Biographers International Organization

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Biographers International Organization episodes

January 09 Podcast #241 – Ron Chernow, Part I
Mark Twain, published in May 2025 by Penguin Press, is this celebrated, multiple award-winning biographer’s latest book. Chernow is the recipient of the 2015 National Humanities Medal, and his first book, The House of Morgan, won the National Book Award. Chernow’s Washington: A Life won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography, and Alexander Hamilton—the inspiration for the Broadway musical—won the George Washington Book Prize. Ron Chernow has twice been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and is one of only three living biographers to have won the Gold Medal for Biography from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. This past president of PEN America was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member John A. Farrell.
36 min
December 26, 2025 Podcast #240 – Todd Goddard
Devouring Time: Jim Harrison, A Writer’s Life, is the latest book by this scholar and author, published in November 2025 by Blackstone Publishing. Goddard is an associate professor of literary studies at Utah Valley University, and the Mellon Foundation and a Bordin-Gillette Fellowship from the University of Michigan have funded his work. BIO member and BIO Podcast Producer Jenny Skoog interviewed Goddard.

Note: BIO, the Biographers International Organization’s podcast series, will return on January 9, 2026, with a special episode featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Ron Chernow, whose fascinating books include examinations of Alexander Hamilton, Ulysses S. Grant, George Washington, and his latest biography of Mark Twain.
27 min
December 19, 2025 Podcast #239 – Daniel Brook
The Einstein of Sex: Dr. Magnus Hirschfield, Visionary of Weimar Berlin, is this journalist and author’s latest book. It was published by W. W. Norton & Company in May 2025. Brook’s writing has appeared in Harper’s, the New York Times Magazine, and The Nation. One of his previous books, A History of Future Cities, was longlisted for the Lionel Gelber Prize and selected as one of the ten favorite books of the year by the Washington Post. To support his research and writing efforts, Brook has received several fellowships, including the Library of Congress’s Kluge Fellowship and BIO’s Robert and Ina Caro Research/Travel Fellowship. Daniel Brook was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member Simon Read.
32 min
December 12, 2025 Podcast #238 – Cindy Schweich Handler
This journalist’s biography, A German Jew’s Triumph: Fritz Oppenheimer and the Denazification of Germany, was published by McFarland in April 2025. Handler’s work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsweek, and a host of other national publications. A former editor-in-chief of multiple USA Today Network magazines, she currently writes for the USA Today Network in northern New Jersey, and her features have appeared in The Record newspaper, online at Northjersey.com, and in Gannett-owned newspapers nationwide. The foreword in A German Jew’s Triumph was written by her historian husband, Harry H. Handler. Cindy and Harry Handler were interviewed by BIO member and BIO podcast producer Jenny Skoog.
28 min
December 05, 2025 Podcast #237 – Marion Orr
House of Diggs: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Consequential Black Congressman, Charles C. Diggs Jr., is the latest book by this political scientist and the inaugural Frederick Lippitt Professor of Public Policy at Brown University. House of Diggs was published by the University of North Carolina Press in September of this year. An award-winning author, Orr’s publications include Black Social Capital: The Politics of School Reform in Baltimore and The Color of School Reform: Race, Politics, and the Challenge of Urban Education. He was awarded BIO’s Francis “Frank” Rollin Fellowship to support his work on Congressman Diggs. Marion Orr was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member Eric K. Washington.
32 min
November 28, 2025 Podcast #236 – Tim Greiving
John Williams: A Composer’s Life, published by Oxford University Press in September 2025, is the first biography by this arts journalist. Greiving, a longtime fan of Williams’ celebrated film scores, has contributed stories to NPR, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and the New York Times. He has written program notes for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Royal Albert Hall, and liner notes for more than one hundred soundtrack albums. He also contributes to the Visual History Program for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and teaches film music history at the University of Southern California. Tim Greiving was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member Brian Jay Jones.
32 min
November 21, 2025 Podcast #235 – Francesca Wade
Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife, published by Scribner in October 2025, is the latest book by London-based author Francesca Wade. Additionally, Wade is the author of Square Haunting: Five Writers in London Between the Wars, and her writing has appeared in The New York Review of Books, London Review of Books, Paris Review, Granta, and elsewhere. She has received fellowships from the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, the Leon Levy Center for Biography, and the Harvard Radcliffe Institute. Wade was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member Natalie Dykstra.
31 min
November 14, 2025 Podcast #234 – Todd S. Purdum
Photo by James MacMillan
Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Invented Television, published by Simon and Schuster in June 2025, is the latest book by this veteran journalist and author. Purdum also authored Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Broadway Revolution and An Idea Whose Time Has Come: Two Presidents, Two Parties, and the Battle for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In a career spanning more than forty years, Purdum has written extensively about politics and culture, beginning at The New York Times, where he spent twenty-three years, covering politics from city hall to the White House, and later serving as diplomatic correspondent and Los Angeles bureau chief. He has also been a staff writer at Vanity Fair, Politico, and The Atlantic. Todd S. Purdum was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member John (Jack) A. Farrell.
29 min
November 07, 2025 Podcast #233 – Dana A. Williams
Toni at Random: The Iconic Writer’s Legendary Editorship, the latest book by author Dana A. Williams about Toni Morrison’s significant tenure as an editor at Random House, was published by Amistad in June 2025. Williams is Professor of African American literature and Dean of the Graduate School at Howard University. She also authored In the Light of Likeness—Transformed: The Literary Art of Leon Forrest. Williams has edited several books, and her writing has been published in prestigious journals, including PMLA, CLA Journal, African American Review, Early American Literature, American Literary History, and the Langston Hughes Review. Williams was the former president of the College Language Association and the Modern Languages Association, and she currently co-directs the Center for Medical Humanities and Health Justice, a Mellon Foundation-funded collaboration between Howard and Georgetown universities. Dana A. Williams was interviewed by fellow Howard University professor, biographer, and BIO member Sonja D. Williams (no relation).
37 min
October 31, 2025 Podcast #232 – James M. Bradley
Martin Van Buren: America’s First Politician is James M. Bradley’s current book. It was published in December 2024 by Oxford University Press. Bradley co-edits the Martin Van Buren Papers, based at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee, and he serves as an adjunct instructor in the public history program at the State University of New York at Albany. Bradley also served as the senior project editor of the Encyclopedia of New York City, published by Yale University Press. Fellow biographer and BIO member Simon Read interviewed Bradley.
24 min