Writing About Illness Without Platitudes
At 22 years old, Suleika Jaouad was a recent college graduate who had moved to Paris, looking forward to everything life might offer. Then she received a diagnosis of leukemia. In her new memoir, “Bet...
19 Feb 20211h 7min
This Land Is Whose Land?
When Simon Winchester takes on a big subject, he takes on a big subject. His new book, “Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World,” travels through centuries and to places like Ukrain...
12 Feb 20211h 1min
Chang-rae Lee on His New Novel: ‘It’s Kind of a Crazy Book.’
Chang-rae Lee’s new novel, “My Year Abroad,” is his sixth. On this week’s podcast, Lee says that his readers might be surprised by it.“It’s kind of a crazy book, and particularly I think for people wh...
5 Feb 20211h 7min
Navigating the Maze of Paying for College
Ron Lieber’s new book, “The Price You Pay for College,” aims at helping families with, as the book’s subtitle puts it, the biggest financial decision they will ever make. Lieber, a personal financial ...
29 Jan 20211h 9min
The Ethics of Adoption in America
In “American Baby,” the veteran journalist Gabrielle Glaser tells the story of one mother and child, and also zooms out from there to consider the ethics of adoption in this country. Our reviewer, Lis...
22 Jan 20211h 3min
James Comey and Truth in Government
James Comey’s “Saving Justice,” arrives three years after his first book, “A Higher Loyalty.” Joe Klein reviews it for us, and visits the podcast this week to discuss, among other subjects, how the ne...
15 Jan 20211h 3min
Charles Yu Talks About ‘Interior Chinatown’
Charles Yu’s “Interior Chinatown,” which won the National Book Award for fiction in November, is a satire about Hollywood’s treatment of Asian-Americans. It features an actor named Willis Wu, who has ...
8 Jan 202155min
Fareed Zakaria on Life After the Pandemic
The author and CNN host Fareed Zakaria calls the coronavirus pandemic “the most transformative event of our lifetimes.” He says: “What has happened over the last 50 years is, we have gotten increasing...
1 Jan 202158min
