Biographers International Organization

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Biographers International Organization episodes

June 13, 2025 Podcast #221 – Charlotte Jacobs
90 Seconds to Midnight: A Hiroshima Survivor’s Nuclear Odyssey, published by Potomac Books this month, is this author’s biography of Setsuko Nakamura Thurlow—a passionate Japanese individual whose lifelong endeavors helped safeguard mankind. Jacobs is a professor of medicine emerita at Stanford University, where she engaged in cancer research, patient care, and teaching. She is the author of two critically acclaimed books: Jonas Salk: A Life and Henry Kaplan and the Story of Hodgkin’s Disease. Jacobs has been awarded residencies at MacDowell Colony, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Ragdale Foundation, and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Charlotte Jacobs was interviewed by Jenny Skoog, a BIO member and podcast producer.
25 min
June 06, 2025 Podcast #220 – Prathibha Kanakamedala
Brooklynites: The Remarkable Story of the Free Black Communities that Shaped a Borough is this author’s first full-length book. It was published by New York University Press in September 2024. Originally from Liverpool, England, Kanakamedala is a public historian based in New York City. She writes about 19th-century material culture of the Black Atlantic, New York’s racial fluidity and citizenship during that century, and print activism in Brooklyn’s early free Black communities. Prathibha Kanakamedala, a Professor of History at Bronx Community College and a faculty member of the City University of New York Graduate Center, was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member Eric K. Washington.
30 min
May 30, 2025 Podcast #219 – Alex Beam

In Wallace Stegner: Dean of Western Writers, published by Signature Books in February 2025, this longtime Boston Globe columnist and author takes readers on a brisk and riveting journey through Stegner’s life and complicated legacy. As one of the most distinguished chroniclers of the American West, Stegner wrote fourteen novels and seventeen works of nonfiction during a career that spanned half a century. Alex Beam has written two novels and seven works of nonfiction, including two New York Times Notable Books of the Year. In 2014, Beam also authored American Crucifixion, a narrative history of the assassination of the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith. Alex Beam was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member John A. (Jack) Farrell.
28 min
May 23, 2025 Podcast #218 – Adam Plunkett
Love and Need: The Life of Robert Frost’s Poetry is literary critic Adam Plunkett’s first biography. His exploration of the life and creativity of one of America’s favorite 20th-century poets was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in February 2025. Plunkett received fellowship support from organizations such as the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Leon Levy Center for Biography, and he has written for The Poetry Foundation, The Point, The New Republic, The New York Times, and The New Yorker, among others. Adam Plunkett was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member Heather Clark.
29 min
May 16, 2025 Podcast #217 – David Levering Lewis
In this special episode, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, National Humanities Medal recipient, and New York University history professor emeritus David Levering Lewis discusses his latest book—a sweeping exploration of his own family history. The Stained Glass Window: A Family History as the American Story: 1790-1958 was published by Penguin Random House in February 2025. Lewis received Pulitzers for his W. E. B. Du Bois biographies, and his extraordinary body of work, including 11 books, has been supported by fellowships from the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, the National Humanities Center, the Wilson Center, the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the American Philosophical Society. In 1999, Lewis was awarded a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” grant. David Levering Lewis was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member John A. (Jack) Farrell.
47 min
May 09, 2025 Podcast #216 – Janice Engel
This award-winning filmmaker, showrunner and Academy of Art University professor, talks about her documentary film, Raise HELL: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2019 and won the Audience Award at SXSW, along with numerous other festival awards and screenings in England and Ireland. Raise HELL reflects themes Engel holds dear, speaking truth to power, igniting activism, advocacy and finding our shared humanity. Engel’s work includes non-fiction television specials and films about Jackson Browne and Ted Hawkins, as well as the provocative docuseries, Addicted and the multi-media series, What We Carry, dedicated to preserving Holocaust survivors’ stories. Janice Engel was interviewed by BIO member and podcast producer Jenny Skoog.
21 min
May 02, 2025 Podcast #215 – Caitlin Cass and Lisa Napoli
These authors talk about a few of the different forms of biography. Caitlin Cass’s graphic book, Suffrage Song: The Haunted History of Gender, Race, and Voting Rights in the U.S., was named a Best Art Book of 2024 by Hyperallergic. Since 2009, Cass has self-published a bi-monthly comic periodical called the Great Moments in Western Civilization Postal Constituent, and her comics and cartoons have been published in The New Yorker and The Nib. Lisa Napoli worked as a journalist for The New York Times, public radio’s Marketplace, and MSNBC. She has written four books, including a group biography of the four founding mothers of NPR. Lisa Napoli, a long-time member of BIO, is working on her Master’s degree in Biography and Memoir at the CUNY Graduate Center. Cass and Napoli were interviewed by BIO member and podcast producer Jenny Skoog.
35 min
April 25, 2025 Podcast #214 – Steve Paul
Photo: Julie Denesha
As the president of the Biographers International Organization, Steve Paul talks about the organization’s exciting new initiatives in 2025 and beyond. Paul spent more than 40 years in daily journalism and now, as an independent scholar, he is devoted to literary biography. His most recent book, Literary Alchemist: The Writing Life of Evan S. Connell (University of Missouri Press), won the 2022 Society of Midland Authors Award. He also co-edited a collection of scholarly essays on Ernest Hemingway’s early life and writings, and he authored the biography, Hemingway at Eighteen: The Pivotal Year That Launched an American Legend (Chicago Review Press, 2017). Steve Paul was interviewed by BIO member and podcast producer Jenny Skoog.
22 min
April 18, 2025 Podcast #213 – Dawn Porter
Photo: Kevin Scanlon
This celebrated documentary filmmaker is the recipient of the 2025 BIO Award – Biographers International Organization’s annual recognition of a distinguished colleague who has made significant contributions to the art and craft of biography. Dawn Porter’s documentaries include rich biographical explorations of John Lewis, Lady Bird Johnson, Robert F. Kennedy and Luther Vandross. For her impressive body of work, Porter has earned Peabody, NAACP and Gracie Awards, along with the National Humanities Medal, the Critics’ Choice Impact Award and the International Documentary Association’s Career Achievement Award. She will receive this year’s BIO Award and deliver the keynote address at BIO’s annual conference on June 6th at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Dawn Porter talks about her biographical journey with fellow biographer and BIO member A’Lelia Bundles.

34 min
April 11, 2025 Podcast #212 – Carol Sklenicka & Yepoka Yeebo
These celebrated authors talk about BIO’s Plutarch Award for Biography – the organization’s annual recognition of the year’s best biography, as determined by a committee of five distinguished biographers from nominations by BIO members and publishers. First time biographer and British Ghanaian journalist Yepoka Yeebo took home BIO’s 2024 Plutarch Award for her book, Anansi’s Gold: The Man Who Looted the West, Outfoxed Washington and Swindled the World (Bloomsbury, 2023). The book also was shortlisted for the Mark Lynton History Prize, and it was The New York Times Book Review Notable Book of 2023. Carol Sklenicka chaired BIO’s 2024 Plutarch Awards committee, and she is the author of Alice Adams: Portrait of a Writer and Raymond Carver: A Writer’s Life, both published by Scribner. Sklenicka’s Alice Adams was chosen by The New York Times as one of “Nine Books to Watch for in December” of 2019, while the Times Book Review deemed that her Raymond Carver was one of the “Best 10 Books of 2009.” Sklenicka and Yeebo were interviewed by BIO member and podcast producer Jenny Skoog.

32 min