Reader's Corner

An interview with Steve Inskeep, author of the new book, Differ We Must. The book is a compelling portrait of Abraham Lincoln’s political acumen in a country divided – and lessons for our own disorderly present.

An interview with Margot Susca, author of Hedged. The book reveals a newspaper industry rocked by an obsession with profit and beholden to private fund interests.

An interview with Amy Gajda, author of Seek and Hide: The Tangled History of the Right to Privacy. The book is an important primer for today’s privacy wars - the surprising history of the right to privacy, and its battle against the public’s right to know.

An interview with Erik Larson, author of the new book, The Demon of Unrest. The book examines the pivotal five months between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the start of the Civil War.

An interview with Illia Ponomarenko, author of the new book, I Will Show You How It Was. The book is powerful and personal chronicle of the war in Ukraine from the front lines.

An interview with Rob Percival, author of The Meat Paradox: Eating, Empathy, and the Future of Meat. The book offers a vital and nuanced investigation into the current debate around meat.

An interview with Stephen F. Knott, author of Coming to Terms with John F. Kennedy. The book offers a broad view of the young President, and shows how politicians on both sides of the aisle distorted JFK's record for their own purposes.

An interview with Terry Hayes, acclaimed author of the new book, The Year of the Locust. A thriller set in the borderlands of the Middle East, the novel follows a CIA spy as his plans to extract a source are complicated by a powerful adversary.

An interview with Moisés Naím, author of The Revenge of Power: How Autocrats Are Reinventing Politics for the 21st Century. The book examines the future of freedom and how to contain and defeat the autocrats popping up around the world.

An interview with Jonathan Taplin, author of The End of Reality. The book is a scathing critique of the worldview being sold by four American billionaires.

An interview with writer C.J. Box, joining us to talk about his new novel, Three-Inch Teeth. In the book, game warden Joe Pickett contends with a vicious grizzly bear and an ex-convict out for revenge.

Note: This is an encore edition of Reader's Corner. The episode originally aired in October 2020.

An interview with John Vaillant, author of Fire Weather. The book offers a terrifying account of a colossal wildfire and an exploration of the rapidly changing relationship between fire and humankind.

An interview with Elena Conis, author of How to Sell a Poison. The book tells the tangled story of DDT, a corporate-backed poison that decimated wildlife and left behind toxic bodies.

An interview with Charlotte McConaghy about her new novel, Once There Were Wolves. The book is about the looming threat of environmental collapse and the bold and flawed humans working to avert it.

An interview with Nathan Thrall, author of the new book, A Day in the Life of Abed Salama. The book tells the story of a deadly accident outside Jerusalem that unravels a tangle of lives, loves, and histories over the course of a single day.

An interview with Jonathan Karl, author of Tired of Winning. The book explores how Donald Trump remade the Republican Party in his own image, baggage and all.

An interview with Dana Stevens, author of Camera Man: Buster Keaton, The Dawn of Cinema and the Invention of the Twentieth Century. In the book, Stevens places acclaimed filmmaker Buster Keaton’s unique creative genius in the context of his time.

An interview with Steven Levitsky, co-author of Tyranny of the Minority. The book offers important context for our volatile times and a framework for how to protect our democracy from an authoritarian backlash.

An interview with Steven Levitsky, co-author of Tyranny of the Minority. The book offers important context for our volatile times and a framework for how to protect our democracy from an authoritarian backlash.

An interview with Brendan Slocumb, author of the novel, The Violin Conspiracy. Part literary thriller and part mystery, the book is a gripping coming-of-age story about the love of music and a young man’s resilience.

An interview with Joe Nocera, co-author of The Big Fail. Co-written by Bethany MacLean, the book offers new answers for why and how America become the world leader in COVID deaths.

An interview with Shelley Fraser Mickle, author of the new book, White House Wild Child. The book is a fascinating biography of outspoken first-daughter Alice Roosevelt, sometimes dubbed the Jackie O of the early 20th century.

Note: This is an encore edition of Reader's Corner. The episode first aired in January 2021.

An interview with Brendan Ballou, author of the new book, Plunder. The book offers a powerful expose on the private equity industry – what it is, how it harms businesses and jobs, how the government helps, and how it can be reined in.