Great Podversations

This conversation features musician, activist and poet Joan Baez, interviewed by journalist and radio host Diane Rehm. They discuss Baez’s book “When You See My Mother, Ask Her to Dance: Poems,” before a live audience at the Kentucky Author Forum. This conversation was recorded on October 21st, 2024 at the Kentucky Center in Louisville. Joan Baez has performed for more than 60 years, releasing more than 30 albums. She has been honored with both the Recording Academy and the Latin Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award, and her 1960 debut album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Amnesty International presented her with its first Joan Baez Award for Outstanding Inspirational Service in the Global Fight for Human Rights. Her first book of poetry “When You See My Mother, Ask Her to Dance: Poems,” connects fans to the real heart of who Joan Baez is as a person, as a daughter and sister, and as an artist who has inspired millions. Diane Rehm is a journalist and host of the Diane Rehm: On My Mind podcast. She also hosts a monthly book club series, Diane Rehm Book Club, at WAMU, the NPR member station in Washington, D.C. Rehm is the former NPR talk show host of The Diane Rehm Show, which was distributed nationally and internationally, with a weekly on-air audience of nearly three million.

This conversation features bestselling author Amor Towles, interviewed by New York Times Book Critic Alexandra Jacobs. They discuss Towles’ book “Table for Two: Fictions” before a live audience at the Kentucky Author Forum. This conversation was recorded on September 30, 2024, at The Kentucky Center in Louisville. Amor Towles is the author of The New York Times bestsellers “The Lincoln Highway,” “A Gentleman in Moscow,” and “Rules of Civility.” His novels have collectively sold millions of copies and have been translated into more than 35 languages. In “Table for Two,” Towles shares some of his shorter fiction: six stories based in New York City and a novella set in Golden Age Hollywood. Written with his signature wit, humor, and sophistication, “Table for Two” is another glittering addition to Towles’ canon of stylish and transporting fiction. Alexandra Jacobs is a book critic for The New York Times and the author of “Still Here: The Madcap, Nervy, Singular Life of Elaine Stritch.” She has contributed to many other publications, including The New Yorker, The New York Observer, and Entertainment Weekly.

This conversation features journalist and author Bianca Bosker, discussing her book, “Get the Picture” with writer Patrick Bringley. Bianca Bosker is The New York Times bestselling author of “Cork Dork” and a contributing writer at The Atlantic. In “Get the Picture,” Bosker throws herself into the nerve center of art, and the people who live for it: gallerists, collectors, curators, and of course artists themselves. Probing everything from cave paintings to Instagram, and the science of sight to the importance of beauty, Get the Picture examines art’s role in our culture, our economy, and our hearts. Bosker’s writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Best American Travel Writing, and has been recognized with awards from the New York Press Club, Society of Professional Journalists, and more. Patrick Bringley is the author of “All the Beauty in the World,” a memoir about his decade working as a guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was named a best book of the year by the New York Public Library, NPR, the Financial Times, Audible, and The Sunday Times (London), which selected it as the outstanding art book of 2023. Bringley has spoken at museums across the country, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the National Gallery of Art, and is adapting his book into a one-man play premiering this fall at the Charleston Literary Festival.

This conversation features renowned singer Renée Fleming, interviewed by author Richard Powers. They discuss Fleming’s book “Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness” before a live audience at the Kentucky Author Forum. This conversation was recorded on April 8, 2024 at The Kentucky Center in Louisville, Ky. Renée Fleming is one of the most acclaimed singers of our time, performing on the stages of the world’s greatest opera houses and concert halls. She is also a leading advocate for research at the intersection of arts, health, and neuroscience. Her book, “Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness” contains essays from preeminent scientists, therapists, educators, and physicians about the powerful impact of music and the arts on health and the human experience. Richard Powers is the author of 13 novels. His 2019 book, “The Overstory” was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

This conversation features best-selling author and book store owner Ann Patchett, interviewed by author and professor Kevin Wilson. They discuss Patchett’s book “Tom Lake” before a live audience at the Kentucky Author Forum. This conversation was recorded on February 12th, 2024 at the Kentucky Center in Louisville. ANN PATCHETT is the author of nine novels, four books of nonfiction and one children’s book. Patchett has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including a National Humanities Medal, England’s Women’s Prize, the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Book Sense Book of the Year, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her novel “The Dutch House” was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. In November, 2011, she opened Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee. She has since become a spokesperson for independent booksellers, championing books and bookstores. KEVIN WILSON is the author of two story collections, and four novels. His book “Nothing to See Here” was a New York Times bestseller and a “Read with Jenna” book club selection. His fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, Southern Review, One Story, A Public Space, and has appeared in Best American Short Stories 2020 and 2021, as well as The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories 2012. Wilson is an Associate Professor in the English Department at the University of the South.

This conversation features renowned lawyer and Professor of Law at Yale and Georgetown Universities, Stephen Bright, interviewed by Pulitzer Prize-winner and Yale Law Professor James Forman Jr. They discuss Bright’s book, “The Fear of Too Much Justice: Race, Poverty, and the Persistence of Inequality in the Criminal Courts” before a live audience at the Kentucky Author Forum. This conversation was recorded on November 13th, 2023 at the Kentucky Center in Louisville. Bright is a Visiting Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School and a Visiting Professor at Georgetown Law. He has tried capital cases in many states, including four capital cases before the United States Supreme Court. He previously served as president of the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta. Subjects of his litigation, teaching and writing include capital punishment, legal representation for the poor, and racial discrimination in the criminal courts. Bright has received the American Bar Association’s Thurgood Marshall Award. Social Justice activist Bryan Stevenson, in the foreword, called Bright’s new book “an urgently needed analysis of our collective failure…” James Forman Jr. is a Professor of Law at Yale Law School. Forman’s scholarship focuses on schools, police, and prisons. Forman’s first book, “Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America", was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. Forman was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. He is the son of renowned civil rights leader James Forman.

This conversation features best-selling author Jill Lepore and U.S. Congressman Jamie Raskin discussing Lepore’s book, “The Deadline: Essays,” before a live audience at the Kentucky Author Forum. This conversation was recorded on September 11th, 2023 at the Kentucky Center in Louisville. Jill Lepore is a professor of history and of law at Harvard University. She is also a staff writer at The New Yorker. Her many books include the best-selling “These Truths: A History of the United States,” was named one of Time magazine’s top ten non-fiction books of the decade. Lepore’s “The Deadline: Essays” collects forty-six of her essays that offer a prismatic portrait of Americans’ techno-utopianism, frantic fractiousness, and unprecedented yet armed aimlessness. Congressman Jamie Raskin represents Maryland’s 8th Congressional District. He serves as the Ranking Member on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. Raskin also served on the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol. He has authored several books, including the New York Times #1 best-seller, “Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy.”

This conversation features best-selling author Geraldine Brooks and former NPR journalist Jacki Lyden discussing Brooks’ book, “Horse: A Novel” before a live audience at the Kentucky Author Forum. This conversation was recorded on March 27th, 2023 at the Kentucky Center in Louisville. Geraldine Brooks grew up in Australia and became a journalist with The Sydney Morning Herald, and later with The Wall Street Journal. Brooks was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction in 2006 for her novel “March”. Many of her novels and nonfiction books have been New York Times bestsellers. Her first novel, “Year of Wonders”, is an international bestseller. It has been translated into more than 25 languages. In 2016, Brooks was named an Officer in the Order of Australia. Jacki Lyden is an award-winning former NPR host and foreign correspondent of over three decades. She is the author of the bestselling memoir “Daughter of the Queen of Sheba”, which was published in twelve countries. A frequent speaker on the topic of mental health, the American Psychiatric Association named her “Patient Advocate of the Year” in 2021. Lyden is a proud board member of the Alan Cheuse International Writers Center and Writers for Democratic Action, both groups promoting democracy through literature.

This conversation features author Maggie Haberman and CNN host Laura Coates discussing Haberman’s book, “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America” before a live audience at the Kentucky Author Forum. This conversation was recorded on January 9th, 2023 at the Kentucky Center in Louisville. New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman, wrote “Confidence Man” in 2022. Ms. Haberman joined The New York Times in 2015 and was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for reporting on the investigations into Donald Trump’s advisers and their connections to Russia. She has twice been a member of a team that was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize, in 2021 for reporting on the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus, and in 2022 for coverage related to the January 6th riot at the Capitol. Laura Coates is a CNN Host and Senior Legal Analyst who specializes in the intersection of civil rights and criminal prosecution. A former federal prosecutor, she served as Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, as well as a Trial Attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice during the Bush and Obama administrations. She is the bestselling author of “Just Pursuit: A Black Prosecutor’s Fight for Fairness.”

This conversation features author Josh Chin and New Yorker journalist Evan Osnos discussing both of their books before a live audience at the Kentucky Author Forum on September 29th, 2022 at the Kentucky Center in Louisville. Josh Chin wrote “Surveillance State: Inside China’s Quest to Launch a New Era of Social Control” with fellow Wall Street Journal writer, Liza Lin. He tells the gripping story of how China’s Communist Party is building a new kind of political control: shaping the will of the people through the sophisticated—and often brutal—harnessing of data. For more than a decade, Chin has covered politics and tech in China for The Wall Street Journal. He led an investigative team that won The Gerald Loeb Award for international reporting in 2018 for a series exposing the Chinese government’s pioneering embrace of digital surveillance. He was named a National Fellow at New America in 2020, and is a recipient of the Don Bolles Medal, awarded to investigative journalists who have exhibited courage in standing up against intimidation. Evan Osnos joined The New Yorker as a staff writer in 2008 and covers politics and foreign affairs. His book “Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China'', is based on eight years of living in Beijing. “Age of Ambition'' won the 2014 National Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Previously, Osnos worked as Beijing Bureau Chief for the Chicago Tribune, where he was part of a team that won a 2008 Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Reporting. He is a CNN contributor and a frequent guest on The Daily Show, Fresh Air, and other programs.

Author Maggie Nelson discusses her book, On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint, with writer Eula Biss. Maggie Nelson is a writer working in autobiography, art criticism, theory, feminism, history, aesthetic theory, philosophy, scholarship, and poetry. Nelson received a 2016 MacArthur Fellowship, a 2012 Creative Capital Literature Fellowship, a 2011 NEA Fellowship in Poetry, and a 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship in Nonfiction. Other honors include a 2007 Andy Warhol Foundation/Creative Capital Arts Writers Grant. Nelson has written several acclaimed books of poetry and prose, including the National Book Critics Circle Award winner The Argonauts. She currently teaches at the University of Southern California. Eula Biss is the author of four books and has been recognized with a National Book Critics Circle Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a 21st Century Award from the Chicago Public Library. Biss’ books have been translated into a dozen languages. As a 2023 National Fellow at New America, she is at work on a collection of essays about how private property has shaped our world. She currently teaches nonfiction for the Bennington Writing Seminars.

Politician and author Charles Booker discusses his book, “From the Hood to the Holler: A Story of Separate Worlds, Shared Dreams, and the Fight for America’s Future,” with writer and Professor Eddie Glaude. Charles Booker represented the 43rd District in the Kentucky House of Representatives, where he served on the economic development and workforce, judiciary, and natural resources and energy committees. A graduate of the University of Louisville and its Brandeis School of Law, Booker is a Bingham Fellow and a Bloomberg Innovation Delivery Team fellow. He is the founder of the advocacy group Hood to the Holler, which continues the work of his campaign, building bridges between previously siloed communities. Eddie S. Glaude Jr. is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor and Chair of the Department of African American Studies at Princeton University. He is a former president of the American Academy of Religion. Glaude is the author of several important books including “Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul.” Glaude is a columnist for Time magazine and an MSNBC contributor on programs like Morning Joe, and Deadline Whitehouse. He also regularly appears on Meet the Press.

Artist and author James Bridle discusses their book, Ways of Being: Animals, Plants, Machines: The Search for a Planetary Intelligence with writer and musician Claire Evans. James Bridle is an artist, technologist and philosopher whose artworks have been commissioned by galleries and institutions and exhibited worldwide, including the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Oslo Architecture Triennale, the Istanbul Design Biennial, and the Design Museum, London. Bridle’s writing has appeared in magazines and newspapers including Wired, The Atlantic, The New Statesman, The Guardian, and the Financial Times. They lecture regularly on radio, at conferences, universities, and events, including South by Southwest, the Global Art Forum, and TED. Claire Evans is a writer and musician exploring ecology, technology, and culture. She is the singer of the Grammy-nominated pop group YACHT, and co-founder of VICE’s imprint for speculative fiction, Terraform. Evans’ 2018 book, Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet, has been translated into five languages. Her writing has appeared in VICE, The Guardian, Los Angeles Review of Books, and Eye on Design, among others.

Author Geraldine Brooks discusses her book “Horse: A Novel” with journalist Gal Beckerman. Geraldine Brooks grew up in Australia and became a journalist with The Sydney Morning Herald, and later with The Wall Street Journal. Brooks was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction in 2006 for her novel “March.” Many of her novels and nonfiction books have been New York Times bestsellers. Her first novel, “Year of Wonders,” is an international bestseller, translated into more than 25 languages. In 2016, Brooks was named an Officer in the Order of Australia. Gal Beckerman is an author and the senior editor for books at The Atlantic. Before joining The Atlantic, Beckerman was an editor at The New York Times Book Review for six years. He also served as the opinion editor at the Forward newspaper and a staff editor and writer at the Columbia Journalism Review. Beckerman’s writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The New Republic, and Bookforum. His first book, “When They Come for Us We’ll Be Gone,” was chosen as a book of the year by The New Yorker and The Washington Post.

Author Keri Blakinger discusses her book, “Corrections in Ink: A Memoir” with writer Piper Kerman. Keri Blakinger is an investigative reporter based in Texas, covering criminal justice and injustice for The Marshall Project. She previously worked for the Houston Chronicle and her writing has appeared in the New York Daily News, the BBC, VICE, and The New York Times. Blakinger was a member of the Houston Chronicle's Pulitzer-finalist team in 2018, and her 2019 coverage of women's jails for The Washington Post Magazine helped earn a National Magazine Award. Piper Kerman is the author of the memoir “Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison.” The book has been adapted by Jenji Kohan into an Emmy Award-winning original series for Netflix, which ran for seven seasons. Kerman collaborates with nonprofits, and philanthropies, and serves on the board of directors of the Women’s Prison Association. She is also on the advisory boards of the PEN America Writing for Justice Fellowship, InsideOUT Writers, Healing Broken Circles, and JustLeadershipUSA.

Author Anna Quindlen and writer Amy Bloom discuss Quindlen’s book “Write for Your Life.” Anna Quindlen is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, novelist, and opinion columnist. She is the best-selling author of nine novels, including “Every Last One,” and “Still Life with Bread Crumbs.” Her memoir “Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake”, published in 2012, was a #1 New York Times bestseller. Quindlen’s book “A Short Guide to a Happy Life” has sold more than a million copies. While a columnist at The New York Times, Quindlen won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. Amy Bloom is the author of four novels and three collections of short stories. Her first book of nonfiction, “Normal: Transsexual CEOs, Crossdressing Cops and Hermaphrodites with Attitudes,” is a staple of university sociology and biology courses. Her most recent book is the widely acclaimed New York Times best-selling memoir, “In Love”. Bloom has written for magazines such as The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Vogue, Elle, The Atlantic Monthly, Slate, and Salon, and her work has been translated into fifteen languages. She is the Shapiro-Silverberg Professor of Creative Writing at Wesleyan University.

Journalist and author Moisés Naím discusses his book, “The Revenge of Power: How Autocrats Are Reinventing Politics for the 21st Century” with radio host Ari Shapiro. Moisés Naím is an internationally-syndicated columnist and best-selling author. He is the chief international columnist for El País and La Repubblica, the largest daily newspapers in Spain and Italy. His columns have been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Bloomberg Businessweek, Newsweek, Time, Le Monde, El Estadão, and Berliner Zeitung. Dr. Naím is a Distinguished Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC. He is the founder and Chairman of the Board of the Group of Fifty (G50), which brings together top-flight progressive Latin American business leaders, and is a member of the board of directors of several global companies. Ari Shapiro has been one of the hosts of All Things Considered, NPR's award-winning afternoon newsmagazine, since 2015. Shapiro has reported from above the Arctic Circle and aboard Air Force One. He has covered wars in Iraq, Ukraine, and Israel, and he has filed stories from dozens of countries and most of the 50 states. Shapiro's reporting has been consistently recognized by his peers. He has won two national Edward R. Murrow awards, and additional awards from the Columbia Journalism Review, The American Bar Association, and the American Judges Association.

This conversation features Congressman Jamie Raskin and Russian expert Dr. Fiona Hill discussing both their books before a live audience at The Kentucky Author Forum on January 24th, 2022 at The Kentucky Center in Louisville. Jamie Raskin represents Maryland’s 8th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was renamed Chair of the Oversight Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties for the 117th Congress. Representative Raskin’s moving memoir “Unthinkable,” tells the story of the forty-five days at the start of 2021 that permanently changed Raskin’s life as he confronted the painful loss of his son to suicide, lived through the violent insurrection in our nation’s Capitol, and was appointed House lead impeachment manager in the effort to hold President Trump accountable for inciting the political violence. He is a former constitutional law professor. Fiona Hill is recognizable to many Americans as the key impeachment witness during the U.S. House of Representatives Trump-Ukraine impeachment inquiry, and its investigation into charges of presidential misconduct. Growing up in a working-class town in northeast England, she rose to become Senior Director of European and Russian Affairs at the U. S. National Security Council. She served three presidents: two Republicans and one Democrat. Her poignant memoir “There Is Nothing for You Here” reveals how declining opportunity has set America on the grim path of modern Russia. Dr. Hill is a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy program at The Brookings Institution

Author Roya Hakakian discusses her book "A Beginner’s Guide to America: For the Immigrant and the Curious” with journalist Jen Balderama. Roya Hakakian is the author of three books in English and has published two collections of poetry in Persian. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and on NPR’s All Things Considered. Hakakian has collaborated on journalistic programming for network television, including 60 Minutes. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and served on the editorial board of World Affairs. Since 2015, she has taught at THREAD, a writing workshop at Yale, and is a fellow at the Davenport College at Yale. Jen Balderama is an editor in the Opinions section of The Washington Post, where she edits columns and essays by staff and contributing writers. Previously, she was an editor at The New York Times Book Review and on the national desk of The Times. For several years Balderama worked as a freelance editor of book-length nonfiction, novels, and essays. She was also a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, where she studied literary and cultural criticism. Her writing has appeared in Slate, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other publications.

Author and professor Amy Zegart discusses her book “Spies, Lies, and Algorithms” with journalist Scott Shane. Amy Zegart is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, as well as a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute of International Studies at Stanford University. She is a contributing writer to The Atlantic and has written five previous books, including co-authoring with Condoleezza Rice “Political Risk: How Businesses and Organizations Can Anticipate Global Insecurity,” based on their popular Stanford MBA course. Zegart specializes in U.S. intelligence, emerging technologies, national security, grand strategy, and global political risk management. Scott Shane is a journalist and author who spent 15 years covering national security and other subjects for The New York Times, where he won the Pulitzer Prize with Times colleagues in 2017 and in 2018 for stories on Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. His most recent book is “Objective Troy: A Terrorist, A President, and the Rise of the Drone.” Shane has written on interrogation and torture, terrorism and targeted killing, WikiLeaks and secrecy, the National Security Agency and many other topics. He reported for 21 years for The Baltimore Sun and is a former Moscow correspondent whose first book, “Dismantling Utopia,” is a firsthand account of the Soviet Union’s collapse.