Paul M. Renfro, "The Life and Death of Ryan White: AIDS and Inequality in America" (UNC Press, 2024)
In the 1980s, as HIV/AIDS ravaged queer communities and communities of color in the United States and beyond, a straight white teenager named Ryan White emerged as the face of the epidemic. Diagnosed ...
10 Nov 202432min
Rachel Zimmerman, "Us, After: A Memoir of Love and Suicide" (SFWP, 2024)
Note: This episodes contains references to suicide. When a state trooper appeared at Rachel Zimmerman's door to report that her husband had jumped to his death off a nearby bridge, she fell to her kne...
9 Nov 202451min
James M. Bradley, "Martin Van Buren: America's First Politician" (Oxford UP, 2024)
Despite serving as the 8th president of the United States, Martin Van Buren gets little consideration for his impact on American history. In his new biography of Van Buren, Martin Van Buren: America's...
8 Nov 20241h 33min
John Duffus, "Backstage in Hong Kong: A Life with the Philharmonic, Broadway Musicals and Classical Superstars" (Blacksmith Books, 2024)
Today, the Hong Kong Philharmonic is one of the world’s great symphony orchestras. But when John Duffus landed in Hong Kong in 1979 as the Philharmonic’s general manager–its fifth in as many years–he ...
7 Nov 20241h 1min
Karine Rashkovsky, "An Improbable Life: My Father's Escape from Soviet Russia" (Cherry Orchard Books, 2024)
From evading the KGB and disassembling a downed American plane to narrowly escaping a life sentence in Siberia, Reuven Rashkovsky’s story is a gripping tale of coming of age, searching for belonging, ...
5 Nov 202439min
Douglas J. Engelman, "A Boy Broken: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Mental Illness, Loss, and a Search for Meaning" (2023)
In A Boy Broken: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Mental Ilness, Loss, and a Search for Meaning (2023), Dr. Douglas J. Engelman takes us through an often painful, sometimes uplifting story, where ...
4 Nov 202442min
Avi Shlaim, "Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab-Jew" (Oneworld, 2024)
In July 1950, Avi Shlaim, only five, and his family were forced into exile, fleeing from their beloved Iraq into the new state of Israel. Now the rump of a once flourishing community of over 150,000, ...
3 Nov 202459min
Mirin Fader, "Dream: The Life and Legacy of Hakeem Olajuwon" (Hachette, 2024)
It’s now the norm for NBA and collegiate teams to have international players dotting their rosters. The Olympics are no longer a gimme for Team USA. Both via fans streaming from all over the globe and...
2 Nov 202444min
