Advertise on podcast: Library Talks

In this episode of Library Talks, the acclaimed Irish writer, Fintan O'Toole, delivers the annual Robert B. Silvers lecture.    The idea of greatness has infused politics across much of the globe in the last decade, from Brexit to Donald Trump's MAGA movement. In this lecture, Fintan O'Toole suggests why greatness is, after all, not so great: it is in thrall to an imagined past, it generates a constant state of disappointment, and it drains energy away from the achievement of ordinary decency.

In this episode of Library Talks, acclaimed author Maile Chapman joins the podcast to discuss her first novel in fifteen years from acclaimed, The Spoil.   As a young girl growing up on the outskirts of Tacoma in the 1970s, Mandy is preoccupied by the paranormal phenomena she reads about in magazines: alien visitations, ESP, the Bermuda Triangle. What follows is a gripping and often terrifying story of familial grief in which the past is both elusive and paralyzing. Maile Chapman worked on The Spoil during her 2010-2011 Fellowship at the Library's Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. She is joined in discussion by fellow writer Larissa MacFarquhar.

In this episode of Library Talks, The historian and bass player for The Avett Brothers, Bob Crawford revisits the life of John Quincy Adams in his book America's Founding Son. Adams was born nine years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and he died as the United States was sliding irrevocably toward Civil War. In between he was a foreign ambassador, secretary of state, sitting president, and finally ex-president and sitting congressperson.   Crawford talks to presidential historian Alexis Coe about John Quincy Adams's unlikely second act that reshaped not just his legacy but the country's.

In this episode of Library Talks, Author Daisy Hernández explores one of the most contested questions in contemporary American life: who belongs. Hernández is joined in discussion  with journalist Jia Lynn Yang.   Citizenship: Notes on an American Myth braids memoir, history, and cultural criticism to reveal how citizenship functions less as a guarantee than as a narrative we tell about ourselves as a nation. Drawing on her own family's stories—a mother from Colombia and a father who fled Castro's Cuba—Hernández's narrative is both national and personal, and it challenges us to reframe our understanding of what it means to be an American.

In this episode of Library Talks, historian Ellen Carol DuBois discusses her new book Elizabeth Cady Stanton: A Revolutionary Life with legal scholar Julie Suk. Elizabeth Cady Stanton presents a definitive portrait of one of the most influential figures in the American struggles for women's suffrage and rights.   From the 1840s until her death in 1902, Stanton fought for women's emancipation, advocating on issues that went far beyond the vote. Drawing on archival research and Stanton's writings, DuBois traces her advocacy for reproductive rights, marriage reform, and challenges to religious hierarchies, while also examining Stanton's conflicts with Black reformers and her support of nativist ideas—highlighting the contradictions that continue to complicate her legacy.

In this episode of Library Talks, historian Jeanne Theoharis joins the podcast to discuss her groundbreaking work, The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks. She is joined in discussion by fellow historian Robyn C. Spencer-Antoine.   The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks is the definitive political biography of Rosa Parks and examines her six decades of activism, challenging perceptions of her as an accidental actor in the civil rights movement. They also discuss the Peabody-award winning documentary based on the book.

In this episode of Library Talks, award winning director Clint Bentley joins the podcast to discuss his new film Train Dreams and the process of adapting Denis Johnson's beloved novella.   Train Dreams is the moving portrait of Robert Grainier, a logger and railroad worker who leads a life of unexpected depth and beauty in the rapidly-changing America of the early 20th Century. Clint Bentley's film stars Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones, William H. Macy, and Kerry Condon.

In this episode of Library Talks, historian Nina Sankovitch discusses her new book Not Your Founding Father: How a Nonbinary Minister Became America's Most Radical Revolutionary.   In 1776 a 23-year-old woman named Jemima Wilkinson suffered a severe illness, declared her past self dead, and then rebranded as the Public Universal Friend, a genderless messenger of God. In a few short years the Friend preached across the Northeast and attracted a devoted band of followers known as the Society of Universal Friends.

In this episode of Library Talks, we explore the life of one of the most influential architects of the civil rights era Rev. James Lawson Jr. and discuss his new posthumous memoir Nonviolent: A Memoir of Resistance, Agitation, and Love   Rev. James Lawson Jr. spent his life fighting racial and economic injustice. A peer of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., he taught and organized nonviolent direct action, guiding generations of civil rights activists. Drawing on decades of activism—from studying independence movements abroad to serving prison time for refusing the Korean War draft—Nonviolent illuminates the life of a man who fought oppression and advanced equality, dignity, and liberty.   Emily Yellin, Lawson's memoir collaborator, and his son, John Lawson, discuss his legacy with journalist Michelle Miller.

In this episode of Library Talks, Academy and BAFTA Award–winning filmmaker, Emerald Fennell, discusses her seductive interpretation of Wuthering Heights.   Wuthering Heights has been the subject of controversy since it was first published in 1847. One of its first critics derided the novel's "vulgar depravity and unnatural horrors," and another wrote, "How a human being could have attempted such a book…without committing suicide…is a mystery." Award-winning filmmaker Emerald Fennell is no stranger to unhinged tales of obsession and passion. She discusses approaching the depths and darkness of Brontë's work and how she made the film her own while honoring the novel it sprang from.

In this episode of Library Talks, author Edward McPherson sits down with fellow author Robert Sullivan to discuss his latest book, Look Out: The Delight and Danger of Taking the Long View.   Look Out is an exploration of long-distance mapping, aerial photography, and top-down and far-ranging perspectives—from pre–Civil War America to our vexed modern times of drone warfare, hyper-surveillance at home and abroad, and quarantine and protest. Blending history, reporting, personal experience, and accounts of activists, programmers, spies, astronauts, artists, inventors, and dreamers, Edward McPherson reveals that to see is to control—and the stakes are high for everyone.

In this episode of Library Talks, prizewinning constitutional historian Akhil Reed Amar talks about his new book Born Equal: Remaking America's Constitution, 1840–1920.   Born Equal recounts the dramatic constitutional debates that unfolded across eight decades, across those eight decades four amendments abolished slavery, secured Black and female citizenship, and extended suffrage regardless of race or gender.  An ambitious narrative history and a work of legal and political analysis, Born Equal is a new portrait of America's winding road toward equality.

In this episode of Library Talks,  Pulitzer Prize–winning author and physician Siddhartha Mukherjee joins Library Talks to discuss the updated edition of his groundbreaking book, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer   Originally published in 2010, The Emperor of All Maladies is a humane "biography" of cancer, tracing the disease from its first documented appearance thousands of years ago through the 20th century's battles to cure, control, and understand it. Siddhartha Mukherjee expands on the book including four new chapters that illuminate extraordinary developments in cancer detection, prevention, and what the future may hold in the fight against this complex disease.   Mukherjee discusses the latest edition of his book with physician Dhruv Khullar.

In this episode of Library Talks, The legal scholar and former White House official, Tim Wu, examines how today's tech giants extract wealth from ordinary citizens and deepen America's class divide.   The Internet was once celebrated as a democratizing force promising widespread prosperity. In his new book, The Age of Extraction, Tim Wu explores how it has instead fueled the rise of new economic hierarchies and widened the wealth gap and deepened inequality. Wu, who famously coined the term "net neutrality," charts the ascent of dominant tech platforms, the extraordinary power they wield, and the unprecedented ways they extract wealth, data, and attention from us all—reshaping both our economy and our society. Tim Wu is joined by Lina Khan former chair of the Federal Trade Commission. 

In this episode of Library Talks, 4th generation Russ & Daughters co-owners Niki Russ Federman & Josh Russ join the podcast to talk about their book Russ & Daughters: 100 Years of Appetizing with fellow writer Joshua David Stein. From the legendary New York destination for Jewish appetizing, a beautiful and inspiring cookbook that encompasses history, tradition, and absolutely delicious food. In 1907, a Jewish immigrant named Joel Russ landed in New York City, where he took a pushcart of herring and built a legacy that would pass down through fathers and daughters (and sons and husbands and wives) for more than a hundred years. Four generations later, the ancestral heart of Russ & Daughters continues to bustle on the Lower East Side, with three more locations throughout the city.