David Sedaris’ Greatest Hits

David Sedaris’ Greatest Hits

January 28, 2021 Culture, Literature

David Sedaris joins host Krys Boyd to discuss his essays on family, falling in love, relationships, aging, and the weird ways life’s struggles make us all the more rich.

Is Appropriation In Art Always Wrong?

January 26, 2021 Culture, Language, Literature, Race/Identity

Paisley Rekdal, Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Utah and the state’s poet laureate, joins us to discuss the places where identity intersects with politics, and why it’s important to confront the language we use when defining cultures.

Where Do You Go For Advice – Novels Or Self-Help?

January 26, 2021 Culture, Education, History, Literature

Beth Blum, assistant professor of English at Harvard University, joins us to discuss how classic authors talked to audiences about themes of self-actualization, and how writers today still draw from that well of tips and tricks for better living.

A Novel Plumbs An Immigrant Family’s American Dream

January 21, 2021 Culture, Literature

Simon Han joins host Krys Boyd to talk about his story about assimilation and the struggle for immigrants to reach that fabled “shining city upon a hill.”

A Conversation With John Grisham

November 11, 2020 Culture, Literature

John Grisham joins us to talk about his prolific pace of writing a book a year – and about the art of the legal thriller.

A Fictional Character’s Very Real Asian-American Experience

November 10, 2020 Culture, Literature

Charles Yu, author and writer for shows on FX, AMC and HBO, joins us to discuss his book “Interior Chinatown: A Novel.”

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.