Marginalia

This episode features an interview I had recently with Candice Millard. Millard is not a typical historian. Her books tend to focus on the lesser-known moments in history. Teddy Roosevelt in the Amazon after his presidency, what really killed James Garfield, and her latest book, Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill . I asked Millard where she comes up with the ideas for her books. Here’s our conversation: If you listened to the Marginalia

This episode features an interview I had this week with Marie Benedict. Her book, The Other Einstein , is a historical novel about Mileva Einstein, who was not only Albert’s first wife, but was also his scientific partner.

This episode features a conversation I had recently with Nathan Hill about his book, The Nix . In Norwegian folklore, the Nix is a water spirit--the stories of which were used to pass along lessons from generation to generation. In his modern-day novel, The Nix delivers a somewhat modern-day moral.

This episode features an interview I had recently with Benjamin Rybeck. His book, The Sadness , focuses on two central characters, twin brother and sister, Max and Kelly.

This episode features an interview I had recently with Amor Towles. His first book, Rules of Civility , was a novel layered in the opulence of society. The theme is repeated in his second novel-- A Gentleman in Moscow --but this time it turns to Russia during its transition to the Stalinist Era. After the Russian Revolution, Count Alexander Rostov--the gentleman of the title--is placed under house arrest at the Hotel Metropol and for the next 3 decades must decide whether he will master his

This episode features a conversation I had recently with Elizabeth J. Church about her book, The Atomic Weight of Love . Church was born in Los Alamos, New Mexico, after her parents relocated there. Her father, a research chemist, was drafted to work in secret on the Manhattan Project, and her mother sacrificed her career in biology to support his pursuit of scientific research. While Church’s novel is not her family’s story, their lives were certainly similar.

This episode of Marginalia features a conversation I had recently with Rebecca Makkai. Although she’s best known for her novels, Rebecca has been writing short stories throughout her career. Many of those stories were recently published as a collection titled Music for Wartime .

This episode of Marginalia features a conversation I had recently with Pauls Toutonghi, a writer primarily known for his novels, Red Weather and Evel Knievel Days, and lately for his non-fiction--essays in Literary Hub , The New Yorker , and in The New York Times ‘Modern Love’ column. His newest book is also non-fiction. At the surface, Dog Gone tells the story of a very special golden retriever mix named Gonker who is lost on the Appalachian Trail. The book chronicles not only his in-laws'

This episode features a conversation I had recently with David Olimpio, an essayist whose prose is so lyrical he’s often labeled a poet. We spoke about his new book, This is Not a Confession. In it, David tackles some pretty intense themes: the sexual abuse inflicted by his babysitter; the death of his mother; his open marriage. Essays in general are revealing…. exposing... divulging. But--as the title implies--David’s are not confessional. He’s not asking for pity. He doesn’t want forgiveness.

This episode features a conversation I had recently with Dr. Frans de Waal, a Dutch primatologist and ethologist. You might recognize him as one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People. Or maybe you’ve watched one of his TED Talks. I caught up with him in Atlanta, where he’s the C.H. Candler Professor in Emory University’s Psychology Department and director of the Living Links Center at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center. We visited about his most recent book-- Are We Smart