into an acclaimed film directed by Edward Zwick and starring Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber, Defiance tells the story of a forest community in western Belorussia that numbered more than 1,200 Jews by 1944: the largest armed rescue operation of Jews by Jews in World War II. Tec illuminates group commander Tuvia Bielski's struggle as a partisan who lost his family to the Nazis, yet never wavered in his conviction that it was more important to save Jews than to kill Germans. Interviewed by Philadelphia Inquirer film critic, Carrie Rickey. (recorded 3/5/2009)

An award-winning Philadelphia Daily News columnist and morning host for 900 am WURD radio in Philadelphia, Solomon Jones is the author of the Essence bestselling novel The Bridge, as well as the critically acclaimed books Pipe Dream, Ride or Die, Payback, and The Dead Man's Wife. He is also a blogger and frequent on-air commentator for NPR-affiliate WHYY and is the founder of Words on the Street Literacy Program and the Rally for Justice Coalition. Jones previously taught creative writing at Temple University, worked as a columnist for the Philadelphia Weekly, and served on the boards of several committees to end homelessness. Presented through the profound stories of ten contemporary victims of criminal justice racism, his new book presents an actionable guide for social justice advocates to reform racist institutions and policies. (recorded 1/19/2022)

In conversation with Andy Kahan, Ruth W. and A. Morris Williams, Jr. director of author events ''A wrenching portrait of the enduring grace of friendship'' (NPR), Hanya Yanagihara's bestselling novel A Little Life is a story of tragedy and transcendent praise to brotherly love and an unsettling meditation on sexual abuse, suffering, and the difficulties of recovery. A National Book Award Finalist and short-listed for the Man Booker Prize, it was named to dozens of publications' ''best books of the year'' lists. Yanagihara is also the author of The People in the Trees, shortlisted for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for debut fiction. She is editor-in-chief at T Magazine: The New York Times Style Magazine. A story about the deep recesses of the human heart, To Paradise, her new centuries-spanning novel, follows three sets of characters navigating alternate realities that reveal frightening implications for our own lives. (recorded 1/18/2022)

In conversation with Fat Joe, rapper, producer, platinum recording artist, and host of the Fat Joe Show Named the first chairman of the Jordan Brand Advisory Board in January 2019, Larry Miller led Michael Jordan's $200-million basketball shoe company to become a $4-billion athletic apparel global powerhouse. After helping found the Jordan Brand at Nike in 1999, he was president of the Portland Trailblazers from 2007 to 2012 and has served in leadership and advocacy roles for the Urban League, Junior Achievement, and Self Enhancement, Inc. In Jump, Miller begins his story with the violence of his 1960s West Philadelphia upbringing and incarceration and shares his later opportunities of education, redemption, and success. Laila Lacy, a native of Philadelphia, graduated from Central High School. She earned a degree from Howard University in Washington, DC, where she studied Psychology and Human Communications and has studied at New York's Bank Street Graduate School of Education. Lacy taught middle school for the New York Board of Education and later served as a business development manager for several mortgage banking firms in California. In addition to collaborating on her father's memoir, she has written op-eds and product reviews that have been featured in the several online magazines. Masks are required at all times while in the building. Due to the changing nature of the COVID-19 pandemic and local health and safety regulations, please visit our website before all events to get the latest information on vaccine and masking guidance. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night. A book signing will follow the presentation. Books provided by Uncle Bobbie's Coffee and Books. (recorded 1/17/2022)

In conversation with Michael Days A sports columnist at The Philadelphia Inquirer since 2013, Mike Sielski is the author of Fading Echoes, the true story of two Pennsylvania high school football rivals who later found brotherhood while in the U.S. military in in the battlefields of the Middle East, and is the co-author of How to Be Like Jackie Robinson, a collection of life lessons taken from the trailblazing baseball legend. In 2015 he was voted the best sports columnist in the U.S. by The Associated Press Sports Editors. The Rise, referred to by Bob Costas as a ''story informed by meticulous research and rendered with clear-eyed insights,'' is about more than the tragedy that took Kobe Bryant's life and offers a thorough account of his identity as a sports and cultural figure and an assessment of his impact on our society. Formerly The Philadelphia Inquirer's managing editor, vice president for diversity and inclusion, and editor for reader engagement, Michael Days serves on the Board of Visitors at Temple University's Klein College of Media and Communication. (recorded 1/13/2022)

In conversation with Tracey Matisak, award-winning journalist and broadcaster Renowned for his ''signature blend of deep reportage and character-driven storytelling (The New York Times Book Review),'' Mark Bowden is a national correspondent for The Atlantic. He is the author of 15 bestselling books of investigative journalism, including Blackhawk Down, adapted by Ridley Scott into a popular film; Killing Pablo, winner of the Overseas Press Club's Cornelius Ryan Award for book of the year; The Three Battles of Wanat, a collection of his best long-form essays; and Hue 1968, the story of the Vietnam War's bloodiest battle as told by participants from both sides.  A contributor to National Geographic, The Atlantic, Esquire, and other periodicals, Matthew Teague is a former international and national correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. He is executive producer of the 2021 feature film Our Friend, and his writing has appeared in numerous anthologies, including Best American Travel Writing, Best American Crime Writing, and Best American Sports Writing.  In The Steal, Bowden and Teague detail the 64 days in which Donald Trump and his allies attempted to invalidate the results of the 2020 presidential election. Employing detailed research, never-before-shared first-person accounts, and reports from all over the country, it offers a thorough account of this unprecedented attack on U.S. democracy. (recorded 1/12/2022)

In conversation with Carmen Maria Machado Rumaan Alam is the author of the New York Times instant bestseller Leave the World Behind,  ''a genuine thriller, a brilliant distillation of our anxious age, and a work of high literary merit'' (The Washington Post) that follows two families who meet at an isolated vacation during a possible cataclysm. The book was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award and named to nearly two dozen ''best of the year'' lists, and a film adaptation starring Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali is in production. Alam's other novels include Rich and Pretty and That Kind of Mother, and his other writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, and The Wall Street Journal, among other periodicals.  Carmen Maria Machado is the author of the memoir In the Dream House and the short story collection Her Body and Other Parties. She is the Abrams Artist in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania and a Guggenheim fellow. (recorded 12/2/2021)

In conversation with Rabih Alameddine, National Book Award nominated author of An Unnecessary Woman, The Angel of History, The Hakawati, and most recently, The Wrong End of the Telescope. Somali-British author Nadifa Mohamed is the writer of the renowned novels Black Mamba Boy and The Orchard of Lost Souls. A regular contributor to The Guardian and the BBC, she is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and is a lecturer in creative writing at Royal Holloway, University of London. Mohamed is the recipient of the Somerset Maugham Award, and was named one of Granta's best young British novelists of 2013, and was a part of the 2014 Africa39 list of the most promising writers under the age of 40 from sub-Saharan Africa. A finalist for the 2021 Booker Prize, The Fortune Men is a novel about Mahmood Mattan, a young Somali sailor falsely accused of a violent crime in 1950s Cardiff, Wales. ''Nadifa Mohamed's The Fortune Men is a blues song cut straight from the heart. It tells about the unjust death of an innocent Black man caught up in a corrupt system. Nadifa's masterful evocation of the full life of Mahmood Mattan, the last man executed in Cardiff for a crime he was exonerated for forty years later, is brought alive with subtle artistry and heartbreaking humanity. In one man's life Mohamed captures the multitudes of homelands, dialects, hopes, and prayers of Somalis, Jews, Maltese and West Indians drawn in by the ships that filled Wales' Tiger Bay in the 1950's, all hoping for a future that eludes Mattan.''-Walter Mosley, author of Devil in a Blue Dress (recorded 12/15/2021)

Watch the eventhere. In conversation with Dorothy Roberts Sandra Shaber Memorial Lecture Recognized by the National Law Journal as one of the ''100 Most Influential Lawyers in America,'' Kathryn Kolbert made history in 1992 when she argued the case Planned Parenthood v. Casey before the U.S. Supreme Court, a case widely recognized as protecting the right to an abortion guaranteed by Roe v. Wade. The founder of the Athena Center for Leadership at Barnard College and the cofounder of the Center for Reproductive Rights, she created and was the executive producer of NPR's Justice Talking series. Julie F. Kay has spent decades on the front lines of the legal fight to advance gender equality and religious freedom in the U.S. and internationally. After starting her career in law as a staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights , she has since helped pave the way for the legalization of abortion in Ireland, fought to protect the parenting rights of people leaving ultra-religious communities, and served as a founding president of Women's Link Worldwide.  In Controlling Women, Kolbert and Kay offer a comprehensive account of the struggle to safeguard the protections of Roe v. Wade and preserve women's fundamental reproductive rights in the face of nearly 50 years of legal battles. Dorothy Roberts is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. She is also founding director of the Penn Program on Race, Science & Society in the Center for Africana Studies and the author of several books that focus on health, social justice, and bioethics. (recorded 12/14/2021)

Watch the video on our youtube channel. In conversation with Signe Wilkinson ''One of America's foremost political satirists'' (The New York Times), illustrator, caricaturist, and cartoonist Edward Sorel has illustrated 41 covers for The New Yorker and has published pictorial essays and features in The Nation, Vanity Fair, Esquire, and The Atlantic, among many other publications. His many pictorial books include Literary Lives, Unauthorized Portraits, and Mary Astor's Purple Diary. The recipient of the George Polk Award for Satiric Drawing and the Best in Illustration Award from the National Cartoonists Society, Sorel's work has been exhibited in numerous galleries and museums. His new memoir combines 172 of his drawings, cartoons, and caricatures with lively prose to tell the story of his Depression-era Bronx upbringing, the adventures in his rich personal life, and extraordinary 70-year career.    Signe Wilkinson is a widely syndicated cartoonist and the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning. Formerly based at The Philadelphia Inquirer, she is the recipient of three Overseas Press Club Awards. With Jonathan Zimmerman she co-authored the book Free Speech: And Why You Should Give a Damn. (recorded 12/9/2021)

The most widely read woman female writer in Turkey and acclaimed worldwide for her work's ''vision, bravery and compassion'' (The New York Times Book Review), Elif Shafak is the author of 12 bestselling novels, including The Bastard of Istanbul, The Architect's Apprentice, Three Daughters of Eve, and 10 Minutes 28 Seconds in This Strange World, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. She is also the author of the memoir Black Milk and has written articles for periodicals around the world. A fellow and a vice president of the Royal Society of Literature, Shafak has taught at numerous universities in Turkey, the U.K., and the U.S. The Island of Missing Trees explores love, trauma, and ecological renewal through the bittersweet love story of two Cypriot teens on opposing sides of war.  A ''21st-century Virginia Woolf'' (Literary Review UK), Siri Hustvedt is the author of the internationally bestselling novels The Blazing World, What I Loved, and The Summer Without Men, among others. She is also the author of A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women, a three-part essay collection that employs feminism, psychology, neuroscience, and a host of other frameworks that connect pursuits to bridge the gaps between the sciences and humanities, a topic upon which she has also published numerous academic essays and papers. Her many honors include the International Gabarron Prize for Thought and Humanities and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction. In Mothers, Fathers, and Others, Hustvedt examines familial love and hate, feminism, and the power of art in a series of interdisciplinary essays. (recorded 12/7/2021)

In conversation with Michael Gorra, the Mary Augusta Jordan Professor of English Language and Literature at Smith College and the editor of the Norton Critical Editions of As I Lay Dying, and The Sound and the Fury, and most recently The Saddest Words: William Faulkner's Civil War. Kevin Birmingham is the author of The Most Dangerous Book, a ''lively'' and ''impressively researched'' (The Washington Post) history of James Joyce's controversial Ulysses. A New York Times bestseller, it won the PEN New England Award and the Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism. Birmingham's other writing has appeared in such periodicals as The New York Times Book Review and Harper's, and he was named a public scholar by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Sinner and the Saint reveals the incredible true story of the notorious 1830s Parisian murderer who inspired Fyodor Dostevsky's magnum opus Crime and Punishment. (recorded 11/30/2021)

Rabih Alameddine was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the National Book Award for An Unnecessary Woman, a ''paean to the transformative power of reading'' (LA Review of Books). His many other works include the novels The Angel of History, The Hakawati, and the short story collection The Perv. The winner of the 2019 Dos Passos Prize, Alameddine was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, and has had solo gallery exhibitions of his paintings on three continents. In The Wrong End of the Telescope, a steadfast Arab American trans woman aids Syrian refugees on the island of Lesbos, and forms a close bond with a Syrian matriarch who is determined to protect her children and husband. Claire Vaye Watkins' debut story collection Battleborn was named a best book of 2012 by numerous periodicals. Her other work includes Gold Fame Citrus, a novel in which two young lovers squatting in an abandoned mansion find hope in a drought-wracked future Los Angeles. Watkins is a writing professor at the University of California, Irvine, and her stories and essays have appeared in Granta, One Story, The Paris Review, Ploughshares, and Glimmer Train. I Love You but I've Chosen Darkness is the ''trippy and beautiful, slippery and seductive'' (Vogue) story of a new mother who leaves for a speaking engagement in Reno, Nevada and ends up on a transformative journey through the Mojave Desert of her youth. (recorded 11/23/2021)

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition, and Dr. Anthea Butler, Geraldine R. Segal Professor in American Social Thought and Chair of Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania Introduced by legendary poet, Sonia Sanchez Nikole Hannah-Jones won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for her work on The 1619 Project, a continuing initiative started byThe New York Times Magazine to reexamine United States history through the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans. The co-founder of the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting, Hannah-Jones has earned, among many other honors, a Peabody Award, two George Polk Awards, three National Magazine Awards, and a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. She was recently was named the Knight Chair in Race and Journalism at Howard University. Interweaving 18 essays with 36 works of fiction and nonfiction by a group of writers of diverse backgrounds, skills, and experiences, The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story is a greatly expanded exploration of the continuing legacy of slavery in our cultural, political, and legal institutions. (recorded 11/17/2021)

In conversation with Orly Lobel, author of You Don't Own Me: The Court Battles that Exposed Barbie's Dark Side Specializing in intellectual property and science policy, Jorge L. Contreras is a professor of law and ethics of human genetics at the University of Utah. His more than 100 scholarly articles have appeared in publications such as Science, Harvard Journal of Law and Technology, and Nature, and he has been featured on BBC Radio, NPR, and PRI, among other media outlets. A member of the Advisory Board of the American Antitrust Institute, Contreras has served on several other high-level governmental, research, and legal boards. The Genome Defense follows the intense high-stakes courtroom fight undertaken by ACLU lawyers, activists, and scientists against biotech companies seeking to patent the very material that makes us who we are. Orly Lobel is the award-winning author of several books and numerous articles. She is the Warren Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of San Diego and received her doctoral and law degrees from Harvard University. She is a prolific speaker, commentator, and scholar who travels the world lecturing about policy and industry. (recorded 11/18/2021)

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition Jonathan Karl is the author of Front Row at the Trump Show, an instant New York Times bestseller that peered behind the scenes into President Trump and his allies' unprecedented actions. The chief White House correspondent and chief Washington correspondent for ABC News, Karl has written extensively about Trump's presidency., Karl has also covered some of D.C.'s most important beats, including four presidential administrations, Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, and the State Department. He was the president of the White House Correspondents' Association from 2019 to 2020 and has earned the Walter Cronkite Award for National Individual Achievement, an Emmy Award, and the Everett McKinley Dirksen Award, the highest honor for Congressional reporting. In Betrayal, Karl recounts the chaotic events that followed the 2020 presidential election and the former president's stunning downfall. (recorded 11/22/2021)

In conversation with Trapeta B. Mayson Chronicling African American family life and women through 14 celebrated poetry collections, Lucille Clifton won the National Book Award and the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, and is the only author ever to have two books of poetry nominated in the same year for the Pulitzer Prize. She also authored scores of children's books, served as the Poet Laureate of Maryland, and earned fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Academy of American Poets. Originally published 34 years before her 2010 death, Generations is a memoir that traces Clifton's family's history from Buffalo, New York back to the Jim Crow South and the slave trade, all the way to the women of the Dahomey people of West Africa. Generations is prefaced by an all-new forward from Tracey K. Smith. A former two-term United States Poet Laureate, she is currently the chair of Princeton University's Lewis Center for the Arts and a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. She is the author of four books of verse, including the Pulitzer Prize–winning Life on Mars, as well as the memoir Ordinary Light. In conversation with Trapeta B. Mayson, Philadelphia Poet Laureate and the author of She Was Once Herself and Mocha Melodies. (recorded 11/16/2021)

In conversation with Marsha Levick, cofounder, deputy director, and chief counsel of the Juvenile Law Center The Blume Professor of Law and director of the Juvenile Justice Clinic and Initiative at the Georgetown University Law Center, Kristin Henning represents young people in Washington, D.C.'s Superior Court and conducts nationwide training of criminal justice institutions across the U.S. on the intersection of race, adolescence, and policing. She is the former lead attorney of the Juvenile Unit at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia and serves on the board of directors for the Center for Children's Law and Policy. In The Rage of Innocence, Henning exposes the day-to-day but widely hidden ways in which discriminatory and aggressive policing traumatizes Black children and leads them to fear, resist, and resent the police. Marsha Levick is the cofounder, deputy director, and chief counsel of the Juvenile Law Center, the oldest public interest law firm for children in the United States. For more than 35 years, Ms. Levick has been an advocate for children's and women's rights, earning recognition as a national leader in juvenile law. Ms. Levick has authored or co-authored numerous briefs before the U.S. Supreme Court and many federal and state courts, contributing to cases including Roper v. Simmons, striking the juvenile death penalty; Graham v. Florida, striking juvenile life without parole sentences for non-homicide crimes; JDB v. North Carolina, requiring consideration of youth status in the Miranda custody determination; and Miller v. Alabama, striking mandatory juvenile life without parole sentences in homicide cases. (recorded 11/15/2021)

Ellis Wachs Endowed Lecture In conversation with Michael Smerconish A national political reporter at The Washington Post, Bucks County's own Robert Costa has earned a wide readership and praise from fellow journalists for his deeply sourced and well-founded reporting. He previously wrote for National Review, was the moderator and managing editor for PBS's Washington Week, and served as a political analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. Co-authored with investigative journalist and bestselling writer Bob Woodward, Peril utilizes hundreds of interviews and thousands of documents to delve into the difficult transfer of power from the Trump administration to the Biden presidency and the resulting crisis for U.S. democracy. Michael A. Smerconish is the host of The Michael Smerconish Program on SiriusXM POTUS Channel 124, the host of CNN's Smerconish on Saturday mornings, a Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer columnist, and a New York Times bestselling author. (recorded 11/12/2021)

Uwem Akpan's Say You're One of Them, ''a startling debut collection'' (The New York Times) of short stories was a Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller, the 2009 Oprah Book Club Selection, and was translated in to 12 languages. It was named to several publications' ''best of the year'' lists and earned the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and the Open Book Award, among other honors. A professor in the University of Florida's MFA writing program and the recipient of many literary fellowships, Akpan has published stories and autobiographical work in The New Yorker, the Nigerian edition of The Guardian, and the Hekima Review, among other places. His debut novel tells the satirical story of a Nigerian editor who experiences racism and feelings of white cultural superiority underneath the façade of the Manhattan publishing industry.  Kirstin Valdez Quade is the author of the ''quirky, compelling'' and ''polished debut'' (Dallas Morning News) story collection Night at the Fiestas, winner of the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Prize. A professor of creative writing at Princeton University, she has earned the ''5 Under 35'' award from the National Book Foundation, the Rome Prize, and a Stegner Fellowship. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The O. Henry Prize Stories anthology, among other places. The Five Wounds, Quade's debut novel, finds five generations of a New Mexican family converging in the year following an unexpected birth. (recorded 11/10/2021)

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition Pine Tree Foundation Endowed Lecture The New York Times's Supreme Court correspondent for nearly three decades, Linda Greenhouse won the Pulitzer Prize for her coverage of the United States's highest judicial branch. She is the author of Becoming Justice Blackmun and The U.S. Supreme Court: A Very Short Introduction, and the co-author of The Burger Court and the Rise of the Judicial Right. In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, her other journalistic honors include the John Chancellor Award, the Goldsmith Career Award, and the Radcliffe Institute Medal. In Justice on the Brink, Greenhouse offers a sobering account and inside analysis of the year in which the sitting membership of the Supreme Court transitioned into a rightwing super-majority. (recorded 11/9/2021)

In conversation with David Fricke, senior editor for Rolling Stone and SiriusXM host One of Rolling Stone's ''100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time'', Robby Krieger is best known as a member of the legendary rock band The Doors. He wrote or co-wrote some of the group's biggest commercial hits, including ''Light My Fire,'' ''Touch Me,'' ''Love Me Two Times,'' and ''Love Her Madly.'' While The Doors have sold over one hundred million albums worldwide, inspired Oliver Stone's popular biopic feature film, and have received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy, Krieger has also become a Grammy-nominated solo artist, an accomplished painter, and he is the co-founder of the annual Medlock-Krieger Rock & Roll Golf Classic & All-Star Concert. In Set the Night on Fire, Krieger, the notoriously reserved musician describes his childhood, The Doors' triumphs and tragedies, and the frank details of his personal struggles. (recorded 11/8/2021)

In conversation with Tracey Matisak, award-winning journalist and broadcaster Currently Hillary Clinton's chief of staff, Huma Abedin began as an intern for the former first lady in 1996. In the interim she has served in the U.S. Senate as senior advisor to Senator Clinton, worked as traveling chief of staff for Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign, was the deputy chief of staff at the U.S. Department of State, and was vice chair of Hillary for America in 2016. In her candid new memoir, Abedin tells the story of her upbringing in the United States and Saudi Arabia by Indian and Pakistani parents, her heartbreaking marriage to Anthony Weiner and their shared love for their son, and some of her most extraordinary career experiences. (recorded 11/5/2021)

Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Endowed Lecture One of the world's leading neuroscientists, Dr. Antonio Damasio has made watershed contributions to the understanding of how our brains process emotions, decisions, and conscious. He is the David Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Philosophy, and director of the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. His prolific body of work includes scores of scientific articles and several books, including Decartes' Error, The Feeling of What Happens, and The Strange Order of Things. A member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Damasio is the recipient of some of the scientific community's most prestigious awards. Feeling & Knowing is a guide to understanding the phenomenon of consciousness and how it relates to the physical brain. (recorded 11/4/2021)

In conversation with Christine Kendall, author of Riding Chance, nominated for a NAACP Image Award, and The True Definition of Neva Beane Glory Edim is the creator of Well-Read Black Girl, a book club, book, and online community that showcases the universality of Black women's stories and experiences in and through literature. She also edited the 2018 NAACP Image Award-nominated anthology of the same name that featured a wide array of essays by Black women. A recipient of the 2017 Innovator's Award from the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, Edim serves on the board of New York City's Housing Works Bookstore. She is the curator of the new story collection On Girlhood, referred to by Jacqueline Woodson as ''a loving family of writers who came before me,'' that includes such towering voices as Toni Morrison, Paule Marshall, Toni Cade Bambara, and Alice Walker--among many others. (recorded 11/3/2021)

Meelya Gordon Memorial Lecture Renowned for his ''ability to combine high thinking with a shrewd capacity to understand day-to-day American politics,'' (The Economist) Pulitzer Prize winner George Will has written a nationally syndicated column at The Washington Post for the past 45 years. His many books include The Conservative Sensibility, Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball, and One Man's America: The Pleasures and Provocations of Our Singular Nation. Will is the winner of the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism, two Silurian Awards for editorial writing, and the Order of Lincoln award from his home state of Illinois. In American Happiness and Discontents, Will addresses such varied topics as American socialists, anti-capitalist conservatives, drug policy, the criminal justice system, climatology, the Coronavirus, the First Amendment, the composition of the federal judiciary, the morality of watching football, and so much more. (recorded 11/1/2021)

In conversation with Adam McNeil, host of the New Books in African American Studies podcast The McCausland Professor of History at the University of South Carolina, Woody Holton teaches early U.S. history, specializing in economics, African American history, Indigenous history, and women's history. His many books include the Bancroft Prize–winning biography Abigail Adams; Forced Founders, winner of the Merle Curti Award from the Organization of American Historians; and Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution, a National Book Award finalist. He is also the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Guggenheim Foundation. In Liberty Is Sweet, Holton uses more than a thousand primary accounts to offer a wide-ranging reassessment of marginalized peoples' contributions to U.S. independence and their conflicts with the values, decisions, and agendas of the Founding Fathers. Adam McNeil is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of History at Rutgers University, where he writes about Black Women from the Chesapeake Bay during the Revolutionary and Founding eras. Adam's research has been supported by fellowships from the University of Michigan's Clements Library, the David Center for the American Revolution at the American Philosophical Society, and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture. In addition to academic writing, Adam regularly contributes to academic blogs Black Perspectives and The Junto, and regularly interviews scholars on the New Books in African American Studies podcast, where he has interviewed nearly one hundred scholars about their works in African American Studies and African American History.  (recorded 10/28/2021)

Joshua Ferris's ''brash, extravagant, and chillingly beautiful'' (The New Yorker) novels include Then We Came to the End, winner of the 2008 PEN/Hemingway Award for best first novel and a finalist for the National Book Award; To Rise Again at a Decent Hour, which was shortlisted for the 2014 Man Booker Prize; and The Unnamed, the story of a lawyer who has the uncontrollable urge to walk and keep walking. One of The New Yorker's ''20 Under 40'' writers and winner of the International Dylan Thomas Prize, Ferris is also the author of the short story collection The Dinner Party and has published fiction in Granta, Prairie Schooner, and Best American Voices, among other places. In A Calling for Charlie Barnes, a scheming malcontent finds redemption on an unlikely path.    Dana Spiotta is the author of five novels, including Wayward, which the New York Times called a "virtuosic, singular and very funny portrait of a woman seeking sanity and purpose in a world gone mad." Spiotta has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award.  She was a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Rome Prize, the St. Francis College Literary Prize, and the John Updike Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. (recorded 10/26/2021)

In conversation with Jonathan Franzen, bestselling author of Crossroads, Freedom, Purity, and The Corrections among other works of fiction and non-fiction. ''A fiercely intelligent writer'' (The New York Times), Donald Antrim is the author of three critically acclaimed novels, Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World, The Hundred Brothers, and The Verificationist. His other work includes Afterlife, a memoir about his mother; The Emerald Light in the Air, a story collection compiled from his published work's frequent appearances in The New Yorker; and essays and articles  published in a variety of periodicals. He has received grants and awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the MacArthur Foundation, among others. In One Friday in April, Antrim uses the harrowing circumstances surrounding his 2006 suicidal thoughts and actions to reframe this misunderstood illness as something other than the choice of a depressed person.     (recorded 10/21/2021)

In conversation with Nicole Dennis-Benn Asali Solomon is the author of Disgruntled, ''a smart, philosophical, coming-of-age'' (San Francisco Chronicle) novel about the double-binds of race in late 1980s Philadelphia. Her other work includes the short story collection Get Down, as well as stories published in a wide array of periodicals, including McSweeney's, Essence, and O, The Oprah Magazine. A professor of fiction writing and literature of the African diaspora at Haverford College, Solomon is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award and the National Book Foundation's ''5 Under 35'' honor. The Days of Afrekete follows two women who reconnect years after their college days and rediscover themselves amidst the questions asked at middle age. Nicole Dennis-Benn is the author of Patsy and Here Comes the Sun, a New York Times Notable Book and winner of the Lambda Literary Award. Born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, she teaches at Princeton and lives with her wife in Brooklyn, New York. (recorded 10/20/2021)

In conversation with John Freeman Anthony Doerr won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for All the Light We Cannot See, ''a beautiful, daring, heartbreaking, oddly joyous novel'' (Seattle Times) about a blind French girl and a German boy navigating the carnage of World War II. Also the winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and a National Book Award finalist, it spent more than two years on the New York Times bestseller list. Doerr's other work includes the novel About Grace, two story collections, and a memoir, for which he has earned five O. Henry Prizes, the Story Prize, and a Guggenheim Fellowship, among other honors. A novel of the interconnected tapestry of human experience, Cloud Cuckoo Land weaves together the lives of a fifteenth century orphan, an octogenarian in present-day Idaho, and a girl on an interstellar spacecraft decades from today. John Freeman was the editor of Granta until 2013. His books include Dictionary of the Undoing, How to Read a Novelist, Tales of Two Americas, and Tales of Two Planets. His poetry includes the collections Maps, The Park, and the forthcoming Wind, Trees. In 2021, he edited the anthologies There's a Revolution Outside, My Love with Tracy K. Smith, and The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story. An Executive Editor at Knopf, he teaches writing and literature classes at NYU. (recorded 10/19/2021)

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers is the author of five poetry collections, including The Gospel of Barbecue, Red Clay Suite, and The Age of Phillis, which was longlisted for the 2020 National Book Award for Poetry and won a 2021 NAACP Image Award. Critic at Large for The Kenyon Review and a professor of English at the University of Oklahoma, Jeffers has been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the American Antiquarian Society. Additionally, Jeffers has been honored with the Harper Lee Award for Literary Distinction and with induction into the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame. An instant New York Times bestseller and an Oprah Book Club selection, her debut novel The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois chronicles the centuries-spanning journey of a Black American family from the days of the colonial slave trade to our own unsteady era. The director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, Kevin Young is also the poetry editor for The New Yorker, where he hosts the Poetry Podcast. He is the author of the poetry collections Brown, Blue Laws, Book of Hours, and Jelly Roll, a finalist for the National Book Award. His nonfiction books include Bunk and The Grey Album: On the Blackness of Blackness, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. The former director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library, Young has been honored with the Lenore Marshall Prize for Poetry, an American Book Award, and the Paterson Poetry Prize. Stones is the newest collection from Young, ''one of the poetry stars of his generation'' (Los Angeles Times). (recorded 10/18/2021)

In conversation with Tracey Matisak, award-winning journalist and broadcaster The United States representative for California's 28th congressional district and the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Adam Schiff was the lead manager for the first impeachment proceedings against former President Donald Trump. He is a former member of the House Appropriations Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee, and served as an assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles from 1987 to 1993 and a California state senator from 1996 to 2000. In Midnight in Washington, Schiff reveals an inside look at one of U.S. democracy's most challenging moments, his own path to becoming one of the former president's most prominent critics, and the principles we need in the struggle against autocracy. (recorded 10/18/2021)

In conversation with Adriana Trigiani  The senior vice president and deputy publisher of Doubleday, Todd Doughty has worked for Penguin Random House publishing for more than 20 years. When the World Health Organization named COVID-19 a global pandemic, he decided that he had to find a way to recognize the commonplace joys many of us take for granted. As a result, Doughty wrote Little Pieces of Hope, a combination of thoughts, lists, illustrations, playlists, and exercises to remind readers of life's mundane and remarkable beauty. ''A comedy writer with a heart of gold'' (The New York Times), Adriana Trigiani is the bestselling author of 20 fiction and nonfiction books that have been published in 38 countries. She is also an award-winning filmmaker, playwright, and television writer and producer. Her forthcoming novel The Good Left Undone will be released in April 2022. (recorded 10/14/2021)

In conversation with Mitchell S. Jackson Keisha N. Blain's Set the World on Fire, a history of some of the early 20th century's leading Black nationalist women, won the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians Book Prize and was named one of Smithsonian Magazine's best history books of 2018. With Ibram X. Kendi, she coauthored the #1 New York Times bestseller Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619–2019. An associate professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh, Blain is an editor for The Washington Post's ''Made by History'' section and is the president of the African American Intellectual History Society. In Until I Am Free, Blain combines biography and social commentary to share the enduring life and legacy of Civil Rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, and also offers a manifesto for those who wish to continue fighting for racial, voting, and women's rights. Mitchell S. Jackson is the John O. Whiteman Dean's Distinguished Professor in the Department of English. Recipient of a 2021 Guggenheim fellowship, Jackson won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Feature Writing for his article about the killing of Ahmaud Arbery. His debut novel The Residue Years was recognized with a Whiting Award and the Ernest J. Gaines Prize. His nonfiction book, Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family, was named a best book of 2019 by NPR, Time and elsewhere. (recorded 10/12/2021)

Dr. Temple Grandin is a philosophical leader and activist for both the animal welfare and autism advocacy efforts. She is a TIME Magazine Top 100 Hero, the author of more than 60 scientific papers, a sought-after public speaker, and professor of animal science at Colorado State University. Her semi-autobiographical nonfiction books Emergence, Thinking in Pictures, and The Autistic Brain inform scientists and a still largely uninformed general public about autism. The HBO movie based on her life, starring Claire Danes, received seven Emmy Awards.  Psychologist Dr. Deborah Moore is the founder and director of Fall Creek Counseling Associates, a landmark practice that works with children, teens, and adults with autism. The author and coauthor of many scholarly and popular works on autism, gaming addiction, and internet addiction, she collaborated with Grandin on the 2016 book The Loving Push: How Parents and Professionals Can Help Spectrum Kids Become Successful Adults. In Navigating Autism, Grandin and Moore use their decades of personal and professional experience to offer nine empowering strategies for those who want to successfully work with young people on the autism spectrum. (recorded 10/8/2021)

In conversation with Trudy Rubin, Worldview columnist, The Philadelphia Inquirer Known for her testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives during Donald Trump's 2019 impeachment hearings, Fiona Hill has more than 30 years of experience in foreign policy. The Robert Bosch Senior Fellow at the Center on the United States and Europe in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution, she is a former National Security Council official and a former officer at the National Intelligence Council. Hill is the coauthor of Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin and The Siberian Curse: How Communist Planners Left Russia Out in the Cold, and she has written extensively on strategic issues related to Eastern Europe and Central Asia. In There Is Nothing for You Here, she traces her path as the daughter of a coal miner in northern England to her service to three U.S. Presidents. Hill examines the desperation impacting American politics and shows why expanding opportunity is the only long-term hope for our democracy. Books provided by Uncle Bobbie's Coffee and Books (recorded 10/7/2021)

In conversation with Reginald Dwayne Betts, essayist, poet, and author of the award-winning collection, Felon An investigative reporter at The New York Times, Andrea Elliott won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing for a series of articles on Sheik Reda Shata, an Egyptian-born imam living in Brooklyn. She formerly worked as a staff writer at the Miami Herald, where she covered immigration and Latin American politics. The winner of Columbia University's Medal for Excellence, the George K. Polk Award, the Scripps Howard Award, and a prize from the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Elliott was a visiting journalist at the Russell Sage Foundation, an Emerson Fellow at New America, and received a Whiting Foundation Grant. Based on her 2013 five-part series for the Times on the plight of children experiencing homelessness in New York City, Elliot's debut book follows eight challenging years in the life of a girl guiding her siblings as they experience the effects of widening income inequality and a disappearing social safety net. (recorded 10/6/2021)

In conversation with Richard Rothstein Sheryll Cashin's NAACP Image Award–nominated books on racism and inequality include The Failures of Integration, The Agitator's Daughter, and Place, Not Race. The Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Law, Civil Rights and Social Justice at Georgetown University, a contributing editor at Politico, and a member of the Poverty and Race Research Action Council, Cashin formerly worked as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and in the Clinton's White House. White Space, Black Hood, which Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. referred to as ''riveting and beautifully written'' and ''meticulously researched'', uses two decades of data to expose the ways in which the U.S. government fostered inequality through the creation of impoverished Black spaces and affluent white spaces. A distinguished fellow of the Economic Policy Institute and a senior fellow (emeritus) at the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Richard Rothstein is the author of the bestselling book The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America and is a former national education columnist for The New York Times. (recorded 10/5/2021)

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition Publishing industry veteran Christine Pride has held a variety of editorial positions at Doubleday, Simon & Schuster, and Crown, among other publishing companies. In this capacity she has championed and edited a number of New York Times bestselling memoirs and inspirational stories. Also a freelance editorial consultant, teacher, and coach, Pride writes the ''Race Matters'' column for the popular blog Cup of Jo. A journalist, editor, and podcast host, Jo Piazza is also the author of seven novels, including Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win, If Nuns Ruled the World, and Fitness Junkie. Her other writing has been widely published in a variety of places, including The Wall Street Journal, Marie Claire, and Slate. She formerly served as a managing editor for Yahoo! Travel, the executive news director for the print and digital editions of In Touch Weekly, and the senior digital editor at Current TV. Pride and Piazza's collaborative novel tells the dual-perspective story of two lifelong friends, one Black and one white, whose bond is forever changed when the latter's police officer husband is involved in the shooting of an unarmed Black teenager. Books provided by Uncle Bobbie's Coffee and Books (recorded 10/4/2021)

In conversation with Sapphire The National Poet Laureate of Scotland from 2016 to 2021, Jackie Kay is the author of the celebrated poetry collections Life Mask, Off Colour, and The Adoption Papers, winner of the Scottish Arts Council Book Award. She is also the author of Red Dust Road, a coming-of-age memoir of being a mixed race adopted daughter of communists in 1970s Scotland, as well as several plays, children's books, and the novel Trumpet, winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize. A fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, she is the chancellor of the University of Salford in Manchester, England. In her latest book, Kay combines history with personal narrative to offer a layered account of the life of the ''Empress of the Blues'' Bessie Smith. Sapphire is the author of the acclaimed novel Push, which was adapted into the Academy Award–winning film Precious. She is also the author of the novel The Kid and three collections of poetry. (recorded 9/30/2021)

In conversation with Meg Wolitzer An ''American literary treasure'' (The Boston Globe), Hilma Wolitzer is the author of the novels In the Flesh, The Doctor's Daughter, and Ending, which served as the inspiration for Bob Fosse's celebrated film All That Jazz. Her other work includes four children's books, a nonfiction account of fiction workshops, two screenplay adaptations of her novels, and stories and reviews published in Esquire, The New York Times, and Ploughshares, among other periodicals. The recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, she has taught writing at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Columbia University, and New York University. Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket is a career-spanning collection of Wolitzer's short stories, including the title story, which was her first published work, that catapulted her from suburban homemaker to ''poet of domestic detail'' (Ms.). Hilma Wolitzer's daughter, bestselling novelist Meg Wolitzer, is the author of 14 novels, including The Wife, The Position, and The Female Persuasion. She has taught writing at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Princeton University, and Skidmore College. Her work has been adapted into three feature films.  (recorded 9/29/2021)

In conversation with Tyler Kepner  ''Arguably the best pure long-form sportswriter in the land'' (Chicago Sun-Times), Joe Posnanski is the bestselling author of six books, including in-depth accounts of golf legends Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus, the 1975 Cincinnati Reds, and baseball coaching great Buck O'Neil. Currently a columnist for The Athletic, the co-host of The Poscast weekly baseball podcast, and a prolific sports blogger on his popular website, he is a former columnist for Sports Illustrated and The Kansas City Star. Posnanski won two Sports Emmy Awards for his coverage of the 2014 and 2016 Olympics and he has been honored as National Sportswriter of the Year by five separate organizations. In his newest book, Posnanski tells the story of baseball through 100 biographies of some of the sport's greatest players. The national baseball writer for The New York Times since 2010, Tyler Kepner is the author of K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches and The Phillies Experience: A Year-by-Year Chronicle of the Philadelphia Phillies. (recorded 9/28/2021)

In conversation with Adam Kirsch  Recognized for their ''signature blend of tragedy and spirituality'' (The Washington Post), Dara Horn's novels include In the Image, The World to Come, and A Guide for the Perplexed. One of Granta's Best Young American Novelists, Horn is the recipient of two National Jewish Book Awards, the Edward Lewis Wallant Award, and the Reform Judaism Fiction Prize, among other honors. She is a former teacher of Jewish literature and Israeli history at Harvard University, Sarah Lawrence College, and City University of New York, a contributor to The Atlantic and The New York Times, and the author of the bestselling nonfiction ebook The Rescuer. Based on research, family history, and world travel, Horn's latest book examines the contradictory cultural fascination with Jewish death that exists next to a lack of respect for Jewish life. An editor at The Wall Street Journal's Weekend Review section and a 2016 Guggenheim Fellow, Adam Kirsch is the author of several books of poetry and criticism, including The Thousand Wells, Who Wants to Be a Jewish Writer?, and The Blessing and the Curse: The Jewish People and Their Books in the Twentieth Century. (recorded 9/23/2021)

In conversation with Andrew Ervin A ''genuine artist ... who can render the intricate dazzle of it all and at the same time plumb its philosophical implications'' (Esquire), Richard Powers won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Overstory, a tale of activism, the natural world, and people's connection to trees. His other novels include The Echo Maker, a story of the brain, mass migrations, and car accidents; Orfeo, the narrative of a falsely accused amateur scientist/composer; and Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance, in which a WWI-era photo sends the men on very different quests. Powers has earned the National Book Award, a MacArthur Fellowship, the Lannan Literary Award, and two Pushcart Prizes.  Bewilderment follows a widower astrobiologist dealing with both the mysteries of the cosmos and the troubles befalling his young son. Andrew Ervin is a writer and critic and author of Extraordinary Renditions, Burning Down George Orwell's House, and Bit by Bit: How Video Games Transformed Our World. He teaches part-time in the MFA program at Temple University and for the School of Interactive Games and Media at Rochester Institute of Technology. (recorded 9/22/2021)

Celebrated for ''his courage and his convictions'' in tackling sensitive issues, Randall Kennedy is ''a member of that small coterie of our most lucid big thinkers about race'' (The Washington Post). The Michael R. Klein Professor at Harvard Law School, he formerly held positions at the United States Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court, where he clerked for Thurgood Marshall. His many books include Interracial Intimacies, The Persistence of the Color Line, For Discrimination, and Sellout. In Say it Loud!, Kennedy offers a collection of provocative essays about George Floyd, birtherism, Clarence Thomas, antiracism, and more. (recorded 9/21/2021)

In conversation with Danielle Evans Pulling the delicate threads of ''fear and vulnerability, joy and passion, the capacity for love and pain and grief'' (The Washington Post), Alice McDermott's fictional narratives explore intersecting stories of familial love, Irish American culture and assimilation, and the lessons of adulthood. Her novels include Someone; Charming Billy, winner of the 1998 National Book Award; That Night; At Weddings and Wakes; and After This, all of which were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. For more than 20 years McDermott was the Richard A. Macksey Professor of the Humanities at Johns Hopkins University and on the Sewanee Writers Conference faculty. She has contributed writing to The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, and The New York Times, among many other periodicals. In What About the Baby?, McDermott shares a collection of essays inspired from a lifetime of reading, writing, and teaching literature. Danielle Evans is the author of the story collections The Office of Historical Corrections and Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self, winner of the PEN America PEN/Robert W. Bingham prize, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the Paterson Prize, and a National Book Foundation 5 under 35 selection. She teaches in The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. (recorded 9/20/2021)

In conversation with Imani Perry A longtime activist for justice and equity, Tarana Burke founded the Me Too movement in 2006 as a way for women to come together in their shared experiences of sexual violence. She is the senior director of the advocacy group Girls for Gender Equity, founded the Just Be nonprofit organization, worked at Art Sanctuary Philadelphia, and has collaborated with many other groups to hold workshops and create initiatives around issues of sexual violence, discrimination, and economic justice. The recipient of the Ridenhour Prize for Courage, a VH1 Trailblazer Award, and the Sydney Peace Prize, she was one of TIME magazine's 2017 Persons of the Year and one of its 100 Most Influential People of 2018. Unbound is a memoir of Burke's journey from childhood trauma to the role of empathetic, empowered advocate for worldwide social change. Imani Perry is the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies and faculty associate in the Program in Law and Public Affairs and Gender and Sexuality Studies at Princeton. She is the author of six books, most recently the award-winning titles, Breathe: A Letter to My Sons and Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry. (recorded 9/17/2021)

In conversation with Angie Martinez Over the years Gabrielle Union has been a tireless advocate for the marginalized and the victimized, and fans around the world have watched her both on and off screen stand up to and speak out against injustice, in its myriad forms. With her newest book, You Got Anything Stronger?, Gabrielle is at her most vulnerable. Life happens with all its plot twists, and Gabrielle is opening up about everything from her surrogacy journey to navigating married life to aging and leveling up in your career. This will be a memorable afternoon of conversation that will leave guests feeling empowered and inspired.  Angie Martinez is recognized as one of the most influential personalities in popular culture and multimedia. Angie's nearly twenty years of on-air hosting experience has led her to become the media trailblazer that she is today: multimedia host, spokeswoman, actress, recording artist, entertainment personality, author, and philanthropist. (recorded 9/15/2021)

In conversation with Luis J. Rodríguez "Not only a gifted writer, but an absolutely essential one" (The New York Times Book Review), Sandra Cisneros explores the themes of place, identity, and working-class culture in her novels, poems, and short stories. Her bestselling books include The House on Mango Street, Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories, and Loose Woman. She is the recipient of the National Medal of Arts, the PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature, and numerous fellowships and honorary doctorates, among other honors. Cisneros is also the founder of the Macondo Foundation and the Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Foundation, nonprofit organizations dedicated to encouraging emerging writers. Martita, I Remember You/Martita, te recuerdo is a story about a young woman who leaves her Mexican family in Chicago to find literary success in Paris. A significant figure in Chicano literature, Luis J. Rodríguez is a poet, novelist, critic, and journalist. He is the founder of the Tia Chucha Press, the recipient of the Carl Sandberg Literary Award, and was the 2014 Los Angeles Poet Laureate. (recorded 9/14/2021)

Colm Tóibín's ''audacious, profound, and wonderfully intelligent'' (The Guardian) work includes an impressive list of novels, short stories, essays, plays, poetry, and criticism. His novels The Blackwater Lightship, The Master, and The Testament of Mary were shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and Brooklyn was adapted into the popular BAFTA Award–winning film of the same name. He is recipient of an Irish PEN Award, and is currently the Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University. In The Magician, Tóibín joins research with imagination to present a fictionalized portrait of legendary German author Thomas Mann and his family amidst the violence of early 20th century Europe. (recorded 9/14/2021)

Christopher Emdin is the author of The New York Times bestseller For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood... and the Rest of Y'all Too, a combination of theory, research, and practical application that offers a helpful approach to teaching in urban classrooms of color. Also the author of Urban Science Education for the Hip-Hop Generation, he created the #HipHopEd social media movement and the Science Genius B.A.T.T.L.E.S. program, which uses rap to engage students with science. Emdin is a professor of science education at Columbia University, where he is associate director of the Institute for Urban and Minority Education and director of the Science Education program. His latest book offers a radical, new educational model based on empowering students through the celebration of their unique identities. (recorded 9/13/2021)

In conversation with Lorene Cary, author of the memoirs Ladysitting  and Black Ice, three novels, and a book for young readers. She teaches at University of Pennsylvania and has written a one-act opera of Ladysitting and a play, My General Tubman. After a 20-year career as a journalist, working at the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Tribune, and then as a corporate executive, Carole Hopson followed her dream to become a pilot. Based in Newark, NJ, Hopson currently flies the Boeing 737 for United Airlines as a first officer. Her debut fiction, A Pair of Wings: A Novel Inspired by Pioneer Aviatrix Bessie Coleman, an Oprah Daily best pick for July 2021, is about the exciting life of Queen Bess. Books available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 8/12/2021)

In conversation Trapeta Mayson, Philadelphia Poet Laureate Former United States Poet Laureate Rita Dove won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Thomas and Beulah, a semi-fictional collection of verse that examined the lives of her grandparents. In addition to her many other collections, she is the author of an essay collection, stage play, novel, and short story collection. The only poet to win both the National Humanities Medal and the National Medal of Arts, her other honors include the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal from Harvard University, the Wallace Stevens Award from the American Academy of Poets, and 28 honorary degrees. She has taught poetry at the University of Virginia for more than 30 years. In Playlist for the Apocalypse, Dove offers her thoughts about the state of global injustice, the United States's unsteady moral compass, and small moments of grace. Books with signed book plates available from the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 8/11/2021)

In conversation with Benj Pasek, Tony Award-winning songwriter and New York Times bestselling author of Dear Evan Hansen A celebrated director, playwright, screenwriter, and librettist, James Lapine earned three Tony Awards for ''Best Book of a Musical'' for Passion, Falsettos, and Into the Woods. His many other honors include the Pulitzer Prize in Drama, five Drama Desk Awards, a Peabody Award, and induction into the Theater Hall of Fame. He also directed the feature films Impromptu, Life with Mikey, and Earthly Possessions. Putting It Together is about Lapine's collaboration with Stephen Sondheim to create Sunday in the Park with George, their iconic 1984 Broadway musical based on Georges Seurat's painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Benj Pasek is an Oscar, Grammy, Tony, and Golden Globe Award-winning songwriter and New York Times bestselling author. Along with frequent collaborator Justin Paul, he is best known for his work on Dear Evan Hansen, La La Land, and The Greatest Showman. The accompanying albums for each project have appeared in the top 10 of the Billboard 200, the latter of which is certified Platinum in over a dozen countries. He is on the board of the Dramatist Guild Foundation and the American LGBTQ+ Museum. Books with signed book plates are available from the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 8/10/2021)

In conversation with David Clay Large, professor at the Fromm Institute, University of San Francisco, Senior Fellow at the Institute of European Studies, U.C. Berkeley, and author of ten books including Berlin, Where Ghosts Walked: Munich's Road to the Third Reich, and Nazi Games. Rebecca Donner is the author of the ''remarkable debut'' (Baltimore Sun) novel Sunset Terrace, the story of a community of single mothers and kids in 1980s Los Angeles. Donner's other work includes the graphic novel Burnout, as well as essays, reviews, and articles that have appeared in a variety of publications, including The New York Times, The Believer, and Guernica. The recipient of a fellowship at the Leon Levy Center for Biography, Donner has taught writing at Columbia University, Wesleyan University, and Barnard College. In her latest book, Donner explores the remarkable life and brutal death of her great-great-aunt Mildred Harnack, the leader of one of Nazi Germany's most successful underground resistance groups and the only identified person from the United States to be a leader in the German resistance. Books available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 8/9/2021)

In conversation with Andrea Mitchell, anchor of Andrea Mitchell Reports on MSNBC and NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker are the authors of the #1 bestselling book A Very Stable Genius, a ''taut and terrifying'' account of Donald Trump's ''shambolic tenure in office to date'' (The New York Times). In I Alone Can Fix It, they use in-the-room sources to offer a detailed account of Trump and his enablers' disastrous handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the public protests following Minneapolis Police Department Officers Derek Chauvin, Thomas Lane, J. Kueng, and Tou Thao's killing of George Floyd, and the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol Building. A national investigative reporter at The Washington Post, Leonnig won Pulitzer Prizes in 2014 for revealing the U.S. government's secret domestic surveillance efforts and in 2015 for her coverage of the Secret Service's misconduct and security failures. Her reporting about the Secret Service was the basis of her New York Times bestselling book Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service. Leonnig offers on-air political analysis for NBC News and MSNBC. The senior Washington correspondent at the Post, Rucker was part of a team of Post reporters, which also included Leonnig, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for its coverage of Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election. The recipient of the George Polk Award and the Aldo Beckman Award from the White House Correspondents' Association, Rucker also works as an on-air political analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. Books with signed book plates will be mailed after the event. Please allow three weeks for delivery. U.S. orders only.  (recorded 7/28/2021)

Omar El Akkad is the author of American War, a ''poignant and horrifying'' (Washington Post) dystopian novel that imagines a future civil war born from the U.S.'s current destructive policies and impulses. It was an international bestseller, translated into 13 languages, and named one of the best books of the year by the New York Times, NPR, and Esquire. Also an acclaimed journalist, El Akkad earned Canada's National Newspaper Award for Investigative Journalism and the Goff Penny Award for young journalists for the reporting he did from locations such as Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. His new novel tells the story of the international refugee crisis through the experiences of Amir, a Syrian boy who washes up on the shore of a small island. Books with signed book plates will be available from the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 7/22/2021)

In conversation with Resmaa Menakem, bestselling author of My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies Robin DiAngelo's New York Times bestseller White Fragility, a ''methodical, irrefutable exposure of racism in thought and action'' (The New Yorker), explores the counterproductive white behaviors that help maintain racism and offers white people solutions to engage more responsibly in their work against white supremacy and racism. A professor of education at the University of Washington, DiAngelo has worked as a consultant and facilitator on issues of social and racial justice for more than 25 years, and is also the author of Is Everyone Really Equal? and What Does It Mean to be White? Her latest book builds on the framework of White Fragility to identify the ways in which well-intentioned white people create racial inequality. For more information about each author, visit: Robin DiAngelo, Resmaa Menakem A limited number of signed book plates will be available with a purchase of the authors books from the Joseph Fox Bookshop: Nice Racism | My Grandmother's Hands (recorded 7/20/2021)

In conversation with adrienne maree brown Internationally sought-after wellness expert Jessamyn Stanley is the author of Every Body Yoga, ''a clever memoir of a millennial woman's search for self-acceptance'' (Elle) wrapped inside a beginner's manual to asana yoga. A regular contributor to Self magazine, cohost of the Dear Jessamyn podcast, and founder of the wellness community The Underbelly, she has been featured in such publications as The New York Times, Good Morning America, and Sports Illustrated. In Yoke, Stanley explores the concept of the ''yoga of the everyday'' through a series of autobiographical essays about such varied topics as self-love, impostor syndrome, cannabis, and the missing spiritual element to Western yoga. adrienne maree brown is a podcaster, public speaker, and the writer-in-residence at the Emergent Strategy Ideation Institute. Books with signed book plates available at the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 7/21/2021)

In conversation with Wendy Moffat, Professor of English and Curley Chair of Global Education at Dickinson College and author of the prize-winning biography, A Great Unrecorded History: A New Life of E.M. Forster A professor in the Pennoni Honors College of Drexel University, William di Canzio has also taught writing and literature at Yale University, Smith College, and Haverford College. His plays Dooley and Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier have been staged in New York City, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles, among many other places. He has been honored with the Julie Harris Playwright Award, a Brown Foundation Award, and residencies and fellowships from the MacDowell, the Eugene O'Neill Theater's National Playwrights Conference, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Alec, his debut novel, continues the story at the end of Maurice, E.M. Forster's tale of a gay romance. Books with signed book plates are available from the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 7/15/2021)

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition Celebrated for her ''stellar instincts, sturdy craftsmanship and penetrating wisdom'' (San Francisco Chronicle), Yaa Gyasi is the author of Homegoing. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Award for best first book and the PEN/Hemingway Award for a first book of fiction, this breakout debut follows two half-sisters on opposite sides of the 18th-century Ghanaian slave trade and their descendants. Gyasi, a native of Ghana who emigrated with her family to the U.S. in 1991, received an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she earned a Dean's Graduate Research Fellowship. Her new novel, an instant New York Times bestseller and a Today show book club pick, finds a Ghanaian family living in Alabama grappling with grief, faith, and the search for a science–based explanation for suffering. Books with signed book plates will be mailed after the event. Please allow three weeks for delivery. (recorded 7/14/2021)

A former bookseller turned flight attendant, T. J. Newman flew for Virgin America and Alaska Airlines from 2011 until this year. While her passengers were asleep on cross-country red-eye flights, she began to write a novel on whatever she could find during her shifts, including cocktail napkins. After being rejected by 41 agents, she sold Falling and the publishing rights for her second novel for a seven figure deal. Referred to by Don Winslow as ''Jaws at 35,000 feet,'' this ''stunning and relentless'' debut tells the story of a crowded L.A. to New York flight that the captain has to crash in order to save his kidnapped family.  Books available from the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 7/13/2021)

In conversation with Tracey Matisak, award-winning journalist and broadcaster Scott Ellsworth is the author of Death in a Promised Land, an in-depth book about the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, one of modern history's most horrific incidents of racial violence against Black Americans. His other works include The Wind Beneath Their Feet, a history of mountaineering in the Himalayas; and The Secret Game, the bestselling true story of a trailblazing 1940s-era Black basketball team. Formerly an historian at the Smithsonian Institution, Ellsworth has written about United States history for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times, among other publications. In The Ground Breaking, Ellsworth returns to Tulsa on the eve of the 100th anniversary of its infamous racial massacre to offer an ''indispensable'' and ''fast-paced but nuanced'' (The Guardian) account of white people's murder of Black individuals and the complete destruction of the Greenwood neighborhood, also known as Black Wall Street. Books available from the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 7/1/2021)

In conversation with Jonny Meister, host of The Blues Show on WXPN In his five decades in blues music, Grammy-winner Bobby Rush has recorded hundreds of his own songs, collaborated with the likes of Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters, and headlined music festivals all over the world. At 87, he still tours more than 200 days a year, entertaining audiences with his unique funk-infused blues tunes. An inductee to the Blues Hall of Fame, a B.B. King Entertainer of the Year, and a 13-time Blues Music Award winner, he recently performed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and played himself in the 2019 film Dolemite Is My Name. Named for one of Rush's most popular songs, I Ain't Studdin' Ya tells the story of an incredible life and continuing legendary career. Books with signed book plates will be mailed after the event. Please allow three weeks for delivery. U.S. book orders only. All others will be refunded. (recorded 6/30/2021)

In conversation with Jason Villemez, editor of the Philadelphia Gay News A decades-long activist for LGBTQ+ rights and women's empowerment, Sarah Schulman is the author of more than twenty novels, nonfiction books, screenplays, and stage plays. Her other work has appeared in periodicals such as The New Yorker and The New York Times. Schulman is a Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at the College of Staten Island, a fellow at the New York Institute for the Humanities, and the cofounder of the MIX New York LGBT Experimental Film and Video Festival. Schulman has also earned fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Based on more than 200 interviews, Let the Record Show explores the widespread impact of ACT UP, the diverse community AIDS activist group. Books available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 6/29/2021)

Joshua Cohen's acclaimed novels include Moving Kings, Witz, and Book of Numbers, ''a fascinating look at the dark heart of the Web'' and ''one of the best novels ever written about the Internet'' (Rolling Stone). One of Granta's Best of Young American Novelists in 2017, Cohen is the author of the short story collection Four New Messages and the book of essays Attention: Dispatches from a Land of Distraction. Cohen has contributed nonfiction to The New York Times, Harper's, and n+1. Blurring the line between the real and the imagined, The Netanyahus follows a Jewish historian who unexpectedly must play host to an exiled Israeli historian and his family on a wintry 1959 upstate New York college campus. Books with signed book plates available from the Joseph Fox Bookshop Rivka Galchen is the author of Atmospheric Disturbances, a comical mystery that follows a doctor who believes his wife has been replaced with a duplicate. The recipient of an MD from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Galchen also earned an MFA from Columbia University, where she was a Robert Bingham Fellow. She was also the recipient of a 2006 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award and published a popular essay on the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics in The Believer. A combination of history and fiction, Galchen's latest novel tells the tale of Katharina Kepler, a 17th century widow accused of witchcraft who seeks help from her son, the renowned mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler. Books with signed book plates available from the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 6/28/2021)

In conversation with Rachel Ossip Co-sponsored by n+1 and Blue Stoop Elias Rodriques currently teaches at the University of Pennsylvania and in the fall of 2021 will start as an assistant professor of African American literature at Sarah Lawrence College. Focusing on African American Literature, Black Marxist writing, Black Feminism, and Critical Prison Studies, his work has been published in the Guardian, the Nation, Bookforum, and n+1, where he is an assistant editor. In his debut novel, Rodriques tells the story of a mixed–race son of Jamaican immigrants who is called back to his Palm Coast Floridian hometown to investigate the death of his first love-alongside the mysteries of his own family history and identity. Rachel Ossip is a designer, writer, and editor based in Brooklyn, NY. She serves as the managing editor of n+1 magazine and the designer for n+1 books, and manages the contemporary art imprint Paper Monument. She has worked with a range of small publishers, academic publications, and public institutions, such as New Directions and the Othering & Belonging Journal, and teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design. Books with signed book plates available from the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 6/24/2021)

In conversation with David Baldacci, global #1 bestselling author whose books are published in over 45 languages and in more than 80 countries, with 150 million copies sold worldwide. Alex Michaelides is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Silent Patient, a debut thriller that blends ''Hitchcockian suspense, Agatha Christie plotting, and Greek tragedy'' (Entertainment Weekly) to tell the tale of a criminal psychotherapist's quest to unravel a taciturn artist's motivations for murder. A native of Cyprus, Michaelides studied English literature at Trinity College and screenwriting from the American Film Institute. In his new novel, a group therapist delves behind Cambridge University's tranquil spires to investigate the murder of a young woman involved in a secret society known as The Maidens. Signed books will be mailed after the event. Please allow circa three weeks for delivery. U.S. orders only. All others will be refunded. (recorded 6/23/2021)

In conversation with Seph Rodney, PhD, opinions editor and managing editor of the Sunday Edition for Hyperallergic, author of The Personalization of the Museum Visit, and winner of the 2020 Rabkin Arts Journalism Prize. The interim director of New York's Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, Laura Raicovich is a fierce advocate for museums to be hubs of activism and protest that foster a more engaged and informed public. The former director of the Queens Museum, her 2018 resignation from that institution became one of the latest instances of politicized resignations amongst museum administrators across the U.S. A recipient of the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Fellowship, Raicovich lectures internationally, has created and implemented new museum preservation strategies, and is the author of the books At the Lightning Field and A Diary of Mysterious Difficulties. In Culture Strike, she offers context for historical and contemporary museum controversies, argues that ideological neutrality in museums is a myth, and outlines a plan for improving these institutions to better serve the public. Books available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 6/22/2021)

In conversation with Jill Lepore, historian and bestselling and award-winning author of These Truths: A History of the United States, The Secret History of Wonder Woman, and If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future--among many other works. Leading Professor of History and African American Studies at Yale University and a Professor of Law at Yale Law School, Elizabeth Hinton is one of the country's foremost experts on policing, racial inequality, and criminalization. She is the author of From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America, and her articles and essays have been published in The Atlantic, The Nation, and Time, among other places. Professor Hinton's ''groundbreaking, deeply researched and profoundly heart-rending account'' (New York Times Book Review) of police violence inflicted upon Black Americans, America on Fire explains the history of Black rebellions as a response to police violence throughout the U.S. since the 1960s and warns that rebellions will continue until society stops calling on the police and begins changing our oppressive systems. Books are available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 6/21/2021)

In conversation with Katie Ford, author of If You Have to Go and three previous collections of poems. Ford is the recipient of a Lannan Literary Fellowship and she teaches at the University of California, Riverside. Bestselling memoirist Emily Rapp Black is the author of Poster Child, an exploration of her childhood as an amputee and March of Dimes spokesperson; The Still Point of the Turning World, an account of her young son's diagnosis and death from a rare congenital disease; and Sanctuary, a reflection on the meaning of ''resilience'' in the midst of grief and new love. Her essays, stories, poems, and reviews have appeared in periodicals such as the New York Times, Vogue, and The Boston Globe, and she is the nonfiction editor of the Los Angeles Review of Books. A former Fulbright scholar and a Guggenheim Fellow, Black teaches Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside. Black's new book holds a mirror up to the art, disability, and experiences of Frida Kahlo and explains how Black's connection with Frida Kahlo helped her better understand her own life. Books with signed book plates available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 6/17/2021)

In conversation with Anthony B. Bradley, Professor and Chair of Religious and Theological Studies at The King's College (New York) and a Research Fellow at The Acton Institute Jason L. Riley's books include Let Them In: The Case for Open Borders; False Black Power?; and Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed. A longtime columnist for The Wall Street Journal and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, he widely lectures and offers commentary about important social and political issues on various media outlets. Riley's latest work is a biography of conservative social theorist Thomas Sowell. In it he offers a portrait of the Jim Crow South orphan's evolution to public intellectual while arguing that academia should reconsider the unsentimental Sowell's views.  Books with signed book plates available from the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 6/16/2021)

In conversation with Tracey Matisak, award-winning broadcaster and journalist The first Black woman CEO of a Fortune 500 company, Ursula M. Burns headed Xerox from 2009 to 2016. She was the chair and CEO of VEON from 2017 to early 2020, and previously served as a senior advisor to Nestlé, Exxon Mobil, and The Ford Foundation, among many other positions. A prominent figure in the Obama White House, she is currently a member of Uber's board of directors. Forbes ranked Burns in 2014 as one of the most powerful women in the world. Where You Are Is Not Who You Are charts Burns's story from tenement housing on Manhattan's Lower East Side to the halls of corporate power while also offering a critique of the excesses of big business. Books with signed book plates will be mailed after the event. Please allow three weeks for delivery. U.S. orders only. All others will be refunded. (recorded 6/15/2021)

Pine Tree Foundation Endowed Lecture In conversation with Dr. Steven Larson, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Acclaimed for his ''exceptional empathy and care'' (Boston Globe) as a physician, anthropologist, and infectious-disease expert, Paul Farmer is the Kolokotrones University Professor and Chair of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard University and is chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital. He is also a founding director of Partners In Health, an international non-profit organization that provides medical care and advocacy for those living in poverty. The recipient of the Public Welfare Medal from the National Academy of Sciences, a MacArthur Fellowship, and honorary doctorates from numerous universities, Farmer is the author of Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues and Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor. In Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds, he melds firsthand reportage, science, and advocacy into a narrative account of 2014's deadly Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea. Books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 6/14/2021)

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition Acclaimed for bringing ''a clear-eyed, investigative fearlessness'' (The Washington Post) to a diverse range of topics, Lawrence Wright is a longtime staff writer for The New Yorker. He won the Pulitzer Prize for The Looming Tower, an in-depth history of the rise of violent extremism and the intelligence failures that might have prevented the 9/11 attacks. His many other nonfiction works include books about different communities and their experiences in Texas, the secretive world of Scientology, and contemporary American religious figures. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Society of American Historians, Wright has written and performed two one-person plays and co-produced the Emmy-winning documentary Going Clear. Wright recently published The End of October, a bestselling novel about a devastating medical crisis. The Plague Year is about the impact of Covid-19, the initially slow government response to this crisis, and the medical professionals working to save lives and educate the public. Books will be mailed after the event. Please allow three weeks for delivery. U.S. orders only. All others will be refunded. (recorded 6/11/2021)

In conversation with Tracey Matisak, award-winning journalist and broadcaster In appreciation of the George S. Pepper Society Carol Anderson is the author of the National Book Critics Circle Award winner White Rage, ''a riveting and disturbing history'' (The Nation) of white people and how they worked against Black advancement since Reconstruction. Her other books include Bourgeois Radicals; Eyes off the Prize; and One Person, No Vote, which was longlisted for the National Book Award and was a finalist for the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award. The Charles Howard Candler Professor and Chair of African American Studies at Emory University and a member of the Advisory Board of the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative, Anderson has earned fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the National Humanities Center, among many others. Her latest book offers a sobering look at the ways in which all levels of the government, white people, and U.S. courts have consistently weaponized the Second Amendment since its creation to deny African Americans their rights and citizenship. Signed books will be mailed after the event. Please allow three weeks for delivery. U.S. orders only. All others will be refunded. (recorded 6/10/2021)

In conversation with Imani Perry Kiese Laymon's Heavy, a coming-of-age memoir that begins in Jackson, Mississippi, was named a Best Book of 2018 by the New York Times, NPR, and the Washington Post, among other media outlets. The Hubert McAlexander Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Mississippi and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and Oxford American, Laymon is also the author of the essay collection How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America. His latest work is a revised edition of his 2013 debut novel, Long Division. "A little fantasy, a little mystery, and a lot hilarious'' (Atlanta Journal-Constitution), it follows Citoyen ''City'' Coldson, a time-hopping teen seeking answers in the disappearance of a local girl in his grandmother's Gulf Coast community. Imani Perry is the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies and faculty associate in the Program in Law and Public Affairs and Gender and Sexuality Studies at Princeton. She is the author of six books, most recently the award-winning titles, Breathe: A Letter to My Sons and Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry. Books with signed book plates are available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 6/8/2021)

In conversation with Joe Klein, Time political columnist and bestselling author of six books including Primary Colors and most recently Politics Lost Employing ''his narrative gifts and vivid prose'' (The Washington Post) to chronicle some of the world's most extreme environments, Sebastian Junger is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Storm, War, Fire, Tribe, and A Death in Belmont. A contributing editor to Vanity Fair and a special correspondent at ABC News, he has earned a Peabody Award and the National Magazine Award. His debut documentary film, Restrepo, which was co-directed with the late Tim Hetherington, won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and was nominated for an Oscar. In his new book, Junger ruminates on the tenets and contradictions of freedom by way of a year spent with three friends traveling along the East Coast's railroad lines. Signed books will be mailed after the event. Please allow three weeks for delivery. U.S. orders only. All others will be refunded. (recorded 6/1/2021)

In conversation with Christina Baker Kline, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Orphan Train, A Piece of the World, and The Exiles Michael Punke is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Revenant, ''a superb revenge story'' (The Washington Post Book World) set in the 19th century U.S. frontier that was the basis for the Academy Award–winning film of the same name. His other writing includes nonfiction books about the efforts to save the buffalo and an infamous 1917 Montana mining disaster. Currently the Vice President for Global Public Policy for Amazon Web Services, Punke formerly served as the U.S. Ambassador to the World Trade Organization in Geneva, an adjunct professor, and a history correspondent for the Montana Quarterly. In his new novel, Punke investigates an important but little-known 1866 conflict between the U.S. Army and the Lakota tribes of present-day Wyoming. Books with signed book plates available from the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 6/7/2021)

In conversation with Nicole Galland, historical novelist and author of Master of the Revels and creator of Shakespeare for the Masses With a ''gift for combining intricate, engrossing plots with full-bodied characterizations'' (Washington Post), Irish–British novelist Maggie O'Farrell is the author of After You'd Gone, The Distance Between Us, The Hand That First Held Mine, and Instructions for a Heatwave, among several others. A former journalist in Hong Kong, deputy literary editor of the Independent on Sunday, and creative writing teacher, she is also a bestselling author. O'Farrell's work has won the Somerset Maugham Award, the Betty Trask Award, the Costa Award, and has been translated into more than 30 languages. Hamnet, winner of the 2020 Women's Prize for Fiction, tells the Elizabethan-era tale of William Shakespeare's family including his force–of–nature wife, Shakespeare's journey as a rising star, and the shared grief over the loss of their son Hamnet whose name Shakespeare would later use in his play Hamlet. Books available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 6/3/2021)

In conversation with Nydia Han, Consumer Investigative Reporter and co-anchor of 6ABC Action News Sunday mornings Kevin Kwan is the author of Crazy Rich Asians, "a lively, generous story of shallow extravagance and human devotion'' (The Boston Globe) involving Rachel Chu, a young Chinese-American woman, and her trip to meet her boyfriend's extremely wealthy family living in Singapore. An international bestseller that was translated into 30 languages and the opening volume of the trilogy of books including China Rich Girlfriend and Rich People Problems, Crazy Rich Asians was adapted into a mega-successful major motion picture. In Sex and Vanity, a Good Morning America Book Club selection, Kwan spins the tale of an engaged woman who finds herself falling for a frustrating but irresistible Asian American man, despite the objections of her family. Books with signed book plates will be mailed after the event. Please allow three weeks for delivery. U.S. orders only. All others will be refunded. (recorded 6/2/2021)

In conversation with Britt James, founder of Philly Unknown In 2015, British hairstylist Joshua Coombes hit the streets of London with a pair of scissors and an extraordinary idea-that giving free haircuts to those who are experiencing homelessness could do more than simply change their outward appearances. He began posting their photos before and after their haircut and personal stories on Instagram in an effort to remove the stigmas many associate with homelessness. Through this mission's worldwide attention and success he founded the #DoSomethingForNothing movement, which seeks to inspire people to donate their skills and time to those in need. Full of never-before-seen photos and writing, Coombes's book urges us to find our shared humanity through universal themes of acceptance, love, and perseverance. Books available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 5/30/2021)

In conversation with Karen M. McManus, author of the number one New York Times bestseller One of Us Is Lying and The Cousins  David Yoon is the author of Frankly in Love, a "funny, profane and poignant'' (Wall Street Journal) tale of cultural expectations, racism, and first love. An instant New York Times bestseller, it was a William C. Morris Young Adult Debut Award Finalist and an Asian Pacific American Librarians Association Honor Book. Yoon is also the author of the celebrated young adult novel Super Fake Love Song and drew the illustrations for his wife Nicola Yoon's #1 New York Times bestseller Everything, Everything. Version Zero, his debut adult novel, follows three twenty-something computer experts who want to literally break the internet. Books available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 5/27/2021)

In conversation with Michael Smerconish Five-time Pennsylvania Sportswriter of the Year, Ray Didinger covered the NFL for The Philadelphia Bulletin and the Philadelphia Daily News for over 25 years. He has authored or coauthored 11 books about sports and sportswriting, including The Eagles Encyclopedia, which he cowrote with the late Robert S. Lyons. The ''definitive book for any Eagles fan'' (Philadelphia Daily News), a revised and expanded edition was published in 2018 to reflect the 87-year-old team's victory in Super Bowl LII. Didinger currently hosts a talk show on 94 WIP Sports Radio and serves as a football analyst for NBC Sports Philadelphia. Didinger's new memoir explores his childhood in Southwest Philadelphia, his five-decade career covering a wide variety of sports across multiple media platforms, and the art of balancing being a long-suffering Eagles fan and an objective journalist. Michael A. Smerconish is the host of The Michael Smerconish Program on SiriusXM POTUS Channel 124, the host of CNN's Smerconish on Saturday mornings, a Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer columnist, and a New York Times bestselling author. Books with signed book plates available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 5/26/2021)

In conversation with Salamishah Tillet, the Henry Rutgers Professor of African American Studies and Creative Writing and author of In Search of The Color Purple: The Story of an American Masterpiece Kaitlyn Greenidge is the author of We Love You, Charlie Freeman, a ''wonderfully audacious debut novel'' (Essence) that examines the nuances of race, gender, and history through the story of a family teaching sign language to a young chimpanzee. Greenidge was a finalist for the 2016 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the 2017 Young Lions Fiction Award, and has earned fellowships from the Whiting Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. A contributor to the New York Times, Greenidge has also written for Glamour, The Wall Street Journal, and Vogue, among other publications. Named one of 2021's most anticipated books by many publications, Libertie follows the journey of a Reconstruction–era Black doctor searching for equality in place, profession, and her family. Books available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 5/24/2021)

In conversation with Reggie Shuford, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Pennsylvania. The Executive Director of the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation, Marc Bookman is an internationally renowned expert on death penalty law. He served for 17 years in the Homicide Unit of the Defender Association of Philadelphia, providing legal representation to many clients facing the possibility of the death penalty. A sought-after speaker at numerous legal conferences and trainings across the country, he has published essays on various aspects of capital punishment in The Atlantic, Mother Jones, and VICE, among other places. In A Descending Spiral, Bookman offers 12 essays that expose the tragic absurdities, unfortunate human instincts, and systemic criminal justice failings that undercut the logic and fairness of the death penalty in the United States. Books available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 5/20/2021)

In conversation Trapeta Mayson, Philadelphia Poet Laureate A reflection of the heartrending turmoils of racial injustice and brutality against Black Americans amidst the fear and uncertainty of a pandemic, There's a Revolution Outside, My Love is a kaleidoscopic collection of letters, poems, and essays penned by a diverse field of writers.  Camille T. Dungy is the author of four collections of poetry, most recently Trophic Cascade, winner of the Colorado Book Award. Her debut collection of personal essays is Guidebook to Relative Strangers, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2019. Gregory Pardlo won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for his poetry collection Digest. Also the recipient of the APR/Honickman First Book Prize, he is the poetry editor for the Virginia Quarterly Review and teaches at the MFA program at Rutgers University, Camden. A professor of creative writing at Dartmouth College University, Joshua Bennett is the 2020-2021 Visiting Scholar at Friends Seminary in New York City. He is the author of three books of poetry and literary criticism, including The Sobbing School and Owed. Books available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 5/19/2021)

In conversation with Joan Maloof, Professor Emeritus at Salisbury University and founder of the Old-Growth Forest Network. Her most recent book is Treepedia: A Brief Compendium of Arboreal Lore One of the world's leading forest ecologists, Dr. Suzanne Simard is most famous for revolutionizing our understanding of how trees communicate with each other. She and her team discovered that complex systems move water and nutrients between the trees in social networks that are in some ways much like our own. A Professor of Forest Ecology in the University of British Columbia's Faculty of Forestry, Simard has shared her research in both academic and popular forums, including three TED talks and two documentary appearances. In Finding the Mother Tree, she guides us into the intimate world of trees not only through her observations and data, but also through the story of her upbringing in the logging rainforests of British Columbia and her unique perception of these surprisingly mysterious living things. Can't wait? Watch a TED talk by Dr. Simard Books with signed book plates will be available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 5/18/2021)

In conversation with Mark Zandi, Chief Economist, Moody's Analytics The senior United States Senator from Minnesota, Amy Klobuchar chairs the Senate Rules Committee; the Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights; and the Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee. A 2020 Presidential candidate, she is a graduate of Yale University and the University of Chicago Law School, a former partner at two corporate law firms, and led Minnesota's largest prosecutor's office for eight years. Ranked by a 2019 Vanderbilt University study as the most effective Democratic senator in the 115th Congress, she has worked to pass bipartisan legislation on a wide range of issues, including consumer product safety, agricultural issues, and civil rights, among many others. In Antitrust, Klobuchar offers a history of America's fight against monopolies as a guide to curtailing contemporary monoliths like Facebook, Google, and Amazon. (recorded 5/17/2021)

In conversation with Megha Majumdar, bestselling author of A Burning British–-Ghanaian writer Caleb Azumah Nelson's debut novel Open Water is, ''an intense, elegant'' (Guardian) tale of two young Black British artists who find love as they struggle to succeed in an environment that simultaneously elevates and rejects them. It was named to scores of publications' most–-anticipated–-books–-of–-2021 lists, including Esquire, Vulture, ONYX Magazine and Vogue (UK). Nelson has contributed writing to the The White Review and Litro, and he recently won the People's Choice prize and was shortlisted for the BBC Short Story Award. Also an acclaimed photographer, he was shortlisted for the Palm Photo Prize. Books with signed book plates available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 5/13/2021)

In conversation with Reginald Dwayne Betts, essayist, poet, and author of the award-winning collection, Felon When Ian Manuel was 13 years old he shot a young mother of two in the face during a botched robbery. Sentenced to life imprisonment, he spent the next 26 years in prison, 18 of them in solitary confinement. He was released at the age of 40 through both the help of his victim-with whom he had struck up a friendship as profound as it was unlikely-and through the legal assistance of Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative. In My Time Will Come, Manuel tells not just his story of a childhood spent in deprivation, his incarceration, and his ultimate redemption, but a larger story of the power of the human spirit over a justice system that too often sentences young offenders of color to life without parole. Books available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 5/11/2021)

Martha C. Nussbaum is the author of numerous watershed books and articles concerning moral, legal, and political philosophy, including The Fragility of Goodness, Sex and Social Justice, and Cultivating Humanity. The Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago, her scores of honors include the 2016 Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy, 62 honorary degrees, and the Berggruen Prize, perhaps the greatest accolade a public intellectual can receive. In her latest book, Nussbaum explores the pride-driven sexual violence and misogyny perpetrated by the men who hold power in institutions like courts, sports, and the arts. Books available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 5/12/2021)

Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Endowed Lecture In conversation with Tracey Matisak, award-winning broadcaster and journalist Annette Gordon-Reed won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, a history of the African American family whose close blood ties to Thomas Jefferson had been redacted from history. Her other books include Race on Trial: Law and Justice in American History and a biography of Andrew Johnson, and with Peter S. Onuf she co-authored ''Most Blessed of the Patriarchs'': Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination, a revealing character study that definitively clarifies the philosophy of the man from Monticello. The Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University, Gordon-Reed's honors include the National Humanities Medal, a MacArthur ''Genius Grant,'' and the Frederick Douglass Prize. In her new book, the historian and Texas native examines the Lone Star State roots of Juneteenth and its continuing importance to the fight for racial equity. Books with signed book plates available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 5/10/2021)

In conversation with Dennis Overbye, science reporter for the New York Times and author of the books Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos and Einstein in Love ''The single best explainer of abstruse science in the world today'' (Washington Post), Brian Greene is a Professor of Physics and Mathematics at Columbia University. His New York Times bestsellers include The Fabric of the Cosmos, The Hidden Reality, and The Elegant Universe, which later served as the basis of two Peabody and Emmy Award–winning NOVA series. Renowned for his watershed discoveries in superstring theory, Greene is the cofounder of the World Science Festival, the Director of Columbia University's Center for Theoretical Physics, and a popular cultural figure. Until the End of Time is not just an exploration of the cosmos but also a reflection about our place within the ever-expanding vastness of the universe. (recorded 5/6/2021)

In conversation with Selena Coppock, standup comedian, writer, author, and creator and voice of @NYTVows, the parody Twitter and Instagram account that lampoons the New York Times Wedding section A former writer and editor at the New York Times, Cate Doty took on many different projects during her 15 years at the Times. Covering presidential campaigns, food, business, and New York City, she finally found a natural home in the wedding announcements section. Against the backdrop of cutthroat high-society figures, the politics of an ever-changing society, and the overwhelming details in the announcements she wrote, Doty's own peculiar love story began. Mergers and Acquisitions is both an intimate and eye-opening memoir of her experience and a peek inside the odd and esteemed institution of marriage itself. A journalism professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Doty has also contributed writing to Southern Living and Our State, among other periodicals. Books with signed book plates are available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 5/4/2021)

Celebrated for his skill at ''elucidating crucial episodes in the history of art and architecture'' (Time), Ross King is the author of many bestselling nonfiction books that peak behind the curtain of history of the studios, workshops, and inner toils and torments of some of the world's greatest artists. These works include Brunelleschi's Dome, Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, Leonardo and the Last Supper, and Mad Enchantment-a portrait of the struggles churning just beneath the tranquil surface of Monet's iconic water lilies. In his new book, King conjures a revelatory vision of the remarkable 15th century Florentine merchant, craftsman, and intellectual Vespasiano da Bisticci, who is often referred to as ''the king of the world's booksellers.'' Books available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 4/29/2021)

Yusef Komunyakaa won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Neon Vernacular, a collection of poems that spoke about the realities of the Vietnam War, of which he was a veteran. His other collections include Warhorses, Taboo, and The Emperor of Water Clocks. The Distinguished Senior Poet in New York University's creative writing program and a former Chancellor of the American Academy of Poets, he is the recipient of the 2011 Wallace Stevens Award, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, and the William Faulkner Prize, among other honors. Full of Komunyakaa's signature jazz–like meter and moving imagery, Everyday Mojo Songs of Earth includes both new work and selected poems from the last two decades. Books available to order through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 4/28/2021)

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition Natalie Cohn Memorial Lecture A ''hero on the left'' (Washington Post) for her vocal support of progressive legislation and issues, Mazie K. Hirono is the only immigrant and the first Asian American woman in the United States Senate. Hawaii's junior Senator since 2013, she formerly served the Aloha State in the U.S. House of Representatives, as its lieutenant governor, and as a State Representative. At the age of seven, Senator Hirono emigrated with her mother and brother from rural Japan aboard the President Cleveland and crossed the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii. Charting her journey from a single room in a Honolulu boarding house to the Washington, D.C. halls of power, Heart of Fire is Senator Hirono's story of resilience, speaking truth to power, and her hard-fought advocacy for the most vulnerable Americans. (recorded 4/26/2021)

Carole Phillips Memorial Lecture In conversation with singer, songwriter, and novelist Wesley Stace Acclaimed for ''her hauntingly beautiful voice and fearless experimentation'' (NPR), singer–-songwriter Rickie Lee Jones has remained one of music's most intriguing figures for more than four decades. Combining rock, jazz, blues, and pop, her 18 albums have garnered two Grammys and a multigenerational fanbase. A sought–-after collaborator, Jones has been a guest vocalist in more than a dozen other musicians' works. She is also a celebrated record producer, actor, and narrator. Last Chance Texaco is an intimate account of her unsteady childhood, the pleasures and pitfalls of early success, her battle against substance abuse, and her enduring position as a woman in rock and roll. A book with a signed book plate is included with the price of your ticket. Books will be mailed after the event. Please allow 2 - 3 weeks for delivery. (recorded 4/22/2021)

Natalie Diaz is the author of When My Brother Was an Aztec, an ''ambitious . . . beautiful'' (New York Times) American Book Award–winning poetry collection that ruminates on her sibling's drug addiction. A former professional basketball player, an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian community, and an English professor at Arizona State University, she is the recipient of a Lannan Literary Fellowship, a MacArthur Fellowship, and the Nimrod/Hardman Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry. In her National Book Award nominated sophomore collection, Diaz transcends the horrors committed by America upon Indigenous people to find sublimity amongst vistas of words, the reversal of erasure, and the choice to love. Acclaimed for celebrating identity, lineage, and the subversion of traditional notions of power, poet Denice Frohman has performed at the Obama White House, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Apollo, among a multitude of other venues. A former Women of the World Poetry Slam Champion, she has published work in Nepantla: An Anthology Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color, What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the Age of Trump, and the Acentos Review, among many other places. Frohman is a former director at the Philly Youth Poetry Movement, has received fellowships and grants from numerous arts institutions, and has been prominently featured in BuzzFeed, Cosmopolitan, and Refinery29. Natalie Diaz's and Denice Frohman's books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 4/21/2021)

In conversation with Chris Jackson, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief, One World; and  Khadijah Costley White, Assistant Professor in the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at Rutgers University Winning on a platform of prison reform in a city notorious for its high incarceration rates, Larry Krasner was elected District Attorney of Philadelphia in 2018 with more than 50% of the vote. He worked as a public defender and civil rights lawyer in Philadelphia for more than 30 years before deciding that he wanted to help his city from within. Featured in an eight-part PBS documentary about his office's efforts to reform criminal justice in Philly, Krasner has been featured in such outlets such as the New York Times, CNN, Newsweek, and CBS News. In For the People, he outlines a transformative vision for the ways in which citizens can begin to dismantle and rebuild an unjust legal system. Books available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 4/20/2021)

In conversation with Carrie Rickey, writer and former film critic for The Philadelphia Inquirer Phillip Lopate's ''observant, elegiac, and far-reaching'' (New York Times) essay collections include Bachelorhood, Against Joie de Vivre, and Portrait Inside My Head. His other acclaimed work includes a diverse array of travel writing, film and architectural criticism, poetry, fiction, and memoir which has appeared in periodicals such as Paris Review and Esquire. A professor of nonfiction writing at Columbia University's MFA program, Lopate is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts Ggrants, and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In The Golden Age of the American Essay, Lopate anthologizes some of the most brilliant writing produced in the inspiring but tumultuous decades following World War II. Books available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 4/15/2021)

In conversation with M. Nzadi Keita, Poet-in-Residence, Associate Professor; co-coordinator, African-American/Africana Studies at Ursinus College, and author of Brief Evidence of Heaven: Poems from the life of Anna Murray Douglass Referred to by Maya Angelou as ''a lion in literature's forest,'' living legend Sonia Sanchez is the author of numerous plays, children's books, a story collection, and nearly 14 collections of poetry, including the American Book Award winner Homegirls and Handgrenades. A luminary of the Black Arts Movement, she served as the Laura Carnell Professor of English and Women's Studies at Temple University, was named Philadelphia's very first Poet Laureate in 2012, and has lectured at more than  500 colleges and universities. Her many honors include the Wallace Stevens Award Prize, the Langston Hughes Poetry Award, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the  Cleveland Foundation. Collected Poems represents five decades of Sanchez's art and devotion to the causes of Black liberation and women's rights. Books with signed book plates available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 4/13/2021)

In conversation with Don Winslow, New York Times bestselling author of The Border, The Force, The Cartel, Power of the Dog, Savages, and Broken, his new collection of six short novels. Blake Bailey is acclaimed for his ''meticulously researched, judicious, and critically perceptive'' (Boston Globe) biographies of some of the 20th century's most complicated writers, including John Cheever, Charles Jackson, and Richard Yates. His many honors include the National Book Critics Circle Award, an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim fFellowship, and his memoir, The Splendid Things We Planned: A Family Portrait, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Autobiography. Through Bailey's exclusive access to Philip Roth and Roth's archivescoupled with complete independence, Bailey's latest book charts Philip Roth's arc from lower-middle-class Newark, New Jersey to his position as one of America's towering literary figures. Books available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 4/12/2021)

NOTE: SIGNED BOOKS ARE NOW SOLD OUT. ALL TICKETS BOUGHT AFTER 5:50 P.M (EST) ON EVENT DAY ARE FOR ENTRY WITH AN UNSIGNED BOOK INCLUDED. PURCHASE TICKETS In conversation with musician, novelist, and teacher Wesley Stace ''One of rock's MVPs since the mid-Sixties'' (Rolling Stone), Richard Thompson is a beloved singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His prolific body of work includes 18 solo studio albums, eight seminal duet albums with his former wife Linda Thompson, and five albums with Fairport Convention, the band he formed at the age of 18 in his native London. He's been a guest musician on albums by artists ranging from Crowded House to Loudon Wainwright III, and his songs have been covered by Elvis Costello, Bonnie Raitt, and REM, among too many others to name. Beeswing is a reflection on the spirit of a special cultural era, a candid look at life on the road and in the studio, and the story of Thompson's emergence as a major presence on the British folk rock scene. Books will be mailed after the event. Please allow 2 - 3 weeks for delivery. (recorded 4/8/2021)

In conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel Introduced by Virginia Sanchez Quiara Alegría Hudes won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play Water by the Spoonful, a story of ''shimmering, sustaining warmth'' (New York Times) that follows an Iraq War veteran struggling for purchase after returning home. She also co-wrote the acclaimed musical In the Heights with Lin Manuel-Miranda, which has been adapted into a soon-to-be-released film. A playwright in residence at Signature Theater in New York, her other plays and musicals include the award-winning Yemaya's Belly, Barrio Grrrl!, and Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue, a finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize. In My Broken Language, Hudes tells the lyrical story of her Philly barrio upbringing, the muse-like influence of her extended Puerto Rican family, and how she transformed her obsession with stories into celebrated, finely wrought art. Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright Paula Vogel's many works include Indecent, How I Learned to Drive, and Don Juan Comes Home From Iraq. Three awards have been named in her honor: the Paula Vogel Award for playwrights given by The Vineyard Theatre, the Paula Vogel Award from the American College Theatre Festival, and the Paula Vogel mentorship program. The founder of Brown University's playwriting program and the former O'Neill Chair at Yale School of Drama, she has also taught theater writing to incarcerated women, community organizations, and aspiring scribes across the world. Co-sponsored by Power Street Theatre Books with signed book plates are available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 4/7/2021)

Pine Tree Foundation Lecture In conversation with Tracey Matisak, award-winning broadcaster and journalist ''A renaissance man...driven by a joyful desiredrive to discover'' (The Times of London), Walter Isaacson is the author of definitive and internationally bestselling biographies of Steve Jobs, Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Kissinger, and Albert Einstein. He is also the author of The Innovators, a century-spanning saga of the people who created the computer and the internet. Former CEO of the Aspen Institute, chairman of CNN, and managing editor of Time magazine, he currently co-hosts the PBS show Amanpour & Co. and teaches History at Tulane University. In The Code Breaker, Isaacson describes how Nobel Prize-winning biochemist Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues are revolutionizing humanity's fight against disease by hacking evolution itself. Each book-with-ticket purchase includes a signed book plate. Please allow two-to-three weeks for delivery. Books will ship after the event. (recorded 4/6/2021)

In conversation with Deb Perelman Reem Kassis is the author of The Palestinian Table, a guide to Middle Eastern cooking woven together through recipes, regional history, and three generations of family traditions. Praised by fellow Philadelphian Michael Solomonov as ''an incredible cookbook,'' The Palestinian Table won the 2018 Guild of Food Writers First Book Award and was nominated for a James Beard Foundation Cookbook Award. Born and raised in Jerusalem, Kassis is a graduate of the Wharton School and a former business consultant, and has contributed to periodicals such as the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. In The Arabesque Table, she returns with a collection of recipes that celebrates Arab cuisine's diverse history and dynamic present. Deb Perelman is the creator of the long-running Smitten Kitchen blog, a no-fuss cooking resource that has spawned legions of followers and two bestselling cookbooks. She has also appeared in Martha Stewart Living, Parenting, and NPR, among other places. Signed books will be available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 4/5/2021)

In conversation with Bob Mankoff, cartoonist, cartoon and humor editor for Esquire, and former cartoon editor, The New Yorker Across the political spectrum, throughout history, the U.S. public has demanded the suppression of ideas and images that allegedly threaten our nation. However, the biggest danger comes not from speech but from censorship. In their new book, Jonathan Zimmerman and Signe Wilkinson chart the history of free speech in the U.S. and argue for its renewed importance amidst contemporary challenges to the First Amendment. Jonathan Zimmerman is the Judy and Howard Berkowitz Professor in Education at the University of Pennsylvania and a leading scholar on the ways in which schools and universities address controversial topics such as free speech, sex, and religion. Signe Wilkinson is a widely syndicated cartoonist and the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning., Formerly based at The Philadelphia Inquirer, she is the recipient of three Overseas Press Club Awards, and two Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards for Cartooning. Signed books available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 4/1/2021)

Deborah Willis, Ph.D., is the author of Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present; Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers, 1840 to the Present; and Michelle Obama: The First Lady in Photographs, among other books. University Professor and Chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, she is the recipient of MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships. In addition to exhibiting her work all over America, Willis has curated numerous photography exhibitions, served as a museum consultant, and has appeared in and consulted on several media projects. In her new book, Willis offers a far–ranging but intimate photographic essay about Black experiences in the U.S. Civil War. Books available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 3/30/2021)

Ellis Wachs Endowed Lecture In conversation with Tracey Matisak, award-winning broadcaster and journalist Kate Masur is the author of An Example for All the Land, a Lincoln Prize finalist that examined Washington, D.C.'s role as a 19th century laboratory for civil rights policy and justice. She is also the author of numerous academic articles and essays that focus on how Americans viewed race, abolition, and equality during this era. Praised by David W. Blight as a ''masterpiece of scope, insight, and graceful writing,'' Until Justice Be Done is a history of the fight against racist American laws and institutions-Southern and Northern-in the decades before the Civil War. Books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 3/25/2021)

In conversation with Alexander Chee, author of Edinburgh, The Queen of the Night, and How To Write An Autobiographical Novel, and associate professor of English and Creative Writing at Dartmouth College Viet Thanh Nguyen won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Sympathizer, the ''intelligent, relentlessly paced and savagely funny'' (Wall Street Journal) tale of a South Vietnamese army captain who immigrates to Los Angeles and reports on his fellow military exiles to the Viet Cong. The novel was also awarded the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Fiction and the Edgar Award for Best First Novel, among many other honors. Nguyen is also the author of Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War, a nonfiction companion to The Sympathizer, and the acclaimed short story collection The Refugees. An English professor at the University of Southern California, he has earned fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur Foundations. With The Committed, Nguyen has created a literary thriller and a novel of ideas that continues the story of the The Sympathizer's main character titular sympathizer as he experiences the delights and dangers of Paris. (recorded 3/23/2021)

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition America's sole Black primetime news anchor, Don Lemon has hosted CNN Tonight since 2014. Before joining the respected cable network in 2006, he worked for NBC News and MSNBC, and earlier in his career as a reporter and anchor in Birmingham, Philadelphia, and Chicago, among other places. The recipient of an Edward R. Murrow Award and three regional Emmy Awards, Lemon was named one of EBONY magazine's 150 most influential African Americans of 2009 and one of Advocate's 50 Most Influential LGBTQ People in Media in 2014. This Is the Fire draws on personal experience, informed reporting, and historical research to examine the struggle to end racism in our lifetime. (recorded 3/22/2021)

In conversation with Alix Gerz, Vice President of Communications, Free Library of Philadelphia Hala Alyan's novel Salt Houses, a ''heart-wrenching, lyrical and timely'' (Dallas Morning News) study of three generations in a Palestinian family, won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Arab American Book Award. A clinical psychologist by profession, she is also the author of several award-winning poetry collections, including The Twenty-Ninth Year, Atrium, and Hijra. Alyan has also published work in the New Yorker, Guernica, and the New York Times Book Review, among other places. A look at war's intergenerational legacy in the Middle East, The Arsonists' City tells the tale of a scattered family's return to Beirut to save its ancestral home. Books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 3/16/2021)

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition The chair of the Department of African American Studies and the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor at Princeton University, Eddie S. Glaude Jr. is the author of the acclaimed book Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul. "One of the most imaginative, daring books of the 21st century" (Los Angeles Times), it vehemently argues against the idea that America exists as a post-racial society. He is also the author of Exodus! Religion, Race, and Nation in Early Nineteenth-Century Black America and is a frequent contributor and commentator to a host of media outlets. In Begin Again, Glaude offers guidance in our current struggles with race and trauma through James Baldwin's political and personal evolution. Books and a limited number of signed book plates are available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop. (recorded 11/24/2020)

In conversation with Action News anchor, Jim Gardner On the eve of the biggest professional risk of her life-running for a seat in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives-Madeleine Dean discovered that her son, Harry Cunnane, was battling a severe painkiller addiction. What followed was a family struggle fought by countless American families caught in the grip of the opioid epidemic. Told with candor through the dual perspectives of mother and son, Under Our Roof offers a first-hand look at this public health crisis. Concurrently publishing with Under Our Roof is You Are Always Loved: A Story of Hope, a child's companion to the adult memoir. This is a picture book, featuring an evergreen message about hope and unconditional love. Dean currently serves as the U.S. Representative for Pennsylvania's fourth congressional district and Cunnane works as a resource director at the same treatment center at which he initially sought help for his addiction. Signed books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 3/10/2021)

In conversation with Imani Perry Referred to by Michael Eric Dyson as ''one of the most brilliant and committed critics and advocates writing and thinking and working on behalf of Black people today,'' Dr. Yaba Blay is a scholar, activist, and cultural consultant. Focusing on Black women and girls through topics like personal identity and body image, she has launched a number of viral media campaigns, produced the CNN documentary Who is Black in America?, and is an internationally renowned public speaker. Her work has appeared in publications such as the New York Times, Essence, and EBONY, and she has appeared on CNN, BET, and NPR, among other media outlets. In One Drop, Blay questions conventional perceptions of Blackness in order to create and understand a more diverse worldwide community.  Imani Perry is the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies and faculty associate in the Program in Law and Public Affairs and Gender and Sexuality Studies at Princeton. She is the author of six books, most recently the award-winning titles, Breathe: A Letter to My Sons and Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry. Books available through Uncle Bobbie's Coffee and Books (recorded 3/4/2021)

In conversation with Jacinda Barrett, Traveler, Actress on Netflix Bloodline, Writer, Mother, Wife and all the rest of it. Beth Kephart is the author of more than 30 books across a wide range of genres, including poetry, young adult fiction, and, most notably, the memoir. These works include the award-winning how-to-guide, Handling the Truth; A Slant of Sun, a National Book Award finalist; and Love, an ode to all things Philly. A writing professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Kephart is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant, a Pew fellowship, and the Speakeasy Poetry Prize, among other honors. Composed of interlocking essays about travel, everyday miracles, and family, her new memoir is praised by Carolyn Forché as a ''shimmering'' book in which ''that most sought, most elusive treasure is revealed: what it means to be human, and aware.'' Books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 3/3/2021)

Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Endowed Lecture Joby Warrick won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction for Black Flags, ''a revealing, riveting and exquisitely detailed account'' (San Francisco Chronicle) of the rise of ISIS and its mastermind's life and death. He also won the 1996 Pulitzer for public service for his contribution to a series about the devastating effects of factory farming on the southeastern United States. A reporter at the Washington Post for the last 25 years, Warrick is also the author of The Triple Agent, the narrative nonfiction story of a 2009 suicide bombing that killed seven CIA employees in Afghanistan. Red Line is a true-life thriller that details the largely unreported American effort to find and destroy Syria's chemical weapons. Books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 3/2/2021)

In conversation with Kaitlyn Greenidge Brontez Purnell is the author of Since I Laid My Burden Down, a debut novel about growing up gay in 1980s Alabama that ''not only holds its own as queer literature, but also expands upon it'' (San Francisco Chronicle). The winner of a 2018 Whiting Award for Fiction, he is also the author of a graphic novel, a children's book, and a novella. The multi-talented Purnell is also the creator of a cult zine, the frontman for a punk band, the founder of the Brontez Purnell Dance Company, and the director of an array of short films, documentaries, and music videos. One of Vulture's ''46 Books We Can't Wait to Read in 2021,'' 100 Boyfriends is a funny, foulmouthed, and sensitive look into the messy lives of queer men navigating the pitfalls of modern dating.  Kaitlyn Greenidge is the author of We Love You, Charlie Freeman, a finalist for The Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize and one of the New York Times ''Critics' Top 10 Books of 2016.'' A contributing writer for the Times, Greenidge has earned fellowships from the Whiting Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 2/24/2021)

In conversation with Tracey Matisak, award-winning broadcaster and journalist In 2017, Amelia Pang earned the first place award in investigative journalism from the LA Press Club for her undercover exposé on the exploitation of immigrants smuggled into America to work in Chinese restaurants. Covering topics such as sexual violence on Native American reservations, economic hardships for immigrant Americans, and organic import fraud, her writing has appeared in publications such as The New Republic and Mother Jones. Her debut book tells the true story of a Chinese political prisoner and forced laborer's desperate missive and the larger story of how a vast array of products come from brutal slave labor camps. Books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 2/23/2021)

In conversation with Jon Meacham Meelya Gordon Memorial Lecture Michael Eric Dyson is the author of Tears We Cannot Stop, an ''eloquent, righteous, and inspired'' (Philadelphia Inquirer) call for racial change that was named one of the best books of 2017 by multitudes of publications. His many books address Barack Obama's presidency, Hurricane Katrina, Jay-Z, and the effects of MLK's assassination, among other wide-ranging topics. A frequent New York Times opinion writer, MSNBC political analyst, and a professor at Vanderbilt University, his many honors include an American Book Award and two NAACP Image Awards. In Long Time Coming, Dyson employs the lives and legacies of five contemporary Black martyrs as catalysts for America's long-needed voyage toward a racial reckoning and redemption. An expert on history, politics, and religion in America, Jon Meacham won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for his biography American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. His other bestselling nonfiction includes American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation and The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels. Signed books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 2/18/2021)