Betl Tun is the Turkish baker behind the popular Instagram account, @turkuazkitchen. With more than 10 million followers, her account features recipes and photography of sweet and savory baked goods. The account took off during the early days of the pandemic with a video of Tun punching the air out of freshly risen dough. Her debut cookbook Turkuaz Kitchen presents those recipes and more from Tun's childhood. In today's episode, Tun speaks with Here & Now's Jane Clayson about baking as therapy, ...
Jan 21, 2025•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Amanda Gorman became the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history when she performed at President Joe Biden's inauguration in 2021. Her poetry often deals with topics like gender, race and politics. She continues to explore these themes in a new picture book Girls on the Rise , which is a poem illustrated by Loveis Wise. In today's episode, Gorman speaks with NPR's Eric Deggans about drawing inspiration from the testimony of Christine Blasey Ford, the importance of creating a welcoming dialogue w...
Jan 20, 2025•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Brooke Shields started in Hollywood at just 11-years-old, starring in films like Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon . From that young age, the actress and model was sexualized on and off screen and decades later, she's out with a memoir that reflects on that public scrutiny. In Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed To Get Old , Shields now 59 writes about her experience with age-related bias in the industry. In today's episode, she speaks with NPR's Leila Fadel about her refusal to feel invisible as she ag...
Jan 17, 2025•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast Parks and Recreation changed the trajectory of actor Jim O'Heir's career. He landed a small part as Jerry Gergich on the NBC sitcom, ultimately becoming a series regular. Now, 10 years after the show wrapped, O'Heir is out with a memoir, Welcome to Pawnee . In today's episode, he speaks with NPR's Juana Summers about the moment the character clicked for him, the "Parks" family group text, and whether the series could work today. To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book co...
Jan 16, 2025•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast A new book from writer, BBC broadcaster and cellist Kate Kennedy tackles the stories of four cellists connected by a mutual musical obsession. Cello: A Journey Through Silence to Sound focuses on musicians like Lise Cristiani, the first female professional cello soloist, and Pl Hermann, a Jewish-Hungarian cellist captured by the Gestapo during World War II. In today's episode, Kennedy speaks with NPR's Daniel Estrin also a cellist about these musicians' histories and her own complicated relation...
Jan 15, 2025•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast About 10 years ago, author Lily Tuck was reading obituaries in The New York Times when she came across photos of Czesawa Kwoka, a young prisoner at Auschwitz concentration camp. Tuck didn't know much about Kwoka besides her name and age, but decided to try to write about her. The result is her new novel, The Rest Is Memory , which imagines Kwoka's life at Auschwitz. In today's episode, Tuck speaks with NPR's Scott Simon about how she approaches narrating a story through Kwoka's eyes, the careful...
Jan 14, 2025•7 min•Transcript available on Metacast Author Mark Lilla is professor of humanities at Columbia University specializing in intellectual history. His new book, Ignorance and Bliss: On Wanting Not to Know , examines the tendencies for willful ignorance in human nature and the correlations of those tendencies to education castes. In today's episode, Lilla speaks to NPR's Asma Khalid about curiosity and the role social media plays in choosing to engage with information and facts. To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR'...
Jan 13, 2025•6 min•Transcript available on Metacast Two novels explore the way that violence and loss can ripple across a village, town or even entire countries. First, in Karina Sainz Borgo's No Place to Bury the Dead , a plague that causes amnesia runs rampant across an unnamed Latin American country. One mother's flight brings her to a border-town cemetery that operates on disputed land. In today's episode, Borgo joins NPR's Elissa Nadworny for a conversation that touches on the importance of death rituals, the myth of Antigone, and a real-lif...
Jan 10, 2025•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast We've moved past the shortest day of the year Dec. 21 and, now, the days are getting longer. For more than 40 years, people have read and performed Susan Cooper's poem "The Shortest Day" to commemorate the winter solstice. In 2019, that poem was turned into a children's book, illustrated by Carson Ellis. In their collaboration, the two hoped to convey a story about light's triumph over darkness year after year. In today's episode, Cooper and Ellis join NPR's Scott Simon for a conversation about ...
Jan 09, 2025•7 min•Transcript available on Metacast Small Things Like These is a novella by Claire Keegan that centers around Bill Furlong, an Irish coal merchant who discovers exploitation at a local convent. The story is based on the real-life history of the Magdalene Laundries, workhouses where Irish girls and women were forced into unpaid labor. Keegan's book, originally published in 2021, was adapted to film in the fall of 2024. In today's episode, we revisit a conversation between Keegan and Here & Now's Deborah Becker. They discuss the aut...
Jan 08, 2025•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Twenty-five years into the new millennium, Y2K aesthetics and millennial nostalgia are still alive and well in Colette Shade's new book, Y2K: How the 2000s Became Everything (Essays on the Future That Never Was), where she examines the impact of the era on everything from pop culture to politics. In today's episode, Shade talks with NPR's Andrew Limbong about the economic consequences of the era and some of the 2000s cultural artifacts that are still around today. To listen to Book of the Day sp...
Jan 07, 2025•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast A Kwanzaa Keepsake and Cookbook was first published in 1995, a few decades after the seven-day festival was created in 1966. Written by culinary historian and author Jessica B. Harris, the book explores the holiday's history, traditions, rituals, and foodand in 2024, Harris released an updated version of her original guide. In today's episode, she joins Here & Now's Scott Tong for a conversation about the meaning of the seven symbols and principles of Kwanzaa. They also discuss the way the cookb...
Jan 06, 2025•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today, we revisit conversations with two 2024 Pulitzer Prize-winning authors. First, King: A Life , the biography by Jonathan Eig, provides a fresh perspective on the life of one of America's most important activists. In today's episode, Eig speaks with NPR's Steve Inskeep about how Martin Luther King, Jr. rose to prominence at such a young age, and how he maintained his spirituality through deep scrutiny and surveillance. Then, A Day In The Life of Abed Salama is a true story that takes place i...
Jan 03, 2025•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast Writer and filmmaker Miranda July says the popular imagination sort of drops off once a woman gets married and has kids. Her new novel All Fours turns that on its head it's a story about an artist in her 40s who departs from her husband and child on a road trip that takes her to some very unexpected places. In today's episode, July speaks to NPR's Brittany Luse about the interviews she conducted with women going through perimenopause and menopause for this book, and the whisper network with her ...
Jan 02, 2025•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 2022, the author Salman Rushdie was onstage at a public event when a man ran up and stabbed him. His new memoir, Knife , delves into that moment when Rushdie thought he was going to die and everything that's come after, as he's healed from the attack. In today's episode, he speaks at length with NPR's Mary Louise Kelly about how the miracles found in his fiction might've manifested themselves in his real life, how his wife poet Rachel Eliza Griffiths has helped him move forward, and how writi...
Jan 01, 2025•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast Halfway through today's episode, author Kaveh Akbar tells NPR's Scott Simon that his life is a summation of "private joys amidst collective grief and private grief amidst collective joy." It's a contrast that contextualizes his emotionally dark yet deeply funny debut novel, Martyr! , about an Iranian-American poet grappling with addiction, loss, displacement and art. Akbar, who is also poetry editor at The Nation , explains why his protagonist is so obsessed with the concept of martyrdom, and ho...
Dec 31, 2024•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast Percival Everett is a prolific author his 2001 book Erasure was recently adapted into the Oscar-winning film American Fiction . But his latest book, James , expands on a story readers around the world already know: Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. In today's episode, Everett speaks with NPR's Andrew Limbong about why he wanted to reframe the classic novel from the perspective of the enslaved titular character, why he doesn't think of his new work as a direct response to Twain, and why he doesn't b...
Dec 30, 2024•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast Former president Jimmy Carter has died. He was 100 years old. In today's episode, two books examine Carter's career in the White House and beyond. First, NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with historian Kai Bird about The Outlier , a biography that argues that Carter's deregulation of several industries, his social legislation and his foreign policy made his one-term presidency exceptionally productive. Then, a conversation from the vault between NPR's Eric Westervelt and Carter himself about his memoi...
Dec 30, 2024•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast Memoirs from authors Glory Edim and Moshe Kasher narrate their lives through cultural objects: books and subcultures. First, Edim, the founder of the Well-Read Black Girl book club, grew up as the child of Nigerian immigrant parents searching for their way into American identity. As part of that journey, Edim found herself through reading. Her memoir, Gather Me , is a coming-of-age story told through her encounters with books. In today's episode, Edim speaks with NPR's Michel Martin about the ea...
Dec 27, 2024•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast Nate Gadol is a spirit with the power to make anything last for as long as it's needed, whether oil, chocolate, or a flower. Gadol's special gift is at the center of The Hanukkah Magic of Nate Gadol , a children's book from author Arthur Levine. Growing up, Levine says, he felt that the Jewish holiday was often eclipsed by the mythology surrounding Christmas, with beloved characters like Rudolph, Frosty the Snowman, and Santa Claus. With Nate Gadol, Levine aims to introduce a mythological hero t...
Dec 26, 2024•5 min•Transcript available on Metacast During the Civil War, Union Army Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman and his troops arrived in Savannah, Georgia, days before Christmas in 1864. The city was their final stop on Sherman's March to the Sea, a military campaign to weaken Confederate power through the state of Georgia. Stanley Weintraub's 2009 book, General Sherman's Christmas , explores the holiday celebration in the war-torn city. In today's episode, we revisit a conversation between Weintraub and NPR's Guy Raz about Sherman's controve...
Dec 25, 2024•7 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the '70s, gelatin was very much in vogue. Gatherings often featured a colorful, molded jello salad that contained surprising ingredients from cottage cheese to tuna. Those dishes have since fallen out of favor, but a new cookbook by Peter DiMario and Judith Choate declares that gelatin is back. Jiggle! includes modernized recipes for sweet, savory and layered dishes, such as Grandma's Ambrosia and Watermelon Margarita Bites. In today's episode, DiMario talks with Here & Now's Deepa Fernandes ...
Dec 24, 2024•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Newport Folk Festival is an annual music festival that's been hosted in Newport, Rhode Island, since the 1950s. Bob Dylan, who was considered folk music's then-reigning king, performed at the festival in 1965 where he made the controversial decision to play the electric guitar. This is the focus of Elijah Wald's 2015 book, Dylan Goes Electric! which has been adapted into the film A Complete Unknown, starring Timothe Chalamet as Bob Dylan. In today's episode, we revisit a 2015 conversation be...
Dec 23, 2024•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Two books take dramatically different approaches to the Christmas story. First, in Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret , reluctant detective Ernest Cunningham finds himself in the middle of another murder mystery. His ex-wife's partner has been killed and every suspect is a master of the art of deception. The book is the third installment of comedian Benjamin Stevenson's Ernest Cunningham mysteries series. In today's episode, Stevenson joins NPR's Ayesha Rascoe for a discussion that touches on ...
Dec 20, 2024•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast A new cookbook from America's Test Kitchen pays homage to the diverse communities of women who have defined food in the American South. When Southern Women Cook includes recipes and accompanying culinary histories from women with a variety of backgrounds. Each of the book's 14 chapters opens with an essay from a historian, author or chef that goes deep on a recipe's backstory or cultural context. In today's episode, co-authors Toni Tipton-Martin and Morgan Bolling join Here & Now's Robin Young t...
Dec 19, 2024•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast After a high school English teacher introduced Alizah Holstein to Dante's Divine Comedy, the Italian capital Rome became the first place she wanted to go. Rome's rich history was the one thing she wanted to study most. As an adult, she did spend time researching and exploring in Rome, believing that becoming a Roman historian was her destiny. But while working on her Ph.D. back in the U.S., Holstein came face to face with gender biases in academia and she pivoted to another, wholly different pat...
Dec 18, 2024•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast In Fabienne Josaphat's latest novel, a young woman named Nettie leaves Haiti for the United States. Set in the 1960s, Kingdom of No Tomorrow follows Nettie as she joins the Black Panther Party's free health clinics in Oakland, California, and falls in love with a party defense captain. In her research for the novel, Josaphat found deep resonances between Haiti's revolutionary history and the Black Panther movement. In today's episode, she speaks with NPR's Ari Shapiro about her research, the Bla...
Dec 17, 2024•6 min•Transcript available on Metacast Colson Whitehead's 2019 novel The Nickel Boys follows the studious and idealistic Elwood Curtis, a Black teenager whose prized possession is a recording of speeches by Martin Luther King Jr. But when Elwood is sent to a juvenile reformatory in Florida, his worldview is challenged by the horrors he experiences there. Now, Whitehead's novel has been adapted into a film. In today's episode, we revisit a conversation between Whitehead and NPR's Scott Simon, where they discuss the real-life reform sc...
Dec 16, 2024•7 min•Transcript available on Metacast Two books of essays consider the female experience through different stages of life. First, Kate Kennedy's One in a Millennial documents coming of age as a member of a highly-scrutinized generation. Her book explores the origins of millennial stereotypes and pop culture, but also focuses on the way that shared experiences of girlhood are often dismissed as frivolous. In today's episode, Kennedy joins NPR's Juana Summers for a conversation that touches on AOL Instant Messenger, college pre-games,...
Dec 13, 2024•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast The World With Its Mouth Open is a book of short stories from journalist-turned-author Zahid Rafiq. The collection showcases the precarious but ordinary lives of people in modern day Kashmir, a site of ongoing geopolitical conflict. In Rafiq's stories, a work crew makes a disturbing discovery at a construction site, a pregnant woman searches for fresh fish, and a shopkeeper has an unexpected encounter with a mannequin. In today's episode, Rafiq tells NPR's Eric Deggans about his interest in writ...
Dec 12, 2024•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
