Free Library Podcast

Join Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant, authors of Option B, as they talk about building resilience and moving forward after life's inevitable setbacks. After the sudden death of her husband, Sheryl felt certain that she and her children would never feel pure joy again. Her friend Adam, a psychologist at Wharton, told her there are steps people can take to recover and even rebound. Option B combines Sandberg's emotional insights and Grant's eye-opening research on finding strength in the face of adversity. The authors will share what they've learned on helping others in crisis, developing compassion for ourselves, raising strong children, and creating resilient families, communities and workplaces. Many of these lessons can be applied to ordinary struggles, allowing us to build resilience for whatever lies ahead. They will discuss the capacity of the human spirit to persevere... and to rediscover joy. (recorded 4/26/2017)

Join Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant, authors of Option B, as they talk about building resilience and moving forward after life's inevitable setbacks. After the sudden death of her husband, Sheryl felt certain that she and her children would never feel pure joy again. Her friend Adam, a psychologist at Wharton, told her there are steps people can take to recover and even rebound. Option B combines Sandberg's emotional insights and Grant's eye-opening research on finding strength in the face of adversity. The authors will share what they've learned on helping others in crisis, developing compassion for ourselves, raising strong children, and creating resilient families, communities and workplaces. Many of these lessons can be applied to ordinary struggles, allowing us to build resilience for whatever lies ahead. They will discuss the capacity of the human spirit to persevere... and to rediscover joy. (recorded 4/26/2017)

David Grann is the no. 1 New York Times bestselling author of The Lost City of Z, the ''brilliant...impressively researched and crafted'' (Los Angeles Times) nonfiction tale of the deadly search for a fabled Amazonian civilization. His second book, The Devil and Sherlock Holmes, was named by Men's Journal one of the best true crime books ever written. An award-winning staff writer at The New Yorker, Grann has previously contributed to The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, and The New Republic, among other periodicals. Killers of the Flower Moon tells the chilling true-life story of one of the most sinister conspiracies in American history.

(recorded 4/25/2017)

Joan Nathan is the author of 11 bestselling culinary guides, including The New American Cooking and Jewish Cooking in America, both of which won James Beard and IACP awards. The latter book was adapted into a PBS series produced by Nathan. A frequent contributor to the New York Times and Bon Appétit, she has appeared on Good Morning America, the Food Network, and NPR's All Things Considered. In King Solomon's Table, Nathan gathers more than 170 recipes that span the millennia and the far reaches of the global Jewish diaspora in a compendium of cooking and culture.  (recorded 4/20/2017)

An internationally acclaimed yoga teacher whose body-positive approach encourages students to ask ''How do I feel?'' rather than ''How do I look?,'' Jessamyn Stanley has been featured on Good Morning America, Shape, People, and New York Magazine, among many other media outlets. She also is a regular contributor to Mind Body Green, Wanderlust, Elephant Journal, and is an award-winning Instagram star. Every Body Yoga illustrates and explains 50 yoga poses and 10 sequences to accomplish at home, and shares Stanley's paradigm-shifting philosophy of spirit and body acceptance. (recorded 4/18/2017)

In conversation with Tracey Matisak

The first African American principal dancer in the 75-year history of the elite American Ballet Theatre, Misty Copeland is one of the world's most accomplished and recognizable artists. A recipient of the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship in the Arts, an inductee in the Boys and Girls Club Alumni Hall of Fame, and one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people, she is the author of the ''thorough, sensitive...clear-eyed'' (The Washington Post) memoir Life in Motion. In her first health and fitness book, Copeland offers tips and encouragement to help people  achieve lean, powerful physiques.

Due to a flaw in the recording medium, the full audio is not available in the podcast. Watch the entire event here: https://livestream.com/flp/Copeland

Pine Tree Foundation Endowed Lecture

(recorded 4/13/2017)

Anthony Doerr won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for All the Light We Cannot See, ''a beautiful, daring, heartbreaking, oddly joyous novel'' (Seattle Times) about a blind French girl and a German boy navigating the carnage of World War II. Also the winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and a National Book Award finalist, it spent more than two years on the New York Times bestseller list. Doerr's other work includes the novel About Grace, two story collections, and a memoir, for which he has earned four O. Henry Prizes, the Story Prize, and a Guggenheim Fellowship, among other honors.   (recorded 4/11/2017)

Anthony Doerr won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for All the Light We Cannot See, ''a beautiful, daring, heartbreaking, oddly joyous novel'' (Seattle Times) about a blind French girl and a German boy navigating the carnage of World War II. Also the winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and a National Book Award finalist, it spent more than two years on the New York Times bestseller list. Doerr's other work includes the novel About Grace, two story collections, and a memoir, for which he has earned four O. Henry Prizes, the Story Prize, and a Guggenheim Fellowship, among other honors.   (recorded 4/11/2017)

In conversation with Jason Freeman

Colum McCann won the 2009 National Book Award for Let the Great World Spin, a tale of 1970s New Yorkers marveling at a tightrope walker's death-defying feats. His other novels include Song Dogs, This Side of Brightness, and the Man Booker Prize-shortlisted TransAtlantic, a ''beautifully constructed tapestry of life'' (The Seattle Times) spanning centuries, oceans, and continents. Currently a Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at Hunter College in New York, McCann has written for The New Yorker, Esquire, and the Paris Review, among other publications. His new essay collection brings this vast accumulation of experience to bear in a pragmatic guide for aspiring writers. 

(recorded 4/3/2017)

''Consistently engaging, sly, witty, understated...and written with simple elegance'' (The New York Observer), Wendy Lesser's many essay collections, works of fiction, and edited volumes include The Pagoda in the Garden, Room for Doubt, and Why I Read, a celebration of the transcendent power of the written word. Founder of the celebrated Three Penny Review, she has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her new book is a biography of one of the 20th century's most revered architects.

Meelya Gordon Memorial Lecture

(recorded 4/6/2017)