Free Library Podcast

In conversation with author and Pennsylvania State Senator, Nikil Saval In Live to See the Day , Nikhil Goyal offers a searing portrait of three Puerto Rican children struggling to survive in Philadelphia's impoverished Kensington neighborhood. Drawing on nearly a decade of reportage, he follows the youths' personal-but not unique-journeys through violence, homelessness, incarceration, and substan...

Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Endowed Lecture In conversation with David Boardman In Collision of Power, Martin Baron tells the inside story of the monumental power struggle between the venerable newspaper The Washington Post, its demanding and ultra-wealthy owner Jeff Bezos, and the ceaselessly attacking President Donald Trump. The former editor of The Miami Herald and The Boston Globe, Baron be...

In conversation with Binyamin Appelbaum Angus Deaton won the 2015 Nobel Prize in economics for his study of poverty, consumption, and welfare. The Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of Economics and International Affairs Emeritus and Senior Scholar at Princeton University, he is a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, the British Academy, and the Econometric Society. He is the co-author of The N...

In conversation with Rev. Dr. Jonathan Lee Walton A postwar coming-of-age memoir about life in a conservative family in segregated Virginia, Drew Gilpin Faust 's Necessary Trouble recounts her break from the racial and gender norms of the era and the means by which her involvement in the civil rights and antiwar movements led to her career as a historian of those very fights. The Arthur Kingsley P...

In conversation with Asali Solomon Ayana Mathis is the author of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, ''a remarkable page-turner of a novel'' (Chicago Tribune) that follows the harrowing fortunes of a 15-year-old from Georgia to Philadelphia during the Great Migration. A New York Times bestseller, an NPR Best Book of 2013, and a selection for Oprah's Book Club 2.0, it has been translated into 16 languages...

In conversation with Carl H. June, MD, Director of the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies, University of Pennsylvania Siddhartha Mukherjee won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction for The Emperor of All Maladies, a ''meticulously researched, panoramic history'' (The Boston Globe) of humankind's fight against cancer. It was awarded the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, was named to...

In conversation with comedian Chanel Ali Referred to by Amy Schumer as ''the funniest, smartest person I know,'' Sarah Cooper is best known for her hilarious lip-syncing videos of Donald Trump sound bites. The author of 100 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings and How to Be Successful without Hurting Men's Feelings, she is the star of the Netflix comedy special, Sarah Cooper: Everything's Fine; has...

In conversation with Michael Eric Dyson One of pro football's all-time defensive greats, Malcolm Jenkins won Super Bowls with the Philadelphia Eagles and New Orleans Saints, and appeared in three Pro Bowls. He won the prestigious Jim Thorpe Award as a senior at the Ohio State University before entering the NFL as a first-round draft pick, where he would ultimately play for an impressive 13 seasons...

In conversation with Heather Marold Thomason, Butcher & Founder of Primal Supply ''The cookbook author who changed the way Americans cook Italian food'' (The New York Times), Lidia Matticchio Bastianich is the author of 15 beloved culinary guides, as well a 2019 memoir, titled My American Dream. She is also the owner and co-owner of celebrated Italian restaurants in Manhattan, Pittsburgh, and Kans...

The Presidential Distinguished Professor and Director of the Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media at the University of Pennsylvania, climatologist and geophysicist Michael E. Mann has greatly contributed to science's understanding of humanity's 1,000-year role in global warming. His many honors include the Award for Public Engagement with Science from the American Association for the...

In conversation with Sheila Murnaghan, chair of the classics department at the University of Pennsylvania ''A cultural landmark'' (The Guardian), Emily Wilson 's 2017 translation of The Odyssey was hailed for its fresh and unpretentious rendition of the classical poem in modern parlance. A professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Wilson has also published translations of t...

In conversation with Marc Lamont Hill Bettina L. Love is the author of the bestseller We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom, winner of the 2020 Society of Professors of Education Outstanding Book Award. The William F. Russell Professor at Columbia University's Teachers College, she is a co-founder of the Abolitionist Teaching Network and a fo...

Pine Tree Foundation Endowed Lecture In conversation with Maiken Scott ''A historian of prodigious and varied gifts'' (San Francisco Chronicle), Simon Schama is the author of 20 books, including The Embarrassment of Riches; Scribble, Scribble, Scribble; and the National Book Critics Circle Award winner Rough Crossings, an account of the enslaved people who escaped to fight for the British during t...

In conversation with novelist and musician Wesley Stace Legendary English song lyricist Bernie Taupin has worked with Elton John since 1967 and has written the lyrics for most of the iconic performer's hits, including ''Rocket Man,'' ''Bennie and the Jets,'' ''Tiny Dancer,'' ''Your Song,'' ''I'm Still Standing,'' and far too many others to list. One of the most popular, long-lasting, and criticall...

Jennifer Weiner  is the no. 1 New York Times bestselling author of more than a dozen ''funny, fanciful, extremely poignant'' (The Boston Globe) novels, including That Summer, Mrs. Everything, Who Do You Love, All Fall Down, In Her Shoes, and Good in Bed. She is also the writer of two young adult books about a tiny Bigfoot and an essay collection titled Hungry Heart, an intimate and honest meditati...

Named one of the most anticipated books of the year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Newsweek,  Jonathan Eig 's King, an ''intimate, multidimensional biography'' (The Boston Globe) of Martin Luther King Jr., offers a fresh and sweeping portrait of the civil rights icon. Eig's other acclaimed biographies include Ali: A Life, winner of the PEN America Literary Award; the bestseller Lu...

In conversation with award-winning journalist and broadcaster Tracey Matisak A celebrated veteran of film, television, and the Broadway stage, Sheryl Lee Ralph won an Emmy Award, a Critic's Choice Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for her comedic supporting role on ABC's Abbott Elementary. In a career that spans almost 45 years, she also originated the role of Deena Jones in Dreamgirls, for w...

James McBride  is the author of the National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird, ''a brilliant romp of a novel'' (The New York Times Book Review) in which a young boy born into slavery joins abolitionist John Brown's doomed crusade. He is also the author of the bestselling memoir The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother and the biography Kill 'Em and Leave: Searching for Ja...

R. Eric Thomas  is the author of the Lambda Literary Award finalist Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul America, a bestselling essay collection that tackles just what it means to be an ''other'' in the maelstrom of modern America. For four years he wrote Elle's ''Eric Reads the News,'' a daily humor column that lambasted pop culture, celebrity, and politics. Also a renowned television writer an...

In conversation with award-winning journalist and broadcaster Tracey Matisak In American Whitelash,  Wesley Lowery  examines the cyclical pattern of violence that marks each watershed moment of racial progress in this country, most recently evidenced by the resurgence of white supremacist movements during and following Barack Obama's 2008 presidential election. Formerly The Washington Post's lead...

Barbara Butcher  is the former chief of staff and director of the Forensic Sciences Training Program at the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner (OCME). Only the second woman hired as a death investigator in Manhattan (and the first to last more than three months), during her 23 years there she investigated more than 5,500 death scenes. She also created and directed the federally funded...

Join us at the Community College of Philadelphia for a celebration to conclude the One Book, One Philadelphia 2023 season. This event will feature an in-person conversation between Charles Yu and Dr. Michelle Myers, associate professor of English at the Community College of Philadelphia and one half of the poetry duo Yellow Rage. Note: portions of the introduction and the Q&A were deleted due to c...

In conversation with Jim Gardner Jake Tapper  is the Washington, D.C., anchor and chief Washington correspondent for CNN, where he hosts the weekday program The Lead with Jake Tapper and the Sunday morning show State of the Union. He is the former White House correspondent for ABC News and contributor to Good Morning America, Nightline, and World News with Diane Sawyer. His many honors include an...

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6abc Action News morning edition Central Park birder Christian Cooper is the host and consulting producer on the National Geographic channel's Extraordinary Birder and is on the board of directors of the New York City Audubon Society. Also a groundbreaking comics writer, he introduced the first openly lesbian character for Marvel, conceived the first ga...

In conversation with Marc Lamont Hill Referred to by acclaimed author and academic Michael Eric Dyson as ''one of the most important works of history to come across my desk in a long time,'' Blair LM Kelley's Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class is an exhaustive coast-to-coast narrative that seeks to reclaim Black workers' central contribution to workers' rights throughout U.S. history...