Reader's Corner

An interview with Jill Lepore, celebrated historian and author of We the People. The book offers a totally new look at the history of the U.S. Constitution, by amendment and interpretation. 

An interview with Mary Annette Pember, author of Medicine River. The book is a wide-ranging and deeply personal account of Native American boarding schools in the United States, taking a hard look at their intent and legacy of abuse.

Bob Kustra interviews Abdulrazak Gurnah, Nobel Prize winner and author of the novel, Afterlives. The book is a multi-generational saga of displacement, love and loss, set against the brutal colonization of east Africa. Note: This is an encore edition of Reader's Corner. The episode originally aired in February 2023.

An interview with Joanna Kakissis, joining the program to talk about the late Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina, and her book, Looking at Women Looking at War.

An interview with Colum McCann about his latest novel, Twist. A book of rupture and relationships in the digital age, the story dives into the hidden world at the bottom of the ocean. 

An interview with Kostya Kennedy, author of The Ride. The book offers a fresh perspective of Paul Revere’s historic ride, with new research into little-known aspects of the story many Americans have heard since childhood. 

An interview with Connor Sullivan, author of the new novel, Sleeping Bear. In the book, a former Army veteran seeking solitude in the Alaskan wilderness finds herself a pawn in a deadly game with Russia.

An interview with Becky Aikman, author of the new book, Spitfires . The book unveils the daring true story of the American women who piloted World War II planes through the treacherous skies of Britain.

An interview with Daniel Golden, author of The Ransomware Hunting Team. The book is a real-life technological thriller about a band of eccentric misfits taking on the biggest cybersecurity threats of our time.  Note: this is an encore edition of Reader's Corner. The episode originally aired in February 2023.  

An interview with Joseph Finder, author of the new novel, The Oligarch’s Daughter. The book is a thrilling story of dizzying spycraft following an everyman on the run for his life.

An interview with Zach Weinersmith, co-author of the new book, A City on Mars. The book is a funny and deeply-researched off-world investigation into the question of space settlement.

An interview with Dipo Faloyin, debut author of Africa is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent. In the book, Faloyin explores the youth-led cultural and political movements that are defining and reimagining Africa on their own terms. This is the second of a two-part interview. 

An interview with Chris Pavone, author of the thrilling novel, The Doorman. The book follows a blue collar doorman for a glitzy apartment building in a combustible story of class, privilege, sex, and murder.

An interview with Matthew Goodman, author of Paris Undercover. The book tells the gripping story of two women in Nazi-occupied Paris who create a daring escape line that rescues dozens of Allied servicemen.

An interview with Dipo Faloyin, debut author of Africa is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent. In the book, Faloyin explores the youth-led cultural and political movements that are defining and reimagining Africa on their own terms.

An interview with Sonia Purnell, author of Kingmaker. In the book, Purnell tells the secret history of Winston Churchill’s daughter-in-law, Pamela Churchill Harriman, whose image as a vapid socialite masked her powerful influence on the world stage for five decades.

An interview with Steve Coll, author of the new book, The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the CIA, and the Origins of America’s Invasion of Iraq. The book offers the definitive story of the decades-long relationship between the United States and Saddam Hussein, and an investigation into one of the costliest geopolitical conflicts of our time.

Note: This is an encore edition of Reader's Corner. The episode originally aired in January 2023. In 1990, as the United States cobbles together a coalition to undo Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, six US officers are trapped in Iraq with intelligence that could ruin Operation Desert Storm, if it falls into the wrong hands. Desperate, the CIA asks Poland - a longtime Cold War foe, famed for it...

An interview with Mark L. Clifford, author of The Troublemaker. The book is a comprehensive biography of billionaire businessman Jimmy Lai, a leading Hong Kong democracy activist who became China’s most famous political prisoner.

An interview with Nils Barrett, joining Reader's Corner to talk about his late father’s memoir, Inside the President's Team. The book offers an up-close view of the Ford presidency by one of his closest and most-trusted advisors.

Bob Kustra interviews Tod Lending, author of the novel, The Umbrella Maker’s Son. The book is a coming-of-age tale following a 17-year-old Polish Jew as he fights for his life and experiences his first love, set during WWII.

An interview with Craig Foster, author of Amphibious Soul. The book is a lyrical memoir drawing from the author’s decades of daily ocean dives, wisdom from Indigenous teachers, and cutting-edge science.

An interview with Sandra Matz, author of the new book, Mindmasters. The book is an exploration of how algorithms penetrate and influence the most intimate aspects of our psychology.

An interview with Nathan J. Robinson, co-author of the new book, The Myth of American Idealism. The book is an indictment of both American foreign policy and the political influence that supports it.

Note: This is an encore edition of Reader's Corner. The episode originally aired in November 2022. An interview with Ben Macintyre, author of the new book, Prisoners of the Castle: An Epic Story of Survival and Escape from Colditz, the Nazis’ Fortress Prison. In the book, Macintyre looks at one of history’s most notorious prisons, and the remarkable cast of POWs who tried relentlessly to escape th...