Many of us become interested in our family’s history later in life, but the author of the celebrated memoir The Mighty Franks was drawing family trees before he was 14. Who they were shapes who we are. A conversation at KGB’s Red Room. Music from Lauren Lee. Produced with Lori Schwarz. Continue reading »
Category Archives: Nonfiction
Episode 233: Anthony Haden-Guest
Admired for his astute observations of the upper classes and the art world, he is loath to write about, let alone revisit, scenes of his own past: “I don’t want to see a bunch of young people running around doing what I used to do.” With music from the suspiciously youthful Vanisha Gould and the … Continue reading »
Episode 223: Anna Quindlen
A novelist and Pulitzer-winning columnist, when she was in college she babysat Maggie Haberman, who grew up to be a terrific political reporter. A torch is passed, a head is spinning: mine. Plus music from the splendid quartet Ethel; some other part of my body is awhirl. PERSON: Charles Dickens PLACE: 229 West 43 … Continue reading »
Episode 222: Harriet Washington
Decades ago she was aiming for med school until she read the college catalogs. “Some of them were polite and said, ‘Not accepting negro students at this time,’” she recalls. “I guess come back in twenty years.” I’d have plunged into rage and despair; she became a first-rate science writer. A conversation at Columbia … Continue reading »
Episode 217: Edmund White
Much admired for his his autobiographical novels, including A Boy’s Own Story, and his work on French literature and culture, he is unashamed of his youthful craving for fame, noting: “If you say it in French, ‘gloire,’ it sounds better.” Well, sure: what doesn’t? A conversation at La Maison Française with music from Rich Jenkins. PERSON: … Continue reading »
Episode 192: Miriam Horn
Observe the world with “the precision of a poet and the imagination of a scientist,” urges the writer and environmental advocate Miriam Horn, citing Nabokov. She is describing not just how to see but how to be. Her other philosophical advice: live like the Ponderosa pine. Is this metaphor or pantheism? A conversation at the … Continue reading »
Episode 165: Ta-Nehisi Coates & Sonia Sanchez
Poet Sonia Sanchez and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates each love Howard University, but it’s a complicated relationship. “Howard didn’t really want me to teach there,” she says. And for him: “I was never a great student at Howard University, but I was a great student of Howard University.” Love: it’s never simple. Two writers, two … Continue reading »
Episode 164: Gish Jen
Born in America, the daughter of immigrants, writer Gish Jen recalls that, “When we were growing up, people would often say: your father is very Chinese.” Not just a little Chinese – very Chinese. What did they mean by that? She answers astutely, with reference to her father’s unlikely memoir, the Tianamen Square tank … Continue reading »
Episode 160: Stephen Dubner
Before Freakonomics, before he set out as a journalist, Stephen Dubner abandoned a promising career as a musician because, “I didn’t want to be doing something that I felt required adoration to give me validation.” But surely every writer wants readers who value his work, so what’s the difference? An artist’s relationship with his … Continue reading »
Episode 145: Patricia Marx
We – OK, I – look askance at those who claim to need an emotional-support animal to board an airplane, but we don’t mock those who take Prozac. What’s the difference? Patricia Marx, a staff writer at the New Yorker who has travelled with a support pig (research, not therapy), took up this question … Continue reading »
Episode 144: Maria Popova
Her blog “Brain Pickings” ranges across the past and present, the arts and sciences, steering her cohort to unexpected delights. In our conversation at the Brooklyn Historical Society, she talked about a nineteenth century astronomer, a twentieth century elm tree, and a twenty-first century blight: people who walk down the street staring at their devices. … Continue reading »
Episode 137: Maziar Bahari
When Iranian interrogators accuse fashion models of being part of a cabal led by Kim Kardashian, do they believe their own loony charge? Journalist Maziar Bahari thinks they might. We talk about the effects of official propaganda, the plight of Iran’s Baha’i community, and his own imprisonment – all more amusing than you’d expect in the hands … Continue reading »