He Died, Their Love Survived

September 11, 2020 History, Literature

Tembi Locke talks to us about love and loss: from finding her soulmate in Florence to his death from cancer, to the decision to travel back to her husband’s Sicilian hometown to find herself — and her family — again.

A Missing Girl, A Mystery Girl And The Texas Novel That Brings Them Together

August 18, 2020 Culture, Literature

Author Julia Heaberlin joins us to talk about her latest crime novel, which deals with themes of beauty, trauma and grit.

Is Hermione Granger Black?

August 5, 2020 Culture, Literature, Race/Identity

University of Pennsylvania associate professor Ebony Elizabeth Thomas joins us to talk about how the lack of diversity in children’s books reflects a lack of imagination.

James Baldwin Still Has Something To Say

July 13, 2020 Current Events, History, Literature, Race/Identity

Princeton professor Eddie Glaude, Jr. joins us to talk about looking at today’s racism through the eyes of one of the great thinkers of the 20th Century.

Colson Whitehead Visits The Jim Crow South

July 1, 2020 History, Literature, Race/Identity

Colson Whitehead’s latest novel is based on a real juvenile detention reformatory in 1960s Florida. He joins us to talk about his story of two boys, bound by the trauma around them as they swing between hope and cynicism.

How Shakespeare Spun Tragedy And Comedy From An Epidemic

June 23, 2020 History, Language, Literature

Stephen Greenblatt, John Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University, joins us to talk about how an epidemic influenced Shakespeare.

Lessons On Kindness From NPR’s Scott Simon

June 12, 2020 Culture, Literature

The Weekend Edition host talks about his new YA novel about accepting others when, sometimes, their gifts are hidden.

Susan Choi On Her Nation Book Award Winner

May 5, 2020 Culture, Literature

Susan Choi joins us to talk about her book, “Trust Exercise: A Novel,” which was a runaway hit last year, delighting readers and critics all the way to a National Book Award.

Lawrence Wright Predicted This Would Happen

April 30, 2020 Current Events, Global Issues, Literature

Lawrence Wright joins us to talk about his fiction focused on a pandemic upending the world, written months and months before our current crisis.

When Science Misses The Forest For The Trees

April 28, 2020 History, Literature, Race/Identity, Science and Technology

Lulu Miller, co-founder of NPR’s “Invisibilia,” joins us to talk about her study of the first president of Stanford University, a taxonomist obsessed with fish, and how his discoveries — and ultimately his intellectual myopia — helped her to make sense of her own world.

Ireland Split In Two: A History Of The Troubles

February 25, 2020 History, Literature

New Yorker staff writer Patrick Radden Keefe talks to us about assessing this recent dark period of Irish history through the lens of this mysterious disappearance.

When Bombs Tried to Kill Them, Books Kept Their Souls Alive

November 29, 2019 Culture, Current Events, Education, Literature

Journalist Mike Thompson joins us to talk about one bright spot in the Syrian Civil War: a secret world of books that offered normality and refuge.