Free Library Podcast

A couple of songs and stories from a memorable evening with Patti Smith and Tony Shanahan--and a great audience--at the library. (recorded 11/22/2022)

In conversation with former congressman Patrick Kennedy

Neal Gabler is the author of Catching the Wind: Edward Kennedy and the Liberal Hour, a ''rich and insightful'' (The New York Times) account of the figure known as the most complex of the Kennedys. His other work includes An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood, Life the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality, and award-winning biographies of Walt Disney and Walter Winchell. The former chief nonfiction judge for the National Book Awards, Gabler has earned a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Shorenstein Fellowship, and a Woodrow Wilson Public Policy Scholarship, among other honors. The second volume in his acclaimed biography of Ted Kennedy, Against the Wind follows the ''lion of the Senate'' as he works to safeguard progressive ideals and legislation during an era of conservative dominance.

For 16 years Patrick J. Kennedy served Rhode Island's First Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he was the lead sponsor of the landmark Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act. He also authored and co-sponsored dozens of bills aimed at treating neurological and psychiatric disorders and served on numerous committees and subcommittees, including the House Appropriations Committee, the Subcommittee on Labor, and the Subcommittee on Veterans Affairs. The founder of The Kennedy Forum, a nonprofit dedicated to transforming mental health and addiction care, Kennedy is also the founder of the parity rights advocacy group Don't Deny Me, the co-founder of the online learning platform Psych Hub, and is the co-chair of the Action Alliance's National Response to COVID-19, among many other public health groups. In 2015 he co-authored with Stephen Fried the New York Times bestseller A Common Struggle, a roadmap to health equity in the United States based on his personal and professional experiences.

(recorded 11/21/2022)

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

Historian Kerri K. Greenidge is the author of Black Radical: The Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter, a portrait of the post-Reconstruction civil rights activist. A New York Times Critics Top Books of 2019, it won the 2020 Mark Lynton History Prize. Greenidge is a professor at Tufts University, where she is co-director of the African American Trail Project and the interim director of the American Studies program. Formerly a teacher at Boston University and the University of Massachusetts, she has conducted historical research for PBS, the Wiley-Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature, and the Oxford African American Studies Center. In her latest book, she offers a revealing counternarrative to the story of the famed abolitionist Grimke sisters that accounts for their long-ignored Black relatives. (recorded 11/16/2022)

In conversation with Varshini Prakash

Active in grassroot campaigns for social change for more than seven decades, sociologist and Quaker organizer George Lakey was first arrested at a civil rights demonstration in 1963 and most recently arrested just last year during a march for climate justice. At 84, he only recently retired from Swarthmore College, where he was the Eugene M. Lang Visiting Professor for Issues of Social Change. He is the author of several books, including Viking Economics: How the Scandinavians Got It Right-and How We Can, Too; How We Win: A Guide to Nonviolent Direct Action Campaigning; and Are We Done Fighting?: Building Understanding in a World of Hate and Division, which he co-wrote with Matthew Legge. His many honors include the Peace Educator of the Year Award, the Paul Robeson Social Justice Award, and the Martin Luther King Peace Award. A memoir about the struggles and triumphs of a life spent on the front lines of social movements, Dancing with History tells the story of Lakey's singular life.

Varshini Prakash is the executive director and co-founder of Sunrise, a youth-led political nonprofit dedicated to stopping climate change and electing leaders who promote environmental health for future generations. Named to the 2019 TIME 100 list and a co-winner of the 2019 Sierra Club John Muir Award, she is co-editor of the book Winning the Green New Deal: Why We Must, How We Can. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Democracy Now, and The Washington Post, among other places. (recorded 11/15/2022)

In conversation with Jason Freeman, author events producer and editor

Ralph Macchio is best known for his portrayal of Daniel LaRusso in the 1984 film The Karate Kid. This iconic piece of pop culture has spawned a slew of sequels and the No. 1 ranked Netflix show Cobra Kai, and has entered such phrases as ''wax on, wax off'' and ''sweep the leg, Johnny'' into the cultural lexicon. Also acclaimed for his performances in Francis Ford Coppola's The Outsiders and the classic My Cousin Vinny, Macchio is a director and producer with a diverse list of credits. In his new memoir, he tells the stories of his relationships with beloved co-stars such as Noriyuki ''Pat'' Morita and William Zabka, the creation and enduring power of The Karate Kid, and how he keeps a Daniel-esque crane-kick balance in his personal life.  (recorded 11/10/2022)

Attorney, advocate, and podcaster Rabia Chaudry is the author of the New York Times bestseller Adnan's Story, a true-crime analysis into the 2000 conviction of a young Baltimorean for the murder of his ex-girlfriend. Also the executive producer of The Case Against Adnan Syed, the HBO documentary series based on the book, Chaudry is the co-host and co-producer of the popular podcasts Undisclosed, The 45th, and The Hidden Djinn. In addition to earning fellowships from the Aspen Institute, the Truman National Security Project, and the Shalom Hartman Institute, she is the founder and president of the Safe Nation Collaborative, an organization that promotes education about the Islamic faith. In her new memoir, Chaudry tells an intimate story of body positivity, societal expectations, and growing up in a loving but overly concerned Pakistani immigrant family. (recorded 11/9/2022)

In conversation with Colum McCann

''The heir to Nabokov'' (The Sunday Telegraph), Irish novelist John Banville won the Man Booker Prize for The Sea, a story of loss and the fickle nature of memory. His many other novels include The Book of Evidence, Mrs. Osmond, The Untouchable, and April in Spain. He has earned the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Irish PEN Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, and the Prince of Asturias Award, Spain's most prestigious literary honor. A fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Banville is also an acclaimed playwright, nonfiction writer, screenwriter, and crime novelist. In The Singularities, a mysterious man with a borrowed name returns to the estate of his youth to find it occupied by the descendants of a famous but controversial scientist.

Colum McCann won the 2009 National Book Award for Let the Great World Spin. His other novels include Song Dogs, This Side of Brightness, and the Man Booker Prize-shortlisted TransAtlantic . His most recent novel, Apeirogon, was a New York Times bestseller and won the Prix Montluc, the Elle Prize, and the Jewish National Book Award.The Thomas Hunter Writer in Residence at Hunter College in New York and the co-founder of the non-profit global story exchange organization Narrative 4, McCann has written for The New Yorker, Esquire, and the Paris Review, among other publications. (recorded 11/4/2022)

Andrew K. Diemer is the author of The Politics of Black Citizenship: Free African Americans in the Mid-Atlantic Borderland, 1817–1863, an examination of the ways in which free Black Philadelphians and Baltimoreans fought to defend their liberty before and during the Civil War. A history professor at Towson University, his articles and reviews have been published in the Journal of Military History, Slavery and Abolition, The Journal of the Civil War, and the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, among other publications. Diemer's latest book recounts the extraordinary life of William Still, a monumental but until-now relatively obscure Black abolitionist who devoted his life to conducting the crucial Philadelphia section of the Underground Railroad.   

(recorded 11/3/2022)

Ellis Wachs Endowed Lecture

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

A former longtime columnist and foreign correspondent for The New York Times, Anand Giridharadas is the bestselling author of Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World, which was selected to numerous publications' ''best books of the year'' lists. His other books include The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas, winner of the New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism; and India Calling: An Intimate Portrait of a Nation's Remaking. A regular on-air analyst for MSNBC, he has taught journalism at New York University and contributed articles to The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and TIME magazine. In The Persuaders, Giridharadas offers insider accounts of the dissenting politicians, activists, and everyday citizens working to heal and safeguard U.S. democracy. (recorded 11/2/2022)

In conversation with Valerie Erwin

Charleston, South Carolina–based Kardea Brown hosts the Food Network's Delicious Miss Brown and OWN's The Great Soul Food Cookoff. She also is the creator of the pop-up New Gullah Supper Club, where her cuisine pays homage to her grandmother's cooking and her Gullah/Geechee heritage, which describes a distinct African American group that has preserved much of its West African culture in the coastal areas of South Carolina and Georgia. She has also appeared on Beat Bobby Flay, Chopped Junior, and Family Food Showdown, among other culinary programs. In her first ever cookbook, Brown shares her multi-generational recipes for Low Country favorites, accentuated with helpful tips, family anecdotes, and beautiful photos.

The longtime owner of the Low Country-inspired restaurant Geechee Girl, longtime Philly chef Valerie Erwin was also the general manager of the innovative EAT Café. These ventures have been featured in The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Magazine, and on The Food Network and NPR. She currently managers Farm to Families, a produce access program for children; serves on the board of C-CAP, a culinary scholarship program for high school students; and is a member of the board of the anti-homelessness organization Philadelphia Interfaith Hospitality Network.

(recorded 11/1/2022)