Booktalk with Diana Korte

Host Diana Korte speaks with Neurologist Scott Small about his debut book “FORGETTING. The Benefits of Not Remembering” in a 2021 conversation.

Who wouldn’t want a better memory?  Until recently, most everyone—memory scientists included—believed that forgetting served no purpose. But new research in psychology, neurobiology, medicine, and computer science tells a different story. Forgetting is not a failure of our minds. It’s not even a benign glitch. It is, in fact, good for us—and, alongside memory, it is a required function for our minds to work best.

As frustrating as a typical lapse can be, it’s precisely what opens up our minds to making better decisions, experiencing joy and relationships, and flourishing artistically.

Host Diana Korte speaks with author Lydia Reeder whose research and writing brings to light the stories of little-known or forgotten pioneers in their professions and daily lives.

Her newest book is “The Cure for Women: Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi and the Challenge to Victorian Medicine That Changed Women's Lives Forever."  

It shines a light on the first women doctors in America, especially Mary Putnam Jacobi, MD (1842-1906), who altered the course of American history while uplifting the lives of women. 

 She was one of the most important physicians, female or male, of the nineteenth century. Her scientific research dismantled some of the myths about women’s bodies, transformed medicine, and laid the groundwork for the future advancements of women, including the right to vote.  

  Lydia Reeder’s previous award-winning book is “Dust Bowl Girls. The Inspiring Story of the Team that Barnstormed its Way to Basketball Glory.”

Diana Korte spoke with Game Show Host and author Ken Jennings, probably better known now for his more recent appearances on Jeopardy. He authored "MAPHEAD: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks" about a dozen years ago when we met up to chat about this new book.

You map nerds know who you are. Travelers, road geeks, map collectors. Some of you crisscross maps working an endless geographic checklist: visiting all 3,143 U.S. counties, for example, or all 936 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Or how about the computer whizkids behind Google Maps and other geo-technologies.

  Ken Jennings was a map nerd from a young age himself, you will not be surprised to learn, even sleeping with a bulky Hammond atlas at the side of his pillow, in lieu of the traditional Teddy bear. 

Host Diana Korte speaks with Musicologist and Washington University Professor of Music Todd Decker,  who specializes  in commercial US popular music, about the first of his five books, “Music Makes Me: Fred Astaire and Jazz.”                                          

 Is stunning dancer and singer Fred Astaire also one of the great jazz artists of the twentieth century? He is best known for his unforgettable dancing in the movie musicals of the 1930s, but in Music Makes Me, Todd Decker argues that Astaire’s work as a dancer and choreographer—particularly in the realm of tap dancing—made a significant contribution to the art of jazz. 

 In 30 films from the 1930s to the 1950s, he danced elegantly—often to jazz--with the leading women dancers of the day including 10 times with fan favorite Ginger Rogers. Among his most popular movies were the timeless classics Top Hat,You Were Never Lovelier, and Swing Time.      

Host Diana Korte speaks with New Zealand-born, Australia-raised, Brooklyn-based writer Ella Morton  who co-authored the first title in this book collection, the “Atlas Obscura: An Explorer’s Guide To The World’s Hidden Wonders.”

For sure this is not your usual travel guide. In a 2017 conversation with me, Ella describes the book’s beginnings and how it came to be filled with some 700 sights you’ve likely not seen. Not many people have.

Such as the Stairway to Heaven in Hawaii, the secret apartment in the Eiffel Tower and that flaming hole in the Turkmenistan desert.

The most recent book in the Atlas Obscura collection, published in 2024, is “Wild Life: An Explorer's Guide to the World's Living Wonders.”

Salman Rushdie, author of more than 20 books, spoke with me in 2019 about his “Quichotte: A Novel,” a  contemporary story about chaotic political times that live on today. 

He takes readers on a road journey across America in a Chevy Cruze.  Rushdie’s road traveler, Quichotte, is a simple man who has watched too much television.  

Perhaps because of that, it’s an anything-can-happen sort of trip sprinkled with cyber-spies, opioids, science fiction, racism of course, all mixed in with heavy doses of family ties real or imagined. 

Born in India, mostly educated in England, and a current long-time resident of New York City, Rushdie’s published work includes novels, books of non-fiction, a memoir and children’s books. 

Silvia Pettem has published more than 20 books. Her newest title, “SEPARATE LIVES. Uncovering the Hidden Family of Victorian Professor Mary Rippon” is the true story of a pioneer woman educator who lived and worked in the male-dominated world of 19th century academia at the University of Colorado in the then small frontier town of Boulder.   

Mary received wide acclaim for her teaching and is believed to be the first US woman to teach at a state university. But the Victorian social mores in 1878 forced her to lead two very separate lives. She was both a professional woman and a mother, hiding both her husband and child in Germany. 

Author Silvia Pettem has a knack for pulling intriguing women out of the past through her books on history, biography, missing and unidentified persons, and true crime. She lives with her husband and two cats in the mountains west of Boulder. 

Host Diana Korte speaks with award-winning Librarian Amanda Jones who decided to stand up for the right to read and stage a war against book bans and censorship in her small Southern town. THAT LIBRARIAN is part memoir, part manifesto.    

One of the things small town librarian Amanda Jones values most about books is how they can affirm a young person's sense of self. So, in 2022 when she caught wind of a local public hearing that would discuss “book content,” she knew what was at stake. 

Schools and libraries nationwide have been bombarded by demands for books with LGTBQ+ references, discussions of racism, and more to be purged from the shelves. Amanda would be damned if her community were to ban stories representing minority groups. She spoke out that night at the meeting. Days later, she woke up to a nightmare that is still ongoing.

But Amanda Jones wouldn't give up without a fight: she sued her harassers for defamation and urged others to join her in the resistance. That lawsuit is now at the Louisiana Supreme Court. 

Host Diana Korte speaks with United Airlines pilot and author, Carole Hopson, who has crafted a riveting, adventure-filled historical novel, A PAIR OF WINGS.

It’s based on the remarkable true story of pioneer aviatrix Bessie Coleman, a Black woman who received her pilot’s license almost two years before Amelia Earhart, and found freedom in the air. Hopson was so inspired by Bessie’s story, she became a pilot herself at the age of 54.

A few years after the Wright brothers’ first flight in 1903, Bessie—the daughter of a woman born into slavery—was working the Texas cotton fields with her family when an airplane flew over their heads. It buzzed so low she thought she could catch it in her hands. Flying became her dream.
 

Host Diana Korte speaks with Gayle Forman, author of her 13th book, NOT NOTHING, a story of hope, compassion, and forgiveness.  

In this intergenerational middle grade novel, a 12-year-old boy who has been assigned by a judge to spend his summer volunteering at a senior living facility learns unexpected lessons that change the trajectory of his life, especially after he meets a 107-year old Holocaust survivor.  

Award-winning author and journalist Gayle Forman has written several bestselling novels, including those in the Just One Day series, Where She Went, and the #1 New York Times bestseller If I Stay, which has been translated into more than forty languages and was adapted into a major motion picture.