Free Library Podcast

''With a fiction writer's feel for character'' (Philadelphia Inquirer), Ross King is the author of several nonfiction works that situate art within the context of the history in which it was born, including the New York Times bestsellers Brunelleschi's Dome, Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, The Judgment of Paris, and Leonardo and the Last Supper-an examination of Da Vinci's transcendence of political, religious, and inner turmoil to create the masterpiece that would forever define him. In Mad Enchantment, King paints a portrait of the artistic struggles and personal torments churning below the pre-eminent Impressionist's tranquil creations.

Meelya Gordon Memorial Lecture (recorded 11/22/2016)

''One of America's premier writers of fiction (New York Times), John Edgar Wideman was the first two-time winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award, for his novels Sent for You Yesterday and Philadelphia Fire. His more than 20 other works of fiction and nonfiction include the story collection God's Gym, the memoir Brothers and Keepers, and the novel Fanon. He is a professor at Brown University whose other honors include a National Book Award nomination, an O. Henry Award, and a MacArthur Genius Grant. Writing to Save a Life examines the U.S. Army's execution of the father of tragically iconic civil rights martyr Emmett Till.

(recorded 11/17/2016)

Dr. David Grinspoon is the inaugural Chair of Astrobiology at the U.S. Library of Congress. With research focusing on climate evolution and the conditions for life elsewhere in the cosmos, he has consulted on interplanetary space missions for NASA, The European Space Agency, and the Japanese Space Agency. His technical papers, popular science writing, and lectures have appeared across a vast spectrum of media. ''A remarkable synthesis of natural history, planetary science, extinction histories... and the human effect on the world'' (Forbes), Earth in Human Hands challenges us to grow into our role as caretakers of our world.

(recorded 1/19/2017)

Dr. David Grinspoon is the inaugural Chair of Astrobiology at the U.S. Library of Congress. With research focusing on climate evolution and the conditions for life elsewhere in the cosmos, he has consulted on interplanetary space missions for NASA, The European Space Agency, and the Japanese Space Agency. His technical papers, popular science writing, and lectures have appeared across a vast spectrum of media. ''A remarkable synthesis of natural history, planetary science, extinction histories... and the human effect on the world'' (Forbes), Earth in Human Hands challenges us to grow into our role as caretakers of our world.

(recorded 1/19/2017)

Iconic First Lady Michelle Obama has redefined American ideas about beauty, strength, and poise under often-harsh public scrutiny. In the ''powerful'' (Vogue) essay collection The Meaning of Michelle, some of the country's most thoughtful minds ponder Mrs. Obama's legacy on the eve of her departure from the White House. Contributors to this rollicking conversation-starter include:

Veronica Chambers, author of the acclaimed memoir Mama's Girl and co-author of the bestsellers Yes, Chef with Marcus Samuelsson and Everybody's Got Something with Robin Roberts

Benilde Little, bestselling author of the novels Good Hair, Acting Out, and Who Does She Think She Is?

Alicia Hall Moran, mezzo-soprano who starred as Bess on the National Tour of Porgy and Bess and has performed across the country at venues including Jazz at Lincoln Center. Classical guitarist Thomas Flippin will accompany Ms. Moran.

Damon Young, editor-in-chief of VSB (verysmartbrothas.com), a columnist for GQ.com and Ebony, and a founding editor of 1839

(recorded 1/17/2017)

Iconic First Lady Michelle Obama has redefined American ideas about beauty, strength, and poise under often-harsh public scrutiny. In the ''powerful'' (Vogue) essay collection The Meaning of Michelle, some of the country's most thoughtful minds ponder Mrs. Obama's legacy on the eve of her departure from the White House. Contributors to this rollicking conversation-starter include:

Veronica Chambers, author of the acclaimed memoir Mama's Girl and co-author of the bestsellers Yes, Chef with Marcus Samuelsson and Everybody's Got Something with Robin Roberts

Benilde Little, bestselling author of the novels Good Hair, Acting Out, and Who Does She Think She Is?

Alicia Hall Moran, mezzo-soprano who starred as Bess on the National Tour of Porgy and Bess and has performed across the country at venues including Jazz at Lincoln Center. Classical guitarist Thomas Flippin will accompany Ms. Moran.

Damon Young, editor-in-chief of VSB (verysmartbrothas.com), a columnist for GQ.com and Ebony, and a founding editor of 1839

(recorded 1/17/2017)

In her New York Times bestselling debut book, Margot Shetterly tells the story of four African American women whose mathematical calculations at NASA fueled America's greatest achievements in space at the leading edge of the civil rights movement. A 2014 Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow and Virginia Foundation for the Humanities grantee, Shetterly is the founder of The Human Computer Project, which aims to recover the names and accomplishments of all of the women who worked as mathematicians, scientists, and engineers at NASA from the 1930s through the 1980s. A film adaptation of the book, starring Taraji P. Henson and Octavia Spencer, will be released in January 2017.

(recorded 11/2/2016)

In conversation with Tracey Matisak

A member of the formidable U.S. female gymnastics team nicknamed the ''Final Five'' at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Simone Biles won a record-setting four gold and one bronze medals for her flawless, fearless athletic feats. A three-time world all-around champion, three-time world floor champion, and a two-time world balance beam champion, among many other titles, she is one of the most decorated gymnasts in history. In Courage to Soar, Biles recounts the trials, tumbles, and triumphs that led her from an early childhood in foster care to the heights of Olympic victory. (recorded 1/6/2017)

In conversation with Carlin Romano, Critic-at-Large,The Chronicle of Higher Education 

''Perhaps the most prominent intellectual in France today'' (The Boston Globe), Bernard-Henri Lévy led the vanguard of the radical 1970s ''New Philosophy'' movement, a rejection of Marxism and the Left still debated today. This moralistic view culminated in 1979's controversial Barbarism with a Human Face and continued in Testament of God, in which he advocated an ''atheistic spirituality.'' He is also the author the internationally bestselling Who Killed Daniel Pearl? and Left in Dark Times: A Stand Against the New Barbarism. In The Genius of Judaism, the philosopher and activist confronts the underpinning of his spiritual roots and seeks a reckoning with his faith.

Please allow extra time to get to Parkway Central, due to extensive road work in the area.

(recorded 1/10/2017)

In her New York Times bestselling debut book, Margot Shetterly tells the story of four African American women whose mathematical calculations at NASA fueled America's greatest achievements in space at the leading edge of the civil rights movement. A 2014 Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow and Virginia Foundation for the Humanities grantee, Shetterly is the founder of The Human Computer Project, which aims to recover the names and accomplishments of all of the women who worked as mathematicians, scientists, and engineers at NASA from the 1930s through the 1980s. A film adaptation of the book, starring Taraji P. Henson and Octavia Spencer, will be released in January 2017.

(recorded 11/2/2016)