Next Live Show: Jonathan Brent
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Next Live Show: Jonathan Brent

If the Smithsonian is America’s attic, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, which he leads, is Jewish America’s attic: a repository of treasures, trash, and the unclassifiable. Which they astutely classify. We’ll discuss three items in its collection, tweaking our format to Thing Thing Thing.  Music: Jardena Gertler-Jaffe and Bethany Pietroniro. Monday, May 5, 6:30 YIVO … Continue reading »

Scholars

528: Emmanuel Lachaud

This historian, in CCNY’s Black Studies Department, says, “If I want to have a good writing day, I take the train an hour and fifteen minutes to somewhere I love, the quietest place in New York.” Silence and thought. Music: Birsa Chatterjee, saxophone; Raul Reyes, bass; Victor Gould, piano. (Not silent, much appreciated.) Continue reading »

Fiction

522: Ann Patchett

In addition to being a much-admired writer, she owns Parnassus Books, in Nashville. “Because I own a bookstore, I get a copy of just about every book that comes out. It’s like being pelted to death with books.” Like that Shirley Jackson story but more ironic. The author of Bel Canto, on friendship, fathers, writing, and … Continue reading »