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 here.

Podcast Episode #90 – John Markoff

This week we interview John Markoff, a Pulitzer Prize winning, veteran science and technology journalist for The New York Times, the Pacific News Service, InfoWorld, Byte Magazine, and The San Jose Mercury. Markoff also has shared his journalistic skills as a lecturer at the University of California at Berkeley School of Journalism, and as an adjunct faculty member of the Stanford Graduate Program on Journalism. His latest biography about a man… Read More »

Podcast Episode #89 – Alejandro Madrid

This week we interview Alejandro Madrid, an award-winning Cornell University musicologist who specializes in music and expressive culture from Latin America and Latinxs in the United States. He has authored more than a half dozen books, including his latest, Tania Léon’s Stride. A Polyrhythmic Life, published by the University of Illinois Press in December 2021. Tania Léon, now in her late 70s, is a sought-after composer, conductor, educator, and tireless advocate for the arts.… Read More »

Podcast Episode #88 – Paulina Bren

This week we interview Paulina Bren, an award-winning writer and Vassar College historian. Her latest book, The Barbizon: The Hotel That Set Women Free is a New York Times Editor’s Choice. The Barbizon has received international press coverage and it has been optioned by HBO and Game of Thrones’ Emilia Clarke. Foreign rights have been sold to Italy, Spain, Hungary, South America, China, Russia and South Korea. Paulina Bren is a well-known scholar of… Read More »

Podcast Episode #87 – Sheena Harris

This week we interview Sheena Harris, a Woodburn Associate Professor of history and coordinator of the Africana Studies Program at West Virginia University. Previously, she served as an Associate Professor of history and the Inaugural Director of Student Engagement Initiatives at Tuskegee University. She is a first-time biographer and author of Margaret Murray Washington: The Life and Times of a Career Clubwoman, published by the University of Tennessee Press in February 2021. A powerful… Read More »

Podcast Episode #86 – Tyrone McKinley Freeman

This week we interview Tyrone McKinley Freeman, an award-winning associate professor of Philanthropic Studies and director of undergraduate programs at Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. His latest book, Madam C.J. Walker’s Gospel of Giving: Black Women’s Philanthropy During Jim Crow, was published by the University of Illinois Press in September 2020. His work has appeared or been cited in the New York Times, O: The Oprah Magazine, TIME, Harvard Read More »

Podcast Episode #85 – Debby Applegate

This week we interview biographer and historian, Debby Applegate. Her first book, The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher, won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Book Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. This book also was named one of the best books of the year by the New York Times Book Review, NPR’s Fresh Air, the Washington Read More »

Podcast Episode #84 – Gary Ginsberg

Happy New Year! This week we interview Gary Ginsberg, author of The New York Times bestseller, First Friends: The Powerful, Unsung (and Unelected) People Who Shaped Out Presidents, published by Twelve in July 2021. The book explores nine select American presidents (Thomas Jefferson, Franklin Pierce, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Harry Truman, Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton) and the relationships they had with their best friends. A lawyer by training, Ginsberg worked… Read More »

Podcast Episode #83 – Writing the First Biography of Your Subject

This week we offer the next episode in a special mini-series featuring highlights from panel discussions conducted during BIO’s first virtual annual conference, held May 14-16, 2021. The session, Writing the First Biography of Your Subject, featured biographers Justin Gifford (Revolution or Death: The Life of Eldridge Cleaver), Abigail Santamaria (Joy: Poet, Seeker, and the Woman Who Captivated C. S. Lewis) and Carol Sklenicka (Alice Adams: Portrait of a WriterRead More »

Podcast Episode #82 – The Art and Technology of Interviewing

This week we offer the next episode in a special mini-series featuring highlights from panel discussions conducted during BIO’s first virtual annual conference, held May 14-16, 2021. The session, The Art and Technology of Interviewing, featured authors John Brady (The Art of Interviewing), Claudia Dreifus (Interview; The New York Times’ Scientific Conversations: Interviews on Science) and Brian Jay Jones (Becoming Dr. Seuss: Theodor Geisel and the Making of an Read More »

Podcast Episode #81 – How to Pay for It…Or Funding Your Biography

This week we offer the next episode in a special mini-series featuring highlights from panel discussions conducted during BIO’s first virtual annual conference, held May 14-16, 2021. The session, “How to Pay For It, Or Funding Your Biography,” featured biographer Carla Kaplan (Miss Anne in Harlem: The White Women of the Black Renaissance), Steve Hindle of California’s Huntington Library, and Mark Silver of the National Endowment for the Humanties. The panel was moderated… Read More »

Speakers

  • Abigail Santamaria
  • Adam Nagourney
  • Aidan Levy
  • Alan Pell Crawford
  • Alejandro Madrid
  • Alexis Pauline Gumbs
  • 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
  • Benjamin Taylor
  • 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
  • Carl Rollyson
  • Carla Kaplan
  • Carol Sklenicka
  • Caroline Fraser
  • Catherine Reef
  • Cathy Curtis
  • Celia Stahr
  • Chad Williams
  • Channing Gerald Joseph
  • Cheryl Janifer LaRoche
  • Claudia Dreifus
  • Cynthia Carr
  • Dan Blank
  • Daniel de Visé
  • Danny Fingeroth
  • Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos
  • David Blight
  • David Greenberg
  • 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
  • Diane Kiesel
  • Dinyar Patel
  • Doug Melville
  • E. James West
  • E. Stanly Godbold
  • Edward O'Shea
  • Eric K. Washington
  • Etta Madden
  • Eugene Meyer
  • Fergus M. Bordewich
  • Frances Wilson
  • Gaiutra Bahadur
  • Gary Ginsberg
  • Gayle Feldman
  • Gene Andrew Jarrett
  • Gerald Howard
  • Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina
  • Gwendolyn Mink
  • Hampton Sides
  • Hans Renders
  • Heath Lee
  • Heather Clark
  • 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
  • Jared Stearns
  • 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
  • Ken Burns
  • 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 Clifford
  • mark lee gardner
  • Mark Silver
  • Marko Perko
  • Marsha Gordon
  • Martha Ackmann
  • Mary Ann Caws
  • Mary Frances Phillips
  • Mary V. Dearborn
  • Maryemma Graham
  • Matthew Kennedy
  • Max Boot
  • Megan Marshall
  • Melinda Ponder
  • Michael Hainey
  • Michael Kranish
  • Molly Ball
  • Monica Szurmuk
  • Natalie Dykstra
  • Neil Baldwin
  • Nicholas L. Syrett
  • Nigel Hamilton
  • Pamela D. Toler
  • Pamela Newkirk
  • Patrick Parr
  • Patti Hartigan
  • 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
  • Samantha Ege
  • Sarah Burnes
  • Satvinder Juss
  • Scott Shane
  • Sheena Harris
  • Silvana Paternostro
  • Simon Read
  • Sonja Williams
  • Soyica Diggs Colbert
  • Stacy Schiff
  • Stephen Budiansky
  • Stephen Enniss
  • 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