Library Talks

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.

Direct download: 2018.02.27_Ellsberg_mixdown2.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EST

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.”

Direct download: 2018.02.20_Mukherjee_mixdown.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EST

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.

Direct download: 2018.02.13_Jones_mixdown.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EST

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.

Direct download: 2018.02.06_Cullors_mixdown.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EST

1