Author Interviews

Jamie Moyer, shown above pitching for the Colorado Rockies in May 2012, made his major league debut back in 1986. He says that after decades in the major leagues, he'd occasionally have to remind himself that "in baseball terms, I really was old, but in e

At 49, Jamie Moyer's Pitching Career Goes Into Extra Innings

12:57pm October 02, 2013

In a new memoir called Just Tell Me I Can't Moyer explains how he became a better pitcher in his 40s than his 20s. Moyer's story isn't just the tale of a talented guy who hung on a little longer than others; with the help of a sports psychologist, he managed to gain control of the mental side of his game.

Queue Listen Now

Books
Arts

Chris Matthews Looks Back On A Time 'When Politics Worked'

2:49pm October 01, 2013

In his new book Tip and the Gipper, MSNBC's Hardball host Chris Matthews reflects on his time as a top aide to Democratic House Speaker Tip O'Neill during Ronald Reagan's presidency. He compares O'Neill and Reagan's unlikely friendship to today's approach of "government by tantrum."

Queue Listen Now

How Our Stone Age Bodies Struggle To Stay Healthy In Modern Times

10:00am October 01, 2013

In The Story of the Human Body, evolutionary biologist Daniel Lieberman explains how our bodies haven't adapted to modern conditions. The result is "mismatch diseases" — ailments that occur because our bodies weren't designed for the environments in which we now live.

Queue Listen Now

Books
Arts

How Two Brothers Waged A 'Secret World War' In The 1950s

6:30pm September 29, 2013

by NPR Staff

Sharing power in the Eisenhower administration, John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles were the forefathers of using covert operations to upset foreign governments. Journalist Stephen Kinzer, who wrote a book on the siblings, says Americans are still paying the price for them.

Queue Listen Now

Books
Arts

'Faithful Scribe': Tracing Ancestry Through Pakistan's History

7:10pm September 28, 2013

by NPR Staff

In The Faithful Scribe, Shahan Mufti examines the history of Pakistan and that nation's relationship to the U.S. He interweaves the story of his own family with the tumultuous story of the nation. Mufti talks with NPR's Arun Rath about the future of the world's first Islamic democracy.

Queue Listen Now

Garrison Keillor has been the host of A Prairie Home Companion since it began nearly four decades ago. He was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1994.

Books
Arts

News From Lake Wobegon: Garrison Keillor Has A New Book Of Poetry

11:16am September 28, 2013

by NPR Staff

The host of A Prairie Home Companion and The Writer's Almanac has published his first poetry collection called O, What a Luxury: Verses Lyrical, Vulgar, Pathetic and Profound. "I love rhymes," Keillor says. "I love to write a poem about New York and rhyme 'oysters' with 'The Cloisters.' "

Queue Listen Now

Books
Arts

I, Spy: Valerie Plame Makes Her Fiction Debut In CIA Thriller

11:16am September 28, 2013

by NPR Staff

In Blowback, Plame channels her expertise in nuclear counterproliferation into a "realistic portrait" of a female covert agent. Plame confesses that there's a lot of downtime in the life of a spy, but still, the CIA is "the world's biggest dating agency."

Queue Listen Now

Diane Ravitch critiques attempts to replace teachers with technology.

Diane Ravitch Rebukes Education Activists' 'Reign Of Error'

8:11am September 27, 2013

by NPR Staff

Former Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch spent years advocating for an overhaul of the American education system. Now she criticizes changes that she used to support, like charter schools and school choice. She explains her reasoning in Reign of Error, her new book on the pitfalls of privatizing education.

Queue Listen Now

NFL's A Nonprofit? Author Says It's Time For Football Reform

6:18pm September 24, 2013

by NPR Staff

Despite pro football's sky-high profits, taxpayers subsidize the industry with $1 billion each year. In The King of Sports, Gregg Easterbrook argues for some serious reforms, including incentives for college graduation rates and a new approach to youth football leagues.

Queue Listen Now

Books
Arts

'Reaped' Is A Reminder That No One Is Promised Tomorrow

3:23pm September 24, 2013

In Men We Reaped, Jesmyn Ward recalls the deaths of five young men in her life, which she believes were all connected to being poor and black in the rural South. "It made me feel that I wasn't promised some long life. ... That's not a given for me."

Queue Listen Now