Library Talks

An extraordinary group of women who are on the front lines of the fight for bettering the lives for young black women and girls across the country gathered at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture this International Women's Day to highlight the roles, needs, and contributions of black women and girls in the context of the Black Lives Matter.

Direct download: woman_girls_nypl_podcast_mixdown3_mixdown.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EDT

Modern medicine is infatuated with high-tech gadgetry, yet the single most powerful diagnostic tool remains the doctor-patient conversation, which can uncover the lion’s share of illnesses. Dr. Danielle Ofri speaks with WNYC host Mary Harris about her new book, What Patients Say, What Doctors Hear, which proves that medicine doesn’t have to work that way, and how better communication can lead to better health for all of us.

Direct download: ofri_harris_nypl_podcast_fixed_mixdown2.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:37pm EDT

Whether evoking the tragicomic and surreal for which his short stories first gained acclaim, or awakening the keen love of family in 2015’s The Seven Good Years, Etgar Keret mines the human experience for all of its farce and dignity. The Israeli author recently came by the Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building to speak with Paul Holdengräber, the director of LIVE from the NYPL. The conversation began on Keret’s lost luggage and the two unexpected donations, of a coat and boxer shorts, that followed. From there it turned one strange corner after the next, from Kafka to drug dealers, technophobia, bedtime stories with drunks and prostitutes, and Keret’s anxieties about the ethics of writing fiction.

Direct download: Etgar_Keret_nypl_podcast_mixdown3.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:10pm EDT

This year, the New York Public Library will, for the thirtieth year, dispense the Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism. In the first in a series of events to celebrate the award, we welcomed Dean Baquet, Executive Editor of The New York Times; Shawna Thomas, DC Bureau Chief of VICE News; Jose Antonio Vargas, Founder of Define American; Jacob Weisberg, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Slate Group; and Bill Moyers, Managing Editor of BillMoyers.com to discuss the shifting responsibilities, obligations, purposes, and even definitions of American journalism today. For this week's episode of the New York Public Library Podcast, we're proud to present this conversation on the press during the administration of the forty-fifth president.

Direct download: journalism_trump_nypl_podcast_fixed_mixdown.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:41pm EDT

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.

Direct download: angelou_lewis_nypl_podcast_mixdown.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:22am EDT

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.

Direct download: cassenova_nypl_podcast_mixdown.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:28am EDT

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.

Direct download: queer_nypl_podcast2_mixdown.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EDT

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.

Direct download: 2017.03.02_Emmit_Till_Intro_mixdown.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EDT

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.

Direct download: washington_nypl_podcast2_mixdown.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:28am EDT

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.

Direct download: never_built_nypl_podcast2_mixdown.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:41am EDT