Author Interviews

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks during a rally in front of the Capitol on March 22. She writes about the middle class and activism in her new book, This Fight Is Our Fight.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren's Call To Action: 'This Fight' Will Take Everybody

7:48pm April 18, 2017

by Audie Cornish

"Everybody's got to get out there and find the piece that they can do," the Democratic Massachusetts senator says. She talks to NPR's Audie Cornish about her new book, the middle class and activism.

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'Locking Up Our Own' Details The Mass Incarceration Of Black Men

4:33pm April 18, 2017

NPR's Robert Siegel talks with author James Forman, Jr., about his new book, Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America. It tells the story of how African Americans in law enforcement made the war on drugs very much their war.

Alyssa Mastromonaco sits with President Barack Obama aboard Air Force One in 2012. Mastromonaco served as the president's director of scheduling and advance from 2009 until 2011, then became his deputy chief of staff for operations from 2011 until 2014.

'I Basically Ran On Adrenaline': A Staffer Remembers Obama's White House

4:12pm April 18, 2017

by Terry Gross

Alyssa Mastromonaco worked in the West Wing for six exhilarating and exhausting years. She describes that era in her new memoir, Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?

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Anxious Nations React Fearfully To Rapid Influx Of Migrants, Hamid Says

7:01am April 18, 2017

Amid the rise of nationalism, David Greene talks to Pakistani novelist Mohsin Hamid, who sees migration as an inalienable human right. His new novel is called, Exit West.

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Books
Arts

'The Epitome Of New York Cool': Letterman Biographer On Late Night Icon

10:31pm April 17, 2017

David Letterman, one of the most famous people in America, is an enigma. Jason Zinoman's new book, Letterman: The Last Giant of Late Night, looks at the late night talk show host's long career and the impact it still has on broadcasting today.

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Mollie Burkhart (second from right) lost all three of her sisters under suspicious circumstances. Rita Smith (left) died in an explosion, Anna Brown (second from left) was shot in the head and Minnie Smith (right) died of what doctors referred to as a "pe

In The 1920s, A Community Conspired To Kill Native Americans For Their Oil Money

3:21pm April 17, 2017

by Steve Inskeep

The Osage tribe in Oklahoma became spectacularly wealthy in the early 1900s — and then members started turning up dead. David Grann's Killers of the Flower Moon describes the dark plot against them.

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Books
Arts

'A People's History Of Chicago' Reflects A Spectrum Of Experiences

5:38pm April 16, 2017

by Ray Suarez

Poet and author Kevin Coval talks about his new book of poems, A People's History of Chicago. The book tells the stories of the city's marginalized communities.

Books
Arts

'The Book Of Joan' Recasts A Historic Heroine — In Space

11:41am April 16, 2017

by Lulu Garcia-Navarro

Lidia Yuknavitch's fascination with Joan of Arc informs her new novel, set in a grim future where humanity is sexless and ageless, prisoners in a technological hell ruled by a malevolent billionaire.

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Philanthropy In America Is Becoming 'Ideological Arms Race,' Author Says

8:12am April 16, 2017

Many of the richest citizens are reshaping public policy, and society, as they see fit. Because of their numbers, they have more influence than the philanthropists of the past, David Callahan says.

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Michael Nesmith (center, foreground) with the other members of The Monkees — Davy Jones (left), Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork (right) — in the late 1960s.

Michael Nesmith On 'Infinite Tuesday' And Touring With Hendrix

8:12am April 16, 2017

In his new memoir, the one-time member of The Monkees recalls befriending John Lennon and Jimi Hendrix, who opened for the band on a 1967 tour. (That didn't last long.)