Election denialism and myths of voter fraud have long been part of the history of the United States. In their new book, Represent: The Unfinished Fight for the Vote , Michael Eric Dyson and Marc Favreau trace the contentious battle for democratic representation from the American Revolution to the present dayup to the 2024 election. In today's episode, Dyson and Favreau speak with NPR's Ayesha Rascoe about lesser-known heroes in the struggle for voting rights, the political impact of non-voters a...
Sep 19, 2024•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast In Rumaan Alam's new novel, Entitlement , Brooke, a former teacher, is given a rare opportunity. She takes a job with an 83-year-old billionaire and is tasked with helping him decide what to do with his fortune. But, as Brooke spends more time in proximity to such great wealth, the experience begins to distort her sense of priorities, ambitions and personal ethics. In today's episode, Alam speaks with NPR's Scott Simon about the stratification of wealth, whether we're living through a new Gilded...
Sep 18, 2024•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast Tennis legend Venus Williams has a lot on her plate. There's her tennis career, of course, but also business pursuits in fashion, interior design, nail art and more. As a result, Williams says it can be difficult for her to find balance. In her new book Strive , she details eight steps she follows in pursuit of this balance between her mental, physical and emotional health. In today's episode, Williams speaks with NPR's Michel Martin about learning from an early-career loss at the U.S. Open, res...
Sep 17, 2024•6 min•Transcript available on Metacast Rachel Kushner's new novel, Creation Lake , has all the makings of a great spy thriller: a cool and unknowable secret agent, a mysterious figure who communicates only by email and a radical commune of French eco-activists. Kushner has said that some of these elements were, in fact, inspired by real-world stories of espionage and her own access to the social and political worlds of activist communes. In today's episode, Kushner speaks with NPR's Scott Simon about the murky boundaries of being an ...
Sep 16, 2024•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast New memoirs by former National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster and recovery advocate William Cope Moyers document conflicts of different kinds. In At War with Ourselves , McMaster contends with his years in the Trump administration and the political infighting he experienced at the White House. Moyers' Broken Open documents a more personal struggle with maintaining his sobriety 35 years into his recovery journey. In today's episode, McMaster talks with NPR's Steve Inskeep about the three types o...
Sep 13, 2024•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Museum of Failures follows Remy Wadia, an Indian American ad executive who left India for the United States years ago. But when Remy returns to Bombay to adopt a child, he realizes things aren't as he left them. Remy's mother is ill, and soon, he uncovers a shocking family secret. Thrity Umrigar's novel, first released last year, is now out in paperback. In today's episode, Here & Now's Deepa Fernandes speaks with Umrigar about gender roles, parenthood and the psychic toll of leaving home. T...
Sep 12, 2024•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast Over 25 years ago, author Leslie Rasmussen connected with a stranger over challenges with their fertility. That friendship inspired her 2023 novel, The Stories We Cannot Tell , which follows two very different women who contend with excruciating decisions around their pregnancies. In today's episode, Rasmussen talks with NPR's Leila Fadel about her years-long fertility struggle, the difficulty of discussing the decision to terminate a pregnancy, and the political context surrounding her novel fo...
Sep 11, 2024•7 min•Transcript available on Metacast Edwidge Danticat is known for her novels and short stories. But her new book, We're Alone , is a collection of eight wide-ranging essays. These essays touch on intimate and historical topics: Danticat's past and present, the history of Haiti, parenting, migration and the author's connection to her literary heroes. In today's episode, Danticat speaks with NPR's Ari Shapiro about the complexity of nostalgia and the Haiti she remembers. To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's bo...
Sep 10, 2024•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast Carole Hopson wanted to be a pilot since childhood, but it wasn't until her mid-30s that she learned about Bessie Coleman, the first Black woman to earn her pilot's license in 1921. Coleman's story not only encouraged Hopson to pursue her own career as a commercial pilot, but it also inspired A Pair of Wings, Hopson's first novel. In today's episode, Hopson speaks with NPR's Michel Martin about Coleman's groundbreaking path and about Hopson's own experience as one of few women of color working a...
Sep 09, 2024•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast Anything's Pastable and My Life in Recipes , new cookbooks from Dan Pashman and Joan Nathan, get personal in very different ways. Pashman, the James Beard Award-winning podcaster, sets out to revolutionize our relationship with pasta, while Nathan's 12th cookbook blends recipes and memoir to trace her family history through Jewish cuisine. In today's episode, Here & Now's Robin Young talks with Pashman about food innovation, his viral pasta shape and why home cooks shouldn't sweat over homemade ...
Sep 06, 2024•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast Jurassic Park creator Michael Crichton spent years working on a manuscript about a volcano on the verge of a disastrous eruption in Hawaii. After he died in 2008, his wife Sherri found his boxes and boxes of research and decided the novel needed to be finished so she hit up James Patterson. In today's episode, she and Patterson speak with NPR's Ari Shapiro about how they got Eruption across the finish line more than a decade after her husband's death, and how they managed to pass off the pen thr...
Sep 05, 2024•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast Supreme Court Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson remembers her first brush with the national spotlight as "white hot." When President Biden nominated her in 2022 to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, it kicked off an intense confirmation process for Jackson, the first Black woman ever appointed to the Supreme Court. In her new book, Lovely One: A Memoir , Jackson charts her path from the segregated South to the country's highest court. In today's episode, Justice Jackson sits down wit...
Sep 04, 2024•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast Harriet Constable learned a lot about the real life of Anna Maria della Piet that she grew up in an orphanage, that she was a star violinist and a favored student of Antonio Vivaldi. But in her new novel, The Instrumentalist , Constable also merges fact with fiction to tell the story of Anna Maria's synesthesia and musical talents. In today's episode, she speaks with NPR's Scott Simon about Anna Maria's life, the challenges and excitement of the classical music world at the time, and what we mak...
Sep 03, 2024•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast Food is a source of nourishment, joy and autonomy for a lot of people but in her new book, Ruin their Crops on the Ground, Andrea Freeman also tracks how the U.S. government has used food policy as a form of control and oppression. In today's episode, Freeman speaks with NPR's Ayesha Rascoe about how the book's title can be traced back to an order given by George Washington to destroy the food source of Indigenous nations, and how from slavery to Got Milk? campaigns to school lunches today, ther...
Sep 02, 2024•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today's episode features two books that advocate for new approaches to big problems: urban planning, poverty, and dog rescue. First, Here & Now's Scott Tong speaks with Carlos Moreno about The 15-Minute City , his proposal for interconnected communities where schools, grocery stores and offices are all a short walk or bike ride away from each other. Then, Here & Now's Peter O'Dowd speaks with Carol Mithers about Rethinking Rescue , which profiles Lori Weise, aka the Dog Lady, and examines her be...
Aug 30, 2024•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Natwest, 23, is about to finally leave for university. But a package he's waiting for has gone missing and fearing humiliation if its contents are found out he spends 24 hours looking for it all over town. That's the premise of Nathan Newman's comic novel, How to Leave the House . In today's episode, Newman speaks with NPR's David Folkenflik about some of the odd neighborhood characters Natwest bumps into along the way, and how their own concerns and their perceptions of Natwest completely chall...
Aug 29, 2024•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast What do hedge fund managers, poker players and the scientist behind the mRNA vaccine have in common? In his new book, On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything , Nate Silver argues that they all exist in what he calls "the River" a community of like-minded power brokers taking quantitative risks. In today's episode, Silver speaks with Here & Now's Scott Tong about what differentiates "the River" from what he calls "the Village" think journalists and professors and how cancel culture plays a rol...
Aug 28, 2024•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast Elvira K. Gonzalez says there was a lot of beauty to growing up in the culturally rich border town of Laredo, Texas. But there were some challenges, too. Her new memoir, Hurdles in the Dark , chronicles some of the more difficult aspects of her adolescence her mom was kidnapped, Gonzalez was sent to juvenile detention, and she was preyed upon by her hurdling coaches. In today's episode, the author speaks with Here & Now's Deepa Fernandes about the resilience and optimism she carried through all ...
Aug 27, 2024•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast From 1911 to 1912, Albert Einstein and Franz Kafka both lived in Prague. A new graphic novel by Ken Krimstein uses both history and artistic imagination to explore how the physicist and writer ran in the same social circles and how their work might have influenced each other. In today's episode, Krimstein speaks with NPR's Scott Simon about Einstein in Kafkaland and the brilliant academic and literary scene in Prague during that time period. To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support ...
Aug 26, 2024•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast Warning: this episode contains mention of suicide and mental illness. If you or someone you know may be considering suicide or is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Today's episode is about two books that focus on mental health challenges. First, Here & Now's Robin Young speaks with Rachel Zimmerman about Us, After , a memoir that details the grief and growth Zimmerman underwent when she had to pick herself and her children back up after her husband took his ow...
Aug 23, 2024•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Bram Stoker Award-winning author, Gabino Iglesias, knows what it's like for grief and anger to turn deadly. That's what he explores in his new novel, House of Bone and Rain , which follows six close friends who vow to avenge the murder of one of their own mothers as a hurricane approaches. In today's episode, Iglesias, who's a frequent book critic for NPR, speaks with NPR's Ayesha Rascoe about what it's like to be part of a brotherhood so deep, you consider each other to be "ride or die" friends...
Aug 22, 2024•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast Courtroom sketch artist Jane Rosenberg has worked on some of the biggest trials of the last 40 years, drawing the likes of Martha Stewart, Jeffrey Epstein, and most recently, Donald Trump. Her new memoir, Drawn Testimony , examines her unique role in the news cycle, where art and criminal justice collide. In today's episode, Rosenberg speaks with NPR's Scott Simon about how she got into this line of work, why mobsters are fun to draw and which high-profile defendant asked her to add more hair to...
Aug 21, 2024•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast The fictional Olympics at the heart of Rufaro Faith Mazarura's novel, Let the Games Begin , kick off in Athens. And in the middle of one of the most important athletic competitions in the world, star runner Zeke and Olympic organizing committee intern Olivia are thrown together against all odds in what becomes a whirlwind romance. In today's episode, the author speaks with The Indicator's Wailin Wong about why the Olympics are such a good backdrop for a rom-com, why there was a dearth of these s...
Aug 20, 2024•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast After she worked on a book about refugee resettlement in the U.S., writer Jessica Goudeau says she realized she knew very little about how her own family arrived in Texas. Her new book, We Were Illegal , looks at multiple generations of her family and how their lives reflected a history of racism, slavery and violence in her home state. In today's episode, Goudeau speaks with Here & Now's Deepa Fernandes about how family secrets and the language we use to talk about our lineage contributes to th...
Aug 19, 2024•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today's episode highlights two books that revisit the cultural contributions of some pretty big names. First, Here & Now's Deepa Fernandes speaks with Deborah Paredez about American Diva , which reclaims the word 'diva' to celebrate the singularity of women like Serena Williams and Celia Cruz. Then, NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Larry Tye about The Jazzmen , which traces the role that Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Count Basie played in the civil rights movement. To listen to Book of the ...
Aug 16, 2024•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Hindu holiday Raksha Bandhan is just around the corner and in a new children's book called Raashi's Rakhis , actor and activist Sheetal Sheth writes about an empowered little girl, Raashi, who asks some pretty big questions about the gender roles prescribed to one of her favorite celebrations. In today's episode, Sheth speaks with Here & Now's Deepa Fernandes about how she questioned her own parents as a first-generation Indian American, why she wanted to write from a place of inclusivity, a...
Aug 15, 2024•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 1987, a Black 22-year-old named Ben Spencer was convicted of murdering a white man in Texas. In 2021, he was cleared of those charges and released from prison. A new book by former NPR reporter Barbara Bradley Hagerty, Bringing Ben Home , dives into what went wrong within the Texas legal system for Spencer to serve so much time in prison for a crime he has always said he did not commit. In today's episode, Bradley Hagerty speaks with NPR's Ailsa Chang about her own investigation into the case...
Aug 14, 2024•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast There's an app for everything. In Kat Tang's debut novel Five-Star Stranger , there's even one that allows you to hire someone you've never met to play a role in your life, like to be best man at a wedding or pretend to be the father of a child. In today's episode, Tang speaks with NPR's Scott Simon about the titular stranger at the heart of her story, who is going around New York taking on a number of roles, and how he starts to crack as he reexamines his relationship to a woman who's hired him...
Aug 13, 2024•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast John J. Sullivan served as U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2019 to 2022. He was there during Russia's invasion of Ukraine and he writes about that time frankly in his new memoir , Midnight in Moscow . But in today's episode, he also opens up to NPR's Mary Louise Kelly about some of the other strange, even funny moments during his service, like what it's like to sit across a table from Vladimir Putin or how difficult it is to walk into a store and buy an iPad as a diplomat in Russia. To listen to ...
Aug 12, 2024•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi says her new book, The Art of Power , is not a memoir. Instead, she says, it's an inside look at specific moments in American history like the 2008 financial crisis and January 6 and how she navigated them. In today's episode, the Speaker Emerita sits down with NPR's Mary Louise Kelly to discuss why she didn't want to run for office in the first place, how she looks back on some of the biggest decisions she's made while in power, and what role she played ...
Aug 09, 2024•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
