All Of It with Alison Stewart

A new novel takes a darkly comedic look at postpartum depression, featuring a protagonist who goes on a business trip to Reno and decides to stay, leaving her husband and new baby behind. Novelist Claire Vaye Watkins joins us to discuss her debut novel, I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness. This segment is part of our new series "Fall Book Fridays," where we highlight a new book each Friday of October. 

A new film follows two couples who meet in a church after tragedy has brought them together. One pair are the parents of a victim of a school shooting. The other are the parents of the shooter. Writer and director Fran Kranz joins us to discuss the film, “Mass,” which premieres October 8.

[REBROADCAST FROM April 8, 2021] The threat of gun violence is a concern for many Americans as businesses and schools reopen. Pulitzer Prize finalist John Woodrow Cox joins us to discuss his new book on how gun violence specifically affects children, Children Under Fire: An American Crisis.

Bruce Kasanoff, who refers to himself as a social media ghostwriter who helps entrepreneurs share what matters most, and author of the book, How to Self-Promote (without Being a Jerk), joins to talk about the importance of self-promotion, and what strategies we all can use to get better at it. Plus, we take your calls.

Facebook is having a rough week. From the largest outage in its history on Monday, to the bombshell testimony a former employee turned whistleblower gave to the Senate on Tuesday, we’ve all been thinking about our relationship with these apps as individuals, and as a society. Sarah Frier, senior technology reporter for Bloomberg News and author of, No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram, joins to unpack a whirlwind week for Facebook, and listeners call in about how the outage made them re-evaluate their relationships with the tech giant.

The civil and voting rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer was born October 6, 1917. In a new book, Dr. Keisha N. Blain, Associate Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh, captures Hamer’s life and legacy up to our current moment. Blain joins us to discuss the book, Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer’s Enduring Message to America.

For nearly two years, Dr. Anthony Fauci has been the leading voice in the fight against the Coronavirus pandemic. A new documentary, Fauci, takes us behind the scenes of how his work at the forefront of infectious diseases---both in the 90’s with AIDS and now—have deeply affected both his professional and personal life. Filmmakers John Hoffman and Janet Tobias join to discuss.

Fauci is available to stream now on Disney+. 

A new exhibit at the Jewish Museum focuses on art stolen during World War II, and the process of recovery. The exhibit features looted works by artists such as Pierre Bonnard, Marc Chagall, Paul Cézanne, Gustave Courbet, Paul Klee, Franz Marc, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Camille Pissarro, alongside new commissions. Curators Darsie Alexander and Sam Sackeroff join us to discuss the exhibit, "Afterlives: Recovering the Lost Stories of Looted Art." 

The exhibit runs at the Jewish Museum through January 9, 2022.

After two-time Pulitzer Prize nominee and playwright Sarah Ruhl successfully gives birth after a high-risk pregnancy, she thinks the worst of her health crises are behind her. Then, the left side of her face becomes paralyzed, due to Bell’s palsy. She is assured that in 90% of cases, the condition begins to improve, and eventually recovers fully. But that doesn’t happen. Ruhl chronicles her struggles with Bell’s palsy, and with post-partum depression, in her new memoir, Smile: The Story of a Face.