Author Interviews

'Bankers' New Clothes' Leave Too Little Skin In The Game

6:50am March 15, 2013

by NPR Staff

Anat Admati, finance professor at Stanford and co-author of a new book on American banks, argues that banks carry too much debt and have too little equity. Government support allows them to hide their risky behavior, distorting the economy as a whole, she says.

Queue Listen Now

Claire Vaye Watkins' debut collection of short stories — Battleborn — is informed by her childhood in the West.

Books
Arts

Two Awards In One Day For 'Battleborn' Author Claire Vaye Watkins

4:19pm March 14, 2013

On Wednesday, it was announced that the 28-year-old fiction writer had won the Story Prize as well as the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her debut story collection explores the landscape, people and history of the American West.

Queue Listen Now

Jake Tapper Takes A Host Chair At CNN

3:24pm March 14, 2013

The veteran reporter has recently moved from ABC News to CNN where he now hosts his own show and serves as Chief Washington Correspondent. In Part II of this interview, Tapper talks about fact-checking the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and blow back from the White House after asking tough questions.

Queue Listen Now

Water pouring from a bottle into a glass.

Books
Arts

A Young Man Gets 'Filthy Rich' Boiling, Bottling Tap Water

1:16pm March 13, 2013

Mohsin Hamid's How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia explores life in the modern megalopolis and the growing scarcity of clean water. In search of his fortune, Hamid's protagonist lands on a scam to boil and sell tap water as bottled mineral water in a novel that takes inspiration from self-help books.

Queue Listen Now

'Frankenstein's Cat': Bioengineering The Animals Of The Future

1:52pm March 11, 2013

Science journalist Emily Anthes talks about how scientists are engineering mice with tumors and working to create pigs that can grow organs for human transplant and insects that could serve as drones for the military.

Queue Listen Now

Books
Arts

A Twin Carries On Alone In 'Her: A Memoir'

5:01pm March 10, 2013

by NPR Staff

Christa Parravani tells the story of her identical twin, Cara, whose brutal rape led to a heroin addiction and eventually her death at the age of 28.

Queue Listen Now

Books
Arts

Living A Life Of Joy 'Until I Say Good-Bye'

8:18am March 09, 2013

by NPR Staff

Journalist Susan Spencer-Wendel was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease in 2011. In her new memoir, Until I Say Good-Bye, she describes a year spent living with the disease but devoted to joy: traveling, visiting friends and family, and accepting her fate with grace.

Queue Listen Now

John Edgar Hoover, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation gives a speech on November 17, 1953, in Washington.

Books
Arts

The History Of The FBI's Secret 'Enemies' List

1:00pm March 08, 2013

As J. Edgar Hoover became increasingly worried about communist threats against America, he instructed the bureau to conduct secret intelligence operations against anyone deemed "subversive." Enemies: A History of the FBI by Tim Weiner is now out in paperback.

Queue Listen Now

Retired Major League Baseball player Mike Piazza's new autobiography, Long Shot, addresses the steroid controversy and recalls the first game after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Making It In The Big Leagues Was A 'Long Shot' For Catcher Mike Piazza

3:30pm March 07, 2013

In a new memoir, the Major League Baseball catcher opens up about getting drafted in the 62nd round, his feud with Roger Clemens and what it's like to go into retirement. Leaving the game, he says, was "like a small death."

Queue Listen Now

In Sly Self-Help Novel, Selling Clean Water Gets You 'Filthy Rich'

11:18am March 06, 2013

by NPR Staff

In Mohsin Hamid's fictional how-to, a nameless protagonist makes a fortune selling knockoff bottled water in a thirsty Asian metropolis. Hamid joins NPR's Steve Inkeep to discuss the book's conceit and the side effects of rampant development.

Queue Listen Now