Celeste Ng's new novel Our Missing Hearts is set in a dystopian America, where children are taken away from their parents. The story is told from the perspective of a 12-year-old boy who goes in search of his missing mother. In an interview with NPR's Ayesha Rascoe, Ng says she wanted to look at how people rationalize their faith in institutions, and how willing they are to look away from something that's wrong. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy P...
Oct 17, 2022•7 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, we hear two interviews with author Namwali Serpell. Her two novels look at some variation on what it means to be part of a mixed-race family. First, NPR's Scott Simon talks to Serpell about her 2019 debut The Old Drift in which the author considers how immigrants that came to Zambia gave the country a new identity through unity and love. Then, Serpell and NPR's Juana Summers discuss her second novel The Furrows , which looks at grief – and how it doesn't necessarily get easier w...
Oct 14, 2022•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast This conversation between NPR's Ailsa Chang and actor Brandon Kyle Goodman looks at authentic relationships and the performance of queerness. Goodman is Black, non-binary, and grew up in a religious household. Among humorous stories of love – and self-love – their new book You Gotta Be You: How to Embrace This Messy Life and Step Into Who You Really Are touches on dating, white privilege, and dating those with white privilege. Goodman's origin story helps readers understand what it means to full...
Oct 13, 2022•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast Rob Roth's new play in book form, WARHOLCAPOTE, is what he calls a "non-fiction invention," created from found tapes of conversations between artist Andy Warhol and writer Truman Capote. In a conversation with Scott Simon, Roth sheds light on the two men's loneliness, their recognition of both talent and pain in each other, and how they turned the way they fathomed the world into art. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Oct 12, 2022•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast In Brown and Gay in LA , author Anthony Christian Ocampo interviews more than 60 gay sons of immigrant families about the fears that come with living as gay men. He discusses with A Martinez the complex relationships they have with their parents — the respect they have for their parents as immigrants, but also the pain they carry from coming out to them. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Oct 11, 2022•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast Distinguished war correspondent Thomas Ricks analyzes how civil rights movement protesters used military principles and strategies in his new book, Waging a Good War . He explains to Steve Inskeep how although unarmed and non-violent, the discipline, training, and willingness to sacrifice everything allowed the protesters to achieve success and employ tactics rivaling those of the U.S. military. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Oct 10, 2022•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, NPR's Scott Simon interviews two writers whose books about friendship reckon with how people, and what we experience with them, make us who we are. First, Hua Hsu talks about his memoir Stay True which focuses on one of his formative college friendships, and how that friendship was cut tragically short. Then, we hear from Kamala Shamsie about her novel Best of Friends . It follows the push and pull of a friendship between two girls from when they were teenagers in Karachi to whe...
Oct 07, 2022•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dick Ebersol was a major player in the world of American entertainment until his retirement over a decade ago. He co-created Saturday Night Live , and created Sunday Night Football, which was once the most watched television program in America. In this episode, we get a glimpse of Ebersol's 40-year career as he talks with NPR hosts Ari Shapiro and Juana Summers about his new autobiography From Saturday Night to Sunday Night . We also hear from Ebersol how he coped with some of the worst, tragic ...
Oct 06, 2022•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast Randall Munroe's first book of scientific answers to the absurd questions people have was so popular that he wrote another one. In What If? 2, the author and cartoonist answers confusing and often unusual questions submitted by adults – and children – using science and humor. He spoke to NPR's Ayesha Rascoe about why it's important to lean into this confusion, and how that actually makes way for curiosity. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Oct 05, 2022•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kwame Alexander's new novel aimed at teens, The Door of No Return, focuses on the history of slavery. It follows a boy growing up in Ghana in 1860, and it aims to help readers understand the wholeness of the lives and experiences of Africans before they walked through that "door of no return" – and were shipped to the Americas. In an interview with NPR's Rachel Martin, Alexander talks about how he used poetry to make the heavy subject palatable for children. Learn more about sponsor message choi...
Oct 04, 2022•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 2009, Hilary Mantel won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction for her novel Wolf Hall. Mantel died in September, and in this episode we hear former NPR host Liane Hansen's interview with Mantel just after she won the prize. In the novel, Mantel examines the reign of England's King Henry VIII through the life and relationships of his trusted advisor Thomas Cromwell – and the author says it's important not only to look at what happened in the past, but also to consider how it felt. Learn more about ...
Oct 03, 2022•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast The two books in today's episode point up how authors write and empathize with characters that aren't exactly likable. First we hear from Anthony Doerr who spoke to NPR correspondent Arun Rath about his Pulitzer-Prize winning novel All The Light We Cannot See . Doer talks about how we can better understand the moral choices people make by tuning into untold stories. Then, Scott Simon of NPR's Weekend Edition interviews author Yiyun Li about her new novel The Book of Goose . It's a story of two r...
Sep 30, 2022•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast Author Tochi Onyebuchi says that a majority of space stories he's come across favor those in power. Rich and white people get to escape in spaceships, whereas less affluent Black and brown people are left behind on an increasingly inhabitable Earth. His new science-fiction novel Goliath gets at this power imbalance, and the author spoke to Juana Summers about how it tells us so much about racial and economic disparities right now. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adch...
Sep 29, 2022•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast In her new graphic memoir, It Won't Always Be Like This, NPR Editor Malaka Gharib revisits the summers she spent in Cairo, Egypt and how they shaped who she is today. She writes about her relationship with her dad and her step-mom, and how that relationship strengthened over the years even as the distance between them grew. The author, her dad, and her step-mom all spoke with NPR's Leila Fadel. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Sep 28, 2022•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Marriage Portrait is Maggie O' Farrell's fictional interpretation of Lucrezia de Cosimo de Medici, who fights to survive her forced marriage with her abhorrent husband, Duke Alfonso II. In an interview with Mary Louise Kelly, O'Farrell discusses themes of loss of control and explains her philosophy in how she portrays these historical figures. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Sep 27, 2022•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast When former President Donald Trump was in office, a number of his aides said they wanted to quit out of concern for the country's political and military future. Some did quit, some didn't. Political reporters Susan Glasser and Peter Baker conducted 300 interviews for their new book The Divider – two of those with the former President himself. They spoke to Ayesha Rascoe about Trump's White House tenure – and what it means for the American presidency at large. Learn more about sponsor message cho...
Sep 26, 2022•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today, YA adult novels – both of which have faced bans from schools and libraries – focus on conversations with kids regarding race and police brutality. First, Angie Thomas talks about The Hate You Give , in which an unarmed black teenager is killed by a police officer. Thomas reflects on victims of racial injustice in this discussion. Then, we hear from Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely about All American Boys , in which a white teen witnesses his black friend be brutalized by a cop. The two au...
Sep 23, 2022•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast Tova Friedman says she's telling her story of having survived the Holocaust in her memoir, Daughter of Auschwitz , to honor the victims' memories. In a profound conversation with Scott Simon, she recalls her childhood – from her tiny apartment in the Jewish ghetto to the crematorium in the concentration camp – and grapples with how such atrocities could have even happened. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Sep 22, 2022•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Unfolding examines the socio-political upheaval in the U.S. following the election of President Barack Obama – as seen through the lens of a wealthy, influential Republican power broker. Author A.M. Homes talks with Ari Shapiro about how she writes characters who she thinks wouldn't normally tell their stories – and also discusses the political evolution of America. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Sep 21, 2022•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast In her new children's book, I Am Ruby Bridges , civil rights activist Ruby Bridges tells the story of how she was the first black child to desegregate an all-white elementary school – through the eyes of her 6-year-old self. She shares in a conversation with Mary Louise Kelly stories of the racism she endured and how her loneliness at school may resonate with kids today. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Sep 20, 2022•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast Iuliia Mendel, press secretary to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, offers a peek behind the curtain in her new memoir, The Fight of Our Lives: My Time with Zelenskyy, Ukraine's Battle for Democracy and What it Means for the World . In an interview with Mary Louise Kelly, Mendel talks about Vladimir Putin – and the resilience of Ukraine. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Sep 19, 2022•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast The two books featured in this episode are stories examining the difficulties and stressors of being Latino in America. First is I am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter , which is about a 15-year-old girl who has a contentious relationship with her immigrant parents. Author Erika L. Sánchez explains in conversation with Latino USA's Maria Hinojosa her goal to challenge ideas of Latina perfection. Then we hear from David Bowles, author of They Call Her Fregona , who discusses with Scott Simon the ...
Sep 16, 2022•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ken Starr's 2018 memoir, Contempt , gives an inside look into his investigation of the Clinton administration that led to President Clinton's impeachment. In an interview from back when the book was published, Starr, who died this week, discusses in a conversation with Steve Inskeep his perspective on the president and the law, which at times may seem to conflict with his later stance on President Donald Trump. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Po...
Sep 15, 2022•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast Mia Mercado's essay collection She's Nice Though: Essays on Being Bad at Being Good examines the reasons why one would want to be viewed as "nice." She explores why one would want to be liked, what we try to accomplish by being nice, and how constraining being agreeable can be. NPR's Ailsa Chang discusses this with Mercado, as well as how this plays into gender and dating. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Sep 14, 2022•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast In Dinners with Ruth: A Memoir on the Power of Friendships , NPR's own Nina Totenberg documents her friendship with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and how it would sometimes be at odds with their professional duties. Totenberg talks with Steve Inskeep about their respect for each other's obligations as a journalist and a Supreme Court judge, and how they lifted each other up in a time when women were even more undervalued. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy ...
Sep 13, 2022•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast In Nickel and Dimed , author Barbara Ehrenreich lives the life of a low-wage worker and explores how unsustainable poverty is, as well as how easy it can be for one to get stuck in a vicious cycle. In this conversation with John Ydstie from 2001, Ehrenreich, who died earlier this month, discusses the symptoms of a profit-driven society and the issues that echo those today. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Sep 12, 2022•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast The two books featured in this episode focus on accessing feelings and mental health. First is a book of essays by spoken word artist, Bassey Ikpi. Ikpi tells Scott Simon that her book I'm Telling the Truth but I'm Lying chronicles the hard work it took to make a real life for herself after facing abuse at home. Then we hear from neurologist and physician Anna DeForest on her novel that questions a lot about existence and the inequities of the medical system. A History of Present Illness is DeFo...
Sep 09, 2022•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast The main argument Gaia Vince makes in her book Nomad Century is that in order for three to five billion people on Earth to survive, it will require a planned and deliberate migration of the kind humanity has never before undertaken. NPR's Scott Simon discusses this possibility with Vince as she explains how human kind has hampered the success of migration through "artificial bordering of nation states," and as she talks of the need to "rethink how we decide where someone is allowed to live" in o...
Sep 08, 2022•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast Olaf Olafsson's new novel Touch is a combination of mystery, memories lost, and love. It puts the idea of "the one that got away" front and center and explores how loneliness can be felt in many different ways. In an interview with Mary Louise Kelly, Olafsson shares why the pandemic was the perfect time to write this story. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Sep 07, 2022•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the book Path Lit by Lightning , author David Maraniss does more than just write Jim Thorpe's life story. He delves into what caused misconceptions and false narratives about the great athlete, examines how exploitation of Native Americans by the U.S. government helped shape Thorpe's resilience, and offers a different perspective on the last few years of Thorpe's life as something admirable. In conversation with NPR's Don Gonyea, Maraniss explains these details and why they matter. Learn more...
Sep 06, 2022•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
