Author Interviews

Block associations on the South Side have long pushed to make their neighborhoods cleaner and safer, but investment from developers and retailers has been slow to follow.

Talking Housing Segregation And Chicago With WBEZ's Natalie Y. Moore

4:45pm April 11, 2016

by Gene Demby

A longtime Chicago reporter, a native of the black South Side, digs into the ways segregation continues to shape the politics of her hometown, as well as her own life.

'Alice & Oliver' Novelist On Marriage, Cancer And The Pain Of Uncertainty

1:20pm April 11, 2016

Charles Bock's wife died from leukemia just before their daughter's 3rd birthday. Bock relived the final years of her life while writing his new novel. "I was just shattered," he says of the loss.

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Want To Teach In Urban Schools? Get To Know The Neighborhood

5:30pm April 10, 2016

by NPR Staff

Many teachers in urban schools don't understand their students or the places they live, says author and educator Christopher Emdin.

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Japanese food was once derided, but it's now in the canon of haute cuisine, says author Krishnendu Ray. How we value a culture's cuisine in our society, he says, often reflects the status of those who cook it.

Why Hunting Down 'Authentic Ethnic Food' Is A Loaded Proposition

11:26am April 09, 2016

by Maria Godoy

In a new book, an NYU scholar explores how immigrants shape the American palate. He says it's time to ditch the phrase "ethnic food" — which lumps all nonwhite people and their cuisines together.

Books
Arts

Charlie And Lola Are Back In 'Absolutely One Thing'

11:13am April 09, 2016

Lauren Child has a new "Charlie and Lola" book after a long hiatus. She tells NPR's Scott Simon that she needed a break, but then she missed her popular characters.

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Sleep Deprived: We're Recharging Our Phones, But Not Ourselves

10:57am April 09, 2016

by NPR Staff

Arianna Huffington says we're in the midst of a sleep deprivation crisis and that Donald Trump really shouldn't be bragging about needing only four hours of sleep a night.

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Books
Arts

An Ancient Route Rolls On: Questions For Author Of 'The Silk Roads'

5:13pm April 08, 2016

by Nishant Dahiya

It's been centuries since camel caravans crisscrossed Eurasia along the Silk Roads. Now historian Peter Frankopan's new book puts the fabled roads at the center of a new view of world history.

Books
Arts

'Gateway To Freedom': Heroes, Danger And Loss On The Underground Railroad

1:41pm April 08, 2016

Historian Eric Foner recently won the American History Book Prize from the New York Historical Society for Gateway to Freedom, about the underground railroad. Originally broadcast Jan. 15, 2015.

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Books
Arts

A Radiologist And Poet Explains How He Sees The World In Patterns

3:10pm April 07, 2016

by NPR Staff

Amit Majmudar, Ohio's first Poet Laureate, spends his days looking for abnormalities in X-rays, CT scans and PET scans. He's given his latest poetry collection a provocative name: Dothead.

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Marvel's Black Panther by writer Ta-Nehisi Coates and artist Brian Stelfreeze.

Ta-Nehisi Coates Hopes 'Black Panther' Will Be Some Kid's 'Spider-Man'

10:47am April 07, 2016

by NPR Staff

Coates has written a new series of Black Panther comics telling the story of an African prince turned superhero. "Comic book heroes are like our mythology," he says. "They're our Greek gods."

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