Upstart Crow

Dr. Rina Bliss, an associate professor of sociology at Rutgers University, discusses her most recent book, What’s Real About Race?, with Upstart Crow host William Miller. In her scholarship, Dr. Bliss researches, writes about, and speaks about—as she puts it on her website—“the personal and social significance of new genetic sciences.” Her work “is centered at the intersection of sociology, psycho...

In this episode, first-time novelist Carol Mitchell discusses the ideas and experiences out of which grew this novel, What Start Bad A Mornin’. The story she tells us of Amaya Lin, a Jamaican living and working in the United States, who is leaving the office where she works with her lawyer husband and his partner, rushing off to gather in her elderly aunt for the evening, when a younger woman appr...

Do We Even Want New Music Anymore?   Why are people less interested in discovering new music? In this episode, we explore how nostalgia, technology, and cultural shifts shape our listening habits with guest  David Rowell and his new book The Endless Refrain . From the dominance of classic hits to the impact of streaming algorithms, we break down the forces that keep us clinging to the fa...

To write his novel The Death and Life of August Sweeney, Samuel Ashworth drew on experience and some very personal research—he worked in the back of Michelin-starred restaurants and assisted with autopsies in a Pittsburgh hospital. The result is an engaging novel, highly artful in conceit and execution, one his publisher, the Santa Fe Writers Project, calls “an epic novel about life, death and the...

Steph Liberatore, as a writer, specializes in nonfiction, so it stands to reason she founded a new on-line journal focused on short forms of the genre. Inshortjournal.com offers readers and writers alike the chance to savor some very well-chosen words: Flash pieces of 1,000 words or fewer; micro pieces of 400 words or fewer, short-shorts of 100 words or fewer. In this episode of Upstart Crow, Step...

When Scott Strode was 11, he had his first drink. By 15, he was using cocaine. In his 20s, paranoid and fearing death, he got sober, replacing drugs and alcohol with fitness: Biking, boxing, triathlons, mountain climbing. Those experiences led him to start an addiction and recovery organization called The Phoenix, which uses, as he puts it, “The inherent transformative power of sport and activity...

In this special episode, guest hosts Debra Lane and Ann Marie Luce , two educators and researchers with extensive backgrounds in leadership development and organizational studies, discuss their new book, Building Inclusive Leadership Beyond the Gender Binary , which seeks to help build the broader understanding of the complexities surrounding gender and leadership that is necessary to foster insig...

Constance Sayers has published three novels ( A Witch in Time ,  The Ladies of the Secret Circus  and  The Star and the Strange Moon ) in four years. All are books that appeared in seven languages and have sold more than 200,000 copies. Reflecting on those works, she discusses what it was like: to write that many novels so quickly how she wove into the first book the craft technique...

This episode hosted by Jennifer Disano, features Paula J. Johnson. Paula is a distinguished curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, whose work has brought iconic stories of American culture to life. Most notably, Paula played a key role in preserving the legacy of culinary legend Julia Child. In 2001, she was part of the team that collected Julia Child’s home kitchen and...

In remarks delivered at the Institute for Immigration Research at George Mason University , former National Public Radio correspondent Ray Suarez presents observations drawn from work that led to his book, We Are Home: Becoming American in the 21 St Century—An Oral History . As he notes, the history of America is one of immigration, where migrants often have fulfilled many of the country’s needs f...

Master fiction writer Charles Baxter joins host William Miller to discuss his latest novel,  Blood Test,  in a conversation that spans a wide range of topics. They explore the nature of the main character, Brock Hobson, the story’s action, the underlying ideas, and the embedded themes and connections. The discussion touches on everything from the initially proposed cover art—which could...

In this episode of  Upstart Crow , host Jennifer Disano sits down with Chelsea Henderson, author of  Glacial: The Inside Story of Climate Politics . Henderson, an experienced advocate in climate policy, unveils the complexities of climate politics, sharing stories from her work with policymakers and communities impacted by environmental change. They discuss the challenges of bipartisan c...

Literary translator Katherine E. Young joins host William Miller to talk about her latest project, the first-time-in-English volume People and Trees  by Azerbaijani writer Akram Aylisli. Set in the Caucuses during and right after War War II, the three novellas capture the coming-of-age story of the narrator, a boy named Sadyk, but also the struggles of the village and its people, notably the...

In this episode, host William Miller talks to writer and teacher Nicholas Delbanco, who has published thirty-one books of fiction and nonfiction, including the one they discuss together, his memoir,  Still Life at Eighty , begun on his 80th birthday, finished on his 81st. The book and this discussion look over his early embrace of art, his adventures in a family art business in London, t...

In this episode of  Upstart Crow , a part of Watershed Lit Radio, host Ken Budd sits down virtually with Dr. Charan Ranganath, renowned neuroscientist and author of  Why We Remember: Unlocking Memory's Power to Hold On to What Matters . This episode is presented in collaboration with the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and Fall for the Book, with Budd—vice chair of the Fall for the Boo...

In this episode, host William Miller is joined by writer Chris Stuck, who dives into the creative process behind  Give My Love to the Savages,  his acclaimed collection of nine daring, thought-provoking stories. They discuss his character-driven storytelling; his process for building rich, layered narratives; and why, as one character says, "Race is a really weird thing but it’s kind of...

In this episode of  Upstart Crow , host Jennifer Disano interviews Dr. Joseph M. Thompson, historian at Mississippi State University and author of the book  Cold War Country: How Nashville's Music Row and the Pentagon Created the Sound of American Patriotism . Thompson dives into the intricate ties between Nashville's country music industry and the U.S. military, revealing how Music Row...

"The responsibility we have as novelists is to not be colonizers of another life, but we are to instead, live that other life . " - Jessica Anthony The Most by writer Jessica Anthony lives up to its title—it takes place in a day but it is about all the days that have gone before in the lives of Kathleen and Virgil, and all that they have done wrong, dramatized in a slim, perfect novel. Long listed...

“Couldn’t you see Ben Franklin using noise-cancelling headphones and a MacBook Air Pro?” - Eric Weiner Is that a big stretch or not so much? While Ben was one of the United States’ founders and earliest statesmen and diplomats, he also was a scientist—remember his experiment with the kite and key?—and a writer— Poor Richard’s Almanac , remember that? But what else did he do? A lot, as it turns out...