This episode features a conversation I had recently with Carlo Rovelli , an Italian theoretical physicist and writer who has worked in Italy, the United States, and France. His work is mainly in the field of quantum gravity, where he is among the founders of the loop quantum gravity theory. If your eyes started to glaze over at that last statement, stick around.

This episode of Marginalia features a nice chat I had recently with Laura Barnett about her first novel, The Versions of Us . The book actually features three stories that focus on one couple, Eva and Jim. The stories vary quite differently because at some random point during each story, a seemingly harmless decision was made which altered the characters’s course. And instead of presenting one version of their life in its entirety before moving to the next, Laura shares three different

On this episode on Marginalia, I speak with Kristopher Jansma about his new novel, Why We Came to the City . The story focuses on five friends--an editor, an astronomer, a poet, an investment banker, and an artist--who have remained friends since their college graduation five years prior, and help each other navigate through life and dreams in New York City. When a seemingly innocuous lump below an eye turns into an delayed cancer diagnosis, the five must reexamine and redefine their hopes and

Idra Novey is a poet. She also translates works from Spanish and Portuguese, and now, with a new novel, she’s writing fiction. Ways to Disappear is a novel about a celebrated Brazilian writer who climbs up an almond tree holding a suitcase and a cigar to escape a growing gambling debt. This climb occurs in the opening pages of the book, and what follows is the search for the author conducted by her translator and her grown children. I recently spoke with Novey about the book, her various genres,

This episode of Marginalia is a bit of a departure from our other episodes. Normally I feature a 2-way conversation between myself and an author. But because our listeners at KMUW hear this specific author 2 hours a day every Monday through Friday, this 2-way was turned into a news feature which was broadcast on air. Who was this special author? Public radio talk show host, Diane Rehm. Her book is titled On My Own, and she started writing it one night as she began life on her own. Her husband of

Sir William Herschel was an astronomer who is best known for discovering Uranus and several moons while compiling a catalog of more than 2,500 celestial objects that is still in use today. He was assisted for decades by his younger sister and fellow astronomer, Caroline Herschel. When he collected her from the family home in Germany to assist him in England, he liberated her from an awful existence , and she was forever grateful--and indebted--to him. Caroline and William Herschel are the main

Sir William Herschel was an astronomer who is best known for discovering Uranus and several moons while compiling a catalog of more than 2,500 celestial...

Although she has written three books of nonfiction, Geraldine Brooks is best known as an author of historical fiction. But her brand of historical fiction has a way of enriching stories that are already familiar to readers, taking us along as she traces the spread of the bubonic plague to a small English village, or discovers the history of a 15th century Haggadah through the eyes of a book conservator, or as she follows the absent father in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women to the battlefields

Although she has written three books of nonfiction, Geraldine Brooks is best known as an author of historical fiction. But her brand of historical...

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