Matt Crawford speaks with author Helen Sheehy about her novel, Just Willa. 

Just Willa is a family chronicle of rare beauty-more than reminiscent of Willa Cather in capturing the regional flavors of America-stretching over a span of decades through an intimate focus on the life of one woman. In it, Helen Sheehy gives us a character of indomitable spirit who fuels and anchors her family with love and bravery.

We meet Willa Hardesty in 1964, while she's burning trash in a barrel and thinking "this is hell." Angry and frustrated, she finds some items she had long forgotten, and remembers that she had once been happy. In the ensuing chapters Willa's life unfolds like a tapestry, beginning in 1927 when she's eleven, about to accompany her mother on a train ride from Oklahoma to Missouri.

Just Willa shows us a world filled with people and struggles both realistic and relatable-a world that is beautiful, despite its hardships.

Matt Crawford speaks with Beau L'Amour about his stewardship of his father Louis L'Amour's catalog. L'Amour eventually wrote 100 novels, over 250 short stories, and (as of 2010) sold more than 320 million copies of his work. By the 1970s his writings were translated into over ten languages. Every one of his works is still in print. Beau has taken that vast body of work, managed and released previously unpublished works as well as an audio series.

Matt Crawford speaks with author Lady Dyana Ziegler about her book, Midnight Train From Georgia. Midnight Train from Georgia chronicles the incredible rise of Gladys Knight and the Pips from their origins singing in a small Atlanta church to their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. When two families' destinies intertwine at Mt. Moriah Baptist Church, they discover the extraordinary musical talents of their children. Young cousins William Guest, Eleanor Guest, Gladys Knight, Brenda Knight, and Bubba Knight unite their heavenly vocals to form The Pips gospel choir. We follow William Guest from his formative years in Atlanta, where his love of music is kindled by evenings listening to his family perform rhythmic gospel songs on their porch. The Pips' journey takes them from these humble back-porch jam sessions to struggle and sacrifice on the road to stardom. With faith, fortitude and William's grandmother's lessons to guide them, the group overcomes adversity through the transcendent power of their music. Midnight Train from Georgia is an inspiring tale about the bonds of family, church and music. It's a story of poverty to fortune, innocence to experience, and childhood friendship growing into Hall of Fame synergy. Their sweet harmonies touched millions over decades, but it all started with kids finding their voices in a small Georgia choir.

Matt Crawford speaks with professor and author Shelly Fisher Fishkin about her book, Jim: The Life and Afterlives of Huckleberry Finn’s Comrade. Mark Twain’s Jim, introduced in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), is a shrewd, self‑aware, and enormously admirable enslaved man, one of the first fully drawn Black fathers in American fiction. Haunted by the family he has left behind, Jim acts as father figure to Huck, the white boy who is his companion as they raft the Mississippi toward freedom. Jim is also a highly polarizing figure: he is viewed as an emblem both of Twain’s alleged racism and of his opposition to racism; a diminished character inflected by minstrelsy and a powerful challenge to minstrel stereotypes; a reason for banning Huckleberry Finn and a reason for teaching it; an embarrassment and a source of pride for Black readers.   Eminent Twain scholar Shelley Fisher Fishkin probes these controversies, exploring who Jim was, how Twain portrayed him, and how the world has responded to him. Fishkin also follows Jim’s many afterlives: in film, from Hollywood to the Soviet Union; in translation around the world; and in American high school classrooms today. The result is Jim as we have never seen him before—a fresh and compelling portrait of one of the most memorable Black characters in American fiction.

Matt Crawford speaks with author Kristian Ronn about his book, The Darwinian Trap: The Hidden Evolutionary Forces That Explain Our World (and Threaten Our Future.) When people talk about today’s biggest challenges—pollution, misinformation, artificial intelligence, inept CEOs, and politicians—they tend to frame the conversation around “bad people” doing “bad things.” But is there more to the story? Humans, it turns out, are intrinsically wired to seek short-term success at the expense of long-term prosperity. Kristian Rönn, an entrepreneur formerly affiliated with the University of Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute, calls these deeply rooted impulses “Darwinian demons.” These forces, a by-product of natural selection, can lead us to act in shortsighted ways that harm others—and even imperil our survival as a species. If this evolutionary glitch is left unchecked, the consequences will grow in magnitude as the power of technology accelerates. In this eye-opening work, Rönn shows that we must learn to cooperate in new ways if we are to escape these evolutionary traps in our daily lives and solve our biggest existential threats. Evolution may be to blame for the trap—but humans need not fall for it. Our salvation, he writes, will involve the creation of new systems that understand, track, and manage what humankind values most. Bold, brilliant, and ultimately optimistic, The Darwinian Trap gives readers a powerful new lens on our world and its problems, and invites us to rethink our priorities for the sake of generations to come.

Matt Crawford speaks with Bremond Berry MacDougall and Lisa Cooper about their new publishing company Quite Literally Books. Quite Literally Books is a heritage press devoted to discovering and reissuing ought-to-be-in-print books by American women authors-and occasionally others-who've been shelved for far too long. We discuss the first six books they are republishing, how and why they choose them and what inspired them to undertake this endeavor.

Matt Crawford speaks with Dr. Ran Anbar about his book, The Life Guide for Teens: The Life Guide for Teens: Harnessing Your Inner Power to be Healthy, Happy, and Confident. Today’s generation of teenagers are living in a world no one could have imagined just a couple decades ago, a world of social media and an endless flow of information (and disinformation). They are also more likely to be lonely, depressed, stressed out, and diagnosed with mental health issues than any generation before them. But they can learn to take control of their own wellness—and Dr. Ran Anbar gives them the tools to do just that. In The Life Guide for Teens: Harnessing Your Inner Power to be Healthy, Happy, and Confident, Dr. Anbar uses clear, empowering terms to take a deep dive into the most prevalent wellness concerns for teens. He guides readers through such topics as anxiety, relationships, sleep, making tough decisions, and communicating effectively with easy-to-implement tools and advice from experts and teens who’ve been there. Throughout, he offers encouragement, reassurance, and strength to teens who are struggling, showing them how they can develop a positive, healthy self-image and promote self-care. Dr. Anbar has helped thousands of teens work through their personal challenges, not by solving their problems for them, but by helping them learn to tap into their inner wisdom, strength, and resilience. With 180 actionable tools teens can use on their personal journey to wellness, The Life Guide for Teens is an invaluable resource for anyone wanting to feel calm, capable, and confident.

Matt Crawford speaks with author Denise Haynes about her book, Talent Show. Do you really know your parents? We all think we do but never consider them as persons before parenthood descended. And do they know you? In Talent Show an introverted father becomes talkative and lifts the curtain on who his wife was before she was a mother, who she became after, and who each of his children were in his eyes. He reveals a few secrets of his own and describes life in a household of ten children as a perpetual talent show. Everyone is always anxious to perform, to shine and to receive applause, even if they don’t know what their talent is. Life is a rehearsal for the family talent shows, or is it the other way around? The children get their bit in as they reply with their own versions and reveal who they are. One thing is clear- there is no shared version of a family’s life. Everyone has their own and pain is often hidden in the busyness of family life until family members speak honestly.

Matt Crawford speaks with author Rebe Huntman about her book, My Mother in Havana: A Memoir of Magic and Miracle. Writing with a physicality of language that moves like the body in dance, Rebe Huntman, a poet, choreographer, and dancer, embarks on a pilgrimage into the mysteries of the gods and saints of Cuba and their larger spiritual view of the Mother. Huntman offers a window into the extraordinary world of Afro-Cuban gods and ghosts and the dances and rituals that call them forth. As she explores the memory of her own mother, interlacing it with her search for the sacred feminine, Huntman leads us into a world of séance and sacrifice, pilgrimage and sacred dance, which resurrect her mother and bring Huntman face to face with a larger version of herself.

Matt Crawford speaks with Editor at large for Project Censored about its State of the Free Press 2025. We discuss media bias, under reported news stories and how algorithms are controlling most of the information we consume. A worthy and thought-provoking listen.