Free Library Podcast

Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Endowed Lecture

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

Annette Gordon-Reed won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, a history of the African American family whose close blood ties to Thomas Jefferson had been redacted from history. Her other books include Race on Trial: Law and Justice in American History and a biography of Andrew Johnson, and with Peter S. Onuf she co-authored ''Most Blessed of the Patriarchs'': Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination, a revealing character study that definitively clarifies the philosophy of the man from Monticello. The Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University, Gordon-Reed's honors include the National Humanities Medal, a MacArthur ''Genius Grant,'' and the Frederick Douglass Prize. In her new book, the historian and Texas native examines the Lone Star State roots of Juneteenth and its continuing importance to the fight for racial equity.

Books with signed book plates available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop

(recorded 5/10/2021)

In conversation with Dennis Overbye, science reporter for the New York Times and author of the books Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos and Einstein in Love

''The single best explainer of abstruse science in the world today'' (Washington Post), Brian Greene is a Professor of Physics and Mathematics at Columbia University. His New York Times bestsellers include The Fabric of the Cosmos, The Hidden Reality, and The Elegant Universe, which later served as the basis of two Peabody and Emmy Award–winning NOVA series. Renowned for his watershed discoveries in superstring theory, Greene is the cofounder of the World Science Festival, the Director of Columbia University's Center for Theoretical Physics, and a popular cultural figure. Until the End of Time is not just an exploration of the cosmos but also a reflection about our place within the ever-expanding vastness of the universe.

(recorded 5/6/2021)

In conversation with Selena Coppock, standup comedian, writer, author, and creator and voice of @NYTVows, the parody Twitter and Instagram account that lampoons the New York Times Wedding section

A former writer and editor at the New York Times, Cate Doty took on many different projects during her 15 years at the Times. Covering presidential campaigns, food, business, and New York City, she finally found a natural home in the wedding announcements section. Against the backdrop of cutthroat high-society figures, the politics of an ever-changing society, and the overwhelming details in the announcements she wrote, Doty's own peculiar love story began. Mergers and Acquisitions is both an intimate and eye-opening memoir of her experience and a peek inside the odd and esteemed institution of marriage itself. A journalism professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Doty has also contributed writing to Southern Living and Our State, among other periodicals.

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

(recorded 5/4/2021)

Celebrated for his skill at ''elucidating crucial episodes in the history of art and architecture'' (Time), Ross King is the author of many bestselling nonfiction books that peak behind the curtain of history of the studios, workshops, and inner toils and torments of some of the world's greatest artists. These works include Brunelleschi's Dome, Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, Leonardo and the Last Supper, and Mad Enchantment-a portrait of the struggles churning just beneath the tranquil surface of Monet's iconic water lilies. In his new book, King conjures a revelatory vision of the remarkable 15th century Florentine merchant, craftsman, and intellectual Vespasiano da Bisticci, who is often referred to as ''the king of the world's booksellers.''

Books available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop

(recorded 4/29/2021)

Yusef Komunyakaa won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Neon Vernacular, a collection of poems that spoke about the realities of the Vietnam War, of which he was a veteran. His other collections include Warhorses, Taboo, and The Emperor of Water Clocks. The Distinguished Senior Poet in New York University's creative writing program and a former Chancellor of the American Academy of Poets, he is the recipient of the 2011 Wallace Stevens Award, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, and the William Faulkner Prize, among other honors. Full of Komunyakaa's signature jazz–like meter and moving imagery, Everyday Mojo Songs of Earth includes both new work and selected poems from the last two decades.

Books available to order through the Joseph Fox Bookshop

(recorded 4/28/2021)

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

Natalie Cohn Memorial Lecture

A ''hero on the left'' (Washington Post) for her vocal support of progressive legislation and issues, Mazie K. Hirono is the only immigrant and the first Asian American woman in the United States Senate. Hawaii's junior Senator since 2013, she formerly served the Aloha State in the U.S. House of Representatives, as its lieutenant governor, and as a State Representative. At the age of seven, Senator Hirono emigrated with her mother and brother from rural Japan aboard the President Cleveland and crossed the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii. Charting her journey from a single room in a Honolulu boarding house to the Washington, D.C. halls of power, Heart of Fire is Senator Hirono's story of resilience, speaking truth to power, and her hard-fought advocacy for the most vulnerable Americans. (recorded 4/26/2021)

Carole Phillips Memorial Lecture

In conversation with singer, songwriter, and novelist Wesley Stace

Acclaimed for ''her hauntingly beautiful voice and fearless experimentation'' (NPR), singer–-songwriter Rickie Lee Jones has remained one of music's most intriguing figures for more than four decades. Combining rock, jazz, blues, and pop, her 18 albums have garnered two Grammys and a multigenerational fanbase. A sought–-after collaborator, Jones has been a guest vocalist in more than a dozen other musicians' works. She is also a celebrated record producer, actor, and narrator. Last Chance Texaco is an intimate account of her unsteady childhood, the pleasures and pitfalls of early success, her battle against substance abuse, and her enduring position as a woman in rock and roll.

Books will be mailed after the event.

Please allow 2 - 3 weeks for delivery.

(recorded 4/22/2021)

Natalie Diaz is the author of When My Brother Was an Aztec, an ''ambitious . . . beautiful'' (New York Times) American Book Award–winning poetry collection that ruminates on her sibling's drug addiction. A former professional basketball player, an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian community, and an English professor at Arizona State University, she is the recipient of a Lannan Literary Fellowship, a MacArthur Fellowship, and the Nimrod/Hardman Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry. In her National Book Award nominated sophomore collection, Diaz transcends the horrors committed by America upon Indigenous people to find sublimity amongst vistas of words, the reversal of erasure, and the choice to love.

Acclaimed for celebrating identity, lineage, and the subversion of traditional notions of power, poet Denice Frohman has performed at the Obama White House, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Apollo, among a multitude of other venues. A former Women of the World Poetry Slam Champion, she has published work in Nepantla: An Anthology Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color, What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the Age of Trump, and the Acentos Review, among many other places. Frohman is a former director at the Philly Youth Poetry Movement, has received fellowships and grants from numerous arts institutions, and has been prominently featured in BuzzFeed, Cosmopolitan, and Refinery29.

Natalie Diaz's and Denice Frohman's books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop

(recorded 4/21/2021)

In conversation with Chris Jackson, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief, One World; and  Khadijah Costley White, Assistant Professor in the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at Rutgers University

Winning on a platform of prison reform in a city notorious for its high incarceration rates, Larry Krasner was elected District Attorney of Philadelphia in 2018 with more than 50% of the vote. He worked as a public defender and civil rights lawyer in Philadelphia for more than 30 years before deciding that he wanted to help his city from within. Featured in an eight-part PBS documentary about his office's efforts to reform criminal justice in Philly, Krasner has been featured in such outlets such as the New York Times, CNN, Newsweek, and CBS News. In For the People, he outlines a transformative vision for the ways in which citizens can begin to dismantle and rebuild an unjust legal system.

Books available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop (recorded 4/20/2021)

In conversation with Carrie Rickey, writer and former film critic for The Philadelphia Inquirer

Phillip Lopate's ''observant, elegiac, and far-reaching'' (New York Times) essay collections include Bachelorhood, Against Joie de Vivre, and Portrait Inside My Head. His other acclaimed work includes a diverse array of travel writing, film and architectural criticism, poetry, fiction, and memoir which has appeared in periodicals such as Paris Review and Esquire. A professor of nonfiction writing at Columbia University's MFA program, Lopate is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts Ggrants, and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In The Golden Age of the American Essay, Lopate anthologizes some of the most brilliant writing produced in the inspiring but tumultuous decades following World War II.

Books available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop

(recorded 4/15/2021)