Free Library Podcast

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In conversation with longtime broadcaster and journalist, Tracey Matisak

One of Forbes' 21 new American money masters, Amanda Steinberg is the founder and CEO of DailyWorth, a website devoted to helping women manage their financial lives. Launched from a Philadelphia attic office in 2009, its newsletter now reaches more than one million subscribers. She has discussed personal finance on a number of news outlets, including Good Morning America, CNN, Today, and MSNBC. In Worth It, Steinberg outlines the vital financial information women need to create a healthy financial future, and draws a direct line to the ways women can use money as a source of personal freedom and power.  (recorded 2/21/2017)

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Named the first director of the Program in African American History at the Library Company of Philadelphia, Erica Armstrong Dunbar is a professor of Black American Studies and History at the University of Delaware. She has contributed commentary to several documentaries, including Philadelphia: The Great Experiment and The Abolitionists and is the author of A Fragile Freedom: African American Women and Emancipation in the Antebellum City. In her new book, Dunbar tells the story of the young slave who risked her life to escape servitude under the first American President.

(recorded 2/23/2017)

Watch the video here.

Named the first director of the Program in African American History at the Library Company of Philadelphia, Erica Armstrong Dunbar is a professor of Black American Studies and History at the University of Delaware. She has contributed commentary to several documentaries, including Philadelphia: The Great Experiment and The Abolitionists and is the author of A Fragile Freedom: African American Women and Emancipation in the Antebellum City. In her new book, Dunbar tells the story of the young slave who risked her life to escape servitude under the first American President.

(recorded 2/23/2017)

Watch the video here.

In conversation with John Timpane

Elizabeth LaBan is the author of The Restaurant Critic's Wife, The Tragedy Paper, and The Grandparents Handbook. She teaches fiction writing at the University of Pennsylvania and her work has appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer, New York Newsday, and The Times-Picayune, among other publications. A former high school English teacher in Camden, New Jersey, Melissa DePino is the founder and editorial director of Leapfrog Group, a branding and marketing firm for nonprofits. Pretty Little World tells the story of three families who tear down the walls between each other's Philadelphia row homes and are forced to reimagine their relationships.  (recorded 2/27/2017)

Watch the video here.

In conversation with John Timpane

Elizabeth LaBan is the author of The Restaurant Critic's Wife, The Tragedy Paper, and The Grandparents Handbook. She teaches fiction writing at the University of Pennsylvania and her work has appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer, New York Newsday, and The Times-Picayune, among other publications. A former high school English teacher in Camden, New Jersey, Melissa DePino is the founder and editorial director of Leapfrog Group, a branding and marketing firm for nonprofits. Pretty Little World tells the story of three families who tear down the walls between each other's Philadelphia row homes and are forced to reimagine their relationships.  (recorded 2/27/2017)

Watch the video here.

Christina Baker Kline is the author of The Orphan Train, the no. 1 New York Times bestseller and 2015 One Book, One Philadelphia selection. Her other novels include Bird in Hand, The Way Life Should Be, and Sweetwater. She has taught writing at some of the country's most prestigious universities and contributed articles to the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Psychology Today, among many other publications. A Piece of the World weaves fact and fiction into a portrait of the mysterious woman featured in Andrew Wyeth's iconic painting Christina's World.  (recorded 2/28/2017)

Watch the video here.

Christina Baker Kline is the author of The Orphan Train, the no. 1 New York Times bestseller and 2015 One Book, One Philadelphia selection. Her other novels include Bird in Hand, The Way Life Should Be, and Sweetwater. She has taught writing at some of the country's most prestigious universities and contributed articles to the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Psychology Today, among many other publications. A Piece of the World weaves fact and fiction into a portrait of the mysterious woman featured in Andrew Wyeth's iconic painting Christina's World.  (recorded 2/28/2017)

Watch the video here.

In conversation with Laura Kovacs, associate director, author events

Popularly beloved as ''Judy Blue Eyes,'' eclectic singer-songwriter Judy Collins has delighted audiences for decades with such albums as A Maid of Constant Sorrow and Wildflowers. The latter album's lead single, ''Both Sides, Now''-penned for her by friend Joni Mitchell-brought her worldwide fame. She is a four-time Grammy nominee, a documentary Oscar nominee, and is currently a UNICEF representative on the campaign for the abolition of landmines. In Cravings, Collins tells the story of her charged history with food, the countless diet plans and weight-loss gurus she encountered over the years, and the measured solution she found to her addiction.  (recorded 3/1/2017)

Watch the video here.

In conversation with Laura Kovacs, associate director, author events

Popularly beloved as ''Judy Blue Eyes,'' eclectic singer-songwriter Judy Collins has delighted audiences for decades with such albums as A Maid of Constant Sorrow and Wildflowers. The latter album's lead single, ''Both Sides, Now''-penned for her by friend Joni Mitchell-brought her worldwide fame. She is a four-time Grammy nominee, a documentary Oscar nominee, and is currently a UNICEF representative on the campaign for the abolition of landmines. In Cravings, Collins tells the story of her charged history with food, the countless diet plans and weight-loss gurus she encountered over the years, and the measured solution she found to her addiction.  (recorded 3/1/2017)

Watch the video here.

In conversation with Carmen Machado, author of the forthcoming story collection Her Body and Other Parties.

Yiyun Li's ''remarkable'' (The Washington Post) debut fiction collection, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the PEN/Hemingway Award, and the Guardian First Book Award. She was a 2010 MacArthur Fellow, one of Granta's 21 best young American novelists under 35, and one of The New Yorker's top 20 writers under 40. She is also the author of the novel The Vagrants and the story collection Gold Boy, Emerald Girl. In her first nonfiction book, she weaves her identities as author, mother, and immigrant, and her treasured literary influences to confront questions about selfhood, art, and recovery. 

(recorded 3/2/2017)