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We talk with James Vincent about his book Beyond Measure: The Hidden History Of Measurement From Cubits To Quantum Constants.
Then we replay an excerpt from our interview with Simon Winchester about his book, Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World.
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We talk with Devra Lehmann about her book, Socrates: A Life Worth Living. It’s a YA book that’s great for readers of all ages.
Then, another YA book for everyone: we talk with Dr. Seema Yasmin about her guide to inoculating ourselves against false information, What the fact: Finding The Truth In All The Noise.
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Nigerian novelist Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi talks about her novel of interlocking short stories, Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions.
Then, we harken back to our conversation earlier this year with NoViolet Bulaweyo about her novel of Zimbabwe, Glory. It was shortlisted for the 2022 Man Booker Prize.
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We talk with digital philosopher Douglas Rushkoff about his book, Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires. It’s about the Mindset of the richest and most powerful moguls on the planet and the destruction it’s leaving in its wake.
Then, Survival of the Richest praises the work of Indigenous philosopher Tyson Yunkaporta. We air our 2020 interview with Yunkaporta about his book. Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World.
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We talk with Kirk Wallace Johnson about his book, The Fisherman And The Dragon: Fear, Greed, And A Fight For Justice On The Gulf Coast. It’s a gripping account of a small town set on fire by hatred, xenophobia, and ecological disaster—and the woman who fought to save it.
Then, our 2005 interview with that very woman. We re-air our interview with Diane Wilson about her book, An Unreasonable Woman: A True Story of Shrimpers, Politicos, Polluters, and the Fight for Seadrift, Texas.
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We talk with Laura Kaplan about her book, Jane: The women of the Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service. It’s about how a group of ordinary women worked together to create the women-centered, women-empowering organization called “Jane” that operated in Chicago from 1969 to 1973.
But first, another Chicago story about organizing for justice. We talk with former Chicago Alderwoman and community activist Helen Shiller about her memoir, Daring To Struggle, Daring to Win: Five Decades of Resistance in Chicago’s Uptown Community.
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Vulnerability. Could it be a writer’s greatest strength?
We talk with poet Philip Schultz about his memoir/how-to book, Comforts Of The Abyss: The Art of Persona Writing.
Then, we talk about paraquat and Parkinson’s disease. Newly revealed documents show that the maker of a common herbicide knew decades ago about the link. We catch up with former Writer’s Voice guest Carey Gillam about her blockbuster scoop on the chemical company Syngenta.
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We talk with Emi Nietfield about her powerful memoir, Acceptance. It chronicles her struggles as a teenager and young adult to rise above the poverty and abuse she suffered as a child, despite a child protection system that was anything but protective of children.
Then, PBS’s show Mystery has just begun a new series, Magpie Murders. We re-air our 2017 conversation with Magpie Murders author Anthony Horowitz. He adapted the book for the TV series.
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We talk with Antonio Padilla about his book, FANTASTIC NUMBERS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM: A Cosmic Quest From Zero To Infinity.
Then, from science to poetry: we replay our 2009 interview with the late US Poet Laureate, Richard Wilbur.
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We talk with Steve Hendricks about his book The Oldest Cure in the World: Adventures in the Art and Science of Fasting.
Then, we talk with wildlife conservation journalist and photographer Millie Kerr about her new book, Wilder: How Rewilding is Transforming Conservation and Changing the World.
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Is a politics of love essential to our survival?
We talk with activist, spiritual leader and former presidential candidate, Marianne Williamson about her book, A Politics of Love: A Handbook for a New American Revolution.
Then, we replay an extended excerpt from our 2020 interview with Rabbi Michael Lerner, about his book, Revolutionary Love.
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This week, we talk about two novels about colonialism, both from the point of view of the colonized.
First, we are honored to talk with the 2021 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Abdulrazak Gurnah about his novel Afterlives, just published in the United States by Penguin Random House.
Then R.F. Kuang tells us about her fantasy/slash/alternate history novel, Babel, Or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translator’s Revolution.
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In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, we air our 2019 interview with playwright and author Octavio Solis. We spoke with him about growing up the son of Mexican migrants in El Paso Texas. His book of stories based on that history is Retablos: Stories from a Life Lived Along the Border. Octavio Solis.
Then, a new novel from British novelist Freya Sampson, The Lost Ticket. It’s one of those heart-warming but page-turning reads that makes you feel really good.
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We talk with Bill McKibben about his terrific new book, The Flag, The Cross And The Station Wagon: A Graying American Looks Back at His Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What The Hell Happened.
Then, a brilliant coming-of-age novel that treats the personal as political and vice versa. We talk with Sarah Thankam Mathews about All This Could Be Different.
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We talk with Dolen Perkins-Valdez about her novel, Take My Hand. It’s based on a famous case accusing the federal government of forced sterilization of poor and minority women inspires a novel about reproductive justice.
Then we air an excerpt from our 2021 interview with HonorÁ©e Fanonne Jeffers about her novel The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois.
Dolen Perkins-Valdez
The “Mississippi Appendectomy.” That’s what the great civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer called the practice of involuntary sterilization forced on poor, mostly Black and Brown, women for decades in the 20th century — a practice Hamer herself was a victim of.
Dolen Perkins Valdez’ novel Take My Hand takes up this history in the story of a young nurse who fights for justice for two young girls who have been sterilized in Mississippi in 1971.
Out from Penguin Random House in April of this year, the book has garnered widespread praise. Ms Magazine called it “A searing and ultimately hopeful novel about (in)justice and the importance of learning from history.”
In addition to Take My Hand, Dolen Perkins-Valdez is the New York Times bestselling author of previous novels, Wench and Balm.
HonorÁ©e Fanonne Jeffers
In 2021 Writer’s Voice spoke with HonorÁ©e Fanonne Jeffers about her award-winning novel, The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois. Listen to the full interview here.
We play an extended excerpt from that interview.