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 #172 – Jack Kelly

This week we interview Jack Kelly, an award-winning author and historian. Kelly’s latest book,  God Save Benedict Arnold: The True Story of America’s Most Hated Man, was published in December 2023 by St. Martin’s Press. Kelly’s previous fiction and nonfiction books were well received, including his Band of Giants: The Amateur Soldiers Who Won America’s Independence, which received the DAR History Medal. Kelly is a New York Foundation for the Arts nonfiction literature… Read More »

Podcast #171 – Joy-Ann Reid

This week we interview Joy-Ann Reid, host of MSNBC’s The Reid Out and New York Times bestselling authorReid’s latest book, Medgar and Myrlie: Medgar Evers and the Love Story That Awakened America, was published by Mariner Books in February of this year. Her previous books include the bestseller The Man Who Sold America: Trump and the Unraveling of the American Story. Reid served as the former managing editor of The Read More »

Podcast #170 – Natalie Dykstra

This week we interview award-winning author Natalie Dykstra. Her latest biography, Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner, will be published by Mariner on March 26, 2024. Dykstra’s work on Stewart Gardner has won a Public Scholars Award from the National Endowment for the Humanities and an inaugural Robert and Ina Caro Research/Travel Fellowship sponsored by the Biographers International Organization. Dykstra, an emerita professor of English at Hope College in Michigan, lives with her… Read More »

Podcast #169 – Nicholas L. Syrett

This week we interview Nicholas L. Syrett, the author of four books and most recently, The Trials of Madame Restell: Nineteenth-Century America’s Most Infamous Female Physician and the Campaign to Make Abortion a Crime, published by The New Press in October 2023. As an associate dean and professor of women, gender, and sexuality studies at the University of Kansas, Syrett also is the co-editor of the Journal of the History of Sexuality. Nicholas… Read More »

Podcast #168 – J. C. Hallman

This week we interview J. C. Hallman, author of Say Anarcha: A Young Woman, a Devious Surgeon, and the Harrowing Birth of Modern Women’s Health, published by Henry Holt and Company in June 2023. Hallman’s previous work on Anarcha has appeared in Harper’s Magazine, the Forum (of the African American Policy Forum), the Baffler, Montgomery Advertiser, and Urology. Hallman also has published five previous works of nonfiction and a book of… Read More »

Podcast #167 – Rachel Shteir

This week we interview author and theater arts professor Rachel Shteir, whose latest book, Betty Friedan: Magnificent Disruptor, was published by Yale University Press in September 2023. Friedan was the trendsetting feminist writer and activist. Shteir has written three precious books, Striptease: The Untold History of the Girlie ShowGypsy: the Art of the Tease; and The Steal: A Cultural History of Shoplifting, along with many essays and articles, and she… Read More »

Podcast #166 – Doug Melville

This week we interview author Doug Melville, whose first biography, Invisible Generals: Rediscovering Family Legacy and a Quest to Honor America’s First Black Generals, was published by Atria/Black Privilege Press in November 2023. Invisible Generals explores the lives of Generals Benjamin O. Davis, Senior and Junior, a father and son who helped integrate the American military and created the Tuskegee Airmen. Melville is a global head of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the international… Read More »

Podcast #165 – Rachel Jamison Webster

This week we interview Rachel Jamison Webster, professor of creative writing at Northwestern University and the author of four books of poetry and cross-genre writing. Her latest book, Benjamin Banneker and Us: Eleven Generations of an American Family, was published by Henry Holt and Company in March 2023.  Webster has taught writing workshops through the National Urban League, Chicago Public Schools, Gallery 37, and the Pacific Northwest College of Art, working to bring diversity… Read More »

Podcast #164 – David Waldstreicher

This week we interview David Waldstreicher, a history professor at the City University of New York Graduate Center and author of his latest book, The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley: a Poet’s Journeys Through American Slavery and Independence, published by Farrar Strauss and Grioux in March 2023. Waldstreicher’s other books includer Slavery’s Constitution: From Revolution to Ratification, and Runaway America: Benjamin Franklin, Slavery, and the American Revolution. He also has written for The New Read More »

Podcast #163 – Tanisha C. Ford

This week we interview Tanisha C. Ford, a cultural critic, educator, and author. Her latest book, Our Secret Society: Mollie Moon, and the Glamour, Money and Power Behind the Civil Rights Movement, was published by Amistad in October 2023. Ford has written for the New York Timesthe AtlanticTimethe RootElleHarper’s Bazaar, and she’s been featured on NPR, among other places. She was named to the… Read 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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