Author Interviews

Books
Arts

9 First-Person Perspectives Give Voice To 'The Other Americans'

8:13am March 24, 2019

by Lulu Garcia-Navarro

The narrators in Laila Lalami's new novel have one thing in common: They've all "had the experience of dislocation," Lalami says. Together, they form a mosaic of race and class in America.

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What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker, by Damon Young

Books
Arts

'What Doesn't Kill You' Navigates The Challenges Of Existing While Black

8:59am March 23, 2019

by Scott Simon

Damon Young's new memoir is full of pointed, thoughtful, barbed and funny essays about the ways race has affected his life, and the lives of his family — and about his hopes for the next generation.

Books
Arts

Remembering Pulitzer Prize-Winning Poet W. S. Merwin

1:36pm March 22, 2019

by Terry Gross

The former U.S. poet laureate, who died March 15, was a prolific writer as well as a conservationist and a conscientious objector during World War II. He spoke to Fresh Air in 2008.

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Chief Justice John Roberts attends the 37th Kennedy Center Honors at the Kennedy Center on Dec. 7, 2014, in Washington, DC.

In 'The Chief,' An Enigmatic, Conservative John Roberts Walks A Political Tightrope

11:54am March 22, 2019

by Nina Totenberg

Reporter Joan Biskupic portrays the chief justice as a dedicated conservative who now "has the court he's always wanted" — and she says the law "will likely be what he says it is."

Books
Arts

'High Heel' Muses On Beauty, Power — And Stilettos

8:33pm March 21, 2019

by Mary Louise Kelly

When she worked at the U.N., Summer Brennan wore high heels almost every day — even when they made her fall. Her new book High Heel is an exploration of modern womanhood through the history of heels.

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Books

Delbanco Writes About Americans' Complicity With Slavery In His Latest Book

6:47am March 21, 2019

Steve Inskeep talks with Andrew Delbanco about slavery and reparations. Delbanco is the author of, The War Before the War.

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Books
Arts

'The New Me' Is Meh About Ambition And Adulthood

5:11pm March 19, 2019

by Ailsa Chang

Halle Butler's new novel explores what it's like to work in a dead-end office job. Her satirical story focuses on a 30-year-old woman named Millie who wanders from temp job to temp job.

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A chimpanzee hugs her newborn at Burgers' Zoo in Arnhem, Netherlands, in 2010. Over the course of his long career, primatologist Frans de Waal has become convinced that primates and other animals express emotions similar to human emotions.

Sex, Empathy, Jealousy: How Emotions And Behavior Of Other Primates Mirror Our Own

4:03pm March 19, 2019

by Terry Gross

Primatologist Frans de Waal believes that the way humans experience emotion is not unique: "That's a spectrum of behavior that we have, and the same thing is true for many other species."

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Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara talks with The New Yorker's Jeffrey Toobin at New York Society for Ethical Culture on Oct. 7, 2017 in New York City.

Books

Fired By Trump, Preet Bharara Describes The Justice System He Served

5:47pm March 18, 2019

by Steve Inskeep

In an interview, former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara talks about his new book, Doing Justice, and weighs in on Robert Mueller's probe and on how executives have been able to avoid criminal prosecution.

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Evan Thomas breaks new ground with extraordinary access to Sandra Day O'Connor, her papers, journals — and even 20 years of her husband's diary.

From Triumph To Tragedy, 'First' Tells Story Of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor

4:19pm March 18, 2019

by Nina Totenberg

First is unlike any other book written about the justice. Evan Thomas breaks new ground with extraordinary access to O'Connor, her papers, journals — and even 20 years of her husband's diary.