This Is the Author

September is Library Card Sign-Up Month! In another special Library Love edition of This is the Author, we hear from beloved authors who share their fondest library memories, and why libraries mean so very much to them. Listen to authors Eddie Glaude, John O'Leary, Conor Knighton, Matt Alt, and Kent Russell as they share their love for this vital community resource and why a library “feels like yo...

S5 Ep 47: In this episode, meet Daniel Nayeri, Paola Mendoza, and brother and sister co-authors Maia and Alex Shibutani. Storytelling, creativity, activism, and friendship are all themes that ring out in these behind-the-mic interviews. Listen in to hear more, plus discover a side of the "Shib Sibs" that you've never heard before. Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri: https://www.penguinrando...

S5 Ep 45: In this episode, meet Kelly Treleaven, Justin Taylor, and Meghan Leahy. Join each of these authors in the recording booth as they discuss their news books, the complexities of teaching and learning, and the intimacy that the audio format can bring to the written word. Love, Teach by Kelly Treleaven: https://www.penguinrandomhouseaudio.com/book/561720/love-teach/ Riding with the Ghost by...

S5 Ep 46: In this episode, meet husband and wife co-authors Harold Earls and Rachel Earls, Carlos Whittaker, and Becky Thompson. These authors have each written books about how their faith has helped them move forward in difficult times and live life to the fullest. Now, step into the audio booth to hear what it was like for them to record their audiobooks. A Higher Calling by Harold Earls, IV and...

S5 Ep 43: In this episode, meet art curator Kimberly Drew and teenage entrepreneur Mikaila Ulmer. Go behind the mic with these authors and find out not only what inspired them to write their books, but also what's unique about listening to the audiobook edition. Plus, get their most recent audio recommendations. This Is What I Know About Art by Kimberly Drew: https://www.penguinrandomhouseaudio.co...

S5 Ep 42: Welcome to another episode of This is the Author In Conversation, a more personal behind-the-mic chat with our authors in the audiobooks studio. In this episode, we invite you into the sound booth with entrepreneur and business strategist Mike Michalowicz, author and narrator of The Pumpkin Plan and Fix This Next. Starting, maintaining, and reinvigorating a business isn't simple; but in...

September is Library Card Sign-Up Month! In this special Library Love edition of This is the Author, we hear from beloved authors who share their fondest library memories, and why their library means so very much to them. Listen to Erik Larson, Gail Caldwell, Anne Applebaum, Maria Konnikova, Rick Hanson, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, and Andy Boyle as they share anecdotes about their experiences as...

S5 Ep 41: In this episode, meet Will Doig, Anne Applebaum, and the storyteller known as "The Captain." These authors have written compelling narratives that combine history and current events, from Will Doig's tracking of China's advances in high speed rail, to Anne Applebaum's examination of how and why democracies around the world are turning towards authoritarianism. And to add a splash of irre...

S5 Ep 40: In this episode, meet Meredith Talusan, Susan Burton, and Gail Caldwell. These authors have each written nuanced and highly personal memoirs about the experiences that continue to shape their lives. Listen in to hear what it was like for them to record their audiobooks. Plus, find out how mispronouncing a word during recording led one author to examine her relationship to the very word i...

S5 Ep 39: In this episode, meet Matt Alt, A. Kendra Greene, and Kent Russell. In their new audiobooks, each of these authors takes a deep dive into the intersection of geography and culture, and the ways in which a product, artifact, or lived experience that is grounded in the local can expand into the global, influencing all of us. Listen in as they describe what it was like to record their audio...

S5 Ep 38: In this episode, meet Andrew Coté, Jennifer Ackerman, and Maria Konnikova. It's remarkable what we can learn when we take the time to observe behavior, without obscuring it with what we think we know. Each of these authors writes about what can be learned when we truly open our eyes: to bees, to birds, and yes, to bluffs. Now, go behind the mic to hear them talk about recording their aud...

S5 Ep 37: In this episode, meet Wes Moore, Christine Montross, and Eddie S. Glaude Jr. Whether examining a city’s response to police violence, revealing the connection between psychological vulnerability and incarceration, or using the life and works of a visionary thinker to shine a light on race in America, each of these authors unearths complicated truths about their subjects while revealing ev...

S5 Ep 36: In this episode, meet Tenzin Priyadarshi, Tammy Mastroberte, and Galen Guengerich. A spiritual path is rarely straight forward, and each one of these authors has written about how experiences in their own lives, together with help from important guides and mentors, have lead them to where they are today. Listen in to hear them talk about recording their audiobooks. Plus, find out which a...

S5 Ep 35: In this episode, meet the three hosts of The LadyGang podcast: Keltie Knight, Becca Tobin, and Jac Vanek. In the Gang’s audiobook Act Like A Lady, they each share blissfully BS-free anecdotes from their lives so that you don’t feel so alone when you think about… whatever-it-was-you-did-that-one-time. Listen in to hear the Gang’s behind-the-mic realizations that only recording their audio...

S5 Ep 33: In this episode, meet Michael Pollan, Judith Warner, and Conor Knighton. These three authors use their audiobooks to take listeners on journeys of discovery: discovery about the food we eat, about how adolescence shapes adulthood and how we parent, and discovery about National Parks throughout the country. And while all of these authors are avid audiobook listeners themselves, discover w...

S5 Ep 34: In this episode meet Liam Vaughn, Barton Gellman, and Jung H Pak. From the story of a trading prodigy who triggered the fastest US market crash in history to gripping profiles of whistle-blower Edward Snowden and North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong Un, real people and events inspired these authors’ books. Although they each found the audiobook narration process to be more challenging than ex...

S5 Ep 31: In this episode, meet entrepreneur Meredith Fineman, technology reporter Alex Kantrowitz, and attorney Adrienne Lawrence. Each of these authors has taken a hard look at how engrained company cultures and established hierarchies can deeply and often negatively affect everything from worker productivity and innovation to employees’ basic ability to grow and thrive. Listen in to learn what...

S5 Ep 32: In this episode, meet novelist Maya Shanbhag Lang, writer Benjamin Taylor, and co-authors Tom Fitzgerald and Lorenzo Marquez. Each of these authors has combed through history—whether it’s of a personal relationship with a loved one or the cultural history of the Drag community—to create and share true stories of connection, inspiration, and love. Plus, discover which author rehearsed rea...

S5 E30: In this episode, meet journalist Andy Boyle, psychologist Rick Hanson, and speaker John O’Leary. Discover how each of these authors started asking big questions---of others and of themselves—in an effort to uncover how we grow into the people we are, and what we can do when we’re ready to change as adults. Plus, find out whose experience narrating took him back to his “high school musical...

S5 E29: In this episode meet children’s book authors and educators Torrey Maldonado and M. Evan Wolkenstein. Using their own personal experiences of growing up, both writers create heartfelt, relatable tales that touch on universal issues of self-image and belonging. Each of the audiobooks will bring joy to young listeners, and provide opportunities for families to talk about empathy, connection,...

S5 Ep 25: In this special episode of This Is the Author, we meet bestselling authors Erik Larson and Lisa Wingate. You can hear them narrate an author’s note on their respective audiobook productions. Both authors used history as the basis for their books although one is fiction and one is non-fiction. In Erik Larson’s riveting narrative nonfiction work, The Splendid and the Vile, he explores Wins...

S5 E26: In this episode, meet authors Teju Cole, Nina Renata Aron, and Karla Cornejo Villavicencio. Step into the studio to hear each of them reflect on recording their audiobook, and particularly their thoughts on revisiting difficult or intimate scenes on the page and how voicing those scenes affected their narration. Plus, find out who once listened to an audiobook on a road trip while the sun...

S5 E27: In this episode, meet Bethany Saltman, Sarah Menkedick, and Kelsey Patel. In each of these authors’ audiobooks, they guide listeners through tricky life moments, whether it’s the anxiety of new motherhood or struggling with personal burnout. Discover what each woman learned about herself in their respective recording sessions -- and hear which author listens to audiobooks to help her get t...

S5 E23: In this episode, meet Tony Wagner, Casey Schwartz, and Rana el Kaliouby. Go behind the mic with these authors and discover what it was like for them to record their audiobooks. Learning by Heart by Tony Wagner: https://www.penguinrandomhouseaudio.com/book/600078/learning-by-heart/ Attention: A Love Story by Casey Schwartz: https://www.penguinrandomhouseaudio.com/book/562183/attention-a-lov...

S5 E22: Welcome to another episode of This is the Author in Conversation, a more intimate behind-the-mic chat with our authors in the audiobook studio. This is Jennifer Rubins from Penguin Random House Audio, and I’m thrilled to invite you into my conversation with Emily Neuberger, the author of A Tender Thing, a beautiful debut novel set under the dazzling lights of late 1950s Broadway. I should...