Free Library Podcast

In conversation with Heather Marold Thomason, Butcher & Founder of Primal Supply ''The cookbook author who changed the way Americans cook Italian food'' (The New York Times), Lidia Matticchio Bastianich is the author of 15 beloved culinary guides, as well a 2019 memoir, titled My American Dream. She is also the owner and co-owner of celebrated Italian restaurants in Manhattan, Pittsburgh, and Kansas City, and she hosts the Emmy-winning Lidia's Kitchen on PBS and co-hosts Nonna Senti Che Fame...Pensaci Tu, which airs on Discovery+ in Italy. Her honors include recognition from the National Italian American Foundation, several James Beard Awards, induction into the Culinary Hall of Fame, and the American Public Television Silver Award. In Lidia's From Our Family Table to Yours, Bastianich serves up traditional recipes from her childhood alongside new favorites she makes for her children and grandchildren. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 9/28/2023)

The Presidential Distinguished Professor and Director of the Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media at the University of Pennsylvania, climatologist and geophysicist Michael E. Mann has greatly contributed to science's understanding of humanity's 1,000-year role in global warming. His many honors include the Award for Public Engagement with Science from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Climate Communication Prize from the American Geophysical Union, and in 2002 he was named by Scientific American as one of the 50 leading visionaries in science and technology. He is the author of the acclaimed books Dire Predictions, The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars, and The Madhouse Effect. In Our Fragile Moment, Mann seeks to inform readers of the historically unique ecological conditions that have allowed humans to thrive and to embolden them to stave off the threat the climate crisis poses to human existence. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 9/27/2023)

In conversation with Sheila Murnaghan, chair of the classics department at the University of Pennsylvania ''A cultural landmark'' (The Guardian), Emily Wilson's 2017 translation of The Odyssey was hailed for its fresh and unpretentious rendition of the classical poem in modern parlance. A professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Wilson has also published translations of the works of Sophocles, Euripides, and Seneca, and is the author of books on the death of Socrates and the life of Seneca. She is the recipient of fellowships from the American Academy in Rome, the MacArthur Foundation, and the Guggenheim Foundation. In her latest work, Wilson presents a grounded yet galloping translation of The Iliad, Homer's other epic work and one of history's most revered war poems. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 9/26/2023)

In conversation with Marc Lamont Hill Bettina L. Love is the author of the bestseller We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom, winner of the 2020 Society of Professors of Education Outstanding Book Award. The William F. Russell Professor at Columbia University's Teachers College, she is a co-founder of the Abolitionist Teaching Network and a founding member of the task force that launched the program In Her Hands, an initiative that has distributed funds to Black women in Georgia and abolitionists across the country. She is one of the Kennedy Center's 2022 Next 50 Leaders and is a sought-after public speaker on such varied topics as anti-racism, queer youth, and educational reparations. In Punished for Dreaming, Love presents an unflinching account of the result of 40 years of racist public school policy on Black lives. The Steve Charles Chair in Media, Cities and Solutions at Temple University, Marc Lamont Hill is the host of BET News and the Coffee and Books podcast. The recipient of honors from the National Association of Black Journalists, GLAAD, and the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, he is the author of six books, including Beats, Rhymes, and Classroom Life; Nobody: Casualties of America's War on the Vulnerable, from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond; and Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 9/25/2023)

Pine Tree Foundation Endowed Lecture In conversation with Maiken Scott ''A historian of prodigious and varied gifts'' (San Francisco Chronicle), Simon Schama is the author of 20 books, including The Embarrassment of Riches; Scribble, Scribble, Scribble; and the National Book Critics Circle Award winner Rough Crossings, an account of the enslaved people who escaped to fight for the British during the American Revolutionary War. A professor of art history and history at Columbia University, he has written and presented more than 40 documentaries for the BBC, PBS, and The History Channel, including the seminal 15-part series A History of Britain, the Emmy-winning Power of Art, and The Story of the Jews, based on his two-volume millennia-spanning work. Schama is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and in 2018, he was knighted for his contributions to historical scholarship. In Foreign Bodies, he offers a vigorous cultural history of the complex relationship between pandemics and the crusaders who battle them. Maiken Scott is the host and executive producer of WHYY's The Pulse - a weekly, national health and science radio show and podcast that explores the people and places at the heart of health and science. Since its launch in December 2013, The Pulse has crafted a unique, ''ground-level'' approach to telling compelling stories and breaking down complicated issues. The show airs on more than 100 public radio stations across the country and its podcast is presented by NPR Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 9/20/2023)

In conversation with novelist and musician Wesley Stace Legendary English song lyricist Bernie Taupin has worked with Elton John since 1967 and has written the lyrics for most of the iconic performer's hits, including ''Rocket Man,'' ''Bennie and the Jets,'' ''Tiny Dancer,'' ''Your Song,'' ''I'm Still Standing,'' and far too many others to list. One of the most popular, long-lasting, and critically acclaimed partnerships in music history, Taupin and John are the recipients of a lifetime achievement Grammy, an Academy Award, and the Johnny Mercer Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame, among many other accolades. Taupin has also written songs for a wide variety of other artists, including Rod Stewart, Alice Cooper, and Heart. In 2022 he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to music, and this year he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. A memoir about life, rock 'n' roll, and collaboration, Scattershot tells the inside story of the famously private writer's art, struggles, and friendships. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 9/14/2023)

Jennifer Weiner is the no. 1 New York Times bestselling author of more than a dozen ''funny, fanciful, extremely poignant'' (The Boston Globe) novels, including That Summer, Mrs. Everything, Who Do You Love, All Fall Down, In Her Shoes, and Good in Bed. She is also the writer of two young adult books about a tiny Bigfoot and an essay collection titled Hungry Heart, an intimate and honest meditation on yearning, fulfillment, and her many identities. Her other work has been published in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, among other publications. In The Breakaway, Weiner tells the story of Abby Stern, a woman who finds empowerment during a group bike trip from New York City to Niagara Falls. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 8/30/2023)

Named one of the most anticipated books of the year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Newsweek, Jonathan Eig's King, an ''intimate, multidimensional biography'' (The Boston Globe) of Martin Luther King Jr., offers a fresh and sweeping portrait of the civil rights icon. Eig's other acclaimed biographies include Ali: A Life, winner of the PEN America Literary Award; the bestseller Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig, winner of the Casey Award; and Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season. His book The Birth of the Pill will soon be staged as a play by Chicago's Timeline Theatre. A former senior writer for The Wall Street Journal, he has appeared on the Today show, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and NPR's Fresh Air. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 8/29/2023)

In conversation with award-winning journalist and broadcaster Tracey Matisak A celebrated veteran of film, television, and the Broadway stage, Sheryl Lee Ralph won an Emmy Award, a Critic's Choice Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for her comedic supporting role on ABC's Abbott Elementary. In a career that spans almost 45 years, she also originated the role of Deena Jones in Dreamgirls, for which she earned a Tony Award; starred in the shows It's a Living, New Attitude, and Moesha, for which she was voted one of TV's Favorite Moms; and starred in dramatic and comedic films with some of Hollywood's biggest stars, including Eddie Murphy, Whoopie Goldberg, Danny Glover, and Robert De Niro. In Diva 2.0, Ralph offers a guide to elevating your journey to new heights through her personal recollections of the highs and lows of stardom, and she reveals the lessons of family love that have helped her soar. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 8/22/2023)

James McBride is the author of the National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird, ''a brilliant romp of a novel'' (The New York Times Book Review) in which a young boy born into slavery joins abolitionist John Brown's doomed crusade. He is also the author of the bestselling memoir The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother and the biography Kill 'Em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul. His other fiction includes the novels Miracle at St. Anna, Song Yet Sung, and Deacon King Kong, which was an Oprah's Book Club pick. Also an award-winning composer, screenwriter, journalist, and saxophonist, he is a distinguished writer in residence at New York University and received the National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama in 2016. In The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, McBride tells a story of small town secrets, cultural collisions, and the sustaining love of community-in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 8/10/2023)

R. Eric Thomas is the author of the Lambda Literary Award finalist Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul America, a bestselling essay collection that tackles just what it means to be an ''other'' in the maelstrom of modern America. For four years he wrote Elle's ''Eric Reads the News,'' a daily humor column that lambasted pop culture, celebrity, and politics. Also a renowned television writer and playwright, he has garnered many awards, including the Barrymore Award and the Dramatists Guild Lanford Wilson Award. Thomas is the longtime host of The Moth StorySlams in Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, and his writing has been published in The New York Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer, among other periodicals. In his latest essay collection, he reflects on whether or not we really can go home again as he makes a new life in his hometown of Baltimore. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 8/8/2023)

In conversation with award-winning journalist and broadcaster Tracey Matisak In American Whitelash, Wesley Lowery examines the cyclical pattern of violence that marks each watershed moment of racial progress in this country, most recently evidenced by the resurgence of white supremacist movements during and following Barack Obama's 2008 presidential election. Formerly The Washington Post's lead journalist in Ferguson, Missouri, during the aftermath of the murder of African American teenager Michael Brown, Lowery, together with his team, won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting for the paper's coverage of police shootings. He was a 2019 Pulitzer Prize finalist for his project ''Murder with Impunity,'' and he is currently a contributing editor at The Marshall Project and a journalist-in-residence at the CUNY Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. His New York Times bestseller, They Can't Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America's Racial Justice Movement won the Christopher Isherwood Prize for autobiographical prose by the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 7/20/2023)

Barbara Butcher is the former chief of staff and director of the Forensic Sciences Training Program at the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner (OCME). Only the second woman hired as a death investigator in Manhattan (and the first to last more than three months), during her 23 years there she investigated more than 5,500 death scenes. She also created and directed the federally funded Forensic Sciences Training Program at OCME, taught at the New York University School of Medicine and New York Medical College, consulted for governmental agencies around the world, and spoken at disaster planning conferences across the United States. In What the Dead Know, Butcher delves into the journey that led to her unlikely career, revealing some surprisingly useful life lessons and stories about some of New York's most notorious crime scenes. ''Impossible to outwit'' (Entertainment Weekly), Kate White is the New York Times bestselling author of the psychological thrillers The Second Husband, The Fiancée, and The Secrets You Keep. Her other works include the Bailey Weggins mystery series and numerous popular career advice books for women. White formerly served as editor-in-chief of five major magazines, including a 14-year stint at Cosmopolitan. In Between Two Strangers, she tells the twisting tale of a woman who receives a large inheritance from a man she'd only met once before. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 7/18/2023)

Join us at the Community College of Philadelphia for a celebration to conclude the One Book, One Philadelphia 2023 season. This event will feature an in-person conversation between Charles Yu and Dr. Michelle Myers, associate professor of English at the Community College of Philadelphia and one half of the poetry duo Yellow Rage. Note: portions of the introduction and the Q&A were deleted due to challenges with the recording. (recorded 6/22/2023)

In conversation with Jim Gardner Jake Tapper is the Washington, D.C., anchor and chief Washington correspondent for CNN, where he hosts the weekday program The Lead with Jake Tapper and the Sunday morning show State of the Union. He is the former White House correspondent for ABC News and contributor to Good Morning America, Nightline, and World News with Diane Sawyer. His many honors include an unprecedented three Merriman Smith Awards for presidential coverage. Tapper is the author of The Outpost, the tragic but inspiring true story of a small U.S. military group besieged by the Taliban. Tapper is also the author of The Hellfire Club and The Devil May Dance, political thrillers in which Charlie and Margaret Marder, a husband-and-wife team of unlikely political stars, unravel conspiracies in the halls of power of a bygone Washington, D.C. The third installment in this series, All the Demons Are Here finds Charlie and Margaret navigating some of the wildest and most dangerous events of the 1970s United States. Jim Gardner served for 45 years as the weekday news anchor for Philadelphia's 6ABC Action News. He covered every presidential convention since 1980 and reported from the scene of breaking news around the globe. A member of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia Hall of Fame, he is the recipient of the John Cardinal Foley Award for Excellence in Communication. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 7/11/2023)

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6abc Action News morning edition Central Park birder Christian Cooper is the host and consulting producer on the National Geographic channel's Extraordinary Birder and is on the board of directors of the New York City Audubon Society. Also a groundbreaking comics writer, he introduced the first openly lesbian character for Marvel, conceived the first gay male character in the Star Trek universe via the Starfleet Academy comics series, and created Queer Nation: The Online Gay Comic. In Better Living Through Birding, Cooper tells the story of his life leading up to the morning in May 2020 when he was engaged in the birdwatching ritual that had been a part of his life since he was a child-and what might have been a routine encounter with a dog walker exploded age-old racial tensions. Cooper's viral video of the incident would shock the nation. Also part travelogue and primer on the art of birding, the book follows his worldwide avian adventures, explores his unique career, and offers insights into the ways his long history of looking up have prepared him to be a gay, Black man in contemporary America. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 6/27/2023)

In conversation with Marc Lamont Hill Referred to by acclaimed author and academic Michael Eric Dyson as ''one of the most important works of history to come across my desk in a long time,'' Blair LM Kelley's Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class is an exhaustive coast-to-coast narrative that seeks to reclaim Black workers' central contribution to workers' rights throughout U.S. history. Kelley is also the author of Right to Ride: Streetcar Boycotts and African American Citizenship, winner of the Letitia Woods Brown Best Book Award from the Association of Black Women Historians. The director of the Center for the Study of the American South and co-director of the Southern Futures initiative at the University of North Carolina, she has contributed work to such publications as The New York Times and The Washington Post, and she has appeared on MSNBC's All In and NPR's Here and Now, among other media outlets. The Steve Charles Chair in Media, Cities and Solutions at Temple University, Marc Lamont Hill is the host of BET News and the Coffee and Books podcast. The recipient of honors from the National Association of Black Journalists, GLAAD, and the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, he is the author of six books, including Beats, Rhymes, and Classroom Life; Nobody: Casualties of America's War on the Vulnerable, from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond; and Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics. (recorded 6/26/2023)

A marine scientist, ocean explorer, conservation policy specialist, and submarine pilot, David E. Guggenheim, Ph.D. is the founder and president of Ocean Doctor, a nonprofit organization committed to advancing the conservation of the world's oceans. He also teaches ocean stewardship and sustainability at Johns Hopkins University; has spoken at an array of conferences, schools, and government hearings; and has appeared on numerous media outlets, including 60 Minutes, CNN, MSNBC, PBS Newshour, and NPR. Also an award-winning photographer, Guggenheim was inducted into the Explorer's Club as a national fellow, sat as board chair of the Great Whale Conservancy, and served as vice president at The Ocean Conservancy. Though the last 60 years have witnessed the worst decline in ocean health in human history, The Remarkable Reefs of Cuba offers a surprisingly optimistic vision for marine recovery by exploring the resilience of Cuba's coral reefs. (recorded 6/20/2023)

In conversation with Alexandra Auder, author of Don't Call Me Home: A Memoir Publishing industry veteran Christine Pride has held a variety of editorial positions at Doubleday, Simon & Schuster, and Crown, among other publishing companies. In this capacity she has championed and edited numerous New York Times bestselling memoirs and inspirational stories. Also a freelance editorial consultant, teacher, and coach, Pride writes the ''Race Matters'' column for the popular blog Cup of Jo. A journalist, editor, and podcast host, Jo Piazza is also the author of seven novels, including Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win, If Nuns Ruled the World, and Fitness Junkie. Her other writing has been widely published in a variety of places, including The Wall Street Journal, Marie Claire, and Slate. She formerly served as a managing editor for Yahoo! Travel, the executive news director for the print and digital editions of In Touch Weekly, and the senior digital editor at Current TV. Pride and Piazza's first collaborative novel and a Good Morning America Book Club pick, We Are Not Like Them told the dual-perspective story of two lifelong friends, one Black and one white, whose bond is forever changed when the latter's police officer husband is involved in the shooting of an unarmed Black teenager. In their follow-up novel, a Black woman, finds an abandoned white baby, setting up collisions with her own past and the child's mother. Alexandra Auder is a writer and actor and the author of Don't Call Me Home: A Memoir. Born in New York City to mother Viva, a Warhol superstar, and father Michel Auder, an award-winning filmmaker who directed Chelsea Girls with Andy Warhol. Alexandra has been a featured character in HBO's High Maintenance and has acted in the films of Wim Wenders and Jodie Foster, among others. She resides in Philadelphia with her two children and husband, filmmaker Nick Nehez, with whom she co-produces and collaborates. (recorded 6/15/2023)

Geraldine Brooks won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for her novel March, an ''honorable, elegant, and true'' (The Wall Street Journal) retelling of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women from the point of view of the titular family's absent patriarch. Her other internationally bestselling works of fiction and nonfiction include Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women, Caleb's Crossing, Foreign Correspondence, The Secret Chord, and People of the Book. A former war correspondent for The Wall Street Journal who was stationed in the Middle East, Africa, and the Balkans, Brooks was awarded the 2010 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Lifetime Achievement and in 2016 she was named an Officer of the Order of Australia. Based on the incredible true story of a champion thoroughbred horse named Lexington, her latest novel finds three disparate generations of people tied together through both the horse and United States' ongoing reckoning with racism. (recorded 6/14/2023)