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We talk with Rebecca Wragg Sykes about her bestselling book, Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art. Her book sheds new light on the complex culture of our Neanderthal ancestors.
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We talk with Antonio Scurati about his international bestseller about Mussolini, M: Son of the Century. It won the prestigious Strega Prize.
Then Tsering Yangzom Lama tells us about her powerful novel of Tibetan exile and resilience, We Measure The Earth With Our Bodies.
Antonio Scurati
Benito Mussolini came to power in circumstances that are resonant with the crises we face today: economic turmoil for the masses, disenchantment with elites that fail to govern, and the erosion of democracy.
In his international bestseller, M, Antonio Scurati takes a deep dive into the mind of the dictator and the social conditions he was able to exploit in his rise.
By combining fiction with documentary evidence and meticulous historical research, Scurati has invented a new genre, which he calls the “documentary novel.”
M is a cautionary tale that we would all do well to heed.
Tsering Yangzom Lama
In today’s world, thirty people become refugees every minute and 68 million people have been displaced (almost certainly an undercount.)
One of the earliest post WWII refugee crises happened in 1959, when Mao’s People’s Liberation Army invaded Tibet. About 80,000 Tibetans, including the Dalai Lama, were forced to escape to India and Nepal, uprooted from their ancestral villages and way of life. Many people died during that exodus.
Tsering Yangzom Lama’s parents were among those who fled. She was born in Nepal. Yet there was much about her family’s history that she was unaware of growing up.
Her acclaimed debut novel We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies tells the story of the Tibetan diaspora. But it also brings alive the rich history, traditions and culture of Tibet.
Named a most anticipated book of the year by The Millions and Ms. and among the
Washington Post’s 10 Noteworthy Books for May, 2022, We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies is a story of courage, survival resilience by an extraordinary young writer.
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This week on Writer’s Voice, we talk with historian Philip Dray about his book, A Lynching at Port Jervis: Race and Reckoning in the Gilded Age. It’s about how the nation was shocked when a local Black man was lynched in 1892 in the supposedly enlightened North. Despite the shock, no one was held to account.
Then, classics scholar Natalie Haynes tells us about her feminist interpretation of the ancient Greek myths and plays. Her book is Pandora’s Jar: Women In The Greek Myths.
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We talk with Mark Vonnegut about his memoir, THE HEART OF CARING: A Life In Pediatrics.
Then, environmental reporter Oliver Milman tells us about the shocking carbon bomb that President Biden is detonating with his record-breaking sales of oil and gas leases. Milman co-wrote a recent piece in the Guardian, “Us Fracking Boom Could Tip World To Edge Of Climate Disaster.”
And we hear a poem by Mary Oliver, “At The River Clarion.”
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Today on Writer’s Voice, we feature two books on crime in America.
First, as meaningful gun safety legislation is perpetually stalled in the US Congress, another approach to preventing gun violence is gaining ground throughout the country. We talk with Mark Follman about his book Trigger Points: Inside The Mission To Stop Mass Shootings In America.
And later we talk with Rachel Rear about her investigation into the murder of her stepsister and the government corruption that long delayed solving it. Her memoir is Catch The Sparrow: A Search For A Sister And The Truth Of Her Murder.
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We talk with Catie Marron about her gorgeously illustrated new book, Becoming A Gardener: What Reading and Digging Taught Me About Living.
Then, poet and therapist Sharon Charde tells us about the poetry program she founded for incarcerated girls. Her book is I Am Not A Juvenile Delinquent: How Poetry Changed a Group of At-Risk Young Women.
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We talk with world-renowned primatologist Frans de Waal about his new book, Different: Gender Through The Eyes of a Primatologist.
Then we re-air our 2019 conversation with Richard Louv about his book Our Wild Calling. It’s about redefining the future of human-animal coexistence.
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We talk with Lumah Mufleh about her spellbinding book, LEARNING AMERICA: One Woman’s Fight for Educational Justice for Refugee Children.
Then, for Earth Day, we re-air our 2017 interview with NASA climate scientist Peter Kalmus about his book, Being the Change.
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We talk with NoViolet Bulaweyo about her powerful allegorical novel about the fall of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe and the chaos and opportunity that rose in its wake. It’s called Glory.
Then, Jennifer Haigh tells us about her new novel, Mercy Street. It’s a gripping tale about abortion: its defenders and its antagonists.
We also hear Theresa Davis reading her poem “What to Do When a Politician Tries to Fall into Your Vagina Feet First.”
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We talk with Oliver Milman about his book The Insect Crisis: The Fall of the Tiny Empires That Run the World. It’s a devastating examination of how collapsing insect populations worldwide threaten everything from wild birds to the food on our plate.
Then, we round out today’s episode with some practical advice on how to make your lawn and garden pollinator-friendly. We talk with Gail Pellett of the group ChangeEHampton.
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This week on Writer’s Voice we talk with Rosemary Sullivan about her book, The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation. The book has become mired in controversy since our interview was recorded. We include links to the critique of the book and the rebuttal to those critiques, as well as Rosemary Sullivan’s statement to Writer’s Voice about the controversy. Continue reading
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We talk with Ali Noorani about his book Crossing Borders: The Reconciliation of a Nation of Immigrants. It’s about going beyond divisive polemics to bring a compassionate understanding of the reality of immigration to the public.
Then, we talk with Andy Bowman about how solar power is becoming the cheapest energy source. His book is The West Texas Power Plant That Saved The World: Energy, Capitalism, and Climate Change (Foreword by Katherine Hayhoe.)
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We spend the hour with John Nichols talking about his latest book Coronavirus Criminals And Pandemic Profiteers.
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We talk with Lee Kravetz about his stunning literary mystery, The Last Confessions of Sylvia P.
Then, as more states pass laws attacking transgender families, we listen back to a clip from my 2019 interview with Mimi Lemay about her memoir of her transgender son, What We Will Become.
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We talk with journalist and author Dana Thomas about the Young Readers Edition of her book, Fashionopolis.
Then, we air some clips from our 2008 interview with energy and security analyst and author Michael Klare, where we speak about Russia as a petro-state, its then-war with Georgia and the geo-politics of energy. The relevance to what’s happening today with Russia’s assault on Ukraine is striking.