What Code Switch Listeners Are Reading During The Pandemic
Some want escapist reads to distract themselves during these times, while others are turning to books that lean into the darkness and dread of the pandemic.
Books
Don DeLillo On New Novel, 'The Silence'
Ailsa Chang talks with Don DeLillo about his novel, The Silence.
'Fresh Air' Reflects On The Psychedelic Movement
We listen to a 1983 interview with psychologist Timothy Leary, a 1990 interview with spiritual leader Ram Dass and a 2018 interview with How to Change Your Mind author Michael Pollan.
'Knockout': A Memoir About A Journey From Self-Hate To Self-Love
NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Mia Kang, author of Knockout, about her history of body issues, modeling and the transition to Muay Thai fighter.
'Flamer' Offers Real Hope — Not Just Rainbows — To Queer Kids
Mike Curato's new young adult graphic novel Flamer follows a teenager struggling with self-hate and all the different parts of his identity — being a Catholic, a Boy Scout, and being gay.
'Why We Act': What Makes People Decide To Speak Up Or Stay Silent
NPR's Tonya Mosley talks with Catherine Sanderson, author of the book Why We Act: Turning Bystanders Into Moral Rebels, about how willingness to stand up to wrongdoing affects political decisions.
'Dark Archives' Explores The Use Of Human Skin In Bookbinding
Megan Rosenbloom tells readers an adventurous tale of how her morbid curiosity brought her across an ocean to investigate the origins, motivations and techniques behind this macabre practice.
Novelist Sigrid Nunez On Climate Change, Mortality And Life In A Pandemic
Nunez's latest novel, What Are You Going Through, is about facing the possible death of our planet from climate change — while also dealing with our mortality as individuals.
History And Hatred Drive The Horror In 'Ring Shout'
P. Djèlí Clark's new novella is set in an alternate Jim Crow America where the Ku Klux Klan contains actual pointy-headed white demons, and The Birth Of a Nation is not just a film but an incantation.
Real-World Experience Gives 'The Nightworkers' Its Punch
Brian Selfon spent years working in the criminal justice field, and he brings that knowledge to bear in his debut, about a family of money launderers whose lives are upended when a bag goes missing.