With the movie adaptation of “Nickel Boys” in theaters, Colson Whitehead’s celebrated novel is reaching new audiences. Whitehead joins host Krys Boyd to talk about his story of two boys assigned to a 1960s juvenile reformatory, bound by the trauma around them as they swing between hope and cynicism.
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Times Book Review editor Gilbert Cruz joins host Krys Boyd to discuss the best nonfiction and fiction books of 2024, from an 800-page biography of a president to a funny romantic comedy — there’s a book for everyone to enjoy.
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Twenty-five years after the success of “The Tipping Point,” Malcolm Gladwell is back with new insights. The author and co-founder of Pushkin Industries joins host Krys Boyd to discuss new anecdotes from social science that help explain the world around us – and to update the theory of contagion for our modern world.
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New York Times bestselling author Tracy Chevalier joins guest host Courtney Collins to discuss her enduring characters who live and work in the decorative glassmaking trade outside Venice, why the author chose to follow one family continuously from the Renaissance to modern life, and the beauty found in small moments.
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Anthony Walton is a poet, professor and the writer-in-residence at Bowdoin College, and he joins host Krys Boyd to discuss why gains in Black life have so often come with periods of reckoning, why racial trauma in this country so often repeats itself.
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Rose Horowitch, assistant editor at The Atlantic, joins host Krys Boyd to discuss why top students are complaining about having to read books for college classes, how testing culture has contributed to this problem, and what this means for developing critical thinking skills.
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Jeremy Dauber, professor of Jewish literature and American studies at Columbia University, joins host Krys Boyd to discuss how horror reflects worries of a collective culture, how the genre helped the fight against slavery and how changing gender roles spark new creations.
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Kathryn Harkup talks about the many ways Shakespeare killed off his characters, their feasibility in real life and how audiences of the day would’ve reacted to the dramatic demises.
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Bassem Youssef, the heart surgeon turned political satirist, joins us to talk about the unique experiences of immigrant children and what he learned from observing his own family.
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Novelist George Saunders is the recipient of the Man Booker Prize and many other literary honors, and he joins host Krys Boyd to discuss his book of seven essays about what makes great writing and how readers connect with a page of words.
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Louis Chude-Sokei, director of the African American studies program at Boston University, joins us to talk about his journey to understand his place in the Black diaspora.
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First-generation American Noé Álvarez joins us to talk about his participation in Peace and Dignity Journeys, which allowed him to explore the world of his ancestors.
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