Author Interviews

Books
Arts

75 Years Later, A Look At The 'Life, Legend, and Afterlife' Of 'Casablanca'

2:20pm October 11, 2017

Film historian Noah Isenberg revisits the making of the classic Hollywood film in his new book, We'll Always Have Casablanca. "Seventy-five years after its premiere, its still very timely," he says.

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On his podcast, Marc Maron (pictured here in Los Angeles in 2013) often asks guests what their parents do. "It's a very defining thing," he says.

Books
Arts

Marc Maron On Robin Williams, Barack Obama And Learning To Be A Good Listener

10:52pm October 10, 2017

by David Greene

NPR interviewed Maron in the cramped garage where he tapes most of his podcast, WTF. When he's the interviewer, he says, "I generally don't have a page full of questions, like you have there."

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Marvin Kalb driving near St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow's Red Square.

Books
Arts

'The Year I Was Peter The Great': A Young American In Soviet Russia

4:50pm October 10, 2017

by Robert Siegel

Marvin Kalb's new book is about a very interesting year — 1956 — that he spent on a diplomatic mission to what was then the U.S.S.R. It's part memoir, part context for understanding the Cold War.

Books
Arts

'Red Famine' Revisits Stalin's Brutal Campaign To Starve The Peasantry In Ukraine

1:33pm October 09, 2017

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anne Applebaum explains how Stalin killed millions in the '30s by orchestrating a famine to suppress the nationalist movement and strengthen Russian influence in Ukraine.

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"The Sun And Her Flowers" is Rupi Kaur's second collection of poetry.

Books
Arts

Poet Rupi Kaur: 'Art Should Be Accessible To The Masses'

7:27am October 09, 2017

by Rachel Martin

Rupi Kaur came to Canada from India when she was four years old and didn't learn English well for years; she says her raw, minimalist poems are tailored for readers like her, with limited English.

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Sports
Books

Out Of Bounds: Jen Welter On Breaking Barriers In Football

7:52am October 08, 2017

Jen Welter is the first woman to ever coach in the NFL and she's out with a new book called Play Big. She talks to NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro about her time in the NFL and its controversies.

Books
Arts

In 1960s New York, Witchy Women Learn 'The Rules Of Magic'

7:52am October 08, 2017

by Lulu Garcia-Navarro

In Alice Hoffman's prequel to Practical Magic, two sisters uncover their family's supernatural gifts and curses while growing up in the city.

The USS Franklin D. Roosevelt sails down the East River after leaving the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1945. Jennifer Egan's new book follows a woman who works the Brooklyn Navy Yard during World War II.

Books
Arts

In 'Manhattan Beach,' Jennifer Egan Dives Deep Into WWII New York City

6:07pm October 05, 2017

by Ari Shapiro

Egan began researching her new novel years before she published A Visit From The Goon Squad. It follows a girl who becomes the Brooklyn Navy Yard's first female deep-sea diver during World War II.

On May 27, 1963, Ali (known then as Cassius Clay) held up five fingers in a prediction of how many rounds it would take him to win against British boxer Henry Cooper. In June 1963, he fulfilled his prediction and was declared the bout winner after five ro

New Muhammad Ali Biography Reveals A Flawed Rebel Who Loved Attention

2:29pm October 04, 2017

by Dave Davies

"I don't think we do Ali any good by treating him as a saint," says biographer Jonathan Eig. "He was a human being, and he was deeply flawed, but ... he had the spirit of a rebel."

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Books
Arts

James McBride Says Fiction Writing Allows Him More Freedom

4:37pm October 02, 2017

by Michel Martin

Journalist, writer and musician James McBride discusses his collection of short stories, Five-Carat Soul, his first work of fiction since winning the 2013 National Book Award for The Good Lord Bird.

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