Author NoViolet Bulawayo's new novel Glory is quite openly based on Orwell's Animal Farm and the 2017 coup in Zimbabwe that ousted then president Robert Mugabe. Horses rule the country, dogs are the military, cows, goats, sheep, and pigs are the everyday people. The government that has been in control of the country Jidada for 40 years has fallen to rebellion. But, as these things go, it quickly turns sour. Bulawayo told NPR's Scott Simon that "it is simply an issue of the leadership kind of for...
Nov 28, 2022•6 min•Transcript available on Metacast Poet Franny Choi knows that marginalized communities have been facing apocalypses forever. But in her new book, The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On , she uses their survival as a way to look forward. In this episode, she tells NPR's Leila Fadel how understanding that pain and resilience can ultimately be a source of hope. Then, former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins discusses his new collection of very short poems, Musical Tables , with NPR's Scott Simon – and gets into the complexiti...
Nov 25, 2022•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast A lot of holiday tables will undoubtedly feature some kind of pie this year. But for food writer Rossi Anastopoulo, pies aren't just a baked dish – they're a throughline of how American society and values have changed over time. In this episode, Anastopoulo shares some notable pie recipes with NPR's Sacha Pfeiffer, and breaks down what they each represent about race, gender and economic opportunity in this country. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privac...
Nov 24, 2022•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast Displacement, identity and the aftermath of warfare are themes running through today's episode on The Haunting of Hajji Hotak . Author Jamil Jan Kochai talks with Ari Shapiro about why he used elements of science fiction like video games and magical realism to tell a largely autobiographical story of his family's life in Afghanistan before and after the Soviet invasion. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Nov 23, 2022•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast Adam Rutherford is a geneticist and author who just wrote a new book about the history of eugenics, and he tells NPR's Rebecca Ramirez that the political ideology is not just a relic of the past, but very much still relevant today. In this episode, Rutherford explains how anti-immigrant fear in the 19th century spurred popularity for an unscientific practice that was eventually embraced by Nazis – and has a complicated relationship with today's reproductive rights movement. Learn more about spon...
Nov 22, 2022•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast Fat Joe's career spans three decades – but before he was performing on stages around the world, he was a little kid getting bullied in the Bronx. His new memoir, The Book of Jose , goes back to his childhood in New York and his early days rapping in the Diggin' in the Crates Crew. In this episode, he opens up to NPR's Ayesha Rascoe about why he's committed to his community and how becoming a "big boy, financially" might mean putting a pause on new music. Learn more about sponsor message choices:...
Nov 21, 2022•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, two nonfiction books explore the Russian invasion of Ukraine from two completely different experiences. First, 12-year-old Yeva Skalietska from Kharkiv reads one of her diary entries from the early days of the war to Here and Now's Deepa Fernandes. Then, former White House Russia expert Andrew Weiss speaks with NPR's Mary Louise Kelly about his new graphic novel biography of Vladimir Putin (illustrated by Brian "Box" Brown) – and why the Russian leader built a nefarious politica...
Nov 18, 2022•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast Men in Blazers' Roger Bennett knows football – or soccer, as Americans call it. His new book, Gods of Soccer , lists 100 players who've made their mark on the sport one way or another. He tells Mary Louise Kelly about how he managed to compile that list, and why the book delves into the origin stories and cultural impact of a wide range of players – not just the Ronaldo and Messi household names, but the lesser-known figures who are iconic in their own right. Learn more about sponsor message cho...
Nov 17, 2022•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast Michelle Obama wants young people to know "going high" isn't about being complacent – it's about being strategic while pushing for change. In this episode, the former first lady sits down with NPR's Juana Summers to discuss her new book, The Light We Carry , and the toolkit she relies on to navigate the realities of partnership, parenthood and privilege. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Nov 16, 2022•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast Now Is Not the Time to Panic is a novel, but the relationship at its core comes from best-selling author Kevin Wilson's own young adulthood. Two teens find each other, in a summer of boredom, and start making art together – but their collaboration spirals to unlikely places. In this episode, Wilson tells NPR's Scott Simon about the real-life friendship that sparked the story, and what those memories mean many years later. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR...
Nov 15, 2022•7 min•Transcript available on Metacast When Rabia Chaudry's family moved from Pakistan to the U.S., her parents fully embraced the processed foods lining the grocery store aisles. But as the author and attorney got older, she began to associate eating with shame and secrecy. Her new memoir, Fatty Fatty Boom Boom , recounts how her outlook on food changed as she understood her own mom's eating patterns. In this episode, Chaudry tells NPR's Ayesha Rascoe how she eventually started healing – so much so that she reclaimed her childhood n...
Nov 14, 2022•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, two cookbook authors recount their relationship with food and how it's led them to unlikely places. First, actor and TikTok sensation Tabitha Brown tells NPR's Michel Martin about going vegan and connecting with an online audience through plant-based recipes. Then, restaurant owner Kardea Brown talks to Here & Now's Celeste Headlee about connecting with her family's roots in the kitchen and honoring the Gullah Geechee people's traditions. Learn more about sponsor message choices...
Nov 11, 2022•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Blair Braverman knows the great outdoors. So it makes sense that the American adventurer and "Naked And Afraid" contestant's first novel, Small Game , takes place in the wilderness. She tells NPR's Ayesha Rascoe about some of her own fears while competing in the Discovery Channel series – and how they manifested themselves in her first foray into fiction. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Nov 10, 2022•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast Isabella and Ha are twin sisters, but they grew up oceans apart. Isabella was adopted by a white American couple in Illinois, while Ha was raised by her maternal aunt in Vietnam. In this episode, journalist Erika Hayasaki discusses her reporting of over five years, which follows how the girls came back together and built a relationship. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Nov 09, 2022•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast Bono probably needs no introduction at this point. In this episode, the U2 frontman, philanthropist and now author sits down with NPR's Rachel Martin to talk about his new memoir, Surrender. He explains how his connection to a higher spiritual power works with rock-and-roll across U2's discography, and why he's reached a point in his life where he just wants to "shut up and listen." Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Nov 08, 2022•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast Jonathan Escoffery's debut collection of short stories follows the American-born son of Jamaican immigrants finding his place in the world and within his own family. Inspired by some of his own life experiences, If I Survive You questions what it means to belong, how culture is shared across generations, and why people migrate in the first place. Escoffery tells Here & Now's Deepa Fernandes that he wanted to disrupt the American savior complex, and instead acknowledge U.S. imperialism's role in ...
Nov 07, 2022•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast The two books in today's episode explore how we construct meaning from the music we listen to. First, record producer Susan Rogers talks to WBUR's Robin Young about her book, This Is What It Sounds Like, which breaks down the science behind what draws different types of listeners to particular songs. Then, author Francesca Royster traces the relationship between Black identity and country music in her book, Black Country Music: Listening for Revolutions . She tells NPR's Juana Summers that as a ...
Nov 04, 2022•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, NPR's Scott Simon pays best-selling author John Irving a visit in his Toronto home. Across from Irving's family photographs and slanted writing station, they discuss the writer's expansive career, the prevalence of gender and sexual politics in his novels and the newfound personal connection he can make with his characters. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Nov 03, 2022•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast The U.S. is highly polarized – and author Anand Giridharadas thinks writing off people with different opinions is only going to make things worse. In this episode, he tells NPR's Steve Inskeep about some of the activists and leaders he talked to for his new book, The Persuaders, and how their mission to actually listen and engage with the other side of the political aisle could actually save democracy. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Nov 02, 2022•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast Author Dani Shapiro spent 15 years working on Signal Fires , a novel about how a single accident changes the course of one family's life. In this episode, she tells NPR's Scott Simon how her own trajectory to completing the book upended what she thought she knew about herself and her upbringing. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Nov 01, 2022•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast Abraham Lincoln made history in 1863 when he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, effectively freeing enslaved people across the U.S. But he expected it to cost him reelection. In his new book, And There Was Light , Pulitzer prize-winning biographer Jon Meacham dives into how Lincoln's moral vision allowed him to stand his ground, even in the face of great criticism. Meacham tells NPR's Steve Inskeep that Lincoln's views on God and morality can teach us a thing or two in today's political clima...
Oct 31, 2022•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, we share two interviews on novels that explore how horror can be found within – and beyond – the laws of nature. First, Megan Miranda takes NPR's Elissa Nadworny into the North Carolina woods to set the scene for her book, The Last to Vanish , about disappearing hikers. Then, Stephen King and his son Owen tell Mary Louise Kelly about the supernatural rage that overcomes the women in their novel, Sleeping Beauties . Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adc...
Oct 28, 2022•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast Pulitzer Prize winning-author Annie Proulx tells Leila Fadel that she learns by writing. So when she wanted to better understand the wetlands – and how they're being affected by the climate crisis – she dove into nonfiction. Her new book, Fen, Bog & Swamp , does not concern itself with how the natural world serves humans, but rather how it serves itself. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Oct 27, 2022•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast Poet and filmmaker Fatimah Asghar lost their parents at a young age. But they tell Scott Simon that they didn't grow up with a lot of stories that accurately captured the experience of being an orphan. In their debut novel, When We Were Sisters , Asghar describes life on the margins for three Muslim-American siblings left to raise one another. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Oct 26, 2022•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast Geena Davis is no stranger to the spotlight. But in her new memoir, Dying of Politeness , the Academy Award-winning actor remembers growing up full of insecurities and self-criticisms. She tells Rachel Martin that acting gave her the "ability to be somebody else" – and over time, she gained her confidence by watching none other than her Thelma and Louise co-star, Susan Sarandon, walk through the world with her head held high. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices...
Oct 25, 2022•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast April Ryan and Ayesha Rascoe both know what it's like to cover the White House as Black women. In this episode, the two journalists discuss the importance of taking up space and looking out for one another in that environment, including throughout the Trump presidency. Ryan's new book, Black Women Will Save the World , combines memoir, reporting and analysis to highlight the strength of trailblazers like Stacey Abrams, LaTosha Brown and herself – but she also opens up about the personal cost of ...
Oct 24, 2022•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, we share two interviews on books that look at the ways in which food and family go hand in hand. First, NPR's Scott Simon talks to singer Linda Ronstadt about her memoir Feels Like Home , in which she writes about living by the Mexican-American border and how food brought her closer to those around her. Then, Scott Simon visits French chef Jaques Pepin at his house to talk about his book Art of the Chicken . Pepin tells Simon that cooking a good meal at home helps him hold on to...
Oct 21, 2022•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Young adult author Emiko Jean is out with her first book for adults – Mika in Real Life . In this episode, we hear Jean in conversation with WBUR's Celeste Headlee about the book, in which a teen girl – Penny – tries to connect with her birth mother Mika. Jean says that just as Penny and Mika struggle to figure out who they are, much of the book mirrors the author's own identity struggle as a Japanese-American woman. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Priv...
Oct 20, 2022•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, WBUR's Robin Young talks with author Andrew Sean Greer about his new novel Less is Lost , the sequel to his Pulitzer Prize-winning Less . This time, Greer's protagonist Arthur Less takes a tour of America in a van, and in the process learns about what it means to be an author today. Less is disappointed by how things are going, but doesn't realize how good things actually are for him. Greer says that he almost didn't write a second book, but by satirizing the literary crowd, he ...
Oct 19, 2022•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast In her memoir Making a Scene , actress Constance Wu writes about the sexual harassment and abuse she faced on her breakout show Fresh off the Boat, and why she hesitated to speak out at first. She tells WBUR's Scott Tong that "trauma and feelings don't go away simply because you will them to." And when she finally spoke up about that trauma on social media, she received a wave of online hate. A warning that this episode – and the book – includes descriptions of assault and a suicide attempt. Lea...
Oct 18, 2022•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
