In her new book, Queer Career: Sexuality and Work in Modern America, historian Margot Canaday sets out to discover the experiences of LGBTQ people in the American workplace. From the Lavender Scare that sought to remove gay and lesbian employees from government jobs, through the abuse and exploitation that outed workers often faced when they didn't get fired, Canaday's book recounts how sexuality and gender shaped the careers of countless Americans. Canaday tells NPR's Stacey Vanek Smith that despite the adversity, queer people still found meaning and community through their jobs.

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Author Kent Matsumoto's parents both lived through traumatic experiences during WWII: his mother was forced into an internment camp for Japanese-Americans in the U.S., and his father survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. In a new novel, Of White Ashes, Matsumoto and his wife and co-writer Constance Hays Matsumoto explore a romance between two Japanese-Americans based on Matsumoto's parents. They spoke with Here & Now's Celeste Headlee about choosing to fictionalize true events, and how writing together created a love story of their own.

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Russell Moore resigned from his position in the Southern Baptist Convention after finding himself at odds with other top evangelical leaders – for criticizing Donald Trump, condemning a sexual abuse scandal in the church, and calling out white nationalism within the institution. In his new book, Losing Our Religion, the Christianity Today editor-in-chief examines how the evangelical faith became inundated with politics and culture wars. He tells NPR's Scott Detrow about how despite today's polarization in Christianity, his faith has become stronger – and he sees a path to renewal.

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Elizabeth "Bunny" Glenn likes reading Cosmopolitan and watching soap operas – but the teenager is blithely aware of how power and wealth operate around her. She's the daughter of a diplomat in Azerbaijan tasked with ensuring oil pipeline access in Lydia Kiesling's new novel, Mobility. In today's episode, the author speaks with NPR's Scott Simon about how her protagonist feigns oblivion to pave her own career in the fossil fuel industry, and how her complicity in climate change makes her a complex character to write.

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Today's episode features interviews with two authors of short story collections. First, NPR's Sacha Pfeiffer speaks with Steven Millhauser about Disruptions, and why he likes to write stories that start off in the normal world and slowly become more and more unsettling until he feels he's pushed the limits as far as he can. Then, NPR's Juana Summers asks Jamel Brinkley about Witness, and how he incorporated gentrification in New York, masculinity and Blackness into his larger themes of obsession.

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Pidgeon Pagonis grew up thinking they'd survived cancer as a child, and the disease was the reason their body didn't develop quite like the other girls at school. It wasn't until college that they realized they were actually born intersex, and all the surgeries, secrets and confusion came into focus. In their new memoir, Nobody Needs to Know, Pagonis reckons with how they came to understand and accept the truth about their body. They tell NPR's Leila Fadel about that journey and about how they're thinking about community and activism now that their story is out in the world.

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There are lots of secrets that 105-year-old Hak Jeonga has carried with her throughout her life. But even after she dies, there's still one big one – generational curse included – that she must resolve. Jimin Han's new novel, The Apology, follows the family from South Korea to Chicago to right some of the wrongs that have happened over time. Han tells NPR's Eyder Peralta how she was influenced by her own family's experience of longing and separation following the Korean War, and why Korean shamanism influenced this story of immortality.

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In James McBride's new novel – the titular shop at its heart – The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store – can be found in a neighborhood in Pottstown,Pennsylvania, where working-class Jewish immigrants and African-Americans live side by side, forming a community of protection and respect for one another. In today's episode, McBride speaks with NPR's Scott Detrow about the murder mystery that unfolds in the novel, the inspiration he took from his own grandmother, and the allure of writing about Pennsylvania.

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Journalist Mikhail Zygar says a lot of Russian historians were actually propagandists – they worked for people in power and wrote recorded events the way politicians and elites wanted. In his new book, War and Punishment, he breaks down the historical myths he says are part of the Russian psyche, one he says Putin uses to defend the invasion of Ukraine. Zygar tells NPR's Leila Fadel that he doesn't think everyone believes the propaganda, but that it's essential to uncover the truth about the Russian empire to understand how we got to today's war, and where it might go next.

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Today's episode focuses on very different experiences of the teenage years. First, NPR's Scott Simon speaks with Christine Suggs about their new graphic novel, ¡Ay, Mija!, inspired by Suggs' formative trip to Mexico to understand their parents' upbringing and reconnect with their family and culture. Then, NPR's Rachel Martin sits down with psychologist Lisa Damour to discuss her new book, The Emotional Lives of Teenagers. They discuss the stresses and anxieties young people deal with – especially as a result of the pandemic – and how parents can help manage these intense feelings.

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