How I Library

In episode 37 of the “How I Library” podcast, show host Phil Morehart from the American Library Association speaks with author Molly Guptill Manning about her new book, “A Librarian’s War: The Man Who Fought World War II with Books and Brought the Joy of Reading to Millions.”

Manning is a historian, curator, and associate professor of law at New York Law School whose work centers on the power of the written word. Her books include “The War of Words: How America's GI Journalists Battled Censorship and Propaganda to Help Win World War II,” “When Books Went to War: The Stories That Helped Us Win World War II,” and “The Myth of Ephraim Tutt: Arthur Train and His Great Literary Hoax.” Manning’s new book, “A Librarian’s War: The Man Who Fought World War II with Books and Brought the Joy of Reading to Millions,” tells the story of Ray Trautman, the Chief Librarian of the U.S. Army during WWII.

A lifelong champion of books and literacy who moved in the same circles as Ernest Hemingway, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Presidents Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and Truman, Trautman put nearly half a billion books and other reading materials into the hands of U.S. military members serving around the world during WWII. It can be argued that no one in American history has made a greater contribution to the reading habits of Americans than Trautman, and the ripple effects of his work can still be felt today.

“A Librarian’s War” is also a riveting look at a world torn apart by war and how books and reading helped boost morale both on the battlefield and on the homefront.

Manning joins the podcast to discuss the writing of “A Librarian’s War,” Trautman’s life and legacy, her thoughts on book bans, and more.

In this special episode commemorating the 150th anniversary of the American Library Association (ALA), which was founded on October 6, 1876, Phil Morehart from ALA and I Love Libraries speaks with one of the key figures in the history of the Association and librarianship, Dr. Betty Turock.

Turock, who served as ALA President from 1995 to 1996, was a faculty member at the Rutgers School of Communication and Information for 22 years. She’s authored more than 100 books, articles, and reports, and was the founding editor of “The Bottom Line,” a journal dedicated to the study of library finances. And that just scratches the surface of her amazing life, one that includes being a champion of diversity in librarianship; an early proponent of the internet and equity of access to information for everyone; working with the Black Panther Party in the 1960s; speaking before Congress and the FCC on dozens of occasions; being profiled in the New York Times; and so much more.

Turock joins the podcast to discuss her incredible life and career, her legacy, her thoughts on the future of librarianship and ALA at 150 years, and more.

In episode 35 of the “How I Library” podcast, show host Phil Morehart from the American Library Association speaks with husband-and-wife team of filmmaker John Carpenter and comic book publisher Sandy King about their award-winning publishing company Storm King Comics.

John Carpenter is the pioneering director of some of cinema’s most terrifying and thrilling movies: “Halloween,” “The Thing,” “The Fog,” “They Live,” “Trouble in Little China,” “Price of Darkness,” “Escape from New York,” “Starman,” “In the Mouth of Madness,” and more. Sandy King has worked with filmmakers ranging from John Cassavetes, John Hughes, and Francis Ford Coppola to Michael Mann, Walter Hill, and Roger Corman, in addition to producing several of Carpenter’s films. Together, they are Storm King.

In 1991, King started Storm King Productions as a film, television, and podcast production company. Storm King Comics debuted in 2012, making King the first woman to found a comic-book publishing house.

Storm King Comics has been heralded for its many horror, sci-fi, and suspense comic and graphic novel titles, from its flagship title “John Carpenter’s Asylum” and “John Carpenter’s Tales of Science Fiction” to the annual anthology “John Carpenter’s Tales for a HalloweeNight” and “John Carpenter’s Night Terrors.”

Storm King Comics’ latest release, “John Carpenter’s Cathedral,” is a unique production: A graphic novel that follows a trio of detectives who descend into hell in search of a killer entity and a corresponding heavy metal album inspired by the comic recorded by Carpenter and his band.

Carpenter and King join the “How I Library” podcast to discuss Storm King Comics, the inspiration behind “Cathedral,” their lifelong love of comic books, adapting films to comics, their thoughts on book bans and censorship, using comics as teaching tools, their love of libraries, and more.

In episode 34, show host Phil Morehart from the American Library Association speaks with author Min Jin Lee about her new book, “American Hagwon.”

Lee is the author of the novels “Free Food for Millionaires” and “Pachinko,” which was a finalist for the National Book Award and named by the New York Times as one of the “100 Best Books of the Century.” “Pachinko” was also adapted into a successful series on Apple TV. Lee was the 2024 recipient of The Fitzgerald Prize for Literary Excellence and currently serves as the New York State Author Laureate, among many accolades.

Lee’s upcoming novel, “American Hagwon,” available in September 2026, is her first novel in 10 years and the third in a planned quartet about the Korean diaspora. The sprawling epic follows a family living in Soeul, South Korea, who are uprooted due to the economic crisis that engulfed Asia in the late 1990s. The move takes them to Australia and finally to Southern California, where new opportunities flourish for the three children while their parents adjust to a new life in a new land. It’s a life where the parents’ experience and education mean little, but the obstacles don’t prevent them from doing whatever it takes to provide for their children’s futures.

“American Hagwon” is a story of sacrifice, determination, and betrayal; finding and realizing one’s self-worth; the importance of faith and family; and the lengths that people will go to get the “right education.”

Lee joins the podcast to discuss “American Hagwon,” her extensive research process, the pressures of the modern education system, book bans, and, of course, how she libraries.

In episode 33, show host Phil Morehart from the American Library Association speaks with author Daniel Kraus about his latest book, “Partially Devoured: How ‘Night of the Living Dead’ Saved My Life and Changed the World.”

Filmmaker George A Romero’s 1968 horror masterpiece, “Night of the Living Dead,” was a cultural and artistic gamechanger. It gave the world the modern zombie—the slow, shambling, reanimated corpse with a hunger for human flesh. It also changed the nature of independent cinema, especially horror, showing what can be accomplished with little money but massive amounts of talent, support, and luck. And it’s incredibly frightening.

In “Partially Devoured: How ‘Night of the Living Dead’ Saved My Life and Changed the Word,” Kraus (author of “Whalefall,” “The Shape of Water,” and the winner of the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, “Angel Down”) examines Romero’s film with an unparallelled precision, dissecting it scene-by-scene, minute-by-minute, second-by-second, and sometimes frame-by-frame to uncover its secrets. Kraus dives into the film’s actors and their histories and tragedies, copyright woes that plagued “Night” after its release, the socio-political and racial realities of the 1960s that are reflected in the film, and so much more. “Partially Devoured” also details how “Night of the Living Dead” has carved a place into Kraus’s life; how it’s been a constant companion through joys and sadness since childhood, helping him become who he is today.

Kraus joins the show to discuss “Partially Devoured” and its writing, revelations about “Night of the Living Dead,” the power of discovering and embracing horror at a young age, and how he libraries.

In this special episode of How I Library, show host Phil Morehart from the American Library Association (ALA) speaks with library historian and author Wayne Wiegand about the beginnings of ALA as the Association celebrates its 150th anniversary.

In 1876, 103 librarians gathered in Philadelphia to create a new association for librarians. One hundred and fifty years later, the American Library Association has endured to help shape both the library profession and American history.

In this first in a series of four bonus How I Library episodes on ALA history, Morehart and Wiegand explore the rich, fascinating early years of ALA and its complicated founders, ALA’s impact on librarianship, the role of ALA and librarians during WWI, and much more.

In episode 31, show host Phil Morehart from the American Library Association speaks with musician and author Roddy Bottum from the band Faith No More about his recent memoir, “The Royal We.”

As cofounder and keyboard player for Faith No More, Roddy was center stage for a music revolution that germinated and grew in underground clubs and bars in the 1980s only to explode into the mainstream in the early 1990s. It was an exciting time for music, but the often-homophobic music industry was another beast, especially if you were a young gay man like Roddy. It led to a personal and professional life that blazed bright with success but also darkened with recklessness, including heroin addiction.

In his exceptional, poetic memoir, “The Royal We,” Roddy details this life, from his childhood in Los Angeles, coming-of-age as a young gay man in 1980s punk San Francisco, and musical journeys with Faith No More and other bands to his battles with addiction, friendships with people like Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain, and eventual self-acceptance and becoming a queer icon.

Roddy joins the show to discuss “The Royal We” and its writing, his incredible life story, book bans and censorship, and, of course, how he libraries.

In episode 30, show host Phil Morehart from the American Library Association speaks with musician and author Jon King from the legendary post-punk band Gang of Four about his new memoir, “To Hell with Poverty! A Class Act: Inside the Gang of Four.”

Gang of Four burst out of England in the years following the first punk rock explosion in the late 1970s with a unique, angular sound that owed as much to funk, dub, art, politics, and philosophy as it did to its punk contemporaries.

Gang of Four created a sound unlike any other that would influence REM, Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails, The Afghan Whigs, Red Hot Chili Peppers, St. Vincent, Rage Against the Machine, Sleater Kinney, and countless other bands.

At the forefront of Gang of Four was Jon King, the band’s vocalist and lyricist, whose memoir, “To Hell with Poverty! A Class Act: Inside the Gang of Four,” charts King’s youth and the band’s volatile trajectory, as well as the socio-political environments and circumstances that birthed British punk and Gang of Four.

King joins the show to discuss his book and its writing, the history of Gang of Four, life in post-WWII Britain, the birth of punk and post-punk in England, art, philosophy, book bans, and how he libraries.

In episode 29, host Phil Morehart from the American Library Association speaks with Thien Ho, the district attorney of Sacramento County, California, whose new book, “The People vs. the Golden State Killer,” documents the hunt for and prosecution of serial killer Joseph DeAngelo, aka the Golden State Killer.

Thien was the lead prosecutor who led a team of law enforcement from six California prosecutor's offices in the hunt for DeAngelo. "The People vs. the Golden State Killer" is the first official account of how the Golden State Killer was apprehended and put behind bars for life.

The book also details Thien’s fascinating personal journey—escaping communist Vietnam on a fishing boat as a child, working his way up from an internship to an elite homicide division, and eventually becoming Sacramento District Attorney.

Thien joins the show to discuss his book and the Golden State Killer case, our collective fascination with true crime, his inspiring life story, and of course how he libraries.

In episode 28, show host and I Love Libraries editor Phil Morehart speaks with musician Brian Baker from legendary punk bands Minor Threat, Bad Religion, and more about his new book of photography, “The Road” (Akashic Books, 2025).

As the bassist and guitar player for Minor Threat in the 1980s, then-teenage Brian helped create a new form of music—hardcore punk—that would influence the world. His legacy was furthered cemented in the years following Minor Threat’s breakup, which saw him playing in the bands Dag Nasty, Samhain, The Meatmen, Government Issue, Junkyard, and more before joining long-running punk stalwarts Bad Religion in 1994—a position he holds to this day.

Brian’s musical bone fides are unquestionable, but he has another passion that is just now being recognized and celebrated: photography. Brian has been taking photographs on Bad Religion tours and personal travels for years, and the photos have been collected in the impressive new volume, “The Road.”

Brian joins the show to discuss his photography, “The Road” and its impetus, the legacy of punk rock, book bans, and, of course, how he libraries.