In this episode of Library Talks, the acclaimed Irish writer, Fintan O'Toole, delivers the annual Robert B. Silvers lecture.

The idea of greatness has infused politics across much of the globe in the last decade, from Brexit to Donald Trump's MAGA movement. In this lecture, Fintan O'Toole suggests why greatness is, after all, not so great: it is in thrall to an imagined past, it generates a constant state of disappointment, and it drains energy away from the achievement of ordinary decency.

In this episode of Library Talks, acclaimed author Maile Chapman joins the podcast to discuss her first novel in fifteen years from acclaimed, The Spoil.

As a young girl growing up on the outskirts of Tacoma in the 1970s, Mandy is preoccupied by the paranormal phenomena she reads about in magazines: alien visitations, ESP, the Bermuda Triangle. What follows is a gripping and often terrifying story of familial grief in which the past is both elusive and paralyzing. Maile Chapman worked on The Spoil during her 2010-2011 Fellowship at the Library's Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. She is joined in discussion by fellow writer Larissa MacFarquhar.

In this episode of Library Talks, The historian and bass player for The Avett Brothers, Bob Crawford revisits the life of John Quincy Adams in his book America's Founding Son. Adams was born nine years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and he died as the United States was sliding irrevocably toward Civil War. In between he was a foreign ambassador, secretary of state, sitting president, and finally ex-president and sitting congressperson.

Crawford talks to presidential historian Alexis Coe about John Quincy Adams's unlikely second act that reshaped not just his legacy but the country's.

In this episode of Library Talks, Author Daisy Hernández explores one of the most contested questions in contemporary American life: who belongs. Hernández is joined in discussion with journalist Jia Lynn Yang.

Citizenship: Notes on an American Myth braids memoir, history, and cultural criticism to reveal how citizenship functions less as a guarantee than as a narrative we tell about ourselves as a nation. Drawing on her own family's stories—a mother from Colombia and a father who fled Castro's Cuba—Hernández's narrative is both national and personal, and it challenges us to reframe our understanding of what it means to be an American.

In this episode of Library Talks, historian Ellen Carol DuBois discusses her new book Elizabeth Cady Stanton: A Revolutionary Life with legal scholar Julie Suk. Elizabeth Cady Stanton presents a definitive portrait of one of the most influential figures in the American struggles for women's suffrage and rights.

From the 1840s until her death in 1902, Stanton fought for women's emancipation, advocating on issues that went far beyond the vote. Drawing on archival research and Stanton's writings, DuBois traces her advocacy for reproductive rights, marriage reform, and challenges to religious hierarchies, while also examining Stanton's conflicts with Black reformers and her support of nativist ideas—highlighting the contradictions that continue to complicate her legacy.

In this episode of Library Talks, historian Jeanne Theoharis joins the podcast to discuss her groundbreaking work, The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks. She is joined in discussion by fellow historian Robyn C. Spencer-Antoine.

The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks is the definitive political biography of Rosa Parks and examines her six decades of activism, challenging perceptions of her as an accidental actor in the civil rights movement. They also discuss the Peabody-award winning documentary based on the book.

In this episode of Library Talks, award winning director Clint Bentley joins the podcast to discuss his new film Train Dreams and the process of adapting Denis Johnson's beloved novella.

Train Dreams is the moving portrait of Robert Grainier, a logger and railroad worker who leads a life of unexpected depth and beauty in the rapidly-changing America of the early 20th Century. Clint Bentley's film stars Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones, William H. Macy, and Kerry Condon.

In this episode of Library Talks, historian Nina Sankovitch discusses her new book Not Your Founding Father: How a Nonbinary Minister Became America's Most Radical Revolutionary.

In 1776 a 23-year-old woman named Jemima Wilkinson suffered a severe illness, declared her past self dead, and then rebranded as the Public Universal Friend, a genderless messenger of God. In a few short years the Friend preached across the Northeast and attracted a devoted band of followers known as the Society of Universal Friends.

In this episode of Library Talks, we explore the life of one of the most influential architects of the civil rights era Rev. James Lawson Jr. and discuss his new posthumous memoir Nonviolent: A Memoir of Resistance, Agitation, and Love

Rev. James Lawson Jr. spent his life fighting racial and economic injustice. A peer of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., he taught and organized nonviolent direct action, guiding generations of civil rights activists. Drawing on decades of activism—from studying independence movements abroad to serving prison time for refusing the Korean War draft—Nonviolent illuminates the life of a man who fought oppression and advanced equality, dignity, and liberty.

Emily Yellin, Lawson's memoir collaborator, and his son, John Lawson, discuss his legacy with journalist Michelle Miller.

In this episode of Library Talks, Academy and BAFTA Award–winning filmmaker, Emerald Fennell, discusses her seductive interpretation of Wuthering Heights.

Wuthering Heights has been the subject of controversy since it was first published in 1847. One of its first critics derided the novel's "vulgar depravity and unnatural horrors," and another wrote, "How a human being could have attempted such a book…without committing suicide…is a mystery." Award-winning filmmaker Emerald Fennell is no stranger to unhinged tales of obsession and passion. She discusses approaching the depths and darkness of Brontë's work and how she made the film her own while honoring the novel it sprang from.