Episodes

  • Aisling Rawle's 'The Compound' follows characters on a semi-dystopian reality TV show

    Aisling Rawle's 'The Compound' follows characters on a semi-dystopian reality TV show
    Jul 21 2025
    Aisling Rawle's The Compound explores reality television as a kind of dystopia. In the novel, a group of men and women live on a compound in the middle of a desert, where they participate in house competitions and vie for personal awards. In today's episode, Rawle joins NPR's Pien Huang for a conversation that touches on binge-watching Love Island as research, how the author came up with The Compound's rules and rewards, and how her characters perceive their own desirability.

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    8 mins
  • New biographies look at the careers of designers Claire McCardell and Virgil Abloh

    New biographies look at the careers of designers Claire McCardell and Virgil Abloh
    Jul 18 2025
    Two new books look at the lives and careers of designers who revolutionized American fashion. First, Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson is out with Claire McCardell, a biography of a lesser-known designer who radically changed the way we think about women's clothing. In today's episode, Dickinson speaks with NPR's Andrew Limbong about the history of pockets and the psychology of what we wear. Then, Robin Givhan joins NPR's Michel Martin to discuss Make It Ours, her new cultural history of Virgil Abloh. They discuss how Abloh redefined luxury fashion, despite beginning his career as an industry outsider.

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    21 mins
  • Congress has voted to eliminate government funding for public media

    Congress has voted to eliminate government funding for public media
    Jul 18 2025
    Act now to ensure public media remains free and accessible to all. Your donation will help this essential American service survive and thrive. Visit donate.npr.org now.

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    2 mins
  • 'Trailblazer' is a memoir by Carol Moseley Braun, first Black woman elected to Senate

    'Trailblazer' is a memoir by Carol Moseley Braun, first Black woman elected to Senate
    Jul 17 2025
    Carol Moseley Braun is a woman of many firsts. She was both the first Black woman and Black Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate, and the first female senator from Illinois. In her new memoir Trailblazer, Moseley Braun shares the highs – and high costs – of breaking these barriers. In today's episode, she talks with NPR's Michel Martin about her political origin story and the high expectations she faced while in office.

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    8 mins
  • Liane Moriarty on her novel 'Here One Moment' and on writing 'women's fiction'

    Liane Moriarty on her novel 'Here One Moment' and on writing 'women's fiction'
    Jul 16 2025
    In Liane Moriarty's Here One Moment, a woman on a flight from Tasmania to Sydney, Australia looks around at her fellow passengers and reveals how each of them will die. Moriarty says the idea for the novel – which is now out in paperback – came to her during a time when she was contemplating her own mortality. In today's episode, the author speaks with Here & Now's Robin Young about putting her characters in difficult situations and being known as an author of women's fiction.

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    12 mins
  • 'The Last Sweet Bite' is a cookbook that documents the way conflict changes cuisine

    'The Last Sweet Bite' is a cookbook that documents the way conflict changes cuisine
    Jul 15 2025
    Michael Shaikh's The Last Sweet Bite is filled with recipes, but it's also a document that reflects the way conflict alters cuisine. The project, which blends travel writing, memoir and the traditional cookbook structure, profiles six regions impacted by war, violence and genocide. In today's episode, Shaikh joins NPR's Leila Fadel for a conversation that touches on how he went from covering human rights abuses in conflict zones to creating this non-traditional cookbook.

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    8 mins
  • In Ann Patchett's latest, a mother tells her daughters about a seminal summer

    In Ann Patchett's latest, a mother tells her daughters about a seminal summer
    Jul 14 2025
    The author Ann Patchett has talked about her decision to focus on her writing and to forgo entering the world of motherhood. But in her latest book, Tom Lake, the main character Lara made a different choice: She chose being a mother over pursuing acting and the fame that may have come with it. In today's episode, Patchett speaks with NPR's Mary Louise Kelly about the decision to make Lara a mother who is reveling in time spent with her daughters, sharing the tale of one seminal summer before they were born.

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    9 mins
  • New books ask how we can protect threatened land in the Amazon rainforest and Hawaii

    New books ask how we can protect threatened land in the Amazon rainforest and Hawaii
    Jul 11 2025
    Two new books ask how we might protect vulnerable ecosystems in the Amazon rainforest and Hawaii. First, journalist Dom Phillips was reporting in the Amazon when he and a colleague were shot and killed. Phillips was in the middle of writing a book – and now, that project, How to Save the Amazon, has been completed by his widow and a team of contributors. In today's episode, Alessandra Sampaio, Phillip's widow, and co-author Jonathan Watts join NPR's Ari Shapiro to discuss the challenges they faced in completing the book. Then, Sara Kehaulani Goo's new book, Kuleana, chronicles her family's effort to hold onto ancestral land in Hawaii. In today's episode, she speaks with NPR's Michel Martin about her own complex relationship with Hawaii and what tourists might consider before they visit.

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    17 mins