Joshua Ferris Reads Robert Coover
Joshua Ferris joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss Robert Coover’s “Going for a Beer,” from a 2011 issue of the magazine.
View ArticleEmmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell Perform, Yoko Ono at MoMA
Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell perform selections from their new album, “The Traveling Kind.” Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner David McCullough on Wilbur and Orville Wright. Yoko Ono on her life, her...
View ArticleLegendary Food Critic Mimi Sheraton Hasn't Been Hungry In 60 Years
The famously opinionated former New York Times restaurant critic loves frozen Milky Ways and once packed 104 different pastrami sandwiches into her car. Just don't offer her kale. Plus, she reveals the...
View ArticleCharting The Bromance of William F. Buckley and Norman Mailer
Kevin M. Schultz examines the close, contentious friendship between William F. Buckley, Jr. and Norman Mailer. Best-selling authors in their twenties; media entrepreneurs; they both ran for mayor of...
View ArticleThe Paradox of Cuba's Boxers
Journalist Brin-Jonathan Butler talks about his memoir, The Domino Diaries: My Decade Boxing with Olympic Champions and Chasing Hemingway's Ghost in the Last Days of Castro's Cuba. The book is the...
View ArticleHow the Military Ingestion Complex Infiltrated Our Pantries
Anastacia Marx de Salcedo, public health consultant, public policy researcher, and author of Combat-Ready Kitchen: How the U.S. Military Shapes the Way You Eat (Current, 2015), talks about her new book...
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Patricia Marx Wants You to Be Less Stupid
Baby boomers are the generation that invented staying forever young — and that means never losing any of their mental sharpness. As they reach retirement age, however, that belief seems increasingly...
View ArticleThe ACLU Takes on the CIA. A History of the Pacific.
Steven Watt, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Human Rights Program, and Steve Reisner, co-founder of the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology, discuss the ACLU’s lawsuit against the psychologists...
View ArticleOct. 31 - Wordstock Preview With Sunshine Girl, Ben Percy, Carson Ellis,...
For the past two years, Portland's biggest literary festival has been on a bit of a hiatus. But next Saturday, another Portland nonprofit for word nerds is resurrecting Wordstock from the grave. On...
View ArticleHow We Will Share Our Future With Robots
The prospect that robots will take over the economy, displacing millions of workers in all walks of life, makes headlines and causes palpable anxiety in many people. David Mindell, professor of...
View ArticleNov. 7: Wordstock - Ursula Le Guin, Patterson Hood, Willie Vlautin & Patrick...
We're broadcasting live today from the Portland Art Museum for the city's biggest book extravaganza, Wordstock. We're going to be talking with a couple of our literary superheroes. Ursula K. Le Guin...
View ArticleNov 21: Wordstock with Colin & Maile Meloy, Chelsea Cain, Carson Ellis And More
For our second show recorded live at Wordstock, we sit down with two amazing groups of writers: Portland's Most Infamous Writing Group We begin the hour with a veritable Justice League of Portland...
View ArticleHealing After The Tsunami
Author Marie Mutsuki Mockett explored the spiritual and emotional aspects of Japanese life after the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Author Marie Mutsuki Mockett explored the spiritual and...
View ArticleDec. 5 - John Malkovich, "Carol" Review, Sneaker Culture, Powells Most...
John Malkovich make a record, a Southern rocker relocates to Portland, kids confront gentrification and sneakers become high fashion. Change is afoot in this week’s State of Wonder. Malkovich On Vinyl...
View ArticleAn Armed Standoff in Oregon, the Consequences of China's One-Child Policy
Writers from The Nation discuss the armed standoff in Oregon and investigate its connection to the Bundy brothers. A new trove of Hemmingway's letters has been uncovered, and is now on display, at the...
View ArticleGrowing Up In Polygamy
Ruth Wariner grew up in a polygamist Mormon community in Mexico. Her new memoir “The Sound of Gravel,” details her troubled childhood. Ruth Wariner grew up in a polygamist Mormon community in Mexico....
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6 Stranger-Than-Fiction Events that Inspired Alexander Chee
"My love for opera is pretty sincere," admits Alexander Chee, the author of the new novel Queen of the Night, about an opera singer in the 19th century. "I started pretty early. As a child I did sing...
View ArticleFleur Cowles' Literary Takedown of Eva Perón
Fleur and Evita; Two Strong Women Go Head-to-Head"I'm not an author," Fleur Cowles protests, at this 1952 Book and Authors Luncheon. The sole reason for writing BloodyPrecedent, a memoir of her trip to...
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Doubling Down Before the NY Primary; What's On Your Ballot; Slightly-Blue...
Coming up on today's show: It’s the day before the big New York primary. Hear how the Democrats are doubling down with POLITICO New York's Azi Paybarah, MTV's Ana Marie Cox, and Slate's Jacob...
View ArticleAuthor Mohsin Hamid's Globalist Perspective
Mohsin Hamid has lived in Pakistan, the U.S. and Britain. His fiction and nonfiction explores the contradictions and complexities of globalization. His works include the essay collection "Discontent...
View ArticleThe Professor and 'The Man Who Knew Infinity'
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this interview.A new movie based on the life of famous Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan comes out today.Starring Dev Patel and Jeremy Irons, "The Man...
View ArticleHow Finance Took Over American Business
If the presidential race is any indicator of the citizenry's mood, many Americans are frustrated with the state of the country's economy. Unemployment has fallen to 5 percent, wages are up and the...
View ArticleBullets and Bad Luck: The Untold Story of Guns in America
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear the full interview.Back in the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, American newspapers regularly carried columns that highlighted "melancholy accidents,”...
View ArticleMary Roach On Her Book Grunt
Best-selling author Mary Roach joins us to talk about her latest book, “Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans At War.”
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What's a Donald Trump? Michael Ian Black's New Children's Book Isn't for Kids
"The beasty is called an American Trump.Its skin is bright orange, its figure is plump.Its fur so complex you might get enveloped.Its hands are, sadly, underdeveloped."Those lines were written not by...
View ArticleHow to Make Arguments... And Win!
Sometimes it's impossible to avoid an argument. That's why on today's Please Explain, we're learning how to make a convincing case with Stanley Fish, law professor and dean emeritus of the College of...
View ArticleThe Four-Dimensional Human: How Digital Technology Shapes Our Lives
We spend an awful lot of time staring into black mirrors — our smartphones, our means of providing instant gratification. That affirmation of someone liking your snarky tweet, or a friend liking your...
View ArticleWe're Seeing the Slow Death of Handwriting
This story is based off of a radio interview. Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear the audio version.Nuns and school teachers everywhere are cringing at the grave state of handwriting. Are...
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What book has been most meaningful to you?
Will Schwalbe has a question he asks everyone he meets: What book are you reading? He calls it “the best question imaginable.”The New York Times best-selling author of “The End of Your Life Book Club,”...
View ArticleWhy Matt Taibbi Sees 2016 as the Year of the "Insane Clown President"
Matt Taibbi, journalist, author and contributing editor to Rolling Stone, joins us to discuss his latest book, Insane Clown President: Dispatches from the 2016 Circus. He discusses his collection of...
View ArticleRoxane Gay's "Difficult Women"
Author and essayist Roxane Gay joins us to talk about feminism, politics, and her new story collection, “Difficult Women.”
View ArticleGeorge Saunder's Abraham Lincoln Grieves Among Ghosts
George Saunders joins us to discuss his first novel Lincoln in the Bardo, about Abraham Lincoln and his grief over the death of his 11-year-old son, Willie. Bardo is a Tibetan word for the transitional...
View ArticlePaging Through History
From illuminated manuscripts to your dog-eared copy of The Hobbit, the book has had a tremendously important place in human history. Keith Houston talks about how books changed the world.
View ArticleJhumpa Lahiri Turns to Translation
Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Jhumpa Lahiri joins us to discuss her translation of Ties, a new novel by bestselling Italian novelist and screenwriter Domenico Starnone, winner of Italy's most...
View ArticleJohn Waters Says Make Trouble
John Waters, American filmmaker, actor, writer and visual artist best known for his cult films including Hairspray, Pink Flamingos and Cecil B. talks about his new book, Make Trouble (Algonquin Books,...
View ArticleAlec Baldwin Talks Money, Family, Fame and Cocaine
"I completely forgot that this is an episode of Death, Sex & Money. We're taping this for your show!"That's how Alec Baldwin responded after I started our on-stage conversation at the Brooklyn...
View ArticleGovernor Kasich Is Worried About the Future
John Kasich, the Republican governor of Ohio who ran for president in 2016 and is the author of Two Paths: America Divided or United (Thomas Dunne Books, 2017), looks back on the tumult of the 2016...
View ArticlePaging Through History
From illuminated manuscripts to your dog-eared copy of The Hobbit, the book has had a tremendously important place in human history. Keith Houston talks about how books changed the world.
View ArticleSir Cedric Hardwicke Reflects
"What business does an actor have writing a book?" the venerable star of stage and screen asks at this 1961 Book and Authors Luncheon. His memoir, A Victorian in Orbit, came about because of an unusual...
View ArticleFinding Sex in Unexpected Places
Ross Benes, a reporter at Digiday who previously worked for Esquire and Deadspin and the author of The Sex Effect: Baring Our Complicated Relationship with Sex (Sourcebooks, 2017), talks about some of...
View ArticleWalter Isaacson on Einstein's 'Genius'
The new television series "Genius" is based on Walter Isaacson's biography of Albert Einstein. Walter Isaacson, CEO of the Aspen Institute and is the author of Einstein: His Life and Universe (Simon...
View ArticleLove Letters to Africa
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this segment. Foreign correspondents serve as our guides to faraway lands. Yet fewer of them exist these days, as news organizations invest less and less in...
View Article1964 National Book Awards
The 1964 National Book Awards ceremony, hosted by former quiz show personality (now Rutgers University president) Mason Gross, kicks off with the prize for Poetry being awarded to John Crowe Ransom....
View ArticleJhumpa Lahiri On Translating Another Writer's Work
Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Jhumpa Lahiri joins us to discuss her translation of Ties, a new novel by bestselling Italian novelist and screenwriter Domenico Starnone, winner of Italy's most...
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“Naked Came the Stranger”: An Oral History
“Together like garden snakes, they contorted, moaned, gasped, clenched and throbbed.”In 1969, the erotic potboiler “Naked Came the Stranger” climbed The New York Times bestseller list. According to the...
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Ben Blatt, Word Nerd
Ben Blatt’s new book, “Nabokov's Favorite Word Is Mauve: What the Numbers Reveal About the Classics, Bestsellers, and Our Own Writing,” takes a math nerd approach to popular books. He uses big data to...
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The 7 best books from indie publishers right now
Credit: GettyFrom Virginia Woolf’s 1917 launch of Hogarth Press to the oft-told story of how John Kennedy Toole’s “Confederacy of Dunces” — years after his suicide and countless rejections from major...
View ArticleBrian Lehrer Weekend: Senator Elizabeth Warren, Author Arundhati Roy,...
In case you missed them, hear three of our favorite segments from the week:Senator Elizabeth Warren (First) | Author Arundhati Roy (Starts 20:32) | Amtrak's CEO on 'Summer of Hell' (Starts 48:30)
View ArticleAngie Thomas and TLC
Angie Thomas, author of the bestselling Young Adult book, The Hate U Give, grew up a TLC fanatic. But after dealing with serious bullying, she used TLC’s music — specifically the late Lisa "Left Eye"...
View ArticleThe Lasting Legacy of Jane Austen
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this interview. With just six major novels in 41 shorts years, Jane Austen has left an undeniable mark on literature, the arts, and pop culture.Austen penned...
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