Chris La Tray

On this week’s episode, New York Times bestselling novelist Xochitl Gonzalez joins us to discuss Last Night in Brooklyn (Flatiron Books, April 21). “Two Brooklyn women forge identities and careers in their rapidly gentrifying borough,” Kirkus writes in a starred review of Gonalez ...  Show more

On our special Indie Episode, indie author Kamla K. Kapur joins us to discuss The Privilege of Aging: Savoring the Fullness of Life (Park Street Press, 7/9/24). In this lyrical work of nonfiction, Kapur considers the pleasures of complexities of old age. Kirkus: “A moving celebra ...  Show more

As a child, Alan Michelson often rode the T past sculptor Cyrus Edward Dallin’s “Appeal to the Great Spirit” (1908) outside the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA). He was riveted by the statue’s grand horse and the powerful yet melancholy figure wearing a striking Plains Indian wa ...  Show more

Oprah and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Isabel Wilkerson discuss her newest work and Oprah’s Book Club pick, Caste: The Origins of our Discontents. In episode one of the eight part series, Oprah and Isabel consider the first pillar of Caste as outlined in the book, "Divine Will a ...  Show more

As a newborn, Ed Archie NoiseCat was found in an incinerator at a Catholic-run Indian boarding school. In a new book We Survived the Night, his son, Julian Brave NoiseCat, writes about this trauma in the broader context of Native history in the United States and Canada. The book ...  Show more

We're revisiting our 2021 interview with the poet Jericho Brown, who this week was named a MacArthur Fellow-- one of the highest honors in the arts and humanities. He and Jordan talk about the great mystery of why we desire the things we desire; about oration and the poets he rea ...  Show more