This week, the New York Public Library Podcast welcomes Thomas Struth, the world-famous and influential photographer best known for his family portraits and large-scale cityscapes. To celebrate the opening of NYPL’s new exhibition "Public Eye: 175 Years of Sharing Photography," Struth joins us to speak about cultural memory, photographing Queen Elizabeth, and reading the stories that images tell.

Acclaimed author Neil Gaiman performs a memorable dramatic reading from the Library’s own rare copy of "A Christmas Carol," which includes edits and prompts Charles Dickens wrote in his own hand for his unique public readings 150 years ago. Dressed in full costume and joined by writer and BBC researcher Molly Oldfield, Gaiman performs the classic tale as its great author intended.

The illustrator and author of more than twenty books for both kids and adults sits down with us to talk about strong female characters, nonlinear storytelling, and drawing outside the lines.

This week, we honor Pulitzer Prize winner and former US poet laureate Mark Strand, who passed away over the weekend at the age of 80. The beloved poet and author joined us this October to discuss art, imagination, and the life of the mind.

This Thanksgiving week, we’re reaching back into the NYPL archives to bring you a story about food, family, and multicultural identity. Internationally acclaimed chef Marcus Samuelsson describes his remarkable journey from a humble kitchen in Sweden, to some of the most competitive and revered restaurants in the world — and, finally, to the opening of the beloved Red Rooster in Harlem.

This week, we welcome novelist Richard Ford, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "The Sportswriter," "Independence Day," and "The Lay of the Land." Ford comes to NYPL to talk about his latest book, "Let Me Be Frank with You," a fourth installment in his bestselling Frank Bascombe series, which now finds its protagonist struggling to make sense of his past in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

This week, the NYPL Podcast welcomes George Clinton, the singular musical phenomenon who twisted soul music into funk. Clinton joins us to talk about his life's work, learning from his proteges, and pushing the boundaries of what music can do.

This week on the podcast, Neil Gaiman, the beloved bestselling author of "Coraline," "American Gods," and "The Graveyard Book," joins us on Halloween night for some scary stories and thrilling conversation. He speaks about disobedient adults, why he learned to read, and his own reimagining of "Hansel and Gretel."

This week on the podcast, Sam Roberts joins us to discuss seeing history through objects, productive procrastination, and what he thinks the motto of New York City should be.

This week, the NYPL Podcast welcomes Marjane Satrapi, the graphic novelist, illustrator, film director, and children's book author who brought us Persepolis. She speaks to NYPL's Paul Holdengraber about the liabilities of learning English from American movies, the intelligence required for a sense of humor, and more.

This week, acclaimed author Jane Smiley joins us to discuss the origins of her new trilogy "The Last Hundred Years," the hard part about spending a century with her characters, and her middle school reading tastes.

This week on the podcast, noted legal reformer Philip K. Howard discusses his latest work, "The Rule of Nobody: Saving America from Dead Laws and Broken Government."

This week, the New York Public Library Podcast welcomes Tom Perrotta, whose novels Little Children, Election, and The Leftovers have been adapted into highly-lauded films and television series. He joins us today to discuss his latest work, Nine Inches.

The award-winning poet and author of the novel Leaving the Atocha Station brings his masterful command of words from the page to the stage, celebrating the start of LIVE's Fall 2014 season and his new book, 10:04.

This week on the podcast, acclaimed author Ayana Mathis comes to NYPL to talk about her latest work, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie.

This week, The New York Public Library Podcast features personal stories from adult children who have lost their parents to AIDS, including Alysia Abbott, author of Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father.

This week on The New York Public Library Podcast, internationally renowned artist Robert Morris discusses various aspects of his practice and some of the key themes—time, memory, language, medium, and process—of his work.

The Library for the Performing Arts presents an evening of songs—songs that were cut from this season’s new Broadway musicals, including The Bridges of Madison County, If/Then, and Rocky.

This week, The New York Public Library Podcast welcomes Stephen Schlesinger, as he discusses his new book, The Letters of Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., a collection of his father’s vivid, witty correspondence influential political and cultural figures of his time.

This week on The New York Public Library Podcast, acclaimed author George Prochnik discusses The Impossible Exile, his new book about the life and work of Stefan Zweig, an icon of the Viennese cultural renaissance.

In April 2014, Amazon and Hachette locked horns in what has become a very public, and still ongoing, battle over contract negotiations. After the online retailer removed the pre-order option, imposed shipping delays, and slashed discounts on the book publisher's titles, the reaction against Amazon was swift and fierce. But the story of the Amazon-Hachette dispute is anything but simple, and raises critical questions about the future of the book publishing industry. What is really at stake for the companies, authors and readers? What larger issues of free-market capitalism and free speech are at play? And what does the Amazon-Hachette dispute reveal about the future of the publishing industry in the age of e-books?

When you've written biographies on Sophia Loren, Ernest Hemingway and Doris Day you're bound to have some pretty incredible stories. This week on the podcast we join editor, novelist, playwright, and biographer A. E. Hotchner as he reflects on some memorable moments from impressive career. 

On this episode of The New York Public Library Podcast, Norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgaard dissects the latest volume of his critically acclaimed autobiography, My Struggle—and the controversy that surrounds it—with Jeffrey Eugenides, author of The Virgin Suicides.

This week on The New York Public Library Podcast, filmmaker John Waters comes to us with tales from his latest book, Carsick, which chronicles his adventures hitchhiking across the United States.

This week, The New York Public Library Podcast welcomes the Irish novelist, playwright, and critic Colm Tóibín to Books at Noon, the Library’s new series of free lunchtime author talks.

This week on The New York Public Library Podcast, renowned visual artist Kara Walker joins Radiolab host Jad Abumrad to discuss her new show at Domino Sugar Factory, and explore the complicated history of sugar, sex, sweetness, and power.

Chuck Palahniuk is best known as the author of the novels Fight Club and Choke. Douglas Coupland is the author of the international bestsellers Generation A and JPod. This week on The New York Public Library Podcast, the two take to the stage at LIVE from the NYPL for a literary conversation that doubles as a social experiment.

This week, The New York Public Library Podcast welcomes Tony Award-winning playwright, performer, and activist Eve Ensler to Books at Noon, the Library’s new series of free lunchtime author talks.

This week on The New York Public Library podcast, LIVE from the NYPL welcomes three leaders of the craft beer movement. Brooklyn Brewery cofounder Steve Hindy—joined by Kim Jordan, New Belgium Brewing Company CEO, and Charlie Papazian founder of the American Homebrewers Association—recounts how craft brewers have forever changed the way the world experiences beer.

This week, The New York Public Library podcast welcomes acclaimed novelist Joyce Carol Oates to Books at Noon, the Library’s new series of free lunchtime author talks.

This week on the podcast, hear the two award-winning authors discuss poverty around the world.

This week on the New York Public Library Podcast, best-selling author and challenger of conventional wisdom Malcolm Gladwell brings his critical approach to LIVE from the NYPL as he expounds on his newest interests.

This week on the podcast, we welcome Michael Cunningham to Books at Noon, the Library's new series of free lunchtime author talks. Cunningham is the author of six novels, including A Home at the End of the World and The Hours, which was awarded both the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award. His latest novel is The Snow Queen.

This week on the podcast, award winning author Paul Auster stops by "Books at Noon" – NYPL's weekly lunchtime author talk series – to discuss some of his latest work, pushing the boundaries of autobiography, and much more.

Today's New York Public Library podcast welcomes Sam Lipsyte to Books at Noon, the Library's new series of free lunchtime author talks. Lipsyte was a Guggenheim Fellow, is the recipient of the Believer Book Award, and is the author of five books, including most recently a collection of short stories, The Fun Parts.

Today’s New York Public Library podcast features the new Books at Noon series; a free weekly program featuring popular and acclaimed authors in the Schwarzman Building on 42nd Street and 5th Avenue. Our first guest is the political satirist and author PJ O’Rourke who has written 16 books, most recently "Baby Boom: How it Got that Way (And it Wasn’t My Fault) (And I’ll Never Do it Again)."

Wes Anderson's vivid cinematic aesthetic and idiosyncratic characters make his films both immediately recognizable and endearing. Anderson returns to LIVE to explore his passions, influences, and his newest film The Grand Budapest Hotel, in conversation with Paul Holdengräber.

Wes Anderson's vivid cinematic aesthetic and idiosyncratic characters make his films both immediately recognizable and endearing. Anderson returns to LIVE to explore his passions, influences, and his newest film The Grand Budapest Hotel, in conversation with Paul Holdengräber.

LIVE closes the Fall 2013 season with a conversation between 2013 Library Lion Junot Diaz and the writer who most influenced him, Nobel Prize-winner Toni Morrison.

"I think the most sustained love of mine," Diaz has said, "the one that's carried me through all these years, is my relationship with Toni Morrison. Im telling you, I'm one of those people who's still cracking my head on many of the ideas Toni Morrison both suggested and elaborated on in her work." Witness a powerful event as Diaz comes face to face with his literary hero to celebrate her remarkable career.

A passionate attachment to a great work of literature can shape our lives and help us to read our own histories. 

For Rebecca Mead, that book was George Eliot's Middlemarch, which she first read as a young woman in an English coastal town, and reread regularly throughout her life. In My Life In Middlemarch, the New Yorker writer revisits her own past and Eliot's work in a new way, by leading us into the life that the book made for her, as well as the many lives the novel has led since it was written. Employing a structure that mirrors that of the novel, My Life in Middlemarch blends biography, reporting, and memoir, taking the themes of Eliot's masterpiece--the complexity of love, the meaning of marriage, the foundations of morality, and the drama of aspiration and failure--and bringing them into our world. Mead comes to LIVE from the NYPL to explore the enduring power of Middlemarch, and how the books we read help us read our own lives. 

James McBride opens LIVE from the NYPL's Spring 2014 season with an exploration of his latest work The Good Lord Bird - winner of the 2013 National Book Award for fiction - through words and music. The evening will feature conversation with the author and musician, as well as performances by McBride and his quintet, whose mix of spirituals and jazz renditions of classic gospel songs are inspired by the abolitionist John Brown, a key figure in this novel. With Keith Robinson on guitar, Trevor Exter on bass, Show Tyme Brooks on drums, Adam Faulk on piano, McBride on saxophone and the whole band on vocals.

Three generations of philanthropists sit down to discuss business, charity, farming, and their 40 Chances in life, moderated by Tom Brokaw.

If you had the resources to accomplish something great in the world, what would you do? That's the question legendary investor Warren Buffett posed to his son in 2006, when he announced he was leaving the bulk of his fortune to philanthropy. Howard G. Buffett set out to help the most vulnerable people on earth—nearly a billion individuals who lack basic food security. And Howard has given himself a deadline: 40 years to put more than $3 billion to work on this challenge. 40 Chances: Finding Hope in a Hungry World captures Howard's journey to make a difference in the world, and the lessons learned along the way. Warren joins his son and grandson, Howard W. Buffett, to celebrate the accomplishments so far, and embrace the new challenges ahead.

Mike Tyson has defied expectations and conventional wisdom during his three decades in the public eye. Tyson, the one-time heavyweight champion of the world and a legend both in and out of the ring, joins LIVE for a conversation about his tumultuous life in the same straightforward and sincere tone seen in his new memoir, Undisputed Truth.

One of the most thrilling and ferocious boxers of all time, Tyson's brilliance in the ring was often compromised by reckless behavior. Years of hard partying, violent fights, and criminal proceedings took their toll: by 2003, he hit rock bottom, a convicted felon and completely broke. Yet Tyson managed to regained his success, his dignity, and the love of his family. With his new-found happiness and stability as a father and husband, his story is an American original.