Podcasts

Welcome! Here’s where you’ll find fascinating discussions with biographers from around the country and the world.

If you are a member of BIO and would like to talk about your recently released biography, please contact Sonja Williams: sdwilliams11@yahoo.com

Podcast #189 – Katie Gee Salisbury

This week we interview Katie Gee Salisbury, author of Not Your China Doll: The Wild and Shimmering Life of Anna May Wong, a new biography of the first Asian American movie star. This biography was published by Dutton in March 2024. Gee Salisbury’s work has appeared in the New York TimesVanity FairThe Believer, the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, and elsewhere. She was a finalist for the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship… Read More »

Podcast #188 – Kenneth Miller

This week we interview award-winning journalist and author Kenneth Miller about his first biography, Mapping the Darkness: The Visionary Scientists Who Unlocked the Mysteries of Sleep. It was published in October 2023 by Hachette Books. Miller is a contributing editor for Discover, and his work has appeared in Time, Life, Esquire, Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, Aeon, and many other publications. Miller’s honors include the John Bartlow Martin Award for Public Interest Magazine… Read More »

Podcast #187 – Jessica Max Stein

This week we interview Jessica (Max) Stein, author of Funny Boy: The Richard Hunt Biography. This first-time biography of a highly regarded Muppet/Sesame Street performer was published in March 2024 by Rutgers University Press. Stein is New York-based writer who teaches writing and literature at the City University of New York. Biographers International Organization honored Stein’s Funny Boy book proposal as one of three finalists for its 2016 Hazel Rowley Prize. Stein’s writing has… Read More »

Podcast #186 – Matthew Kennedy

This week film historian Matthew Kennedy talks about his latest book, On Elizabeth Taylor: An Opinionated Guide, published by Oxford University Press in May 2024. Kennedy also authored Roadshow! The Fall of Film Musicals in the 1960s, and he has written biographies of actresses Marie Dressler and Joan Blondell, and of director/screenwriter Edmund Goulding. Kennedy has introduced film series at the Museum of Modern Art, UCLA Film & Television Archive, and Pacific Film Archive,… Read More »

Podcast #185 – Rachel Kousser

This week we interview City University of New York (CUNY) professor and author Rachel Kousser. Her latest book, Alexander at the End of the World: The Forgotten Final Years of Alexander the Great, was published in July 2024 by Mariner Books. Kousser heads the Classics Department in CUNY’s Graduate Center and serves as a professor of ancient art and archaeology at Brooklyn College. One of her previous books, The Afterlives of Greek Sculpture: Interaction, Transformation, Read More »

Podcast #184 – Will Hermes

This time we interview author Will Hermes, whose latest book, Lou Reed: The King of New York, was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in October 2023. Hermes is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone and a longtime contributor to NPR’s All Things Considered and The New York Times. He also is the author of Love Goes to Buildings on Fire, he writes for Pitchfork and other publications, and he co-edited SPIN: 20 Read More »

Podcast #183 – Amrita Chakrabarti Myers

This week we interview Amrita Chakrabarti Myers, an award-winning author and the Ruth N. Halls Associate Professor of history and gender studies at Indiana University in Bloomington. Her latest book, The Vice President’s Black Wife: The Untold Life of Julia Chinn, was published by the University of North Carolina Press in October 2023. Myers also is the author of Forging Freedom: Black Women and the Pursuit of Liberty in Antebellum Charleston. Amrita Chakrabarti… Read More »

Podcast #182 – Brad Gooch

This week we interview poet, novelist, and biographer Brad Gooch. His latest book, Radiant: The Life and Line of Keith Haring, was published by Harper/HarperCollins in March 2024. Gooch’s previous ten books include Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’Connor—a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and a New York Times bestseller—and City Poet: The Life and Times of Frank O’Hara. Brad Gooch is the recipient… Read More »

Podcast #181 – Marsha Gordon

This week we interview Marsha Gordon, author, professor, and director of Film Studies at North Carolina State University. Gordon’s latest book, Becoming the Ex-Wife: The Unconventional Life & Forgotten Writings of Ursula Parrott, was published by the University of California Press in April 2023. Gordon is a former National Humanities Center Fellow and an NEH Public Scholar. Her other books include Film is Like a Battleground: Sam Fuller’s War Movies, and Hollywood Ambitions: Read More »

Podcast #180 – Adam Nagourney

This week we interview Adam Nagourney, veteran journalist and author of, The Times: How the Newspaper of Record Survived Scandal, Scorn and the Transformation of Journalism, published by Crown Press in September 2023. After being hired by the New York Times in 1996, Nagourney served as the paper’s metropolitan political correspondent, chief national political correspondent, Los Angeles bureau chief, and West Coast culture reporter, returning to cover national politics in 2023. Before joining the TimesRead More »

Speakers

  • Abigail Santamaria
  • Adam Nagourney
  • Aidan Levy
  • Alan Pell Crawford
  • Alejandro Madrid
  • Alison M. Parker
  • Allison Gilbert
  • Amrita Chakrabarti Myers
  • Anastasia Curwood
  • Andrew Marble
  • Andrew Meier
  • Andrew Nagorski
  • Angela V. John
  • Annette Gordon-Reed
  • Anthony DeCurtis
  • Ash Carter
  • Ashley Brown
  • A’Lelia Bundles
  • Barbara D. Savage
  • Bernice Lerner
  • Betsy Rohaly Smoot
  • Beverly Gage
  • Beverly Gray
  • Brad Gooch
  • Brad Snyder
  • Brian Harker
  • Brian Jay Jones
  • Bridgette M. Davis
  • Bruce Kennett
  • Caleb Gayle
  • Candice Millard
  • Carla Kaplan
  • Carol Sklenicka
  • Caroline Fraser
  • Catherine Reef
  • Cathy Curtis
  • Celia Stahr
  • Chad Williams
  • Channing Gerald Joseph
  • Claudia Dreifus
  • Cynthia Carr
  • Dan Blank
  • Daniel de Visé
  • Danny Fingeroth
  • Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos
  • David Blight
  • David Hajdu
  • David Levering Lewis
  • David Maraniss
  • David Michaelis
  • David Nasaw
  • David O. Stewart
  • David Remnick
  • David Waldstreicher
  • Dean King
  • Debby Applegate
  • Declan Taintor
  • Diana P. Parsell
  • Dinyar Patel
  • Doug Melville
  • E. James West
  • E. Stanly Godbold
  • Edward O'Shea
  • Eric K. Washington
  • Etta Madden
  • Eugene Meyer
  • Frances Wilson
  • Gaiutra Bahadur
  • Gary Ginsberg
  • Gayle Feldman
  • Gene Andrew Jarrett
  • Gerald Howard
  • Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina
  • Gwendolyn Mink
  • Hampton Sides
  • Hans Renders
  • Heath Lee
  • Helen Rappaport
  • Hermione Lee
  • Hilary A. Hallett
  • Hilary Holladay
  • Holly Van Leuven
  • Ilyon Woo
  • Imani Perry
  • Iris Jamahl Dunkle
  • J. C. Hallman
  • Jack Kelly
  • James Atlas
  • James H. Johnston
  • James McGrath Morris
  • Janice P. Nimura
  • Jayne E. Zanglein
  • Jeff Pearlman
  • Jeffrey C. Stewart and David Levering Lewis
  • Jennifer Homans
  • Jennifer Skoog
  • Jessica Max Stein
  • John A. Farrell
  • John Brady
  • John Carey
  • John Kaag
  • John Markoff
  • Jonathan Alter
  • Jonathan Eig
  • Jonny Steinberg
  • Joy-Ann Reid
  • Judith Thurman
  • Judith Tick
  • Judy Tzu-Chun Wu
  • Julie Dobrow
  • Justin Gifford
  • Justin Martin
  • Justin Tinsley
  • Kai Bird
  • Karin Roffman
  • Katherine Flynn
  • Kathleen Stone
  • Katie Gee Salisbury
  • Kavita Das
  • Kenneth Miller
  • Kerri Greenidge
  • Kevin McGruder
  • Kitty Kelley
  • Kitty Kelley Part I
  • Kitty Kelley Part II
  • Kostya Kennedy
  • Larry Rohter
  • Laurie Gwen Shapiro
  • Lerita Coleman Brown
  • Leslie Brody
  • Li Shan Chan
  • Linda Leavell
  • Lisa Napoli
  • Lydia Moland
  • Marc Leepson
  • Marcia Biederman
  • Marilyn Greenwald
  • Marilyn S. Greenwald
  • Mark Clague
  • mark lee gardner
  • Mark Silver
  • Marko Perko
  • Marsha Gordon
  • Martha Ackmann
  • Mary Ann Caws
  • Mary V. Dearborn
  • Maryemma Graham
  • Matthew Kennedy
  • Megan Marshall
  • Melinda Ponder
  • Michael Hainey
  • Michael Kranish
  • Molly Ball
  • Monica Szurmuk
  • Natalie Dykstra
  • Neil Baldwin
  • Nicholas L. Syrett
  • Nigel Hamilton
  • Pamela Newkirk
  • Patrick Parr
  • Paul Fisher
  • Paulina Bren
  • Paulina L. Alberto
  • Peniel E. Joseph
  • Philip Clark
  • Philip Short
  • Rachel Jamison Webster
  • Rachel Kousser
  • Rachel L. Swarns
  • Rachel Shteir
  • Raquel Ramsey and Tricia Aurand
  • Ray Anthony Shepard
  • RJ Smith
  • Robert Samuels 
  • Ruth Franklin
  • Sam Kashner
  • Sarah Burnes
  • Satvinder Juss
  • Scott Shane
  • Sheena Harris
  • Silvana Paternostro
  • Sonja Williams
  • Soyica Diggs Colbert
  • Stacy Schiff
  • Stephen Budiansky
  • Stephen Heyman
  • Steve Hindle
  • Sung-Yoon Lee
  • Susan Page
  • Tamara Payne
  • Tanisha C. Ford
  • Thomas Hertog
  • Tim Duggan
  • Toluse Olorunnipa
  • Tom Reiss
  • Tomiko Brown-Nagin
  • Tonya Bolden
  • Ty Seidule
  • Tyrone McKinley Freeman
  • Vanda Krefft
  • Walter Isaacson
  • Wanda A. Hendricks
  • Will Hermes
  • William Taubman
  • Winston James
  • Yun Li
  • Yunte Huang