Free Library Podcast

Bridgett M. Davis is the author of Into the Go-Slow, the acclaimed story of a young woman traveling from Detroit to Nigeria as she mourns the death of her sister, and Shifting Through Neutral, a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. She is a professor of journalism and the writing professions at Baruch College and Director of the Sidney Harman Writer-in-Residence Program at CUNY. Davis's newest book is a tribute to her mother, a jill-of-all-trades bookie, banker, wife, and parent who bucked the ‘60s and ‘70s decay of Detroit to lead her family into prosperity.

(recorded 1/29/2019)

In conversation with Beth Kephart, the award-winning author of twenty-four books, including Going Over, Handling the Truth: On the Writing of Memoir, and Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia's Schuylkill River.

Delivering ''an eviscerating, raw honesty'' (New York Times Book Review), writer's writer Dani Shapiro is the author of the memoirs Devotion, Still Writing, and Hourglass. Her five novels include Black & White and Family History. She is a cofounder of the Sirenland Writers Conference and a former writing teacher at Columbia University, NYU, and Wesleyan University. A story of identity, family secrets, and love, Inheritance charts the staggering implications of Shapiro's discovery that her father wasn't her biological parent.

(recorded 1/22/2019)

In conversation with Beth Kephart, the award-winning author of twenty-four books, including Going Over, Handling the Truth: On the Writing of Memoir, and Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia's Schuylkill River.

Delivering ''an eviscerating, raw honesty'' (New York Times Book Review), writer's writer Dani Shapiro is the author of the memoirs Devotion, Still Writing, and Hourglass. Her five novels include Black & White and Family History. She is a cofounder of the Sirenland Writers Conference and a former writing teacher at Columbia University, NYU, and Wesleyan University. A story of identity, family secrets, and love, Inheritance charts the staggering implications of Shapiro's discovery that her father wasn't her biological parent.

(recorded 1/22/2019)

Kristen Roupenian holds a PhD in English from Harvard and an MFA from the University of Michigan. Originally published in The New Yorker in 2017, her story ''Cat Person'' garnered national attention for its frank depiction of dating in the digital age. Included in The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2018, it is now the cornerstone of Roupenian's debut story collection. Genre-leaping and theme-bouncing from the supernatural to the super mundane, You Know You Want This explores sexuality, Schadenfreude, and gender power struggles.

(recorded 1/15/2019)

Kristen Roupenian holds a PhD in English from Harvard and an MFA from the University of Michigan. Originally published in The New Yorker in 2017, her story ''Cat Person'' garnered national attention for its frank depiction of dating in the digital age. Included in The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2018, it is now the cornerstone of Roupenian's debut story collection. Genre-leaping and theme-bouncing from the supernatural to the super mundane, You Know You Want This explores sexuality, Schadenfreude, and gender power struggles.

(recorded 1/15/2019)

In conversation with Carlin Romano, Critic-at-Large, The Chronicle of Higher Education, former literary critic The Philadelphia Inquirer and author of America the Philosophical.

Celebrated internationally for a prolific, ''achingly beautiful'' (Los Angeles Times Book Review) body of work across a variety of genres, Chinese émigré Ha Jin is the author of a score of novels, volumes of poetry, story collections, and a book of essays. His many honors include the National Book Award, two PEN/Faulkner Awards, the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, and election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Jin's books include Waiting, Under the Red Flag, and War Trash. The Banished Immortal is a biography of the 8th-century, Tang Dynasty poet whose verses remain an intrinsic element of Chinese language and culture.

(recorded 1/17/2019)

In conversation with Carlin Romano, Critic-at-Large, The Chronicle of Higher Education, former literary critic The Philadelphia Inquirer and author of America the Philosophical.

Celebrated internationally for a prolific, ''achingly beautiful'' (Los Angeles Times Book Review) body of work across a variety of genres, Chinese émigré Ha Jin is the author of a score of novels, volumes of poetry, story collections, and a book of essays. His many honors include the National Book Award, two PEN/Faulkner Awards, the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, and election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Jin's books include Waiting, Under the Red Flag, and War Trash. The Banished Immortal is a biography of the 8th-century, Tang Dynasty poet whose verses remain an intrinsic element of Chinese language and culture.

(recorded 1/17/2019)

Michele Norris is a Peabody Award-winning journalist, founder of The Race Card Project and Executive Director of The Bridge, The Aspen Institute's new program on race, identity, connectivity and inclusion. For more than a decade Norris served as a host of NPR's ''All Things Considered'' where she interviewed world leaders, American presidents, Nobel laureates, leading thinkers and groundbreaking artists. She has also produced in-depth profiles, interviews and series for NPR News programs as well as special reports for National Geographic, Time Magazine, ABC News and Lifetime Television. Norris created The Race Card Project, an initiative to foster a wider conversation about race in America, after the publication of her family memoir, The Grace of Silence.

About the Legacy of the Thirteenth Amendment Mini-Series

The Rosenbach collection includes an 1865 commemorative copy - signed by members of both houses of the United States Congress - of the proposal for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery. This series of programs will examine the historical circumstances of the amendment's passage and the complicated legacy of the amendment, from Jim Crow to mass incarceration.

(recorded 1/9/2019)

Michele Norris is a Peabody Award-winning journalist, founder of The Race Card Project and Executive Director of The Bridge, The Aspen Institute's new program on race, identity, connectivity and inclusion. For more than a decade Norris served as a host of NPR's ''All Things Considered'' where she interviewed world leaders, American presidents, Nobel laureates, leading thinkers and groundbreaking artists. She has also produced in-depth profiles, interviews and series for NPR News programs as well as special reports for National Geographic, Time Magazine, ABC News and Lifetime Television. Norris created The Race Card Project, an initiative to foster a wider conversation about race in America, after the publication of her family memoir, The Grace of Silence.

About the Legacy of the Thirteenth Amendment Mini-Series

The Rosenbach collection includes an 1865 commemorative copy - signed by members of both houses of the United States Congress - of the proposal for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery. This series of programs will examine the historical circumstances of the amendment's passage and the complicated legacy of the amendment, from Jim Crow to mass incarceration.

(recorded 1/9/2019)

The Chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission from 2009-2012, Dr. Gregory Jaczko oversaw the U.S. government's response to Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster. An NRC commissioner from 2005-2009 and former science policy advisor to Senator Harry Reid, he is now an adjunct professor at Princeton University and Georgetown University, and has created a clean energy development company. In Confessions of a Rogue Nuclear Regulator, Jaczko blows the lid off the public and private controversies surrounding nuclear energy and explains how the U.S. government has allowed it to endanger our lives.

(recorded 1/14/2019)