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 Jennifer Skoog: jenny.skoog@gmail.com

Podcast Episode #70 – Annette Gordon-Reed

Annette Gordon-Reed is the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University. She also is the author of several acclaimed books, including The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award for Nonfiction, and the Anisfield-Wolf Nonfiction Book Award. Gordon-Reed lives in New York and Cambridge, and her latest book, On Juneteenth, was published by Liveright in May 2021.   Read More »

Podcast Episode #69 – Stephen Budiansky

In this week’s episode, we interview Stephen Budiansky, a veteran historian, biographer, and journalist who has published 15 books, including his current biography, Journey to the Edge of Reason: The Life of Kurt Gödel, published by W.W. Norton & Company in May 2021. His writing also has appeared in The AtlanticThe New York TimesThe Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post, and he is a Guggenheim Fellow. Budiansky was… Read More »

Podcast Episode #68 – Kerri Greenidge

In this week’s episode, we interview Kerri Greenidge, author of Black Radical: The Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter, published November 19, 2019, by Liveright/Norton. Greenidge was interviewed via Zoom on June 28, 2021, by writer and BIO member Sonja Williams.   Read More »

Podcast Episode #67 – Raquel Ramsey and Tricia Aurand

In this week’s episode, we interview Raquel Ramsey and Tricia Aurand, co-authors of Taking Flight: The Nadine Ramsey Story, published in September 2020 by the University of Kansas Press. Ramsey is a retired Beverly Hills High School teacher and ESL coordinator. She also is the widow of Col. Edwin P. Ramsey, a decorated World War II hero. Aurand is an award-winning screenwriter, media critic, and podcast host who has several scripts in production and development. … Read More »

Podcast Episode #66 -Patrick Parr

In this week’s episode, we interview Patrick Parr, author of One Week in America: The 1968 Notre Dame Literary Festival and a Changing Nation, published March 2021 by Chicago Review Press. Parr’s narrative is a day-by-day examination of a week that began with President Lyndon B. Johnson announcement that he would not seek re-election and ended with the fallout created by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s the assassination.  Parr includes never-before-published letters from festival… Read More »

Podcast Episode #65 – Alison M. Parker

In this week’s episode we interview Alison M. Parker, author of Unceasing Militant: The Life of Mary Church Terrell, published by the University of North Carolina Press in December 2020. Parker’s book is the first full-length biography of Terrell, one of the most prominent African American activists of her time, and whose career bridged the late nineteenth century to the civil rights movement of the 1950s. Parker, a history professor and department chair at… Read More »

Podcast Episode #64 – Janice P. Nimura

In this week’s episode, we interview Janice P. Nimura, author of The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine, published in January 2021 by W. W. Norton & Company. Her previous book, Daughters of the Samurai: A Journey from East to West and Back, was a New York Times notable book in 2015. Her essays and book reviews have appeared in The New York Times,… Read More »

Podcast Episode #63 – Jayne E. Zanglein

In this week’s episode, we interview former lawyer and college professor Jayne E. Zanglein, author of The Girl Explorers: The Untold Story of the Globetrotting Women Who Trekked, Flew, and Fought Their Way Around the World, published March 2, 2021, by Sourcebooks. Zanglein was interviewed in her home in North Carolina on March 18th, 2021, via Zoom by writer and BIO member Lisa Napoli.    … Read More »

Podcast Episode #62 – Martha Ackmann

In this week’s episode, we interview Martha Ackmann, author of These Fevered Days: Ten Pivotal Moments in the Making of Emily Dickinson, published Feb 25, 2021, by W. W. Norton & Company. Ackmann’s award-winning books include The Mercury 13: The True Story of Thirteen Women and the Dream of Space Flight, and Curveball: The Remarkable Story of Toni Stone, First Woman to Play Profession Baseball in the Negro League. Ackmann was interviewed in… Read More »

Podcast Episode #61 – Stephen Heyman

In this week’s episode, we interview Stephen Heyman, author of The Planter of Modern Life: Louis Bromfield and the Seeds of a Food Revolution, published April 14, 2020, by W.W. Norton & Company. Heyman, a former features editor for The New York Times Style Magazine, also has written for The Times, Slate, Vogue, and many other publications. He was interviewed in his home in Pittsburgh on March 10, 2021, via Zoom by writer… Read More »

Speakers

  • Abigail Santamaria
  • Aidan Levy
  • Alan Pell Crawford
  • Alejandro Madrid
  • Alison M. Parker
  • Allison Gilbert
  • Anastasia Curwood
  • Andrew Marble
  • Andrew Meier
  • Andrew Nagorski
  • Angela V. John
  • Annette Gordon-Reed
  • Anthony DeCurtis
  • Ash Carter
  • Ashley Brown
  • A’Lelia Bundles
  • Bernice Lerner
  • Betsy Rohaly Smoot
  • Beverly Gage
  • Beverly Gray
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • John A. Farrell
  • John Brady
  • John Carey
  • John Kaag
  • John Markoff
  • Jonathan Alter
  • Jonathan Eig
  • Jonny Steinberg
  • Judith Thurman
  • Judy Tzu-Chun Wu
  • Julie Dobrow
  • Justin Gifford
  • Justin Martin
  • Justin Tinsley
  • Kai Bird
  • Karin Roffman
  • Katherine Flynn
  • Kathleen Stone
  • Kavita Das
  • Kerri Greenidge
  • Kevin McGruder
  • Kitty Kelley
  • Kitty Kelley Part I
  • Kitty Kelley Part II
  • Kostya Kennedy
  • 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
  • Martha Ackmann
  • Mary Ann Caws
  • Mary V. Dearborn
  • Maryemma Graham
  • 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 L. Swarns
  • Rachel Shteir
  • Raquel Ramsey and Tricia Aurand
  • Ray Anthony Shepard
  • RJ Smith
  • Robert Samuels 
  • Ruth Franklin
  • Sam Kashner
  • Sarah Burnes
  • Satvinder Juss
  • 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
  • William Taubman
  • Winston James
  • Yun Li
  • Yunte Huang