Biography & Memoir

Biography & Memoir

episodes

Interviews with biographers and memoirists about their new books.

Sara McDougall, "Justice for Jehanne: The Tale of a Medieval Survivor" (Princeton UP, 2026)

September 7, 2026

Justice for Jehanne

Sara McDougall

In the winter of 1472, the city of Dijon, France, became the stage for a remarkable legal drama. On the mayor’s orders, an investigator named Jaques B…

Kirby, "Fairy" (Palimpsest Press, 2026)

September 6, 2026

Fairy

Kirby
Hosted by Hollay Ghadery

In this episode, NBN host Hollay Ghadery speaks with Kirby about their joyful and powerful new book, Fairy (Palimpsest Press, 2026). In Fairy, Kirby c…

Leah Kim, "Mom, Unfiltered: Maternal Mental Health and Finding Freedom Through Motherhood (Bloomsbury, 2026)

September 5, 2026

Mom, Unfiltered

Leah Kim
Hosted by Hollay Ghadery

In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with Leah Kim about her powerful book, Mom, Unfiltered: Maternal Mental Health and Finding Freedom Thr…

Ashley Kahn, "Days of Miracle and Wonder: Paul Simon and the Trials and Triumphs of Graceland" (Atria Books, 2026)

September 5, 2026

Days of Miracle and Wonder

Ashley Kahn
Hosted by Bradley Morgan

In 1984, Paul Simon was at a professional and personal crossroads. His new marriage was failing and his career was in danger of stalling. He was forty…

Filmmaker Peter Santenello on Your Fellow Americans: Dispatches from Across the Country We Call Home

September 1, 2026

Your Fellow Americans

Peter Santenello
Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

Have you ever swapped stories on a porch with Amish snowbirds in Florida? Searched for reindeer with the Siberian Yupik in Alaska? Been a guest on a h…

Muy Lang Lim, "In the Shadow of the Khmer Rouge: A Child Survivor's Memoir" (NUS Press, 2026)

September 1, 2026

In the Shadow of the Khmer Rouge

Muy Lang Lim
Hosted by Patrick Jory

As a child, Lim Muy Lang grew up in a prosperous Sino-Khmer family in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, in the late 1960s and early 1970s. When the Khme…

David Keohan, "The Wind Beneath the Stone: My Quest to Unearth a Piece of Ireland's Folklore" (Bloomsbury and Chelsea Green, 2026)

September 1, 2026

The Wind Beneath the Stone

David Keohan
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

When world kettle-bell lifting champion David Keohan heard the old tales of stone-lifting, he was captivated, setting off on a quest to rediscover…

Robyn Hitchcock, "Stranded in the Future" (Akashic Books, 2026)

August 26, 2026

Stranded in the Future

Robyn Hitchcock
Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan

Robyn Hitchcock's second memoir, Stranded in the Future (Akashic Books, 2026), explores the formation of his seminal 1970s band the Soft Boys, and the…

Brian Jay Jones, "George Lucas: A Life" (Little, Brown and Company, 2016)

August 26, 2026

George Lucas

Brian Jay Jones
Hosted by Daniel Moran

The essential biography of the influential and beloved filmmaker George Lucas. On May 25, 1977, a problem-plagued, budget-straining independent scien…

Patricia A. Billingsley, "Lorca in Vermont: The Spanish Poet and His American Lover" (High Road Books, 2026)

August 24, 2026

Lorca in Vermont

Patricia A. Billingsley
Hosted by Mark Klobas

A groundbreaking reassessment of the relationship between Federico García Lorca and American poet Philip Cummings and its impact on the poems in Lorca…

Jane Draycott, "Fulvia: The Woman Who Broke All the Rules in Ancient Rome" (Yale UP, 2025)

August 22, 2026

Fulvia

Jane Draycott

Fulvia was born into wealth, privilege, and prestige around the year 80 BCE, yet there was nothing inherently special about her—she was not a saint, a…

Ed Park, "Three Tenses" (Random House, 2026)

August 21, 2026

Three Tenses

Ed Park
Hosted by Megan Peck Shub

Three Tenses (Random House, 2026) by Ed Park is not quite a memoir, not quite fiction, not quite poetry and not quite prose—and yet it transcends the …

Emile Chabal, "The Age of Hobsbawm: The Life of a Revolutionary Historian" (Harvard UP, 2026)

August 21, 2026

The Age of Hobsbawm

Emile Chabal
Hosted by Ryan Tripp

Eric Hobsbawm (1917–2012) was one of the foremost European intellectuals of the twentieth century. He published hundreds of articles on modern history…

Andrew Fisher, "Nathan Straus: From Macy's Magnate to International Humanitarian" (Rutgers UP, 2026)

August 21, 2026

Nathan Straus

Andrew Fisher
Hosted by Robert Snyder

In New York City in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centauries, Nathan Straus was famous as a co-owner of the Macy’s and Abraham and Straus de…

Jessica Riskin, "The Power of Life: The Invention of Biology and the Revolutionary Science of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck" (Penguin, 2026)

August 21, 2026

The Power of Life

Jessica Riskin
Hosted by Anna Olteanu

In the early nineteenth century, the French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck proposed the first evolutionary theory of life and, with it, a new scienc…

Happy to Help: Adventures of a People Pleaser

August 20, 2026

Happy to Help

Amy Wilson

As a big sister, Girl Scout, personal assistant, sitcom sidekick, and, finally, mother of three, Amy believed it was her destiny to be a people please…

Sandip Roy, "Chapal Rani, the Last Queen of Bengal" (Seagull Books, 2026)

August 20, 2026

Chapal Rani, the Last Queen of Bengal

Sandip Roy
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

Chapal Rani was one of India’s most famous performers of jatra, Bengal’s popular theater. Traditionally, all the roles, including female roles, were p…

Edward E. Andrews, "Newport Gardner's Anthem: A Story of Slavery, Struggle, and Survival in Early America" (Cornell UP, 2025)

August 17, 2026

Newport Gardner's Anthem

Edward E. Andrews
Hosted by Russell Arbic

Newport Gardner's Anthem: A Story of Slavery, Struggle, and Survival in Early America (Cornell UP, 2025) explores the remarkable life of Occramer Mary…

Scott Peeples, "How Many Roads: A Life of Bob Dylan" (Reaktion, 2026)

August 17, 2026

How Many Roads

Scott Peeples
Hosted by Jana Byars

Scott Peeple's How Many Roads: A Life of Bob Dylan (Reaktion, 2026) chronicles Bob Dylan’s rise from apprenticeships in Minneapolis cafés and Greenwic…

Echoes of Incense on the Shikoku Pilgrimage with Don Weiss

August 16, 2026

Echoes of Incense on the Shikoku Pilgrimage

Don Weiss

Amy Chavez talks to Don Weiss, currently mid-way through the Shikoku Pilgrimage — Japan's 1,300 km Buddhist route that has been walked for almost as…