Podcast Episodes

Jo Hamya ambushes everyone in ‘The Hypocrite’

Jo Hamya’s new novel, “The Hypocrite,” opens as the trap is being laid.

Sophia, a 20-something playwright, has invited her father, a famous and provo…

2 years, 2 months ago

How to defeat 'The Age of Grievance'

The first sentence of Frank Bruni’s new book says it all. It reads, “Let me tell you how I’ve been wronged.”

More and more Americans are living mired …

2 years, 2 months ago

Author A.J. Jacobs attempts a year of living constitutionally

When A.J. Jacobs decided to immerse himself in early Americana, he didn’t think about the fact that the required wool stockings wouldn’t have elastic…

2 years, 2 months ago

‘Grown Women’ tackles the complicated wounds in mother-daughter relationships

Debut novelist Sarai Johnson created four generations of Black mothers and daughters to tackle the questions that came up in her own life: What does …

2 years, 3 months ago

Claire Messud’s new novel in inspired by her own family’s history

Claire Messud has long wanted to write a novel inspired by her family’s history in Algeria, thanks to a handwritten memoir, more than 1,500 pages lon…

2 years, 3 months ago

‘Get Out’ meets ‘The Stepford Wives’ in Nicola Yoon’s new thriller

New York Times bestselling author Nicola Yoon’s new novel, “One of our Kind,” is one of the most talked about books of the summer. On this week’s Big…

2 years, 3 months ago

Rachel Khong’s ‘Real Americans’

Lily Chen is not endowed with good fortune — despite the fact that her scientist mother managed to grow a backyard of four-leaf clovers. She doesn’t …

2 years, 3 months ago

The shadow fighters of the Civil War

The Civil War is remembered for its sweeping battles: Gettysburg, Atlanta, Antietam. Less known are the small troops of men, enlisted by both sides, …

2 years, 3 months ago

Minnesota author Tai Coleman on families, hope and surviving America while Black

Taiyon Coleman has been writing since she was a child. At age 8, she announced to her family that a novel was in the works.

Today, she’s a published …

2 years, 4 months ago

Can you create your own luck?

America is steeped in the notion of rugged individualism. It’s comforting to think success is based on our own hard work and self determination.

But s…

2 years, 4 months ago