Author Interviews

Books
Arts

Tom Wolfe: Writing Nonfiction 'Became A Great Game And A Great Experiment'

2:21pm May 18, 2018

Wolfe began experimenting with nonfiction writing techniques in the 1960s. The "new journalism" pioneer and best-selling author died Monday. He spoke with Fresh Air in 1987 and 2012.

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Books

Author Michael Ondaatje Returns To World War II Era With 'Warlight'

6:31pm May 17, 2018

Michael Ondaatje's latest novel, Warlight, is set in England at the end of World War II, about two teenagers whose parents leave them in the care of a relative stranger.

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Jesse Owens crosses the line to win the 100-meter dash, one of four gold medals he won at the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany. The new book Upon Further Review imagines 31 counterfactual scenarios in sport, including the possibility of the United States boy

Blimps Full Of Money And 30 Other Sports Hypotheticals In 'Upon Further Review'

4:09pm May 16, 2018

by Rachel Martin

Mike Pesca's new book imagines 31 counterfactual "what ifs" in sports, from home runs taken off the board to a boycott of the 1936 Olympics in Hitler's Germany.

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Michael Pollan is out with a new book about the science behind psychedelics.

'Reluctant Psychonaut' Michael Pollan Embraces The 'New Science' Of Psychedelics

1:17pm May 15, 2018

by Terry Gross

Author Michael Pollan, who experimented with mushrooms, LSD and other psychedelics while researching his latest book, says: "I had an experience that was by turns frightening and ecstatic and weird."

Books
Arts

He Felt He Could No Longer Be Funny, Says Robin Williams Biographer

2:56pm May 14, 2018

by Terry Gross

Dave Itzkoff examines Williams' life and death in a new biography. Williams took his own life in 2014; an autopsy later revealed he had Lewy body dementia.

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Books

Reality TV And Murder In 'The Favorite Sister'

7:54am May 13, 2018

Jessica Knoll's new book The Favorite Sister combines murder with a reality TV show about powerful, ambitious women. She tells NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro reality TV is her guilty pleasure.

Jim Brown, a star running back for the Cleveland Browns in the late 1950s and early 1960s, is the subject of a new biography by The Nation sports editor Dave Zirin.

'Heroic, But He's No Hero': Revisiting Football Great Jim Brown

7:54am May 13, 2018

by Lulu Garcia-Navarro

Dave Zirin's new biography portrays a black liberation activist with a conservative streak, a man with an alleged history of violence against women and maybe the greatest running back in NFL history.

Books
Arts

Bloody-Scepter'd 'Tyrant' Explores Shakespeare's Take On Politics

8:07am May 12, 2018

by Scott Simon

Scholar Stephen Greenblatt says Shakespeare wrote his histories as a commentary on the era he lived in — and those plays still have important things to say about our current political climate.

How Black Leaders Unwittingly Contributed To The Era Of Mass Incarceration

4:34pm May 11, 2018

by Terry Gross

In Locking Up Our Own, Pulitzer Prize-winning author James Forman Jr. argues that African-American leaders helped shape policies that harmed black communities. Originally broadcast July 17, 2017.

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Books
Arts

My First Existential Crisis: The Sweet Story Of An Angsty 'Square'

5:07pm May 08, 2018

by Rachel Martin

Jon Klassen and Mac Barnett are writing a children's book trilogy about shapes who are just like us. The second installment follows a straight-laced square who wonders if he's really a genius.

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