Free Library Podcast

In conversation with Tracey Matisak, award-winning broadcaster and journalist

The first Black woman CEO of a Fortune 500 company, Ursula M. Burns headed Xerox from 2009 to 2016. She was the chair and CEO of VEON from 2017 to early 2020, and previously served as a senior advisor to Nestlé, Exxon Mobil, and The Ford Foundation, among many other positions. A prominent figure in the Obama White House, she is currently a member of Uber's board of directors. Forbes ranked Burns in 2014 as one of the most powerful women in the world. Where You Are Is Not Who You Are charts Burns's story from tenement housing on Manhattan's Lower East Side to the halls of corporate power while also offering a critique of the excesses of big business.

U.S. orders only. All others will be refunded.

(recorded 6/15/2021)

Pine Tree Foundation Endowed Lecture

In conversation with Dr. Steven Larson, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

Acclaimed for his ''exceptional empathy and care'' (Boston Globe) as a physician, anthropologist, and infectious-disease expert, Paul Farmer is the Kolokotrones University Professor and Chair of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard University and is chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital. He is also a founding director of Partners In Health, an international non-profit organization that provides medical care and advocacy for those living in poverty. The recipient of the Public Welfare Medal from the National Academy of Sciences, a MacArthur Fellowship, and honorary doctorates from numerous universities, Farmer is the author of Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues and Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor. In Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds, he melds firsthand reportage, science, and advocacy into a narrative account of 2014's deadly Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea.

Books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop

(recorded 6/14/2021)

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

Acclaimed for bringing ''a clear-eyed, investigative fearlessness'' (The Washington Post) to a diverse range of topics, Lawrence Wright is a longtime staff writer for The New Yorker. He won the Pulitzer Prize for The Looming Tower, an in-depth history of the rise of violent extremism and the intelligence failures that might have prevented the 9/11 attacks. His many other nonfiction works include books about different communities and their experiences in Texas, the secretive world of Scientology, and contemporary American religious figures. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Society of American Historians, Wright has written and performed two one-person plays and co-produced the Emmy-winning documentary Going Clear. Wright recently published The End of October, a bestselling novel about a devastating medical crisis. The Plague Year is about the impact of Covid-19, the initially slow government response to this crisis, and the medical professionals working to save lives and educate the public.

U.S. orders only. All others will be refunded.

(recorded 6/11/2021)

In conversation with Tracey Matisak, award-winning journalist and broadcaster

In appreciation of the George S. Pepper Society

Carol Anderson is the author of the National Book Critics Circle Award winner White Rage, ''a riveting and disturbing history'' (The Nation) of white people and how they worked against Black advancement since Reconstruction. Her other books include Bourgeois Radicals; Eyes off the Prize; and One Person, No Vote, which was longlisted for the National Book Award and was a finalist for the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award. The Charles Howard Candler Professor and Chair of African American Studies at Emory University and a member of the Advisory Board of the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative, Anderson has earned fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the National Humanities Center, among many others. Her latest book offers a sobering look at the ways in which all levels of the government, white people, and U.S. courts have consistently weaponized the Second Amendment since its creation to deny African Americans their rights and citizenship.

Please allow three weeks for delivery.

U.S. orders only. All others will be refunded.

(recorded 6/10/2021)

In conversation with Imani Perry

Kiese Laymon's Heavy, a coming-of-age memoir that begins in Jackson, Mississippi, was named a Best Book of 2018 by the New York Times, NPR, and the Washington Post, among other media outlets. The Hubert McAlexander Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Mississippi and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and Oxford American, Laymon is also the author of the essay collection How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America. His latest work is a revised edition of his 2013 debut novel, Long Division. "A little fantasy, a little mystery, and a lot hilarious'' (Atlanta Journal-Constitution), it follows Citoyen ''City'' Coldson, a time-hopping teen seeking answers in the disappearance of a local girl in his grandmother's Gulf Coast community.

Imani Perry is the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies and faculty associate in the Program in Law and Public Affairs and Gender and Sexuality Studies at Princeton. She is the author of six books, most recently the award-winning titles, Breathe: A Letter to My Sons and Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry.

Books with signed book plates are available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop

(recorded 6/8/2021)

In conversation with Joe Klein, Time political columnist and bestselling author of six books including Primary Colors and most recently Politics Lost

Employing ''his narrative gifts and vivid prose'' (The Washington Post) to chronicle some of the world's most extreme environments, Sebastian Junger is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Storm, War, Fire, Tribe, and A Death in Belmont. A contributing editor to Vanity Fair and a special correspondent at ABC News, he has earned a Peabody Award and the National Magazine Award. His debut documentary film, Restrepo, which was co-directed with the late Tim Hetherington, won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and was nominated for an Oscar. In his new book, Junger ruminates on the tenets and contradictions of freedom by way of a year spent with three friends traveling along the East Coast's railroad lines.

U.S. orders only. All others will be refunded.

(recorded 6/1/2021)

In conversation with Christina Baker Kline, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Orphan Train, A Piece of the World, and The Exiles

Michael Punke is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Revenant, ''a superb revenge story'' (The Washington Post Book World) set in the 19th century U.S. frontier that was the basis for the Academy Award–winning film of the same name. His other writing includes nonfiction books about the efforts to save the buffalo and an infamous 1917 Montana mining disaster. Currently the Vice President for Global Public Policy for Amazon Web Services, Punke formerly served as the U.S. Ambassador to the World Trade Organization in Geneva, an adjunct professor, and a history correspondent for the Montana Quarterly. In his new novel, Punke investigates an important but little-known 1866 conflict between the U.S. Army and the Lakota tribes of present-day Wyoming.

Books with signed book plates available from the Joseph Fox Bookshop

(recorded 6/7/2021)

In conversation with Nicole Galland, historical novelist and author of Master of the Revels and creator of Shakespeare for the Masses

With a ''gift for combining intricate, engrossing plots with full-bodied characterizations'' (Washington Post), Irish–British novelist Maggie O'Farrell is the author of After You'd Gone, The Distance Between Us, The Hand That First Held Mine, and Instructions for a Heatwave, among several others. A former journalist in Hong Kong, deputy literary editor of the Independent on Sunday, and creative writing teacher, she is also a bestselling author. O'Farrell's work has won the Somerset Maugham Award, the Betty Trask Award, the Costa Award, and has been translated into more than 30 languages. Hamnet, winner of the 2020 Women's Prize for Fiction, tells the Elizabethan-era tale of William Shakespeare's family including his force–of–nature wife, Shakespeare's journey as a rising star, and the shared grief over the loss of their son Hamnet whose name Shakespeare would later use in his play Hamlet.

Books available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop

(recorded 6/3/2021)

In conversation with Nydia Han, Consumer Investigative Reporter and co-anchor of 6ABC Action News Sunday mornings

Kevin Kwan is the author of Crazy Rich Asians, "a lively, generous story of shallow extravagance and human devotion'' (The Boston Globe) involving Rachel Chu, a young Chinese-American woman, and her trip to meet her boyfriend's extremely wealthy family living in Singapore. An international bestseller that was translated into 30 languages and the opening volume of the trilogy of books including China Rich Girlfriend and Rich People Problems, Crazy Rich Asians was adapted into a mega-successful major motion picture. In Sex and Vanity, a Good Morning America Book Club selection, Kwan spins the tale of an engaged woman who finds herself falling for a frustrating but irresistible Asian American man, despite the objections of her family.

U.S. orders only. All others will be refunded.

(recorded 6/2/2021)

In conversation with Britt James, founder of Philly Unknown

In 2015, British hairstylist Joshua Coombes hit the streets of London with a pair of scissors and an extraordinary idea-that giving free haircuts to those who are experiencing homelessness could do more than simply change their outward appearances. He began posting their photos before and after their haircut and personal stories on Instagram in an effort to remove the stigmas many associate with homelessness. Through this mission's worldwide attention and success he founded the #DoSomethingForNothing movement, which seeks to inspire people to donate their skills and time to those in need. Full of never-before-seen photos and writing, Coombes's book urges us to find our shared humanity through universal themes of acceptance, love, and perseverance.

Books available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop

(recorded 5/30/2021)