Free Library Podcast

In conversation with novelist and musician Wesley Stace

Legendary English song lyricist Bernie Taupin has worked with Elton John since 1967 and has written the lyrics for most of the iconic performer's hits, including ''Rocket Man,'' ''Bennie and the Jets,'' ''Tiny Dancer,'' ''Your Song,'' ''I'm Still Standing,'' and far too many others to list. One of the most popular, long-lasting, and critically acclaimed partnerships in music history, Taupin and John are the recipients of a lifetime achievement Grammy, an Academy Award, and the Johnny Mercer Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame, among many other accolades. Taupin has also written songs for a wide variety of other artists, including Rod Stewart, Alice Cooper, and Heart. In 2022 he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to music, and this year he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. A memoir about life, rock 'n' roll, and collaboration, Scattershot tells the inside story of the famously private writer's art, struggles, and friendships.  

Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 9/14/2023)

Jennifer Weiner is the no. 1 New York Times bestselling author of more than a dozen ''funny, fanciful, extremely poignant'' (The Boston Globe) novels, including That Summer, Mrs. Everything, Who Do You Love, All Fall Down, In Her Shoes, and Good in Bed. She is also the writer of two young adult books about a tiny Bigfoot and an essay collection titled Hungry Heart, an intimate and honest meditation on yearning, fulfillment, and her many identities. Her other work has been published in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, among other publications. In The Breakaway, Weiner tells the story of Abby Stern, a woman who finds empowerment during a group bike trip from New York City to Niagara Falls.

Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 8/30/2023)

Named one of the most anticipated books of the year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Newsweek, Jonathan Eig's King, an ''intimate, multidimensional biography'' (The Boston Globe) of Martin Luther King Jr., offers a fresh and sweeping portrait of the civil rights icon. Eig's other acclaimed biographies include Ali: A Life, winner of the PEN America Literary Award; the bestseller Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig, winner of the Casey Award; and Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season. His book The Birth of the Pill will soon be staged as a play by Chicago's Timeline Theatre. A former senior writer for The Wall Street Journal, he has appeared on the Today show, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and NPR's Fresh Air.

Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 8/29/2023)

In conversation with award-winning journalist and broadcaster Tracey Matisak

A celebrated veteran of film, television, and the Broadway stage, Sheryl Lee Ralph won an Emmy Award, a Critic's Choice Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for her comedic supporting role on ABC's Abbott Elementary. In a career that spans almost 45 years, she also originated the role of Deena Jones in Dreamgirls, for which she earned a Tony Award; starred in the shows It's a Living, New Attitude, and Moesha, for which she was voted one of TV's Favorite Moms; and starred in dramatic and comedic films with some of Hollywood's biggest stars, including Eddie Murphy, Whoopie Goldberg, Danny Glover, and Robert De Niro. In Diva 2.0, Ralph offers a guide to elevating your journey to new heights through her personal recollections of the highs and lows of stardom, and she reveals the lessons of family love that have helped her soar.

Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 8/22/2023)

James McBride is the author of the National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird, ''a brilliant romp of a novel'' (The New York Times Book Review) in which a young boy born into slavery joins abolitionist John Brown's doomed crusade. He is also the author of the bestselling memoir The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother and the biography Kill 'Em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul. His other fiction includes the novels Miracle at St. Anna, Song Yet Sung, and Deacon King Kong, which was an Oprah's Book Club pick. Also an award-winning composer, screenwriter, journalist, and saxophonist, he is a distinguished writer in residence at New York University and received the National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama in 2016. In The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, McBride tells a story of small town secrets, cultural collisions, and the sustaining love of community-in Pottstown, Pennsylvania.

Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 8/10/2023)

R. Eric Thomas is the author of the Lambda Literary Award finalist Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul America, a bestselling essay collection that tackles just what it means to be an ''other'' in the maelstrom of modern America. For four years he wrote Elle's ''Eric Reads the News,'' a daily humor column that lambasted pop culture, celebrity, and politics. Also a renowned television writer and playwright, he has garnered many awards, including the Barrymore Award and the Dramatists Guild Lanford Wilson Award. Thomas is the longtime host of The Moth StorySlams in Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, and his writing has been published in The New York Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer, among other periodicals. In his latest essay collection, he reflects on whether or not we really can go home again as he makes a new life in his hometown of Baltimore.

Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 8/8/2023)

In conversation with award-winning journalist and broadcaster Tracey Matisak

In American Whitelash, Wesley Lowery examines the cyclical pattern of violence that marks each watershed moment of racial progress in this country, most recently evidenced by the resurgence of white supremacist movements during and following Barack Obama's 2008 presidential election. Formerly The Washington Post's lead journalist in Ferguson, Missouri, during the aftermath of the murder of African American teenager Michael Brown, Lowery, together with his team, won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting for the paper's coverage of police shootings. He was a 2019 Pulitzer Prize finalist for his project ''Murder with Impunity,'' and he is currently a contributing editor at The Marshall Project and a journalist-in-residence at the CUNY Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. His New York Times bestseller, They Can't Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America's Racial Justice Movement won the Christopher Isherwood Prize for autobiographical prose by the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 7/20/2023)

Barbara Butcher is the former chief of staff and director of the Forensic Sciences Training Program at the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner (OCME). Only the second woman hired as a death investigator in Manhattan (and the first to last more than three months), during her 23 years there she investigated more than 5,500 death scenes. She also created and directed the federally funded Forensic Sciences Training Program at OCME, taught at the New York University School of Medicine and New York Medical College, consulted for governmental agencies around the world, and spoken at disaster planning conferences across the United States. In What the Dead Know, Butcher delves into the journey that led to her unlikely career, revealing some surprisingly useful life lessons and stories about some of New York's most notorious crime scenes.

''Impossible to outwit'' (Entertainment Weekly), Kate White is the New York Times bestselling author of the psychological thrillers The Second Husband, The Fiancée, and The Secrets You Keep. Her other works include the Bailey Weggins mystery series and numerous popular career advice books for women. White formerly served as editor-in-chief of five major magazines, including a 14-year stint at Cosmopolitan. In Between Two Strangers, she tells the twisting tale of a woman who receives a large inheritance from a man she'd only met once before.

Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 7/18/2023)

Join us at the Community College of Philadelphia for a celebration to conclude the One Book, One Philadelphia 2023 season. This event will feature an in-person conversation between Charles Yu and Dr. Michelle Myers, associate professor of English at the Community College of Philadelphia and one half of the poetry duo Yellow Rage.

Note: portions of the introduction and the Q&A were deleted due to challenges with the recording. (recorded 6/22/2023)

In conversation with Jim Gardner

Jake Tapper is the Washington, D.C., anchor and chief Washington correspondent for CNN, where he hosts the weekday program The Lead with Jake Tapper and the Sunday morning show State of the Union. He is the former White House correspondent for ABC News and contributor to Good Morning America, Nightline, and World News with Diane Sawyer. His many honors include an unprecedented three Merriman Smith Awards for presidential coverage. Tapper is the author of The Outpost, the tragic but inspiring true story of a small U.S. military group besieged by the Taliban. Tapper is also the author of The Hellfire Club and The Devil May Dance, political thrillers in which Charlie and Margaret Marder, a husband-and-wife team of unlikely political stars, unravel conspiracies in the halls of power of a bygone Washington, D.C. The third installment in this series, All the Demons Are Here finds Charlie and Margaret navigating some of the wildest and most dangerous events of the 1970s United States.

Jim Gardner served for 45 years as the weekday news anchor for Philadelphia's 6ABC Action News. He covered every presidential convention since 1980 and reported from the scene of breaking news around the globe. A member of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia Hall of Fame, he is the recipient of the John Cardinal Foley Award for Excellence in Communication.

Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 7/11/2023)