Free Library Podcast

Nationally syndicated Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for commentary for his writing about race, culture, and politics. His first book, Becoming Dad: Black Men and the Journey to Fatherhood, was published in 2006 and became a bestseller. Pitts is also the author of two novels, Freeman and Before I Forget, a critically praised story of fatherhood, Alzheimer's, and how African-American men confront illness and grief. Vacillating in time and touching on prominent themes in contemporary American race relations, his new novel blends the narratives of Martin Luther King Jr's last days with a reporter's fight for the truth on the eve of President Obama's 2008 election.

(recorded 12/1/2015)

During his decades-long career as a columnist for the New York Times, David K. Shipler reported from the battlefields of Vietnam and Lebanon, was the Bureau Chief of both Moscow and Jerusalem, and was the Chief Diplomatic Correspondent in the Washington Bureau. His bestselling and critically acclaimed nonfiction books include Russia: Broken Idols, Solemn Dreams; The Working Poor: Invisible in America; and Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land, winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Shipley's other honors include the George Polk Award and a Martin Luther King Jr. Social Justice Award. Freedom of Speech examines the threats to and triumphs of America's most sacrosanct ideal. 

(recorded 5/19/2015)

The Washington Post's lead journalist in Ferguson, Missouri during the tempestuous aftermath of the death of African American teenager Mike Brown, Wesley Lowery, together with his team, won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for the paper's coverage of police shootings. He has since reported from many other now-infamous American scenes of police and racial violence, interviewing affected and disenfranchised citizens in neglected areas of Baltimore, Cleveland, and Charleston, South Carolina. In They Can't Kill Us All, Lowery uses this information to examine and expose the cumulative decades-long impact of racially biased policing in segregated neighborhoods and offers a measured look at the civil unrest gripping the nation.

In conversation with Errin Haines Whack, an award-winning reporter for The Associated Press covering race and politics. Her work focuses on topics including civil rights, the African-American electorate, state government and voting rights. She has previously worked at the Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, and the Washington Post. Errin is based in the AP's Philadelphia bureau.

(recorded 12/15/2016)

Michael Chabon won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, an epic story of New York adventure and possibility during the golden age of comic books. His ascent to literary stardom began with his debonair 1988 debut novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, and continued with 1995's Wonder Boys, which was adapted into a critically acclaimed film. Chabon's other works include Telegraph Avenue, The Final Solution, and The Yiddish Policemen's Union-winner of the Hugo and Nebula awards. Moonglow, ''an autobiography wrapped in a novel disguised as a memoir,'' is an existential but dreamlike deathbed confession from Chabon's grandfather regarding war, sex, and a mail-order novelty company.

(recorded 12/8/2016)

The Washington Post's lead journalist in Ferguson, Missouri during the tempestuous aftermath of the death of African American teenager Mike Brown, Wesley Lowery, together with his team, won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for the paper's coverage of police shootings. He has since reported from many other now-infamous American scenes of police and racial violence, interviewing affected and disenfranchised citizens in neglected areas of Baltimore, Cleveland, and Charleston, South Carolina. In They Can't Kill Us All, Lowery uses this information to examine and expose the cumulative decades-long impact of racially biased policing in segregated neighborhoods and offers a measured look at the civil unrest gripping the nation.

In conversation with Errin Haines Whack, an award-winning reporter for The Associated Press covering race and politics. Her work focuses on topics including civil rights, the African-American electorate, state government and voting rights. She has previously worked at the Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, and the Washington Post. Errin is based in the AP's Philadelphia bureau.

(recorded 12/15/2016)

Michael Chabon won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, an epic story of New York adventure and possibility during the golden age of comic books. His ascent to literary stardom began with his debonair 1988 debut novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, and continued with 1995's Wonder Boys, which was adapted into a critically acclaimed film. Chabon's other works include Telegraph Avenue, The Final Solution, and The Yiddish Policemen's Union-winner of the Hugo and Nebula awards. Moonglow, ''an autobiography wrapped in a novel disguised as a memoir,'' is an existential but dreamlike deathbed confession from Chabon's grandfather regarding war, sex, and a mail-order novelty company.

(recorded 12/8/2016)

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition

Known mainly to American audiences as the ''charming and composed'' (Los Angeles Times) host of the Emmy and Peabody-award winning The Daily Show, Trevor Noah had already won worldwide acclaim with The Racist, his 2012 Edinburgh Fringe Festival one-man show. The son of a white Swiss father and a black South African mother who had to pretend to be his father's servant during all-too brief moments of family interaction, he experienced a deeply unconventional childhood during the last days of Apartheid and the unsure years that followed its abolition. Born a Crime is the coming-of-age memoir of a country at the crossroads and Noah's tender, tough, often funny childhood.

 

(recorded 11/18/2016)

In conversation with Mark Zandi

Possessed of ''a spellbinding talent for finding emotional dramas in complex, highly technical subjects'' (Financial Times), Michael Lewis is renowned for his timely nonfiction. Liar's Poker, his semiautobiographical account of Wall Street in the ‘80s, is considered one of the definitive books of that time. He has also addressed such wide-ranging topics as Silicon Valley (The New New Thing and Next), the electoral process (Losers), and Wall Street malfeasance (Flash Boys and The Big Short). His books The Blind Side, Moneyball, and The Big Short were adapted into critically acclaimed films, garnering an impressive combined 13 Oscar nominations. In The Undoing Project, Lewis tells the story of two Israeli psychologists whose Nobel Prize-winning theory created the field of behavioral economics and altered our perception of reality.

Pine Tree Foundation Endowed Lecture

(recorded 12/9/2016)

Writers Guild Award nominee Maria Semple wrote for such watershed television shows as Mad About You, Saturday Night Live, Ellen, and Arrested Development. Her debut novel This One Is Mine, an uncompromising portrait of Los Angeles life, skewered the idea of a life of luxury and the ruinous choices made in the pursuit of happiness. In Where'd You Go, Bernadette, Semple's ''divinely funny, many-faceted'' (New York Times) follow-up, a satirized Seattle was the setting to explore misplaced genius and mother/daughter dynamics in an increasingly absurd world. Today Will Be Different follows a day in the life of a wife and mother forced to give up her small plans in lieu of an uncertain future. (recorded 11/1/2016)

In conversation with Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now!

Perhaps America's greatest standard-bearer for progressivism, Bernie Sanders inspired hope and a fervent following with his 2016 Democratic Presidential campaign. Currently serving his second term as the junior United States Senator from Vermont, he was also a 16-year member of the House of Representatives and a three-time mayor of Burlington. A passionate protestor for civil rights and the antiwar movement in the 1960s, Sanders still champions equality for all Americans, rallied against the war in Iraq, and works toward other causes, including income equality, universal healthcare, and campaign finance reform. Our Revolution shares stories from his recent campaign trail and maps out his ideas to continue the fight for all Americans' futures.

(recorded 11/28/2016)