Welcome! Here’s where you’ll find fascinating discussions with biographers from around the country and the world.
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Podcast #237 – Marion Orr
House of Diggs: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Consequential Black Congressman, Charles C. Diggs Jr., is the latest book by this political scientist and the inaugural Frederick Lippitt Professor of Public Policy at Brown University. House of Diggs was published by the University of North Carolina Press in September of this year. An award-winning author, Orr’s publications include Black Social Capital: The Politics of School Reform in Baltimore and The Color of School … Read More »
Podcast #236 – Tim Greiving
John Williams: A Composer’s Life, published by Oxford University Press in September 2025, is the first biography by this arts journalist. Greiving, a longtime fan of Williams’ celebrated film scores, has contributed stories to NPR, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and the New York Times. He has written program notes for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Royal Albert Hall, and liner notes for more than one hundred soundtrack albums.… Read More »
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Podcast #235 – Francesca Wade
Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife, published by Scribner in October 2025, is the latest book by London-based author Francesca Wade. Additionally, Wade is the author of Square Haunting: Five Writers in London Between the Wars, and her writing has appeared in The New York Review of Books, London Review of Books, Paris Review, Granta, and elsewhere. She has received fellowships from the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, the Leon Levy Center… Read More »
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Podcast #234 – Todd S. Purdum
Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Invented Television, published by Simon and Schuster in June 2025, is the latest book by this veteran journalist and author. Purdum also authored Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Broadway Revolution and An Idea Whose Time Has Come: Two Presidents, Two Parties, and the Battle for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In a career spanning more than forty years, Purdum has written extensively about politics and culture, beginning at … Read More »
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Podcast #233 – Dana A. Williams
Toni at Random: The Iconic Writer’s Legendary Editorship, the latest book by author Dana A. Williams about Toni Morrison’s significant tenure as an editor at Random House, was published by Amistad in June 2025. Williams is Professor of African American literature and Dean of the Graduate School at Howard University. She also authored In the Light of Likeness—Transformed: The Literary Art of Leon Forrest. Williams has edited several books, and her writing has been published… Read More »
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Podcast #232 – James M. Bradley
Martin Van Buren: America’s First Politician is James M. Bradley’s current book. It was published in December 2024 by Oxford University Press. Bradley co-edits the Martin Van Buren Papers, based at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee, and he serves as an adjunct instructor in the public history program at the State University of New York at Albany. Bradley also served as the senior project editor of the Encyclopedia of New York City, published by Yale… Read More »
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Podcast #231 – Lindsay M. Chervinsky
This historian and author’s latest book, Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic, was published by Oxford University Press in September 2024. Her other books include the award-winning The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution, and the co-edited Mourning the Presidents: Loss and Legacy in American Culture. Chervinsky currently serves as Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library, and she was a historian at… Read More »
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Podcast #230 – Marcus J. Moore
High and Rising: A Book About De La Soul, published by Dey Street Books in November 2024, is the latest offering by this critically acclaimed author and university professor. Moore’s work explores the intersections of music, race, and culture, and he is the author of The Butterfly Effect: How Kendrick Lamar Ignited the Soul of Black America. Moore has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, and Rolling Stone, and has… Read More »
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Podcast #229 – Dan Nadel
This author’s latest book, Crumb: A Cartoonist’s Life, examines the life of Robert Crumb, one of the most celebrated artists of the 20th century. Scribner published Crumb in April 2025, and its author is the Steven and Ann Ames Curator of Drawings and Prints at The Whitney Museum of American Art. Nadel’s previous books include It’s Life as I See It: Black Cartoonists in Chicago, 1940–1980; Peter Saul: Professional Artist Correspondence, 1945–1976,… Read More »
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Podcast #228 – Alison Owings
Mayor of the Tenderloin: Del Seymour’s Journey from Living on the Streets to Fighting Homelessness, is this former broadcast journalist and author’s latest book. It was published by Beacon Press in September 2025, and her previous books include Frauen: German Women Recall the Third Reich – a New York Times “Notable Book of the Year” and a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice; Hey, Waitress! The USA from the Other Side of the Tray, … Read More »
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