On this edition of Conversations, Megan Shull talks with host Dan Skinner about her latest novel, “Billion Dollar Girl.” Shull is the bestselling author of many stories for young readers and teens. Her books have been adapted for film, including Disney’s, “The Swap.” Most recently, Paramount won the rights to her novel “Bounce.”

How does the COVID-19 pandemic compare to past pandemics? On this edition of Conversations, Brian Michael Jenkins talks with host Dan Skinner about“Plagues and Their Aftermath: How Societies Recover from Pandemics.” Jenkins is a leading authority on national security who has served as an advisor to governments, presidents, and CEOs.

On this edition of Conversations, Celia C. Perez talks with host Dan Skinner about her latest novel, “Tumble.” It's about a 12-year-old girl who goes in search of her birth father and discovers she is from a family of Luchadores. Perez is the author of the award-winning and critically acclaimed books, “The First Rule of Punk” and “Strange Birds: A Field Guide to Ruffling Feathers.”

On this edition of Conversations, Linda Flanagan talks with Host Dan Skinner about “Take Back the Game – How Money and Mania are Ruining Kids’ Sports – and Why It Matters.” Flanagan is a freelance journalist, researcher, and former cross-country and track coach. Her writing on sports has appeared in “The Atlantic,” “Runner's World,” and NPR's education site “Mind/Shift,” where she is a regular contributor.

Will this be her last novel? On this edition of Conversations, Faye Kellerman talks with host Dan Skinner about her latest novel, “The Hunt.” It’s another in her series of novels featuring the characters Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus. Kellerman is a multiple New York Times best-selling author with over 20 million books in print.

On this edition of Conversations, Daniel Stone talks with host Dan Skinner about “Sinkable: Obsession, The Deep Sea, and the Shipwreck of the Titanic.” Stone writes about science, history, and the environment. He is a former staff writer for "National Geographic" and a former White House correspondent for “Newsweek” and “The Daily Beast.”

On this edition of Conversations, Matt de la Peña and Corinna Luyken talk with host Dan Skinner about “patchwork” a children’s picture book, which they created together. Matt as the author and Corinna as the illustrator. Among other books, Matt de la Peña is the author of the Newbery Medal-winning “Last Stop on Market Street.” Corinna Luyken is an author-illustrator whose books include the New York Times bestseller “My Heart.”

An underwater Post Office? On this edition of Conversations, Kathryn Williams talks with host Dan Skinner about National Geographic Kid’s “Weird but True! World 2023.” Williams has been editing (and, on occasion, writing and illustrating) children's books at National Geographic Kids for 7 years. She discusses the challenge of finding weird stuff from around the world.

On this edition of Conversations, Mohsin Hamid talks with host Dan Skinner about his latest novel, “The Last White Man.” Hamid is the author of five novels, including the international bestsellers “Exit West” and “The Reluctant Fundamentalist.” His essays have appeared in “The New York Times,” the “Washington Post,” “The New York Review of Books,” and elsewhere.

On this edition of Conversations, Melissa Greene-Blye and Elizabeth Sullivan talk with host Dan Skinner about “Good Morning Indian Country.” The morning news and talk show is produced in partnership with the Lawrence Arts Center, the University of Kansas School of Journalism, and Haskell Indian Nations University. The second season begins on September 7.