The Avett Brothers’ Bassist on Writing a John Quincy Adams Book

For more than two decades, Bob Crawford has toured the country as the bassist for the Avett Brothers. But long before he began his career as a musician, he was obsessed with American history. After turning that obsession into two podcasts, he has now written his first book, “America’s Founding Son: John Quincy Adams, From President to Political Maverick.”

On this week’s episode, Crawford talks with Gilbert Cruz, the editor of The New York Times Book Review, about what it was like writing a book for the first time and the authors who have inspired him. In addition to discussing what he loves about John Quincy Adams, the country’s sixth president and the son of John Adams, Crawford also talks about the research he did for the book. That included scouring Adams’s 14,000-page diary.

“He’s not a perfect man — he’s far from perfect,” Crawford said of Adams. “But he’s so human. He’s suffered depression, and just the humanness in his diary, not to mention the actual historical narrative, is just incredible.”

Illustration by The New York Times; Photo: Jenn Ackerman for The New York Times

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(600)

The Interview: Sylvester Stallone Hid His Struggles for Decades. Now He’s Coming Clean.

Today we are delighted to share an episode from our colleagues on “The Interview,” originally published on Sept. 26. Lulu Garcia-Navarro spoke with actor Sylvester Stallone, best known for his starrin...

13 Nov 1h 17min

Book Club: Let's Talk About 'Switzy'

David Hastings is a retired business executive on a grim mission: He’s going to end his life.That’s the dramatic setup of Emma Cline’s latest novel, “Switzy.”When the story opens, David is on a plane,...

30 Okt 56min

What to Read This Halloween, According to Two Best-Selling Writers

Halloween is the season for scary stories, but what actually makes a book frightening? And where should you start if you’re not already a horror reader?This week on “The Book Review” podcast, Gilbert ...

23 Okt 51min

A Book Review Critics’ Roundtable

As much as we love hearing from authors on “The Book Review” podcast, there are precious few who have read more than our staff book critics — Jennifer Szalai, Alexandra Jacobs and Dwight Garner. The t...

16 Okt 41min

Min Jin Lee Wants Us to Rethink Education

For Min Jin Lee, the process of writing fiction usually begins with a deep dive into reality. She spends years researching, traveling and interviewing people.That process underscored her belief that e...

9 Okt 56min

Decades Later, Stephen King Is Finishing What He and Peter Straub Started

There are few living writers as closely associated with a genre as Stephen King is with horror. Over a career spanning more than 50 years, 70 novels and hundreds of short stories, King has terrified g...

2 Okt 36min

Book Club: Let’s Talk About ‘Etna,’ by Paul Yoon

Paul Yoon’s new novel, “Etna,” follows a haunted, battle-scarred war veteran who wants desperately to go home. He also happens to be a dog — a mixed-breed shepherd trained to sniff out bombs for an un...

26 Sep 55min

John Green Knows a True Hollywood Ending is Complicated

MJ Franklin is in the host chair this week, in for Gilbert Cruz. MJ spoke with New York Times book critic Dwight Garner about Marlon James’s new novel, “The Disappearers.” Dwight recently reviewed the...

18 Sep 57min