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Biography
Popular Culture March 20, 2023

Play Like a Man

My Life in Poster Children

Rose Marshack

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In Play Like a Man: My Life in Poster Children (University of Illinois Press, 2023), Poster Children bassist Rose Marshack details her life in the 80s and 90s as part of a …

Biography

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Interviews with memoirists and biographers about their new books.

Economics March 19, 2023

From China's Lost Generation to American Private Equity Professor

A Discussion with Weijian Shan

Weijian Shan

Hosted by Keith Krueger
Having lived through both China’s Great Leap Forward during primary school, then the Cultural Revolution and the closing of schools for ten years, Beijing-born Weijian Shan, instead of a secondary …
Literary Studies March 18, 2023

James Baldwin’s Turkish Decade

Erotics of Exile

Magdalena J. Zaborowska

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh
Between 1961 and 1971 James Baldwin spent extended periods of time in Turkey, where he worked on some of his most important books. In this first in-depth exploration of Baldwin’s …
Think About It March 17, 2023

Vivian Gornick on Emma Goldman

Book Talk 58

Vivian Gornick

Hosted by Uli Baer
What Is to Be Done? In her luminous biography Emma Goldman: Revolution as a Way of Life (Yale UP, 2011), Vivian Gornick brings us back to this question, originally made …
Human Rights March 16, 2023

Taking Sides

A Memoir about Love, War, and Changing the World

Sherine Tadros

Hosted by Nicholas Bequelin
Taking Sides: A Memoir about Love, War, and Changing the World (Scribe, 2023) is a personal memoir by Sherine Tadros, the United Nations Representative and Deputy Director of Advocacy for …
African American Studies March 15, 2023

Samuel Ringgold Ward

A Life of Struggle

R. J. M. Blackett

Hosted by Omari Averette-Phillips
Born on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Samuel Ringgold Ward (1817–c. 1869) escaped enslavement and would become a leading figure in the struggle for Black freedom, citizenship, and equality. He …
On Religion March 14, 2023

God, the Bestseller

How One Editor Transformed American Religion a Book at a Time

Stephen Prothero

Hosted by Gregory Soden
New York Times bestselling author and acclaimed religion scholar, Stephen Prothero, captures the compelling and unique saga of twentieth-century America on an identity quest through the eyes and books of …
Ministry of Ideas March 12, 2023

Experimental Methods or, Robert Hooke, Christianity, and Science

Illuminations Episode 1

Robert George, Patricia Fara, Jim Bennett, Guy Consolmagno, and Stephen Barr

Hosted by Zachary Davis
Have faith and science always been enemies? The story of Robert Hooke, a revolutionary working in the Scientific Revolution, exemplifies the ways in which Christianity has actually provoked scientific inquiry …
Music March 12, 2023

Dave Brubeck and the Performance of Whiteness

Kelsey Klotz

Hosted by Nathan Smith
How can we—jazz fans, musicians, writers, and historians—understand the legacy and impact of a musician like Dave Brubeck? It is undeniable that Brubeck leveraged his fame as a jazz musician …
Ukrainian Studies March 12, 2023

Ukraine Is Not Dead Yet

A Family Story of Exile and Return

Megan Buskey

Hosted by John Vsetecka
Today I talked to Megan Buskey about her book Ukraine Is Not Dead Yet: A Family Story of Exile and Return (Ibidem-Verlag, 2023). When Megan Buskey’s grandmother Anna dies in Cleveland in …
Music March 11, 2023

Sportin' Life

John W. Bubbles, an American Classic

Brian Harker

Hosted by Kristen Turner
John W. Bubbles was an actor, singer, comedian, and most importantly, a dancer. Born in 1902, Bubbles was an innovator in the jazz tap style and half of the great …
African American Studies March 11, 2023

"My Faith in the Constitution Is Whole"

Barbara Jordan and the Politics of Scriptures

Robin L. Owens

Hosted by Deidre Tyler
US Congresswoman Barbara Jordan is well-known as an interpreter and defender of the Constitution, particularly through her landmark speech during Richard Nixon's 1974 impeachment hearings. However, before she developed faith …
Caribbean Studies March 9, 2023

Errol Walton Barrow and the Postwar Transformation of Barbados

The Late Colonial Period

Hilbourne A. Watson

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
Beginning in the 1920s, Barbadians and other British West Indians began organizing politically in an international environment that was marked by a severe capitalist economic and financial crisis that intensified …
Urban Studies March 7, 2023

Lilly

The First Latina Rockette

Lillian Colon

Hosted by James Wunsch
Lilly: The First Latina Rockette (Lilly Enterprises, 2021) is the improbable story of a Puerto Rican toddler, confined by her father for 15 years to a Bronx orphanage—the former Kennedy …
Caribbean Studies March 4, 2023

Errol Walton Barrow and the Postwar Transformation of Barbados

The Independence Period, 1966-1976

Hilbourne A. Watson

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
Hilbourne A. Watson's Errol Walton Barrow and the Postwar Transformation of Barbados: The Independence Period, 1966-1976 (U West Indies Press, 2020) is the companion volume to Errol Walton Barrow and the Postwar …
Burned by Books March 3, 2023

The Critic's Daughter: A Memoir

Priscilla Gilman

Hosted by Chris Holmes
Growing up on the Upper West Side of New York City in the 1970s, in an apartment filled with dazzling literary and artistic characters, Priscilla Gilman worshiped her brilliant, adoring …
Jewish Studies March 3, 2023

A Hidden Jewish Child from Belgium

Survival, Scars and Healing

Francine Lazarus

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
Francine Lazarus survived WWII in Belgium hidden with strangers, isolated from her family, and moved from place to place. She witnessed murder and was often injured herself. With her father …
Italian Studies March 2, 2023

Veronica Franco in Dialogue

Marilyn Migiel

Hosted by Kate Driscoll
Since the late twentieth century, the Venetian courtesan Veronica Franco has been viewed as a triumphant proto-feminist icon: a woman who celebrated her sexuality, an outspoken champion of women and …
Asian Review of Books March 2, 2023

Our Man in Tokyo

An American Ambassador and the Countdown to Pearl Harbor

Steve Kemper

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
In the years leading up to the Second World War, the U.S. was represented in Japan by Ambassador Joseph Grew: born from a patrician family, Harvard-educated, ran away to the …
Performing Arts March 1, 2023

Gemignani

Life and Lessons from Broadway and Beyond

Margaret Hall

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Margaret Hall's Gemignani: Life and Lessons from Broadway and Beyond (Applause Books, 2022) is the definitive book on Broadway's greatest music director. From a youth playing in jazz bands to a storied …