Biographers International Organization

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Biographers International Organization episodes

October 16 Podcast #271 – Sam Tanenhaus
Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America, published by Random House in June 2025, is the latest book by this best-selling and award-winning author of books on American politics and the media. Tanenhaus is the former editor-in-chief of The New York Times Book Review, and he has lectured at Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, and Cornell as well as at the George W. Bush White House and the Clinton, Kennedy, and Johnson Presidential libraries. His featured articles have appeared in The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Time, and Vanity Fair, along with more than two dozen other national and international publications. Tanenhaus currently serves as a contributing writer to The Washington Post, and he is a distinguished Fellow of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. Sam Tanenhaus was interviewed during BIO’s May 2026 annual conference in New York City by BIO member and podcast producer Jenny Skoog Mondesir.

35 min
October 09 Podcast #270 – April F. Masten

Diamond and Juba: The Raucous World of 19th-Century Challenge Dancing is this author’s dual biography of Irish American John Diamond and African American William Henry Lane (nicknamed Juba). Published by the University of Illinois Press in December 2025, this biography explores the lives of these two men who were internationally famous in the 1800s as rival champions in the art and sport of challenge dancing. An American history professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Masten also authored Art Work: Women Artists and Democracy in Mid-Nineteenth Century New York, along with essays on Jacksonian-era painter Nelly Martin Spencer, the pitfalls of writing interdisciplinary history, and the joys of teaching history through dance. April F. Masten was interviewed during BIO’s May 2026 annual conference in New York City by BIO member and podcast producer Jenny Skoog Mondesir.
34 min
October 02 Podcast #269 – Richard Kopley
Photo: David Shopper
Edgar Allan Poe: A Life is the latest book by this distinguished Penn State DuBois professor emeritus and author. Published in March 2025 by the University of Virginia Press, it won the Patrick F. Quinn Award for outstanding monograph, offered by the Poe Society, and was nominated for a 2025 Edgar Award offered by the Mystery Writers of America. Kopley also wrote The Thread of the Scarlett Letter: A Study in Hawthorne’s Transformation; Edgar Allan Poe and the Dupin Mysteries; and The Formal Center in Literature: Explorations from Poe to the Present. Richard Kopley was interviewed during BIO’s May 2026 annual conference in New York City by BIO member and podcast producer Jenny Skoog Mondesir.
26 min
September 25 Podcast #268 – Susannah Cahalan
The Acid Queen: The Psychedelic Life and Time and Counterculture Rebellion of Rosemary Woodruff Leary is the latest book by this New York Times bestselling author, journalist, and public speaker. It was published by Viking in April 2025. Cahalan’s first book, Brain on Fire, sold over a million copies, was translated into more than twenty languages, and was made into a Netflix movie. Her second book, The Great Pretender, was named a best book of 2020 by Time, The Guardian and The Sunday Times, and it was shortlisted for the Royal Society’s 2020 Science Book Prize. Her advocacy work concerning brain disorders and mental health awareness has earned her speaking engagements around the world, and she received the American Brain Foundation’s Ambassador Award for this work. Susannah Cahalan was interviewed at BIO’s 2026 conference in New York City by fellow biographer and BIO member Sonja Williams.

34 min
September 18 Podcast #267 – T.J. Stiles, Part II

This celebrated author received the Biographers International Organization’s 2026 BIO Award—an annual and prestigious recognition of individuals who have made significant contributions to the art and craft of biography. Stiles’ Custer’s Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for History, the Spur Award for Best Western Biography, and the William H. Seward Award for Excellence in Civil War Biography. It was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Biography, the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography, the Guggenheim-Lehrman Prize in Military History, and the California Book Award. He also wrote The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt, winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the 2009 National Book Award for Nonfiction, and Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War, winner of the 2003 Ambassador Book Award. T.J. Stiles is currently working on a biography of Theodore Roosevelt, and this is the conclusion of a two-part conversation at BIO’s 2026 conference in New York City with fellow biographer and BIO member John A. Farrell.

34 min
September 11 Podcast #266 – T.J. Stiles, Part I
This celebrated author received the Biographers International Organization’s 2026 BIO Award – an annual and prestigious recognition of individuals who have made significant contributions to the art and craft of biography. Stiles’ Custer’s Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for History, the Spur Award for Best Western Biography, and the William H. Seward Award for Excellence in Civil War Biography. It was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Biography, the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography, the Guggenheim-Lehrman Prize in Military History, and the California Book Award. He also wrote The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt, winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the 2009 National Book Award for Nonfiction, and Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War, winner of the 2003 Ambassador Book Award. T.J. Stiles is currently working on a biography of Theodore Roosevelt, and this is the first of a two-part conversation at BIO’s 2026 conference in New York City with fellow biographer and BIO member John A. Farrell.

35 min
June 26 Podcast #265 – Victoria Johnson
Photo by Shelley Thomas
Glorious Country: How the Artist Frederic Church Brought the World to America and America to the World is the latest book by this author and professor of urban policy and planning at Hunter College in New York City. Johnson’s biography of Church, a highly regarded 19th-century painter and landscape artist, was published by Scribner in May 2026. Johnson also authored American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic, which was a finalist for the National Book Award for Nonfiction, the Pulitzer Prize for History, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Biography. Additionally, the book was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and was shortlisted for the Cundill History Prize. Fellow biographer and BIO member Natalie Dykstra interviewed Victoria Johnson.
BIO Podcast is going on a summer break! We’ll return with new episodes in September. Catch up on past podcast episodes here.
28 min
June 19 Podcast #264 – Andy Beta
Photo by Natalie Keyssar
Andy Beta is an award-winning arts and music writer. His newest book, Cosmic Music: The Life, Art, and Transcendence of Alice Coltrane, was published in March by Da Capo. His writing on rock, jazz, experimental, and electronic music has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Texas Monthly, NPR, We Jazz magazine, and many more. Andy Beta was interviewed by BIO member and podcast producer Karolyn van Putten.
33 min
June 12 Podcast #263 – Steven C. Smith
Photo by Mark A. Vieir
Hitchcock & Herrmann: The Friendship & Film Scores That Changed Cinema was written by award-winning author Steven C. Smith. He is a four-time Emmy-nominated documentary producer of over 200 documentaries about film and music. Smith has collaborated with filmmakers Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, Stephen Sondheim, John Williams, Julie Andrews, and Sidney Poitier. His biographies of composers Bernard Herrmann and Max Steiner each received the ASCAP Foundation Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award, and he has lectured at the Library of Congress, American Film Institute, Academy of Motion Pictures Museum, and other organizations. He has written for The Wall Street Journal, The Hollywood Reporter, and the Los Angeles Times. Fellow biographer and BIO member Sonja Williams interviewed Steven C. Smith.
33 min
June 05 Podcast #262 – Steven C. Bowie
Concerto for Cootie: The Life and Times of Cootie Williams, published by the University of Mississippi Press in October 2025, is this author’s exploration of the legendary trumpeter and longtime member of the Duke Ellington big band. A curator and host of the Duke Ellington-themed podcast Ellington Reflections, Bowie also has presented papers on Williams and Kenny Burrell for conferences held by the Duke Ellington Society of Sweden, and his articles have appeared in DownBeat and Jazz Improv magazines. Fellow biographer and BIO member Kevin McGruder interviewed Steven Bowie.
29 min