Primary Sources

Lauren Redniss is the recipient of a MacArthur genius grant and the author of four remarkable works of visual nonfiction. These genre-defying books combine oral history, visual art, reportage, and archival research to create volumes that look a bit like graphic novels but read like nothing else you’ve ever experienced. Among them is Radioactive, a biography of the scientists Marie and Pierre Curie; Thunder and Lightning, a sprawling exploration of the weather; and Oak Flat, a work of original reportage about an Apache family trying to protect sacred land from a mining company in modern-day Arizona. Her newest project, a children’s book called Time Capsule, has just been released.

When invited to talk about one of her deepest influences, Lauren might have discussed an oral historian she admires, such as Studs Terkel, or a painter to whom she has been compared, such as Paul Klee. Instead, she proposed talking about an entire artistic medium, which she considers to be her greatest source of inspiration: that of dance.

In today’s episode, you’ll hear Lauren discuss the ways in which the multimedia nature of a dance performance has inspired her to create books that readers can experience as events unto themselves. She also talks about how the elements of discipline, pacing, and improvisation—which are all crucial to dance—inform her approach to her own work. And she tells us about how the New York City Ballet became the location of one of the most memorable—and politically transgressive—projects of her career.

Primary Sources is a co-production of Public Books and Type Media Center. Our show’s executive producer is Caitlin Zaloom, the founding editor of Public Books. Our producer is DJ Cashmere. Our engineer is Jess Engebretson. Special thanks to Kelley Deane McKinney, the publisher and managing editor of Public Books and Taya Grobow, executive director of Type Media Center. Our theme music is “Kitty in the Window,” composed by Podington Bear (Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License).

View full episode notes and a transcript here.

Rick Perlstein is the author of a series of books on the rise of the American right, sprawling works of narrative history that are both rigorously-researched and highly entertaining. Among them is Before the Storm, which examines the band of conservative activists who spearheaded Barry Goldwater’s failed 1964 Presidential campaign, and Nixonland, which chronicles how Richard Nixon exploited the backlash to the 1960s to forge a powerful new brand of conservative politics.

On today’s show, Rick talks about another historian who has deeply influenced him: Garry Wills. Wills is the author of more than fifty books, on subjects ranging from Augustine’s Confessions to John Wayne to Ronald Reagan. Like Rick, Wills began his career as a journalist and never received a PhD in history.

In this conversation, Rick talks about the qualities he most admires in Wills, among them his unpredictability and his lack of deference to power. He also discusses the importance of morality in both their work, and how Rick’s views of the conservative movement have evolved over time.

Primary Sources is a co-production of Public Books and Type Media Center. Our show’s executive producer is Caitlin Zaloom, the founding editor of Public Books. Our producer is DJ Cashmere. Our engineer is Jess Engebretson. Special thanks to Kelley Deane McKinney, the publisher and managing editor of Public Books and Taya Grobow, executive director of Type Media Center. Our theme music is “Kitty in the Window,” composed by Podington Bear (Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License).

View full episode notes and a transcript here.

Andrea Armstrong is a law professor at Loyola University and one of the leading experts on the conditions of incarceration in the United States.

When invited to talk about an influence on her work, Andrea could have chosen to discuss a fellow scholar. She is a graduate of Yale Law School, and she credits Derrick Bell, Reva Siegel, and Kathleen Cleaver—the only Black female professor she had at Yale—with shaping her thinking about America’s penal system. But Andrea decided to talk about the debt she owes to another, less conventional influence: the human beings caged inside of our jails and prisons. She says nothing has influenced her thinking more than talking to incarcerated people. In fact, incarcerated people have become such an important influence on her work that she regularly pays visits to jails and prisons across the country to survey the conditions and hear from the folks inside.

In this conversation, Andrea talks about how the insights of incarcerated people have shaped her worldview and professional agenda, and how listening to them has changed her understanding of the nature of punishment.

Primary Sources is a co-production of Public Books and Type Media Center. Our show’s executive producer is Caitlin Zaloom, the founding editor of Public Books. Our producer is DJ Cashmere. Our engineer is Jess Engebretson. Special thanks to Kelley Deane McKinney, the publisher and managing editor of Public Books and Taya Grobow, executive director of Type Media Center. Our theme music is “Kitty in the Window,” composed by Podington Bear (Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License).

View full episode notes and a transcript here.

Since 1990, historian, activist, and essayist Rebecca Solnit has written more than twenty books, on subjects ranging from natural disasters and wandering to feminism and social change. In the past, Rebecca has singled out female authors such as Virginia Woolf as important influences. Today, though, she’ll be talking about a more surprising writer to whom she feels she owes a debt: George Orwell.

Orwell is best known for essays such as “Politics and the English Language” and for his chilling portrayal of totalitarianism in novels such as 1984. He has long been revered by male writers such as George Packer and the late Christopher Hitchens. But female writers, including Rebecca, have tended to be more critical, sometimes taking Orwell to task for ignoring the injustices of sexism.

And yet Rebecca counts Orwell as a major influence. In fact, she has devoted her latest book to his life and work. It’s called Orwell’s Roses, and it was inspired by a visit she paid to his rural cottage, where she learned about the gardening he did long ago. Rebecca contends that nature not only mattered greatly to Orwell, but that it is directly related to his antifascism. In this conversation, she elaborates on her unconventional view of Orwell, and she offers an alternative reading of 1984. She talks about how Orwell was both a socialist and a critic of the left, and why she identifies with this, and argues for the political importance of pleasure and beauty. And she explains why, despite Orwell’s troubling silence about the plight of women, she believes we should still read his works.

Primary Sources is a co-production of Public Books and Type Media Center. Our show’s executive producer is Caitlin Zaloom, the founding editor of Public Books. Our producer is DJ Cashmere. Our engineer is Jess Engebretson. Special thanks to Kelley Deane McKinney, the publisher and managing editor of Public Books and Taya Grobow, executive director of Type Media Center. Our theme music is “Kitty in the Window,” composed by Podington Bear (Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License).

View full episode notes and a transcript here.

Ta-Nehisi Coates is best known for his writing about racism in America – in particular, his 2014 essay “The Case for Reparations,” and his 2015 book, Between the World and Me. Ta-Nehisi's readers know that the toll racism has inflicted on the bodies of Black people, and the enduring power of white supremacy, have long preoccupied him. On this show, however, he’ll be talking about a subject—or rather an influence—that few people associate with his work.

That influence is the late Tony Judt, a British historian. In 2005, Judt published his magnum opus, Postwar, a sweeping, 933-page history of modern Europe.

In this conversation, which was recorded last fall, Ta-Nehisi talks about why Postwar had such a profound impact on him. He explores the preface he wrote to Ill Fares the Land, another of Judt's books, which has just been reissued by Penguin. He also talks about the power of language to help us imagine a better world, whether he identifies as an Afro-pessimist, and what it’s like to grow up in a nationalist household.

Primary Sources is a co-production of Public Books and Type Media Center. Our show’s executive producer is Caitlin Zaloom, the founding editor of Public Books. Our producer is DJ Cashmere. Our engineer is Jess Engebretson. Special thanks to Kelley Deane McKinney, the publisher and managing editor of Public Books and Taya Grobow, executive director of Type Media Center. Our theme music is “Kitty in the Window,” composed by Podington Bear (Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License).

View full episode notes and a transcript here.