Adriana Trigiani's You Are What You Read

We are kicking off 2025 with leading physician, scientist, speaker, and author Dr. Will Li with his book, EAT TO BEAT YOUR DIET, this week on You Are What You Read. Are you looking for better ways to monitor your health in the new year? Are you experimenting with new recipes to supplement your diet? Dr. Will Li has the tips and tricks for you, and he lays it all out in this episode. Dr. Li is best known for leading the Angiogenesis Foundation. His groundbreaking work has impacted more than seventy diseases, including cancer, diabetes, blindness, heart disease, and obesity. We hope you take away Dr. Li's healthful advice from this conversation and check out his other book, EAT TO BEAT DISEASE. 

This New Years Eve we are spotlighting some stand-out titles of 2024 with our dear friend and executive editor of Riverhead Books, Jake Morrissey…and Jake knows books. Jake publishes both fiction and nonfiction in history, science, narrative nonfiction, memoir, and literary and historical fiction. He works with a wide range of bestselling and award-winning authors, including Daniel H. Pink, Anne Lamott, James McBride, Priya Parker, Michele Harper, and Marlon James, with whom he cohosts the podcast Marlon & Jake Read Dead People.

Books mentioned in this episode: 

Jake's Books:

ENTITLEMENT Rumaan Alam

COLORED TELEVISION Danzy Senna

SOMEHOW Anne Lamott

ALL FOURS Miranda July

THE LIFE IMPOSSIBLE The Matt Haig

WHY WE LOVE FOOTBALL by Joe Posnanski

THE HEAVEN AND EARTH GROCERY STORE by James McBride

WE SOLVE MURDERS Richard Osman

FIRST LIE WINS by Ashley Elston

GOOD ENERGY by Casey Means

SONNY BOY by Al Pacino

COUNTDOWN 1960 by Chris Wallace

JOLLY OLD SANTA CLAUS

Adriana's Books: 

THE STORY OF SILENT NIGHT

I CAPTURE THE CASTLE by Dodie Smith

THE WAY YOU WEAR YOUR HAT by Bill Zehme

REPRIEVE by Agnes DeMille

THE RODGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN STORY by Stanley Green

WHAT A FOOL BELIEVES by Michael McDonald

WALK THROUGH FIRE by Sheila Johnson

THE HISTORY OF THE SNOWMAN by Bob Eckstein

GIANT LOVE by Julie Gilbert

MORNINGSIDE by Aran Shetterly

WHEN WOMEN RAN FIFTH AVENUE by Julie Satow

SICILIAN AVENGERS (books one and two) by Stephen Riggio

TO DIE FOR by David Baldacci

THE WOMEN by Kristin Hannah

THE STORY OF THE FOREST by Linda Grant

THE QUEEN OF STEEPLECHASE PARK by David Ciminello

ROOTS, WINGS AND RECIPES by The Origin Project students

ITALIAN SNACKING by Anna Francese Gass

On this week’s episode of YOU ARE WHAT YOU READ, we are joined by special guest Poppy Harlow with her adorable Christmas story, THE BIGGEST LITTLE BOY, illustrated by Ramona Kaulitzki. In the spirit of the holiday season, we wanted to bring you a conversation for the kids too! Poppy Harlow is the former co-anchor of CNN This Morning and also known for her reporting on Forbes.com. Poppy has been nominated for multiple Emmy awards throughout her career. She often reports from the field during breaking news. She was sent to cover the 2015 Paris terror attacks and anchored from the ground there for two weeks. Poppy also anchored extensive coverage of the Boston marathon bombings. Poppy’s proudest role, however, is to be the mother of her daughter Sienna and son Luca who inspired her to write this book.

On this week’s episode of You Are What You Read, we are remembering a dear friend who passed recently, beloved nun Sister Bernadette Kenny. Sister Bernie grew up in Boston and entered the order of the Medical Missionaries of Mary in 1957. For fifteen years, Sister Bernie traveled from Ireland to Tanzania as a midwife, and then moved to Southwest Virginia in 1978 by request of the Richmond Diocese. In 1982, Sister Bernie founded the Health Wagon, a single mobile unit, traveling through small towns to community locations and even providing care in families’ backyards to the medically underserved populations of Southwest Virginia. From preventative care, women’s health, and chronic disease management (the list goes on), to parenting classes, economic health, and even technical education, the Health Wagon has become an invaluable lifesaving resource across the five main counties it serves, and beyond. In 2019, Sister Bernie co-wrote "Better for Being with You: A Philosophy of Care" with Tauna Gulley who worked alongside Sister Bernie in Clinchco, Virginia. In the book, Sister Bernie and Tauna recount three decades of health care work in Southwest Virginia. The great Father John Rausch once said if you want to meet a modern-day saint, have a conversation with Sister Bernie Kenny. We hope you enjoy this conversation with her. 

On this week’s episode, we are delighted to have award-winning writer and New Yorker cartoonist Bob Eckstein with us. Bob’s illustrations are iconic, immediately recognizable and always hilarious. His work has been exhibited in the Cartoon Art Museum of San Francisco, the Smithsonian Institution, The Cartoon Museum of London, among many others. His work has also appeared in MAD, McSweeney’s, National Lampoon, The New York Times, Reader’s Digest, SPY, Wall St. Journal and publications worldwide. He has taught at the School of Visual Arts, New York University, Pratt Institute and Yonsei University in South Korea. Bob has worked on over 50 books as either a writer or illustrator or both. A few of his titles include The History of the Snowman, The Complete Book of Cat Names, Footnotes from the World’s Greatest Bookstores, and Footnotes from the Most Fascinating Museums, which we will be discussing at The Bookmark Shoppe in Brooklyn, New York on Wednesday, December 18th at 7pm. 

Bestselling novelist and award-winning journalist Jennifer Egan joins us on this week’s episode of You Are What You Read. You know Jennifer's work: Manhattan Beach, A Visit from the Goon Squad, Candy House, and more. A winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, Jennifer’s books are the gold standard. It’s no wonder they have also been included in the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century and among President Barack Obama’s favorite reads. Jennifer’s writing also appears in The New Yorker and The New York Times. In this conversation, we get to know Jennifer beyond the page and the crucial steps she took to become a writer- her gap year between high school and college thinking she would be an archeologist, her career as a model, her time spent as a temp in New York City…and her many stories in between. 

On this week’s episode of You Are What You Read, we are joined by one of the most important and interesting visionaries in media, Josh Sapan. Josh was CEO of AMC Networks for 25 years during which he took the company from a classic movie channel to one of today’s leading entertainment destinations featuring Emmy and Golden Globe-winning shows… Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, The Walking Dead, Portlandia, The Night Manager and Top of the Lake. Under Josh’s leadership, he also owned and operated the popular and award-winning brands: IFC, Sundance Channel, WE tv, and IFC Films, helping to popularize independent cinema. Josh now leads Sapan Studio, boutique film, television and media investment company, in partnership with IFC Films. Josh’s books include CABLE TV, THE BIG PICTURE: AMERICA IN PANORAMA, and THE THIRD ACT: REINVENTING YOUR NEXT CHAPTER, which explores the lives of extraordinary people—including Gloria Steinem, Rep.James Clyburn, Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno, Robert Redford, Norman Lear and Alan Alda—and their accomplishments and discoveries in aging.

Beloved children's book author, Kate DiCamillo, joins us on this week's episode of You Are What You Read with her latest New York Times bestseller, The Hotel Balzaar. Kate is the author of Because of Winn-Dixie (a Newbery Honor book), The Tiger Rising (a National Book Award finalist), and The Tale of Despereaux (a Newbery Medal Winner). She recently completed a series of early chapter books about a pig named Mercy Watson. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane was the winner of the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award. In this conversation, we get to know Kate, revisit her childhood filled with books, and examine her process developing some of the greatest characters of our time. 

On this week’s episode of You Are What You Read, we are in conversation with the great American poet Billy Collins with his all-new book of poetry, Water, Water. Billy served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003 and as New York State Poet from 2004 to 2006. In 2016, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Billy is a former distinguished Professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York. 

We'd like to thank our sponsor, Book of the Month. 

Head over to bookofthemonth.com and use Promo Code ADRI to get your first book for just $9.99.

Thank you for listening, and thank you for reading.

Poet, educator, Emmy-winning producer and #1 New York Times bestselling author of 41 books, Kwame Alexander, joins us this week on You Are What You Read for a conversation about his brilliant children’s book, An American Story. Kwame’s titles include Becoming Muhammad Ali (which he co-authored with James Patterson), Rebound, (which was shortlisted for the prestigious UK Carnegie Medal), and The Undefeated (a National Book Award nominee, recipient of the Newbery Honor, and a Caldecott Medal-winning picture book illustrated by Kadir Nelson). Kwame is also the Emmy Award- winning Executive Producer, Showrunner, and Writer of The Crossover TV series, based on his Newbery-Medal winning novel of the same name.

We'd like to thank our sponsor, Book of the Month. 

Head over to bookofthemonth.com and use Promo Code ADRI to get your first book for just $9.99.

Thank you for listening, and thank you for reading.