For this week's episode of the New York Public Library Podcast, we present discussions presented by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture on two documentaries about icons Maya Angelou and John Lewis. To talk about American Masters - And Still I Rise, a film about the Pulitzer-nominated Dr. Angelou, Elizabeth Alexander, Director of Creativity and Free Expression at the Ford Foundation; Rita Coburn Whack, co-director and co-producer of Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise; Louis Gossett, Jr., Academy Award-winning actor; and Colin Johnson, Co-Founder and Principal of Caged Bird Legacy joined Director of the Schomburg Center, Kevin Young. Get in the Way: The Journey of John Lewis is a documentary film about Congressman John Lewis, a civil rights icon and the winner of the National Book Award for Young People's Literature for March: Book Three. It is discussed by Arva Rice, President and CEO of the New York Urban League; activist and advocate Phil Pierre; and Ahmad Greene, a core member of the Black Lives Matter Movement. In this week's episode, we're proud to present conversation around generations of activism with some of our nation's most inspiring freedom fighters.

Today the name Giacomo Casanova has become synonymous with the skilled lover. The Venetian claimed to have seduced countless women over his lifetime. Laurence Bergreen's new biography Casanova: the World of a Seductive Genius recounts the life of Casanova from an impoverished youth to infamous writer to librarian. For this week's episode of the New York Public Library Podcast, we're proud to present Laurence Bergreen in conversation with psychosexual therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer on the life of the notorious Casanova.

Hugh Ryan is a curator and journalist based in Brooklyn, whose work primarily explores queer culture and history. He is the Founder of the Pop-Up Museum of Queer History, and sits on the Board of QED: A Journal in LGBTQ Worldmaking. As the Library’s Martin Duberman Visiting Scholar for 2017, he has been researching the queer history of Brooklyn's working waterfront, in preparation for an upcoming exhibition at the Brooklyn Historical Society. For this week's episode of the New York Public Library Podcast, we're proud to present Ryan discussing the complicated queer refuges offered by the borough's waterfront spaces.

The year was 1955, and the place was America. The murderers were white men, and the fourteen-year-old boy who was kidnapped, beaten, murdered, and dumped in a river was Emmett Till.

New York Times political correspondent Maggie Haberman joins Daily Beast editor-in-chief John Avlon to discuss his new book, Washington’s Farewell: the Founding Father’s Warning to Future Generations.

It's hard to imagine a New York different from the one we know, but what would the city have been like if the ideas of some of the greatest architectural dreamers had made it beyond the drawing boards and into built form? The new book Never Built New York paints the picture of an alternative New York, with renderings, sketches, models, and stories of proposals for the city that never came to be. Internationally acclaimed architects Daniel Libeskind. Steven Holl, and Elizabeth Diller come together with author Sam Lubell to envision this alternate city. If you’re curious about some of the images discussed in this episode, visit nypl.org/podcast where you can find a link to a video of the discussion.

Art Spiegelman moved readers with Maus, the renowned graphic novel recounting his father’s experience of the Holocaust. Now, Spiegelman has brought to our attention the forgotten Si Lewen masterpiece, The Parade, a wordless meditation on the cycle of war. He joins NYPL’s Paul Holdengraber for a discussion on his work past and present. If you’re curious about some of the images discussed in this episode, visit nypl.org/podcast where you can find a link to a video of the discussion.

This week we’re proud to present a compelling panel discussion on diversity and democracy. The discussion features participants from education, government, journalism, and non-profit sectors, with moderator Brian Lehrer of WNYC. At a time when American society is swiftly transforming, discussion sheds light on how our differences will only become more critical to our shared success.

This week we’re bringing you a conversation with the minds behind Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas. Writer and activist Rebecca Solnit, geographer Joshua Jelly-Schapiro, essayist Garnette Cadogan, and authors Suketu Mehta and Luc Sante participate in a discussion about the layers of vitality and diversity, but also inequity and erasure that make up this thriving metropolis

Lying on your deathbed, how does the story of your life unfold? Michael Chabon's new novel, Moonglow, unfolds surrounded by this question, in a story both imagined and researched, fictionalized and biographical. Joined by author Richard Price, the two explore the story of Chabon’s own life, and the life of his stories.