Free Library Podcast

They're back! In Andrew Shaffer's sequel to the New York Times bestseller Hope Never Dies, the bromantic thriller that saw the former president and vice president tumble down a Delaware rabbit hole of conspiracy and murder, Obama and Biden are once again drawn into a web of intrigue only they can untangle. This time, when Biden joins his old friend and boss in Chicago, a stolen BlackBerry leads to a deeper cabal that unfolds in speakeasies, high-rises, and the streets of the Windy City's South Side. Shaffer's other genre-bending bestsellers include Fifty Shames of Earl Grey, How to Survive a Sharknado and Other Unnatural Disasters, and The Day of the Donald.

(recorded 7/15/2019)

Mary Pope Osborne is the prolific author of the beloved Magic Tree House series of children's books. Featuring time-traveling brother and sister Jack and Annie, the wildly popular books have been translated into nearly three dozen languages and have sold more than 134 million copies worldwide. To the Future, Ben Franklin! finds the duo traveling back in time to meet America's most famous bespectacled inventor. Pope Osborne's sister, Natalie Pope Boyce, is her coauthor on the Magic Tree House Fact Tracker series, which give curious young readers more information about the historical time periods, people, places, and creatures encountered by the main series' young heroes.

With a special appearance by Ben Franklin himself!

(recorded 7/11/2019)

''One of the biggest names in popular fiction'' (USA Today), Jennifer Weiner is the beloved number-one New York Times bestselling author of more than a dozen novels-including Good in Bed, All Fall Down, and In Her Shoes, which was made into a major motion picture starring Cameron Diaz, Shirley MacLaine, and the city of Philadelphia. She is also the writer of two YA books about a diminutive Bigfoot and an essay collection titled Hungry Heart, an intimate and honest meditation on yearning, fulfillment, and her many identities. In her new novel, Weiner follows two sisters over the course of more than six decades as they search for their places in an ever-shifting American landscape.

(recorded 7/9/2019)

The recipient of an Overseas Press Award for her contributions to This American Life, Rachel Louise Snyder is the author of No Visible Bruises. A ''gut-wrenching'' (Esquire) and intimate investigation into the scope and root causes of one of America's most urgent social crises, it was awarded the prestigious J. Anthony Lukas Work-In-Progress Award. Her other books include Fugitive Denim: A Moving Story of People and Pants in the Borderless World of Global Trade and the novel What We've Lost Is Nothing, a chronicle of the intrigues and prejudices left in the wake of a mass burglary in a suburban Chicago neighborhood. An associate professor at American University, Snyder has published in a litany of periodicals, including the New Yorker, the Washington Post, and the New York Times Magazine.

(recorded 6/26/2019)

In conversation with Rakia Reynolds, founder and CEO of Skai Blue Media

The firebrand former editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue and the first African American ever to hold the post of beauty and health director in Condé Nast's 107-year history, Elaine Welteroth ''masterminded the reinvention of the beauty and fashion magazine as a voice for social justice'' (Chicago Tribune). Also a former editor at Glamour and Ebony, she is currently a judge on Project Runway, has written for the show Grown-ish, and has appeared as a commentator in numerous media outlets. Welteroth's New York Times bestselling manifesto/memoir More Than Enough unpacks insights on barrier breaking, identity, and race for those seeking to claim space in the workplace and the world on their own terms. 

One of the most sought-after minds in strategic communications, Rakia Reynolds is a thought leader, tastemaker, and branding expert who advises top Fortune 500 companies on creative strategy. Rakia (pronounced RA-KEY-AH) has been guiding client successes with her own distinctive brand of authenticity and expertise for over 15 years. Recently, she served as creative director for Philadelphia's bid for Amazon H2Q- which has resulted in landing Philly as a top 20 finalist from contending cities across the country. Rakia is the Founder and CEO of strategic communications agency Skai Blue Media. A non-traditional agency, Skai Blue Media is a proudly eclectic group of storytellers, brand experts, and strategists. Her team works with lifestyle, technology, non-profit, entrepreneurs and brands, and is based in Philadelphia and New York.

(recorded 6/25/2019)

On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the riots that started the fight for American LGBTQ+ rights, The Stonewall Reader highlights some of the movement's most iconic moments and figures in the years before and after those tumultuous events. Assembling archival research and first-person accounts, editor Jason Baumann-the New York Public Library's coordinator of humanities and LGBTQ collections-planned the book's release to coincide with Love & Resistance: Stonewall 50, the library's exhibition on the Stonewall riots and the ensuing gay liberation movement, open through July 14, 2019. He will be joined by Mark Segal, founder of the Philadelphia Gay News, who will discuss his contribution to the anthology, ''And Then I Danced,'' Karla Jay, author of Tales of the Lavender Menace: A Memoir of Liberation and a distinguished professor emerita at Pace University, and Joel Hall, part of the Third World Gay Revolution movement in Chicago, and a dancer, choreographer, and activist.

(recorded 6/20/2019)

In conversation with Bill Marimow

As NPR's Correspondent in Shanghai, Frank Langfitt created a free-taxi service where he offered rides in exchange for passenger's stories and candid conversation. He met a motley crew of characters whose lives he followed for years as they navigated the sea change in Chinese economic and political life. Langfitt, now NPR's London correspondent, got the idea for the free taxi while growing up outside of Philadelphia where he spent his summers off from college driving cabs and exploring his hometown. Langfitt has also served NPR's East Africa correspondent, the Baltimore Sun's reporter in Beijing, and got his start as a freelancer with the Philadelphia Inquirer.

(recorded 6/19/2019)

Esi Edugyan's novel Half-Blood Blues, the story of a World War II–era mixed-race jazz band's abducted star trumpeter, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, among other honors. She is also the author of another novel, The Second Life of Samuel Tyne, and Dreaming of Elsewhere, a nonfiction meditation on home, identity, and belonging. ''A lush, exhilarating travelogue reminiscent of Jules Verne'' (New Yorker), Edugyan's new novel is the soaring tale of a young enslaved person who slips the bonds of Barbados through the miracle of flight. Named one of the best books of the year by a variety of periodicals, its eponymous protagonist finds physical and spiritual freedom amidst an uplifting hot-air balloon sojourn from the Caribbean to the Arctic.

(recorded 6/18/2019)

In conversation with longtime radio host Steve Ross

Mark Kram Jr. won the 2013 PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing for Like Any Normal Day, the tragic story of two brothers bonded but separated by a devastating sports injury. He formerly wrote for the Philadelphia Daily News and Philadelphia Magazine and was honored by the Society of Professional Journalists with the 2011 Sigma Delta Chi Award for feature writing. Smokin' Joe explores the pugilistic and personal life of one of the sweet science's most misunderstood figures.

(recorded 6/13/2019)

In conversation with Nikil Saval, an editor of n+1 and author of Cubed: A Secret History of the Workplace

A professor of geography and urban studies at Temple University, Jacob Shell is the author of Transportation and Revolt: Pigeons, Mules, Canals, and the Vanishing Geographies of Subversive Mobility, a historical study of the connections between modes of transit and rebellion. Praised as ''fascinating'' by esteemed primatologist Frans de Waal, Shell's latest book explores the millennia-spanning working relationship between humans and elephants, journeying to the rugged and sometimes dangerous Southeast Asian forests where this partnership still exists.

(recorded 6/11/2019)