Author Interviews

A 3-year-old Amy Tan appears with her brother Peter in this 1955 family photo. Peter died in 1967 after being diagnosed with a brain tumor.

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'I Am Full Of Contradictions': Novelist Amy Tan On Fate And Family

2:19pm October 17, 2017

by Terry Gross

In Where the Past Begins, Tan connects her experience with spirituality to that of her parents and grandmother. "I don't consider myself any religion," she says. " ... I have an amalgam of beliefs."

Scott Kelly is seen floating during a spacewalk in 2015.

Astronaut Scott Kelly's Latest Mission: A Book

1:02pm October 17, 2017

by Rachel Martin

After a year in space, Kelly says, writing a book was harder than he thought — but still, he adds, "If I write a bad sentence people are only going to get angry with me. They're not going to die."

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Some people claim a late cup of coffee won't keep them up and that alcohol helps them sleep. But research shows both drugs mess with sleep's depth and restorative quality, says scientist and Why We Sleep author Matthew Walker.

Sleep Scientist Warns Against Walking Through Life 'In An Underslept State'

4:51pm October 16, 2017

by Terry Gross

"Human beings are the only species that deliberately deprive themselves of sleep for no apparent gain," says sleep scientist Matthew Walker. His new book is Why We Sleep.

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Amy Tan (pictured with her family in 1959) found startling information about her parents while sifting through a treasure trove of family papers.

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Amy Tan Revisits The Roots Of Her Writing Career In 'Where The Past Begins'

4:44pm October 16, 2017

by Lynn Neary

In a new memoir, the Joy Luck Club author searches her past for the sources of her creativity. She says, "I certainly think that the bad experiences ... shaped me as a writer."

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From Hamilton To Grant: Ron Chernow Paints A 'Farsighted' President in New Biography

12:24pm October 16, 2017

by Michel Martin

After the massive success of his last book, which inspired an award-winning Broadway musical, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Ron Chernow is back with a new biography of President Ulysses S. Grant.

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Tom Hanks Is Obsessed With Typewriters (So He Wrote A Book About Them)

8:13am October 16, 2017

by David Greene

The actor's new collection of short fiction — his debut book as an author — is called Uncommon Type, and each story has something to do with the machine close to his heart.

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Mortician Caitlin Doughty has traveled around the world exploring the ways other cultures approach death.

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Mortician Explores Cultures' Many Paths For 'Sacred Transition' Of Death

2:31pm October 15, 2017

Caitlin Doughty, whose Los Angeles funeral home specializes in alternative ceremonies, traveled the world to collect stories about how different peoples send loved ones off to the great beyond.

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Tape worm pills were once advertised as a way to stay thin.

'Quackery' Chronicles How Our Love Of Miracle Cures Leads Us Astray

8:04am October 15, 2017

by April Fulton

Tobacco enemas? Mercury pills? Ice pick lobotomies? A new book explains how throughout history, miracle "cures" often didn't just fail to improve people's health, they maimed and killed.

Joseph Lister directing the use of carbolic acid spray in one of his earliest antiseptic surgical operations, circa 1865.

'The Butchering Art': How A 19th Century Physician Made Surgery Safer

5:28pm October 13, 2017

by April Fulton

Before surgeons accepted germ theory, operations often killed patients. All Things Considered host Robert Siegel talks with the author of a new biography of antiseptic advocate Joseph Lister.

"I'm meant to make people happy. That's my job," says Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon.

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Jimmy Fallon On The School Of 'SNL' And His Tendency To Smile Too Much

7:15pm October 12, 2017

by Terry Gross

"There was a report card from kindergarten and the comment from the teacher was, 'Jimmy smiles too much,' " Fallon says. "I think I would smile even when I was getting yelled at."

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