Open Book with Maggie Downs & Tod Goldberg

This week we're joined by author Jared Yates Sexton to discuss his new book THE MAN THEY WANTED ME TO BE. Sexton is also the author of The People Are Going to Rise Like the Waters Upon Your Shore about his year following Donald Trump.

After the death of her husband, author Aimee Dufresne went in search of joy...and then spent 4 years on a book tour, doing just that. Listen as she tells her story...and then come out on May 22nd and see Aimee live at the Coachella Valley Storytellers @ the Rancho Mirage Library.

Pulitzer Prize finalist Laila Lalami stops by to talk about her new book The Other Americans.

This week, your faithful hosts went on a field trip to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books and the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes and came back with ALL THE GOSSIP. So listen in as Maggie & Tod take you behind the scenes of America's largest book festival.

This week, in celebration of Coachella, we're joined by writer and musician Rob Roberge, to talk about books by and about musicians. Roberge's new book, LIAR, is out now. You can catch him on tour with his band The Urinals at some point very soon...

Arizona Republic writer Robert Anglen thought something was amiss with the closing of Toby Keith's restaurant franchise...and then, later, Rascal Flatts. What he turned up was a mob henchman in witness protection who maybe wasn't terribly reformed. The unbelievable true story!

This week Maggie & Tod are joined by Coachella Valley Storyteller Felina Danalis, who has an incredible story of her time in Belgrade in the early 00s. She'll be live as part of the Coachella Valley Storyteller March 21st at the La Quinta Museum.

Also? Tod and Maggie are enraged by the college cheating scandal and can barely contain themselves.

This week we're joined by Steven Biller to talk about the fabulous new iteration of Desert X, the valley-wide art installation, as well as to hear all about his plans for the newly revamped Palm Springs Life Magazine. Plus: Maggie survived finishing her book.

Tod & Maggie are joined this week by Zack Solomon, Membership & Education Director of the Palm Springs International Film Society, who runs down the big 8 categories for the upcoming Academy Awards. Get your ballots ready!

This week we're joined by international bestselling romance writer HelenKay Dimon, to talk about her career, how she got her start, and the politics of writing romance.