Author Interviews

Brit Bennett says it has been "surreal" to publish her post-civil rights era book this week. She is also the author of The Mothers.

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Brit Bennett Set Her Novel 50 Years Ago — She Didn't Expect It To Be 'Timely'

7:54pm June 05, 2020

by Mary Louise Kelly

The Vanishing Half is about African American twins — one lives as a black woman, the other "passes" as white. Passing is "an act of self-creation and also an act of self-destruction," Bennett says.

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Historian Eric Foner On The 'Unresolved Legacy Of Reconstruction'

1:42pm June 05, 2020

by Terry Gross

After the Civil War, the federal government promised former slaves equality and citizenship. Historian Eric Foner says the failed promises reverberate today. Originally broadcast Jan. 9, 2006.

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Remembering Award-Winning Author Robb Forman Dew

1:42pm June 05, 2020

by Terry Gross

Dew, who died May 22, wrote intimately about family relationships in both fiction and nonfiction. She spoke to Terry Gross in 1994 about The Family Heart, her memoir about learning her son was gay.

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Retired Gen. Martin Dempsey, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is speaking out against President Trump's call to use military force to suppress nationwide protests over police brutality.

Former Joint Chiefs Chairman Condemns Trump's Threat To Use Military At Protests

8:25pm June 04, 2020

by Steve Inskeep

In rare remarks, retired Gen. Martin Dempsey rebuked the president's threat to use military troops against protesters as "dangerous," saying it would hurt relations between the military and civilians.

Faith leaders stand before a Baltimore mural depicting Freddie Gray, who died April 19, 2015 of injuries sustained while in police custody.

From Freddie Gray To George Floyd: Wes Moore Says It's Time To 'Change The Systems'

2:36pm June 03, 2020

by Terry Gross

In Five Days, Moore chronicles the uprising that occurred in Baltimore following Gray's death. "We're basically reliving history right now," he says of Floyd's death at the hands of police.

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Books

'Surviving Autocracy': Masha Gessen's New Book Tells A Story Of Trump's Presidency

4:38pm June 02, 2020

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with The New Yorker staff writer Masha Gessen about their new book, Surviving Autocracy.

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Interview With The Author Of 'My Vanishing Country'

6:00pm May 31, 2020

NPR's Michel Martin speaks with attorney Bakari Sellers about his new memoir, My Vanishing Country.

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'Raising White Kids' Author On How White Parents Can Talk About Race

5:59pm May 31, 2020

NPR's Michel Martin talks to Jennifer Harvey, author of Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in a Racially Unjust America, about how to talk with white kids about racially-charged events.

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"Of starbursts brighter than fireworks, you are a child of the universe."

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This Bedtime Book Helps Kids Find Their Place In The 'Universe'

8:03am May 31, 2020

by Samantha Balaban

Before he became an astrophysicist, Ray Jayawardhana was just a kid, looking up at the night sky with his father. "I remember being awed," he says. He's written a book called Child of the Universe.

Humankind: A Hopeful History, by Rutger Bregman

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In 'Humankind,' Rutger Bregman Aims To Convince That Most People Are Good

2:39pm May 30, 2020

by Scott Simon

The historian and author of Utopia for Realists says that research shows that "especially in times of crisis, we show our best selves. And we get this explosion of altruism and cooperation."

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