Madeline Miller's first novel, The Song of Achilles, transformed The Iliad from a vast impersonal epic into an intimate and poignant love story. Now Miller turns her mind to Homer's other great work, and one of mythology's most riveting figures, in Circe. It's the retelling of The Odyssey in which a fierce young woman is at the center. Madeline Miller discusses her writing process, witchcraft, and why this story resonates today with classicist and translator Emily Wilson, the first woman to translate The Odyssey into English.

Joshua Green's Devil's Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Nationalist Uprising, was one of the first books to shed light on the Trump campaign and Bannon's influence on their way to the White House. A finalist for NYPL's 2018 Helen Berstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism, Green stopped by the Library to talk about what it was like to interview the President, what actually motivates his former Chief Strategist and how getting kicked out of the White House doesn't necessarily mean you're out for good.

Last December, the Federal Communications Commission voted 3–2 to repeal net neutrality—which left many people wondering "why should we be concerned about the repeal and what can be done about it?" Library President Tony Marx convened a panel of experts to help shed light on the issue including: Susan Crawford,  Professor at Harvard Law School and member of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Broadband Task Force; Jessica Rosenworcel, Commissioner to the Federal Communications Commission; and Tim Wu, Professor at Columbia Law School who coined the term "net neutrality" over a decade ago. They discussed where things stand now and where we can go from here.

Sheelah Kolhatkar is a staff writer at The New Yorker and is a former hedge fund analyst. Her book, Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street, tells the story of Steven A. Cohen and his involvement in the largest insider-trading scandal in U.S history. The book is one of the five finalists selected for NYPL's Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism. Kolhatkar dropped by the Library to discuss how she wrote this real-life thriller, what Cohen is up to today, and why people outside of the financial world should be paying attention. 

Actor Isabella Rossellini raises chickens; evolutionary biologist Menno Schilthuizen studies them. In My Chickens Rossellini unexpectedly breeds 38 yellow chicks of diverse heritage breeds and capitalizes on the opportunity to study their traits, behavior, and history. In Darwin Comes to Town, Schilthuizen posits that the strange and rapid adaptations made by animals in urban environments suggest that evolution is perhaps not the slow grinding process biologists have long believed in. From husbandry to research, Rossellini and Schilthuizen share some of the mysteries and wonders of our animal kingdoms.

How have social justice movements evolved in the fifty years after Martin Luther King Jr.'s death? Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor is an author and professor of African American Studies at Princeton University whose research examines race and public policy. Shaun King is a writer for The Intercept and prominent public activist speaking out against police brutality. They discussed race in America, why movements succeed or fail, Martin Luther King Jr.'s fluctuating reputation during his life and after his death, and the social movements they envision for tomorrow.

New York Public Library President Anthony Marx brought together criminal-justice-reform advocates from the right and left to discuss the complex issues of American incarceration—Reginald Dwayne Betts, an award-winning writer and current Ph.D. candidate at Yale Law School, and Pat Nolan, Director of the American Conservative Union Foundation’s Center for Criminal Justice Reform. Although they come from opposite ends of the political spectrum, both have direct experience within the prison system and both have dedicated their life's work toward prison reform. They discuss how the tragedies of American incarceration started, how they persist and what action is needed for change.

Civil Rights leader and legendary athlete, Dr. John Carlos, made history on the Olympic podium in 1968. After medaling in the 200 meter race in Mexico City, he and Tommie Smith raised their fists in the Black Power salute during the national anthem. Marking fifty years since that iconic moment, Dr. Carlos spoke with Sports Editor of The Nation and co-author of his memoir, Dave Zirin. Dr. Carlos shares his story of meeting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the hardships he faced after the '68 Olympics, and the message he has for athletes continuing the movement for racial justice today.

Akwaeke Emezi is an Igbo and Tamil writer and video artist.  "Freshwater" ​is Emezi's debut novel and one of the most anticipated books of 2018. The partially autobiographical story follows a young person, Ada, from Nigeria to American college, where a traumatic event reveals the hidden powers of the spirits within her. Emezi discussed the novel with Glory Edim, founder of the book club and digital platform, Well-Read Black Girl. She traced the origin story behind Freshwater, decolonizing identities, and navigating transition.

The comedian and actor Patton Oswalt shares the posthumous true-crime masterpiece written by his wife Michelle McNamara, who died suddenly at the age of 46 in 2016. McNamara, a true crime reporter and creator of TrueCrimeDiary.com, spent years tracking a serial killer she dubbed the Golden State Killer. Between 1976 and 1986 he committed 50 sexual assaults and 10 murders up and down California. Oswalt wrote, “I can't help feeling that somewhere, in her final pages, she left enough clues for someone to finish the job she couldn't—to put California's worst serial killer behind bars.” Plus: a behind-the-scenes private tour of items from NYPL's true crime collections.

In 1971 when Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers and revealed the true story of American involvement in Vietnam, he was holding on to a much larger and more terrifying set of American secrets than he was letting on.

Ellsberg had to wait almost fifty years to bring them to light. What those secrets were and why they remained hidden for so long are revealed in his new book The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner.

Aidan Flax-Clark speaks with author Neel Mukherjee about his new novel, "A State of Freedom" and his evolving notions of home, autonomy, migration, and ghosts. ”A ghost is someone who belonged to a particular world who had an unhappy or tragic or violent ending to that particular life and hasn’t found a resting place in another world,” Mukherjee says, “this could be a very a good working definition for who a migrant is.”

You may have read about Tayari Jones’s latest novel on quite a few “most anticipated books of 2018” lists, and for good reason. Inspired by her research into the painful realities of American incarceration, Jones’ “An American Marriage” blends equal parts heartbreak and humor to tell  the love story of a young couple whose marriage is tested by an unexpected calamity. It was recently selected by Oprah Winfrey for the Oprah Book Club. In a conversation with Isaac Fitzgerald, founding editor of Buzzfeed Books and co-host of Twitter Morning Show, #AmtoDM, Jones talks about her writing process, her relationships with her characters, and what it felt like to get an unannounced call from Oprah herself.

To celebrate the publication of When They Call You A Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir, Patrisse Khan-Cullors and her co-author asha bandele stopped by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Akiba Solomon, Editorial Director of Colorlines, interviews the two about the history of Black Lives Matter, from hashtag to global movement.

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The James Beard Award–winning food historian and cookbook writer was at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture this past fall to talk about her memoir, My Soul Looks Back, with chef and co-host of ABC's The Chew, Carla Hall.

The best-selling journalist speaks with Danish reporter on the Arctic, Martin Breum, about melting ice and global solutions for our changing climate.

The journalist and 2017 National Book Award Winner delivered the Library's annual Robert B. Silvers Lecture. The talk is named in honor of the co-founding editor of the New York Review of Books, who died in March 2017. With unexpected candor and intimacy, Gessen traced her own life as a sequence of choices and explored how notions of choice affect ideas about immigration, identity, and purpose.

Neil Gaiman's reading from 2013 uses a rare prompt copy that belonged to Charles Dickens himself and now resides in The New York Public Library. Dickens marked it up and annotated it for the express purpose of performing the story in front of an audience, which he did regularly in the 1850s and 1860s.

Is self-interest the only force motivating business? Or can altruism be an equally powerful driver? It's a question that Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Prize–winning father of microcredit, answers in his latest book, A World of Three Zeros: The New Economics of Zero Poverty, Zero Unemployment, and Zero Net Carbon Emissions. He spoke with fellow economist Jeffrey Sachs.

The titan of American poetry was at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in November to talk about her latest collection, A Good Cry. She spoke with Joy-Ann Reid, the host of MSNBC's AM Joy. 

The Pulitzer Prize–winning literary historian and Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright discuss Greenblatt's latest book, The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve, "a life history of one of the most extraordinary stories ever told." Exploring the power of narrative to travel from myth into reality, Greenblatt and Kushner traced the tale from its biblical origins through its imaginings in the minds of writers and artists from St. Augustine to Albrecht Dürer to John Milton. 

The Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the Poetry Editor of The New Yorker speaks with Garnette Cadogan about his most recent work of nonfiction, Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News. Young traces the particularly American tradition of cons, hoaxes, and fakes, from P. T. Barnum to today.

The Soviet famine of the early 1930s killed around 5 million people; almost 4 million of them were Ukrainians. As Pulitzer Prize–winning historian and Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum demonstrates in her latest book, Red Famine, it wasn't fate or chance that skewed those numbers so heavily—it was something much more deliberate, and much more sinister. And the story behind it was, until recently, in danger of disappearing. Applebaum spoke about recovering it at the New York Public Library with John Podhoretz, the editor of Commentary magazine.

Envisioning the archives of the future with the Chicago-based artist, who was joined by Nettrice Gaskins, director of the STEAM Lab at the Boston Arts Academy, and Greg Carr, a professor at Howard University.

Jones may be known as a liberal activist, but his new book, "Beyond the Messy Truth," is a call to action for all Americans seeking a way out of our ideological and cultural divisions. He spoke about it at the Library with CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin.

Ulysses S. Grant has for decades routinely listed as one of our worst presidents. Ron Chernow says the legacy of the Civil War hero and 18th president is deeply misunderstood, making the case in both his latest book and in this conversation with Richard Stengel, former managing editor of TIME magazine.<\P>

The co-editors of the essay collection Nasty Women along with select contributors to it explore the complications of being an American woman in 2017. Featuring Kate Harding and Samhita Mukhopadhyay, with Kera Bolonik, Zerlina Maxwell, and Meredith Talusan. Moderated by Jezebel founder Anna Holmes.

Twenty years in the making, Greater Gotham is Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Mike Wallace's follow-up to his 1999 Gotham. He spoke about the New York City history, which covers 1898 to 1918, with the New Yorker's Jelani Cobb.

The Booker Prize–winning novelist discusses his twelfth, and most recent, novel, The Golden House.

The National Book Award–winning author spoke at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture about her most recent novel, Sing, Unburied, Sing. She was joined by Lisa Lucas, Executive Director of the National Book Foundation.

Two writers, two beautiful books, both on the subject of death. Atul Gawande's Being Mortal examines the lengths modern medicine must go to better humanize the final stages of our lives. Elizabeth Alexander's The Light of the World is the memoir of her husband Ficre's sudden and unexpected death, and Alexander's process of grieving and rebuilding that followed it. <\p>

The host and co-creator of Studio 360 discusses his new book, Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire, a 500-Year History. He spoke with NYU professor Kwame Anthony Appiah. Andersen argues that the roots of our post-truth, alternative facts present can be discovered in America's "promiscuous devotion to the untrue" and its instinct to believe in make believe, evident across four centuries of magical thinkers and true believers, hucksters and suckers, who have embedded an appetite for believe-whatever-you-want fantasy into our national DNA.

The filmmaker speaks about his groundbreaking documentary I Am Not Your Negro at the Schomburg Center with the Schomburg's Director, Kevin Young and LIVE from the NYPl's Paul Holdengräber.

The Nigerian writer discusses her debut novel, Stay With Me, the haunting tale of a young couple whose childless marriage threatens to tear them apart. It was shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction and hailed by Michiko Kakutani as "powerfully magnetic and heartbreaking."

Kendi discussed his National Book Award–winning work on the history of racist ideas in America with Khalil Gibran Muhammad, the Director Emeritus of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

MIT linguist, philosopher, and political theorist Noam Chomsky, in conversation with actor Wallace Shawn.

Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, and best-selling author Judy Collins came to the Library  back in February, to celebrate the publication of her most recent book, Cravings. “As an active, working alcoholic with an eating disorder,” she writes, “I yearned for serenity and was tormented for much of my life by longings, addictions, and painful crises over food: bingeing, bulimia, weight loss and gain.” Collins spoke with William Kelly, who is NYPL’s Andrew W. Mellon Director of the Research Libraries.

Learn more at nypl.org/podcasts. 

The Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright was joined in May by members of the Broadway cast of Sweat to talk about the play and the issues behind it at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Best-selling novelist Min Jin Lee on her latest book, the ups and downs of her career, the history of Koreans in Japan, and the treatment of Asians in America.

Philip Glass is a giant of twentieth-century American music, arguably of the most influential composers of his time. He spoke with LIVE from the NYPL’s Paul Holdengräber last June about his memoir "Words Without Music." It is a riveting record of a life very well lived, and a fascinating conversation with a legendary artist.

Writer, activist, and podcast host Janet Mock joins for a discussion of her second memoir, Surpassing Certainty. She's interviewed by Lisa Lucas, the Executive Director of the National Book Foundation. The two talked about everything from Mock’s time in the publishing industry to her work in a Honolulu strip club, from spam recipes and Zara dresses to the influence of writers like Maya Angelou and Zora Neale Hurston.

One of contemporary art's most towering figures guides us through his astonishing new exhibition at MASS MoCA.

In the 1920s, the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma become oil millionaires after black gold was discovered under their land. Discover the stories of the mysterious that followed and one of the FBI's earliest investigations.

Tracy K. Smith was named 22nd U.S. Poet Laureate last week. In 2016 she came by the Library to discuss her memoir, Ordinary Light.

This week, the second part of Jelani Cobb's lecture on politics, journalism, and history entitled "The Half-Life of Freedom: The Demagogues of American History."

New Yorker staff writer and Columbia Journalism School professor Jelani Cobb delivers a lecture on politics, journalism, and history entitled "The Half-Life of Freedom." This episode is part 1: "The Media and Alternative Facts."

Alec Baldwin spoke with NY Times critic-at-large Wesley Morris about his recent memoir, "Nevertheless," at LIVE from the NYPL.

Katherine Boo, Anand Giridharadas, and Philip Gourevitch are all past winners of the Library's Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism, which celebrates its 30 anniversary this year. They came to the Library to speak on the shifting responsibilities, purposes, and even definitions of journalism.

Is the Trump Administration a dream or a nightmare for the Koch brothers? This week's episode asks and answers many questions about the intricate relationship between money and politics in American life with Jane Mayer, a New Yorker staff writer and winner of NYPL's 2017 Bernstein Award for her book "Dark Money."

Explore both the seeds and the fruits of our present American political condition with New Yorker writer George Packer, National Review editor Reihan Salam, and New York Public Library President Tony Marx.

Bernstein Award finalist Janine di Giovanni talks about her book, "The Morning They Came For Us: Dispatches from Syria," the story of Syria's civil war as told through the people who have lived through it.

Bernstein Award finalist Charlotte McDonald-Gibson talks about her book, 'Cast Away: True Stories of Survival from Europe's Refugee Crisis,' which follows individuals fleeing violence and persecution in Syria, Libya, Nigeria, and Eritrea.

BONUS: We're giving you a taste of the Library's other podcast, The Librarian Is In. Each week hosts Gwen and Frank discuss books, culture, what you should read next , and interview interesting figures from the world of books and libraries. Give it a listen, and subscribe if you like what you hear! Back to regularly scheduled programing on Tuesday.

A hilarious, confounding, perplexing, and thoroughly engrossing conversation between theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss and actor Alan Alda. They came to the LIVE from the NYPL stage to discuss Krauss’s new book, The Greatest Story Ever Told…So Far: Why Are We Here?

An interview with Bernstein finalist and Guardian editor-at-large Gary Younge. His book is called Another Day in the Death of America: a Chronicle of Ten Short Lives. On an average day in the U.S., seven children and teens will die from gun violence. Younge picked one such day in November 2013 and told the stories of the ten young people whose lives were lost in that 24-hour span.

If you’ve ever made it through a full Seder, you know that celebrating Passover can last as long as the Exodus itself. Today, on day two of the annual holiday, the NYPL podcast has a measure of comic relief for you in the form of an all-new Haggadah called For This We Left Egypt? It's written by Dave Barry, Alan Zweibel, and Adam Mansbach.

Sonia Shah's new book 'Pandemic' uses the history of cholera as a template toward understanding the life cycles of disease outbreaks and how our how our next global pandemic might arise.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This week we’re rebroadcasting one of our favorite episodes: acclaimed author Neil Gaiman delivering a memorable reading of A Christmas Carol. You’ll hear Gaiman reading from the Library’s own rare copy, which includes edits and prompts Charles Dickens wrote in his own hand for his unique readings 150 years ago. Joined by writer and BBC researcher Molly Oldfield, Gaiman’s reading of the classic tale as the great author intended has become a New York Public Library tradition.

This week we’re thrilled to present a thought-provoking lecture from New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. He recently came to the library to deliver the annual Robert B. Silvers lecture, and gave a stirring talk he titled “Public Discourse In A Time Of Crazy.” Krugman is introduced by Robert Silvers himself, editor of The New York Review of Books.

This week we're joined by musician and author James McBride, who returns to the Library to mark the paperback publication of his book,Kill 'Em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul.He's joined by journalist and author Philip Gourevitch for a conversation the covers the tensions and contradictions of the American experience: between North and South, black and white, rich and poor.

Sarah Sze is an internationally acclaimed artist, whose signature visual language challenges the static nature of sculpture and questions the value society places on objects. She joined NYPL's Paul Holdengraber this spring for a conversation spanning her body of work and what it says about space, architecture, art, and most importantly, how humans relate to all three.

This week we’re bringing you a conversation with songwriter and guitarist Robbie Robertson. As an original member of the seminal music group the Band, Robertson has helped shape American music and culture profoundly. He’s joined by Stevie Van Zandt of the E Street Band for reflective conversation on the history of rock and roll and the way it continues to shape their lives.

For this week’s episode we’re bringing you a conversation between two Nigerian authors whose works include plays, novels, poetry, essays and more. Chris Abani is known as an international voice on humanitarianism, art, ethics and our shared political responsibility. Wole Soyinka won of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986 and has received accolades for his work in writing and advocating for human rights. The two recently sat down at the Library for a on the intersections between art, writing, activism, and politics.

For this week’s episode, we’re bringing you a conversation between two public intellectuals who have contributed immensely to our understanding of history, literature, cultural criticism, and politics, Macarthur Fellow Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Pulitzer Prize winner Margo Jefferson. In 2006, Gates and Jefferson sat down at the Library for a special event on Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin co-presented with The Studio Museum in Harlem.

This week we’re joined by two legendary women from very different artistic backgrounds, performance artist Marina Abramović and rock singer Debbie Harry of Blondie. The two share stories and insights from their lives and art as they discuss Abramovic's new memoir, Walk Through Walls.

This week, we’re bringing you a conversation with author and policy advisor Tim Wu. In his new book The Attention Merchants, Wu makes the case truly paying attention is both incredibly rare and incredibly valuable. He’s joined in conversation by conversation by writer, documentarian, and Professor of Media Theory and Digital Economics at CUNY/Queens, Douglas Rushkoff.

Four hundred years after William Shakespeare’s death, Margaret Atwood retells one of his most beloved plays, The Tempest, with a dark and fantastical interpretation in her new book, Hag-Seed. This week on the podcast, Atwood is joined in conversation by celebrated actress Fiona Shaw for a discussion of the Bard and his influence on their work.

The original Antigone may be from antiquity, but our current era abounds with women fighting unabashedly for what they believe. This week on the podcast, we welcome journalist, feminist, and author of Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution, Mony Eltahawy. As you’ll hear is a force to be reckoned with and an embodiment of this spirit. She is joined by yet another fierce and powerful author and journalist, Yasmine El Rashidi.

Perhaps the most permanent - and essential - character in Sally Mann’s work is that of place: the American South. Her home of Lexington, VA is not just the set for her most powerful work; it is also the place where she met fellow artist and friend, Cy Twombly. The photographs from her new book, Remembered Light: Cy Twombly in Lexington, are featured in an exhibition at Gagosian Gallery; and she had many stories to tell when she sat down for a conversation NYPL’s Paul Holdengräber.

Yanis Varoufakis considers himself a politician by necessity, not by choice. An economist and academic by training, he became Greece’s finance minister amidst the country's financial crisis, creating an image for himself both beloved and reviled. He came to the Library last April to discuss this complicated role and his recent book, And the Weak Suffer What They Must?: Europe's Crisis and America's Economic Future. He was joined in conversation by renowned academic and theorist Noam Chomsky.

He enthralls audiences with his colorful roles, but Alan Cumming’s real-life adventures pack just as much punch. This week we’re bringing you the first event from our Fall LIVE series as Paul Holdengräber and the award-winning actor in a conversation as whimsical and mischievous as Cumming’s new book of photographs and essays, You Gotta Get Bigger Dreams: My Life in Stories and Pictures.

This week, we’re going back into the archives to bring you a conversation with Hatian-American novelist and short story writer Edwidge Danticat. When she came the Library in 2010, she discussed her book CREATE DANGEROUSLY: The Immigrant Artist at Work with NYPL’s Paul Holdengraber. Their conversation covered central questions of her book including what it means to be an immigrant and an artist, and to bo be working out of one’s homeland.

This week, we celebrate legendary film director Werner Herzog’s birthday with a thrilling conversation from the archives. In 2012, Herzog came to the Library to discuss his most recent film, “Into the Abyss,” as well as his four-part television series, “Death Row.” In this conversation with NYPL’s Paul Holdengraber, Herzog talks about crime, human nature, and why he stands so firmly against capital punishment.

On this week’s podcast, we welcome basketball legend, activist, and bestselling author Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who came to the Library this summer for a conversation with his hero, critically acclaimed author Walter Mosley. In this thought-provoking conversation, Abdul-Jabbar and Mosley talk about fiction, racial injustice, and the nature of truth.

Bestselling author Maggie Nelson's latest book, “The Argonauts,” received the 2016 National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism. In this conversation with poet and critic Wayne Koestenbaum, Nelson talks about justice, empathy, and the nature of grief.

Macarthur Award-winning author Colson Whitehead's latest book, “The Underground Railroad,” was released August 2nd to widespread critical acclaim and recently named an Oprah’s Book Club Pick. The author, a former fellow at NYPL’s Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, came to the Library in 2015 to discuss his book “The Noble Hustle: Poker, Beef Jerky & Death,” which chronicles his experience as an amateur card player trying his hand at the World Series of Poker. In this conversation with NYPL’s Jessica Strand, Whitehead talks about what he learned about the human condition in Las Vegas—and discusses the early stages of writing what would become this year’s hit, “The Underground Railroad.”

Award-winning poet Kevin Young will be joining the NYPL family this fall as the new director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. He came to the Library last November for a talk with chef and writer Gabrielle Hamilton, owner of the acclaimed New York City restaurant Prune and author of the memoir “Blood, Bones, & Butter.” In this wide-ranging conversation, co-presented by The Academy of American Poets, Young and Hamilton talk about food, verse, and the links between sense and memory.

Renowned cancer physician and researcher Siddhartha Mukherjee came to the Library this spring to discuss his new book “The Gene: An Intimate History,” a fascinating examination of our understanding of human heredity and its influence on our personalities, fates, and choices. In this conversation with “The New Yorker” editor David Remnick, Mukherjee talks about medicine, writing, and the links between biology and personal narrative.

Writer, artist and vocalist Laurie Anderson, one of America’s most renowned and daring creative pioneers, came to the Library this spring to discuss her life and work. In this conversation with NYPL’s Paul Holdengraber, Anderson talks about art, inspiration, and trusting the physical.

We’re celebrating Ernest Hemingway’s birthday with an event from the archives. Nobel Prize winning poet Derek Walcott gives us a new appreciation of Hemingway as a great and influential Caribbean writer, discussing Hemingway's influence on his writing, and paying tribute to him with readings of his own poems.

This week, we’re thrilled to welcome acclaimed author and Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro in a talk with Tony, Emmy, and Golden Globe Award-winning actor John Lithgow. In a conversation that covers drama, language, and the relationship between history and art, the two discuss Shapiro’s latest book, “The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606”—which examines how tumultuous events in England in 1606 affected Shakespeare and shaped the three great tragedies he wrote that year: "King Lear," "Macbeth," and "Antony & Cleopatra."

This week, we’re bringing you a very special episode produced in partnership with Public Radio International. Along with a panel of speakers including NYPL’s Denise Hibay, the World in Words’ hosts Patrick Cox and Nina Porzucki examine the state of endangered languages around the world: Why do languages become endangered, and how have some speakers worked to ensure a future for their native tongues? In this special live podcast taping, we explore what’s happening to endangered languages from Ainu to Zaza.

Award-winning English author Geoff Dyer came to the Library this spring to discuss his latest book, “White Sands: Experiences from the Outside World.” In this conversation with NYPL’s Jessica Strand, Dyer talks about travel, unexpected awareness, and looking for meaning in the world around you.

Award-winning photographer Bruce Davidson's prolific body of work includes documentations of the 1960s Civil Rights movement and the gritty underbelly of New York City in the late 70s. He came to the Library this spring for a conversation with Academy Award-winning actor Matt Dillon, who is a great admirer and collector of Davidson’s work. In this riveting discussion between the two great artists, Davidson and Dillon talk about images, storytelling, and the joy of working in silence.