Book Talk Radio

The celebrated youth organizer, grafitti artist, and writer on his vision for the movement young people will create in the new decade.

The Tweezerman founder and socially conscious entrepreneur talks to host Joe Conason about how he failed his way to success.

Columnist and Book Talk Radio host Joe Conason talks with renowned activist and author Gloria Feldt about her powerful new book and its message for American women.

Join Will Bunch, author of The Backlash: Right-Wing Radicals, High-Def Hucksters, and Paranoid Politics in the Age of Obama, in conversation with Peter Montgomery, a senior fellow at People For the American Way, for a discussion of the Tea Party and its influence on the midterm elections at 8pm EST on October 13th on Book Talk Radio.

Join Alexander Zaitchik, author of Common Nonsense, in conversation with Salon's Joe Conason, for a discussion of Glenn Beck at 8pm EST on August 18th on Book Talk Radio.

Join us tonight for an exploration of the social and political implications of the growing phenomenon of “Whitopias”—small towns and exurbs without diversity. Our guest tonight is Rich Benjamin, author of the new book Searching for Whitopia.


Rich Benjamin, author of Searching for Whitopia, is a senior fellow at Demos, a nonpartisan national think tank based in New York City. His social and political commentary is featured in major newspapers nationwide, on NPR and Fox Radio, and in many scholarly venues. He holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University and a Ph.D. from Stanford University.

Book Talk Radio is a project of the Progressive Book Club, and is hosted by Joe Conason. Joe Conason is national correspondent for The New York Observer, where he writes a weekly column distributed by Creators Syndicate. He is also a columnist for Salon.com, and the Director of the Nation Institute Investigative Fund. His latest book, It Can Happen Here: Authoritarian Peril in the Age of Bush, was released in February 2007.

In his latest book, Jim Wallis argues that Americans should not seek out a return to "economic normalcy." Rather, we need to create a new "normal" that radically alters the behaviors and ways of thinking that lead to the current economic crisis. Join the Progressive Book Club and host Joe Conason for a talk with author Jim Wallis about creating a moral compass for the new economy.

Jim Wallis is a best-selling author, public theologian, preacher, and activist. He is president and executive director of Sojourners/Call to Renewal, where he is editor-in-chief of Sojourners magazine. He is the author of eight books, including Faith Works, The Soul of Politics, God's Politics, The Great Awakening, and, most recently, Rediscovering Values.



Book Talk Radio is a project of the Progressive Book Club, and is hosted by Joe Conason. Joe Conason is national correspondent for The New York Observer, where he writes a weekly column distributed by Creators Syndicate. He is also a columnist for Salon.com, and the Director of the Nation Institute Investigative Fund. His latest book, It Can Happen Here: Authoritarian Peril in the Age of Bush, was released in February 2007.

As American wars in Afghanistan and Iraq continue, join us for a conversation with Andrew Bacevich, author of The Limits of Power.


Bacevich identifies a profound triple crisis facing America: The economy, in remarkable disarray, can no longer be fixed by relying on expansion abroad; the government, transformed by an imperial presidency, is a democracy in form only; U.S. involvement in endless wars, driven by a deep infatuation with military power, has been a catastrophe for the body politic. These pressing problems threaten all of us, Republicans and Democrats. If the nation is to solve its predicament, it will need the revival of a distinctly American approach: the neglected tradition of realism.

Andrew J. Bacevich, a professor of history and international relations at Boston University, retired from the U.S. Army with the rank of colonel. He is the author of The Limits of Power and The New American Militarism, among other books. His writing has appeared in Foreign Affairs, the Atlantic Monthly, the Nation, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal. He is the recipient of a Lannan Literary Award and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Even as America celebrates the 1 year anniversary of Barack Obama's inauguration, race remains a dominant factor in our society. In her book, The New Jim Crow, legal scholar Michelle Alexander argues that our current reliance on mass incarceration amounts to a devastating system of racial control in America. Join Michelle Alexander and host Joe Conason for a frank discussion on race in America.

Michelle Alexander is a longtime civil rights advocate and litigator. She holds a joint appointment at the Moritz College of Law and the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in Columbus, Ohio.



Book Talk Radio is a project of the Progressive Book Club, and is hosted by Joe Conason. Joe Conason is national correspondent for The New York Observer, where he writes a weekly column distributed by Creators Syndicate. He is also a columnist for Salon.com, and the Director of the Nation Institute Investigative Fund. His latest book, It Can Happen Here: Authoritarian Peril in the Age of Bush, was released in February 2007.

Join Book Talk Radio and host Joe Conason for a discussion with Moshe Adler about how contemporary economic thinking has rigged the system in favor of Wall Street at the expense of Main Street. Professor Moshe Adler of Columbia University has written a masterful and wonderfully accessible book that does for economics what Howard Zinn did for American history—Freakonomics crossed with The Tipping Point.

Moshe Adler author of Economics for the Rest of Us, teaches economics at Columbia University and at the Center for Labor Studies at Empire State College. His articles and editorials have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Counterpunch, and in many academic journals. He lives in New York City.



Book Talk Radio is hosted by Joe Conason. Joe Conason is national correspondent for The New York Observer, where he writes a weekly column distributed by Creators Syndicate. He is also a columnist for Salon.com, and the Director of the Nation Institute Investigative Fund. His latest book, It Can Happen Here: Authoritarian Peril in the Age of Bush, was released in February 2007.