Free Library Podcast

''Commanding a lush, poetic, mellifluous prose instrument'' (The Nation) to turn a fantastical, satirical mirror on race and culture, Colson Whitehead is the author of the acclaimed novels The Intuitionist, John Henry Days, and Zone One, as well as of the nonfiction works The Colossus of New York and The Noble Hustle. A Pulitzer Prize finalist, a MacArthur Fellowship recipient, and a PEN/Faulkner finalist, his nonfiction, essays, and reviews have appeared in many of America's most read and prestigious periodicals. In The Underground Railroad, Whitehead follows a young slave's harrowing and psychedelic journey to freedom on a supernatural train in the antebellum South.

(recorded 9/27/2016)

Esteemed Cambridge literary critic and historian Ruth Scurr is the author of 2006's Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution, named by The Times of London as one of the 100 Best Books of the Decade. Her reviews regularly appear in a wide variety of publications, including The Telegraph, The Financial Times, and The Wall Street Journal. In a revolutionary reimagining of what a biography can be, John Aubrey: My Own Life is a ''gripping'' (A. S. Byatt, The Guardian) examination of the 17th-century antiquary and philosopher's life composed entirely of his curated and collated words.

In conversation with Anthony Grafton, Henry Putnam University Professor of History

(recorded 9/26/2016)

''Florida's most entertainingly indignant social critic'' (New York Times), Carl Hiaasen is the author of a score of funny, frightening, weird novels set mostly in the Sunshine State, including Strip Tease, Stormy Weather, Bad Monkey, and Skinny Dip. Together they've sold millions of copies and have been published in 34 languages. Hoot, his bestselling first foray into children's literature, was awarded a Newbery Honor and adapted into a hit film. A columnist for the Miami Herald since 1985, he has won two Pulitzer Prizes for his journalism. In Razor Girl, Hiaasen tells the raucous story of a car accident and a motley ensemble of criminals, cops, and giant rats.

(recorded 9/23/2016)

On the eve of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 120th birthday, join us as we're ''ceaselessly borne into the past'' in a celebration of the Lost Generation author of The Great Gatsby, The Last Tycoon, and Tender Is the Night. Panelists include NPR book critic and Gatsby aficionado Maureen Corrigan; University of Maryland Professor Emeritus Jackson Bryer, author of Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda: The Love Letters of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald; and John Collins, artistic director of the New York ensemble theater group Elevator Repair Service, which created Gatz, a real-time staged reading of Fitzgerald's most famous book. 

The panel will be moderated by University of Pennsylvania Professor and Fitzgerald specialist Rafael Walker.

Fitzgerald at 120, a celebration of the literary luminary F. Scott Fitzgerald, is made possible with generous support from the Robert and Ann Newburger Foundation. 

(recorded 9/22/2016)

Jeremy Scahill is an investigative journalist and the author of the bestselling books Blackwater, an exposé of the powerful and controversial private army, and Dirty Wars, in which he revealed the grim consequences of the clandestine battles that make up the new paradigm of American warfare. He was a writer and producer of the Academy Award-nominated documentary-film adaptation of Dirty Wars. A two-time recipient of the George Polk Award, Scahill has served as a correspondent for Democracy Now! and a frequent contributor to The Nation. With Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras he founded The Intercept, an online magazine dedicated to fearless journalism. His new book details the 14-year drone killing campaign conducted by the U.S. government.

(recorded 9/21/2016)

One of the world's esteemed theoretical physicists for his contributions to the theory of general relativity and cosmology, Roger Penrose has won the Albert Einstein Medal, shared the Wolf Prize for physics with Stephen Hawking, and is the Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford. Penrose's many books include Cycles of Time, The Road to Reality, and The Nature of Space and Time, the last of which he coauthored with Hawking. In his latest book, the ''outstandingly brilliant mathematician'' (Guardian UK) argues that contemporary researchers of string theory and quantum mechanics are being led astray by dogmatic beliefs and trends in thought.

In conversation with Gino Segré

(recorded 9/20/2016)

One of film's most compelling presences since her screen debut almost 40 years ago, Jamie Lee Curtis' diverse résumé includes roles in Halloween, Trading Places, A Fish Called Wanda, Freaky Friday, and True Lies, for which she won a best actress Golden Globe. A staunch advocate for children's hospitals, human rights campaigns, and marriage equality, among other causes, Curtis is also the author of a bunch of bestselling children's books, including It's Hard to Be Five, I'm Gonna Like Me, and Today I Feel Silly. Her latest offering for kids is a picture book that raises more-important-than-ever issues of identity, immigration, and inclusive culture.

(recorded 9/18/2016)

In conversation with Tamala Edwards

The co-anchor of ABC's long-running flagship news show 20/20, Elizabeth Vargas became an inspiration for others fighting addiction from the moment she told interviewer George Stephanopoulos, ''I am an alcoholic.'' A former anchor of World News Tonight and a 1998 Emmy Award winner for her coverage of the Elián González story, Vargas reported many of contemporary journalism's most important stories while simultaneously balancing the demands of family life, all while keeping her dependency a secret. In Between Breaths, she details her struggles with anxiety, alcoholism, and balancing career and motherhood.

(recorded 9/15/2016)

In conversation with Wesley Stace

The winner of the Booker prize for the fraught but tender novel Amsterdam, Ian McEwan is ''the most psychologically astute writer working today, our era's Jane Austen'' (Esquire). His other 15 books include Atonement, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and later adapted into an acclaimed film that was nominated for a number of Oscars; the story collection First Love, Last Rites, winner of the Somerset Maugham Award; and The Comfort of Strangers and Black Dogs, both Booker Prize finalists. In Nutshell, McEwan presents a classic story of murder and deceit in which the only witness is an inquisitive fetus.

Meelya Gordon Memorial Lecture

(recorded 9/14/2016)

Renowned for placing ''his reader's hand on the heart of human experience'' (Philadelphia Inquirer), Jonathan Safran Foer is the bestselling author of the frenetically irreverent, emotionally urgent novels Everything Is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Also the nonfiction author of Eating Animals, a philosophical investigation into the carnivorous human condition, Foer is the recipient of many literary honors, including the Guardian First Book Award and the National Jewish Book Award. In Here I Am, his first novel in 11 years, a Washington, D.C. family is confronted by questions of identity and fulfilment when a devastating earthquake escalates conflict in both the Middle East and their own home.

(recorded 9/13/2016)