Podcast appearances and mentions of Matt Crawford

Matt Crawford speaks with author Simon Tolkien about his book, The Palace At The End Of The Sea.  Today, we're honored to welcome novelist and historian Simon Tolkien. Known for his gripping historical fiction and literary craftsmanship, Simon's latest novel, Palace at the End of the Sea, is a sweeping, emotionally layered story with the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War. A former barrister turned acclaimed author, Simon brings a unique perspective to themes of loyalty, legacy, coming-of age and the cost of war. In this episode, we explore his creative process, the real-life history behind the novel, and how he's forged his own literary path while carrying the legacy of one of the most iconic names in literature.

Matt Crawford speaks with author George Zavershinskiy about his book, The Atomic Shepard. Amid Cold War tensions, a gifted nuclear physicist – poised to become the future father of new weapons – shockingly gains religious faith. Seeking to confess this revelation, he enters the priesthood, finding purpose but facing myriad trials. His startling 1970s conversion from secret Soviet weapon scientist to devout priest elicits incomprehension and suspicion on all sides. Colleagues shun him as studies now intermix seminary training with Siberia's nuclear work. His transfer to a lowly role with barred access quashes the prestige of high-stakes research. Friends and family largely abandon the zealous convert, except for his steadfast wife and parents. Ostracized yet undaunted, Father Alexander persists in his ecclesiastical calling even unto Chernobyl's radioactive inferno, ministering to desperate liquidators staring mortality in the face. There, on the fourth block, he was given a nickname – ‘Atomic Shepherd'. Upon returning to Moscow, few of them will reach old age. The ‘Atomic Shepherd' is the last to leave among his spiritual friends – he still has time to complete his confession.

Matt Crawford speaks with author Christina Li about her debut adult novel, The Manor of Dreams. Vivian Yin is dead. The first Chinese actress to win an Oscar, the trailblazing ingénue rose to fame in the eighties, only to disappear from the spotlight at the height of her career to live out the rest of her life as a recluse. Now her remaining family members are gathered for the reading of her will, and her daughters expect to inherit their childhood home: Vivian's grand, sprawling, Southern California garden estate. But due to a last-minute change to the will, the house is passed on to another family instead—one that has suddenly returned after decades of estrangement. In hopes of staking their claim, both families move into the mansion. As Vivian's daughters race to piece together what happened in the last weeks of their mother's life, disturbing visions and bizarre behaviors start to take hold of everyone in the house, forcing them to realize they are being haunted by something far more sinister and vengeful than their regrets. After so many years of silence, will the families finally confront the painful truth behind the house's origins and the last, tragic summer they spent there—or will they cling to their secrets until it's too late? Told in dual timelines, spanning three generations, and brimming with romance, betrayal, ambition, and sacrifice, The Manor of Dreams is a thrilling family gothic that examines the true cost of the American Dream—and what happens when the roots we set down in this country turn to rot.

Matt Crawford speaks with author Judy Karofsky about her book, DisElderly Conduct: The Flawed Business of Assisted Living and Hospice. The book is a personal account of unmet needs in assisted living and hospice aiming to spark discussions about new approaches for America's aging population and family decision makers. There are 30 thousand assisted living facilities in the US, but most are unaffordable for middleclass Americans and fraught with staffing deficiencies and mismanagement. Chapters on the author's experience helping her mother move from an age-restricted community in Florida to independent living in Wisconsin to assisted living will interest seniors and their family members who know the struggle of finding long term affordable care. The chapter on hospice care distinguishes it from assisted living through the author's experiences and misconceptions, then moves to a broader discussion of Medicare spending, and finally a meditation on dying of old age. The author strikes an effective balance between the personal, political, and cultural aspects of aging. Karofsky dedicates the last chapter of the book to a discussion of recent failures to protect long term care patients during the COVID19 pandemic.

Matt Crawford speaks with candidate for Lieutenant Governor of California Janelle Kellman about her career and political aspirations. As the Mayor of Sausalito, member of the Town Council, and across ten years serving on the Sausalito Planning Commission, Janelle solved many of the same challenges facing California today. Janelle looks to take action with economic policies that directly improve the affordability of living in our state - job creation, supporting small business, workforce development, and balancing California's budget - so all can continue to live in our great state!

Matt Crawford speaks with NYT Best-selling author Lynne Olson about her book, The Sisterhood of Ravensbrück: How an Intrepid Band of Frenchwomen Resisted the Nazis in Hitler's All-Female Concentration Camp .  The extraordinary true story of a small group of Frenchwomen, all Resistance members, who banded together in a notorious concentration camp to defy the Nazis—from the New York Times bestselling author of Madame Fourcade's Secret War “At once heartbreaking and beautifully told, this is a masterwork of nonfiction, a must-read for anyone who wants more of the incredible true story behind Lilac Girls.”—Martha Hall Kelly, author of Lilac Girls Decades after the end of World War II, the name Ravensbrück still evokes horror for those with knowledge of this infamous all-women's concentration camp, better known since it became the setting of Martha Hall Kelly's bestselling novel, Lilac Girls. Particularly shocking were the medical experiments performed on some of the inmates. Ravensbrück was atypical in other ways as well, not just as the only all-female German concentration camp, but because 80 percent of its inmates were political prisoners, among them a tight-knit group of women who had been active in the French Resistance. Already well-practiced in sabotaging the Nazis in occupied France, these women joined forces to defy their German captors and keep one another alive. The sisterhood's members, amid unimaginable terror and brutality, subverted Germany's war effort by refusing to do assigned work. They risked death for any infraction, but that did not stop them from defying their SS tormentors at every turn—even staging a satirical musical revue about the horrors of the camp. After the war, when many in France wanted to focus only on the future, the women from Ravensbrück refused to allow their achievements, needs, and sacrifices to be erased. They banded together once more, first to support one another in healing their bodies and minds and then to continue their crusade for freedom and justice—an effort that would have repercussions for their country and the world into the twenty-first century.

Matt Crawford speaks with Data Scientist and author Justin Evans about his book, The Little Book of Data: Understanding the Powerful Analytics that Fuel AI, Make or Break Careers, and Could Just End Up Saving the World.  Data is not about number crunching. It's about ideas. And when used properly (read: ethically), it is the problem solver of our time. Yet many savvy people seem to be in data denial: they don't think they need to understand data, or it's too complicated, or worse, using it is somehow unethical. Yet as data and AI (just an accelerated way to put data to work) move to the center of professional and civic life, every professional and citizen needs to harness this power. In The Little Book of Data, each chapter illustrates one of the core principles of solving problems with data by featuring an expert who has solved a big problem with data—from the entrepreneur creating a “loneliness score” to the epidemiologist trying to save lives by finding disease “hotspots.” The stories are told in a fast-moving, vivid, sometimes comic style, and cover a wide frame of reference from adtech to climate tech, the bubonic plague, tiny submarines, genomics, railroads, bond ratings, and meat grading. (That's right. Meat.) Along the way Evans injects lessons from his own career journey and offers practical thought-starters for readers to apply to their own organizations. By reading The Little Book of Data, you will achieve the fluency to apply your data superpowers to your own mission and challenges—and you will have fun along the way. You will be, in other words, a data person.

Matt Crawford speaks with Big Pharma Whistleblower Lisa Pratta about her book, False Claims: One Insider's Impossible Battle Against Big Pharma Corruption.  In Big Pharma, lives are secondary to profit margins. But Lisa Pratta stood her ground—risking everything to expose the lies of a billion-dollar pharmaceutical business mired in deception, greed, and the systemic abuse of both patients and employees As a rising star in pharmaceutical sales, Lisa Pratta wanted to believe that she was helping improve the lives of people who suffered from illness. But as she climbed the corporate ladder, she uncovered a sinister world of bribery, fraud, and sexual harassment—all papered over with a thin veneer of corporate respectability. At Questcor Pharmaceuticals, Lisa found herself at a small company with a blockbuster drug that could have been a lifeline for patients suffering from multiple sclerosis—that is, if it was prescribed properly. But instead, Questcor chose profits over patients, training its sales force to push untested treatment regimens with the sole purpose of beating its competition. Lisa recognized this as not only dangerous but highly illegal. In the midst of this controversy, Questcor arbitrarily inflated the drug's price to a jaw-dropping $28,000 per vial. Torn between her morals and the financial stability the job provided for her special-needs son, Lisa made a decision that would change her life forever: she reported the fraudulent practices of the company to the federal government. For nearly a decade, she led a double life—feeding insider information to the Department of Justice while enduring the relentless demands of her company to sell their drug using illegal marketing tactics. She faced constant fear of exposure, knowing that the government offered her no protection if her secrets were revealed. Nonetheless, Lisa pressed on, determined to hold Questcor accountable for the laws they were breaking and the lives they were endangering. This incredible true story offers a sobering look at the unscrupulous sales methods used by America's corrupt pharmaceutical industry, spotlights the levers they pull to extract ludicrous profits from the sick and dying, and is a page-turning portrait of one woman's heroic fight against Big Pharma and a mother's struggle to protect her family.

Matt Crawford speaks with Alia Dastagir, an award-winning journalist and author of For Those Who Have Confused You to be a Person. Part memoir, part cultural commentary, her book is a searing meditation on identity, invisibility, and the hunger for dignity in a fractured world. Alia shares how years of reporting on trauma, injustice, and inequity shaped her voice—and how this book became a personal reckoning. Together, we explore what it means to write truthfully when the world demands silence, how journalism and literature diverge when dealing with human suffering, and why empathy alone is never enough. This is a conversation for anyone who has ever felt unseen—and anyone who wants to see more clearly.

Matt Crawford speaks with author Sylvia Lerch about her book, Grasp the Nettle. Set in a remote district of Western Australia in the 1920s, an era which outlawed suicide, an unidentified body has been found and police are treating the death as suspicious. The story presents a chance for strangers (the reader) to peruse the very private diaries of the protagonists. Intriguingly, this is like peeping through the coin slot of a piggy bank to count the wealth inside. Elsie has married Tom in an arrangement brokered by her brother. Tom's job is delivering the Royal Mail, and it takes him away from home for weeks at a time. Vivacious, imaginative young Elsie must entertain herself in their isolated, unsophisticated bush hut. Married women were not allowed to be financially independent. Grasp the Nettle is not a fairytale ‘lived happily ever after' romance, but a lode of accurate historical data balanced by details of underlined moral standards of life before the advent of reliable contraceptives, and acknowledgement of gender diversity. In those harsh times, things that are commonplace for us today were yet to be invented: like mobile phones, internet communications, and GPS. There were not even engineered roads through country districts in this vast nation, Australia. Grasp the Nettle poses the question: how did people cope with life's challenges?

Matt Crawford speaks with author David Singer about his book, From Cab Driver to Carnegie Hall. David and I talk about his eclectic careers and how he managed to end up playing Clarinet for two U.S Presidents; one the same day as he was driving a cab. Resilience and gratitude is the overarching message of this book and everyone can take something from this story.

Matt Crawford speaks with author Stephen R. Platt about his book, The Raider: The Untold Story of a Renegade Marine and the Birth of U.S Special Forces in World War II.  In this compelling episode, historian Stephen R. Platt joins us to discuss his latest book, The Raider, a powerful chronicle of Evans Carlson—the controversial, visionary Marine officer who broke ranks with military convention during World War II to lead one of the first elite units in U.S. history. We explore Carlson's radical leadership philosophy, his time with Mao Zedong in China, and how his story shaped the birth of what would become modern American Special Forces. Platt shares how this little-known chapter of WWII history challenges our assumptions about heroism, leadership, and the cost of innovation in the military.  

Matt Crawford speaks with Columbia Law Professor Susan Sturm about her book, What Might Be: Confronting Racism to Transform Our Institutions. Even as anti-racism practices seemed to be gaining momentum, the nation shows signs of falling back into long-standing patterns of racial injustice and inequality. Leaders who introduce anti-racist approaches to their organizations often face backlash from white colleagues and skepticism from colleagues of color, leading to paralysis. In What Might Be, Susan Sturm explores how to navigate the contradictions built into our racialized history, relationships, and institutions. She offers strategies and stories for confronting racism within predominantly white institutions, describing how change agents can move beyond talk to build the architecture of full participation. Sturm argues that although we cannot avoid the contradictions built into efforts to confront racism, we can make them into engines of cross-racial reflection, bridge building, and institutional reimagination, rather than falling into a Groundhog Day–like trap of repeated failures. Drawing on her decades of experience researching and working with institutions to help them become more equitable and inclusive, Sturm identifies three persistent paradoxes inherent in anti-racism work. These are the paradox of racialized power, whereby anti-racism requires white people to lean into and yet step back from exercising power; the paradox of racial salience, which means that effective efforts must explicitly name and address race while also framing their goals in universal terms other than race; and the paradox of racialized institutions, which must drive anti-racism work while simultaneously being the target of it. Sturm shows how people and institutions can cultivate the capacity to straddle these contradictions, enabling those in different racial positions to discover their linked fate and become the catalysts for long-term change.

Matt Crawford joins the show to discuss White Sox fan etiquette when going to Wrigley Field, who's the Yoan Moncada (aka Rodney Dangerfield) of this current Sox club and doesn't get enough respect, which prospects he's ready to #Promote and MUCH MUCH MORE. SPONSORED BY PUNKY'S PIZZA AND PASTA!! Follow Matt on Twitter https://x.com/Mattheius2783 Order from Punky's https://punkyspizza.com/ Buy 108 Merch https://fromthe108.bigcartel.com/prod...

Matt Crawford speaks with Academy award winning documentary filmmaker of My Octopus Teacher and author Craig Foster about his book, My Amphibious Soul: Finding the Wild in a Tame World. Craig and I discuss his worldwide phenomenon documentary My Octopus Teacher and how that led to his follow up book My Amphibious Soul. How do we connect with nature in an increasingly disconnected world? Foster takes us through is journey and struggle of maintaining that connection and balancing his own well-being and mental health. We discuss what led him to start a daily routine of immersing himself in the ocean and to maintain that practice for over a decade and how that led to his film My Octopus Teacher. His new book takes us deeper into his methods and emotions and the impact his work has had on him.

Matt Crawford speaks with author Dean Van Nguyen about his book, Words for My Comrades: A Political History of Tupac Shakur. Before his murder at age twenty-five, Tupac Shakur rose to staggering artistic heights as the preeminent storyteller of the 1990s, building, in the process, one of the most iconic public personas of the last half century. He recorded no fewer than ten platinum albums, starred in major films, and became an activist and political hero known the world over. In this cultural history, journalist Van Nguyen reckons with Tupac's coming of age, fame, and cultural capital, and how the political machinations that shaped him as a boy have since buoyed his legacy as a revolutionary following the George Floyd uprisings. Words for My Comrades engages—crucially—with the influence of Tupac's mother, Afeni, whose role in the Black Panther Party and dedication to dismantling American imperialism and combating police brutality informed Tupac's art. Tupac's childhood as a son of the Panthers, coupled with the influence of his stepfather's Marxist beliefs, informed his own riveting code of ethics that helped audiences grapple with America's inherent injustices. Using oral histories from conversations with the people who directly witnessed Tupac's life and career, many of whom were interviewed for the first time here—from Panther elder Aaron Dixon, to music video director Stephen Ashley Blake, to friends and contemporaries of Tupac's mother—Van Nguyen demonstrates how Tupac became one of the most enduring musical legends in hip-hop history, and how intimately his name is threaded with the legacy of Black Panther politics. Van Nguyen reveals how Tupac and Afeni each championed the disenfranchised in distinct ways, and how their mother-son bond charts a narrative of the last fifty years of revolutionary Black American politics. Words for My Comrades is the story of how the energy of the Black political movement was subsumed by culture, and how America produced two of its most iconic, enduring revolutionaries.

Matt Crawford speaks with Andrew Holter about his book, Going Around: Selected Journalism Murray Kempton. A courtly man of Southern roots, Murray Kempton worked as a labor reporter for the New York Post, won a Pulitzer Prize while at Newsday, and was arrested at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago along the way. He wore three piece suits and polished oxfords and was known for riding his bicycle around New York City while listening to his CD Walkman and smoking a pipe with wild red hair that later turned white. He developed a taste for baroque prose and became, in the words of Robert Silvers, his editor at The New York Review of Books, ''unmatched in his moral insight into the hypocrisies of politics and their consequences for the poor and powerless.'' He went to court proceedings and traffic accidents and funerals and to speeches by people who either were or wanted to be rich and famous. He wrote about everything and anybody—Tonya Harding and Warren Harding, Fidel Castro and Mussolini, Harry Truman and Sal Maglie, St. Francis of Assisi and James Joyce and J. Edgar Hoover. From dispatches from a hardscrabble coal town in Western Maryland, a bus carrying Freedom Riders through Mississippi, an Iowa cornfield with Nikita Krushchev, an encampment of guerrillas in El Salvador, and Moscow at the end of the Soviet Union (these last two assignments filed by a reporter in his 70s), Kempton's concerns and interests were extraordinarily broad. He wrote about subjects from H.L. Mencken to Tupac Shakur; organized labor and McCarthyism; the Civil Rights and Black Power movements; presidential hopefuls and Mafiosi; frauds and failures of all stripes; the “splendors and miseries” of life in New York City.

Matt Crawford speaks with Professor Bill Yousman the director of the Media Literacy and Digital Culture graduate program at Sacred Heart University. We discuss misinformation, disinformation and the important distinction between them as well as how we can become more literate in our media consumption. If we start there, that will enable us to have more meaningful conversations based in fact and not emotion.

Matt Crawford speaks with former CDC Epidemiologist Dr. Charles LeBaron about his book, Greed to Do Good: The Untold Story of CDC's Disastrous War on Opioids: A CDC Physician's Personal Account.  When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that overdose deaths had quadrupled in ten years, hitting a record high of 90,000 in 2020, opioid researchers around the country expressed shock with terms such as “huge” and “unprecedented.” They might have reserved a few adjectives since overdose deaths grew to 100,000 in 2021 and 110,000 in 2022. Each year there are now twice as many deaths from overdoses as from breast cancer or colon cancer and more deaths than from automobiles and firearms combined. In the past two decades, a million Americans have died of overdoses. In the next decade, at the current epidemic rate, a million more are projected to perish. In a series of vividly personal vignettes, this book recounts the untold story of how CDC, the federal organization charged with controlling epidemics, implemented a misguided strategy that helped detonate an opioid overdose explosion. No other book has given a similar frontline, insider glimpse into the world's premier public health agency. To provide a unique, first-person perspective on the human consequences, the author chronicles his experiences as a physician prescribing opioids in Appalachia and treating gang members in prison attacks, as well as his own near-death ordeal as a patient receiving high-dose opioids for severe pain. Drawing on twenty-eight years as a CDC epidemic control specialist, Dr. LeBaron concludes that we do have the means to emerge from the cruel, lethal paradoxes of this self-inflicted opioid war—which is really a war upon ourselves.  

Matt Crawford speaks with author Robert Walker about his book, Six Moons, Seven Gods: An Arthurian Fantasy Medieval Adventure (The Legends of Baelon Book 1.) The skilled thieves of the Takers Guild plot to overthrow the kingdoms of Baelon, but when their plans are thwarted by a prescient woman and her brooding daughter, they must turn to the League of Assassins for assistance. Meanwhile, retired royal guard Rolft Aerns returns to the palace of King Axil with an old score to settle. When they all cross paths and swords in the dark shadows of Fostead's south end, nothing is as it seems and the murder count rises quickly. The long fingers of the Guild reach everywhere, and one overly ambitious thief is all it takes to spark a chain of events that will haunt the world of Baelon for many years to come.

This lecture is entitled An Inquiry into the Value of Work: A Discussion of Matt Crawford's Shop Class as Soulcraft. It was presented by Matthew Crawford, Kirk Doran of the University of Notre Dame, and Elisa Rubbo of the University of Chicago on October 10, 2024, at the University Club of Chicago.

Matt Crawford speaks with author Will Bardenwerper about his book, Homestand: Small Town Baseball and the Fight for the Soul of America. What happens when a minor league team—the heart and soul of a Rust Belt town in western New York—is shut down by the billionaires who run Major League Baseball? Batavia, New York—between Rochester and Buffalo—hosted its first professional baseball game in 1897. Despite decades of deindustrialization and evaporating middle-class jobs, the Batavia Muckdogs endured. When Major League Baseball cravenly shut them down in 2020—along with forty-one other minor league teams—the town fought back, reviving the Muckdogs as a summer league team comprised of college players. As MLB considers further cuts and private equity buys up what remains, the mom-and-pop operations once prevalent in baseball are endangered. But for now, the sights and sounds of local baseball live on in Batavia—cheap draft beer and hot dogs, starry-eyed kids seeking autographs, and breathtaking summer sunsets. With a vibrant, unforgettable cast of characters—from a librarian and her best friend whose relationship deepens with every “crepuscular hour” they spend together in the bleachers, to the former hockey brawler-turned team owner who greets regulars while working the concession stand, to the iconoclastic writer with a contagious love for his struggling hometown—Bardenwerper's Homestand exposes the beating heart of small town America, friends and neighbors coming together as the crack of the bat echoes in the summer twilight.

Matt Crawford speaks with Susan Polgar about her book, Rebel Queen: The Cold War, Misogyny, and the Making of a Grandmaster. A real life Queen's Gambit, this captivating memoir tells the story of one of the most renowned women in chess history, Susan Polgar, taking on a sexist establishment and rewriting the rules of what women could achieve against the oppressive backdrop of Cold War Eastern Europe. Born to a poor Jewish family in Cold War Budapest, Susan Polgar would emerge as the one of the greatest female chess players the world had ever seen—the highest rated female player on the planet and the first woman to earn the men's Grandmaster title. As a teenager in 1986, she became the first woman to qualify for the men's World Chess Championship cycle, later achieving the game's triple crown, holding World Championship titles in three major chess time formats. Yet at every turn, she was pitted against a sexist culture, a hostile Communist government, vicious antisemitism, and powerful enemies. She endured sabotage and betrayal, state-sponsored intimidation, and violent assault. And she overcame all of it to break the game's long-standing gender barrier and claim her place at the pinnacle of professional chess, before going on to coach other players and build two separate college chess dynasties. Before her improbable rise, it was taken for granted that women were incapable of excellence in the game of chess. Susan Polgar single-handedly disproved this belief.

Matt Crawford speaks with author Helen Sheehy about her novel, Just Willa.  Just Willa is a family chronicle of rare beauty-more than reminiscent of Willa Cather in capturing the regional flavors of America-stretching over a span of decades through an intimate focus on the life of one woman. In it, Helen Sheehy gives us a character of indomitable spirit who fuels and anchors her family with love and bravery.   We meet Willa Hardesty in 1964, while she's burning trash in a barrel and thinking "this is hell." Angry and frustrated, she finds some items she had long forgotten, and remembers that she had once been happy. In the ensuing chapters Willa's life unfolds like a tapestry, beginning in 1927 when she's eleven, about to accompany her mother on a train ride from Oklahoma to Missouri.   Just Willa shows us a world filled with people and struggles both realistic and relatable-a world that is beautiful, despite its hardships.

Matt Crawford speaks with Beau L'Amour about his stewardship of his father Louis L'Amour's catalog. L'Amour eventually wrote 100 novels, over 250 short stories, and (as of 2010) sold more than 320 million copies of his work. By the 1970s his writings were translated into over ten languages. Every one of his works is still in print. Beau has taken that vast body of work, managed and released previously unpublished works as well as an audio series.

Matt Crawford speaks with author Lady Dyana Ziegler about her book, Midnight Train From Georgia. Midnight Train from Georgia chronicles the incredible rise of Gladys Knight and the Pips from their origins singing in a small Atlanta church to their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. When two families' destinies intertwine at Mt. Moriah Baptist Church, they discover the extraordinary musical talents of their children. Young cousins William Guest, Eleanor Guest, Gladys Knight, Brenda Knight, and Bubba Knight unite their heavenly vocals to form The Pips gospel choir. We follow William Guest from his formative years in Atlanta, where his love of music is kindled by evenings listening to his family perform rhythmic gospel songs on their porch. The Pips' journey takes them from these humble back-porch jam sessions to struggle and sacrifice on the road to stardom. With faith, fortitude and William's grandmother's lessons to guide them, the group overcomes adversity through the transcendent power of their music. Midnight Train from Georgia is an inspiring tale about the bonds of family, church and music. It's a story of poverty to fortune, innocence to experience, and childhood friendship growing into Hall of Fame synergy. Their sweet harmonies touched millions over decades, but it all started with kids finding their voices in a small Georgia choir.

Matt Crawford speaks with professor and author Shelly Fisher Fishkin about her book, Jim: The Life and Afterlives of Huckleberry Finn's Comrade. Mark Twain's Jim, introduced in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), is a shrewd, self‑aware, and enormously admirable enslaved man, one of the first fully drawn Black fathers in American fiction. Haunted by the family he has left behind, Jim acts as father figure to Huck, the white boy who is his companion as they raft the Mississippi toward freedom. Jim is also a highly polarizing figure: he is viewed as an emblem both of Twain's alleged racism and of his opposition to racism; a diminished character inflected by minstrelsy and a powerful challenge to minstrel stereotypes; a reason for banning Huckleberry Finn and a reason for teaching it; an embarrassment and a source of pride for Black readers.   Eminent Twain scholar Shelley Fisher Fishkin probes these controversies, exploring who Jim was, how Twain portrayed him, and how the world has responded to him. Fishkin also follows Jim's many afterlives: in film, from Hollywood to the Soviet Union; in translation around the world; and in American high school classrooms today. The result is Jim as we have never seen him before—a fresh and compelling portrait of one of the most memorable Black characters in American fiction.

Matt Crawford speaks with author Kristian Ronn about his book, The Darwinian Trap: The Hidden Evolutionary Forces That Explain Our World (and Threaten Our Future.) When people talk about today's biggest challenges—pollution, misinformation, artificial intelligence, inept CEOs, and politicians—they tend to frame the conversation around “bad people” doing “bad things.” But is there more to the story? Humans, it turns out, are intrinsically wired to seek short-term success at the expense of long-term prosperity. Kristian Rönn, an entrepreneur formerly affiliated with the University of Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute, calls these deeply rooted impulses “Darwinian demons.” These forces, a by-product of natural selection, can lead us to act in shortsighted ways that harm others—and even imperil our survival as a species. If this evolutionary glitch is left unchecked, the consequences will grow in magnitude as the power of technology accelerates. In this eye-opening work, Rönn shows that we must learn to cooperate in new ways if we are to escape these evolutionary traps in our daily lives and solve our biggest existential threats. Evolution may be to blame for the trap—but humans need not fall for it. Our salvation, he writes, will involve the creation of new systems that understand, track, and manage what humankind values most. Bold, brilliant, and ultimately optimistic, The Darwinian Trap gives readers a powerful new lens on our world and its problems, and invites us to rethink our priorities for the sake of generations to come.

Matt Crawford speaks with Bremond Berry MacDougall and Lisa Cooper about their new publishing company Quite Literally Books. Quite Literally Books is a heritage press devoted to discovering and reissuing ought-to-be-in-print books by American women authors-and occasionally others-who've been shelved for far too long. We discuss the first six books they are republishing, how and why they choose them and what inspired them to undertake this endeavor.

Matt Crawford speaks with Dr. Ran Anbar about his book, The Life Guide for Teens: The Life Guide for Teens: Harnessing Your Inner Power to be Healthy, Happy, and Confident. Today's generation of teenagers are living in a world no one could have imagined just a couple decades ago, a world of social media and an endless flow of information (and disinformation). They are also more likely to be lonely, depressed, stressed out, and diagnosed with mental health issues than any generation before them. But they can learn to take control of their own wellness—and Dr. Ran Anbar gives them the tools to do just that. In The Life Guide for Teens: Harnessing Your Inner Power to be Healthy, Happy, and Confident, Dr. Anbar uses clear, empowering terms to take a deep dive into the most prevalent wellness concerns for teens. He guides readers through such topics as anxiety, relationships, sleep, making tough decisions, and communicating effectively with easy-to-implement tools and advice from experts and teens who've been there. Throughout, he offers encouragement, reassurance, and strength to teens who are struggling, showing them how they can develop a positive, healthy self-image and promote self-care. Dr. Anbar has helped thousands of teens work through their personal challenges, not by solving their problems for them, but by helping them learn to tap into their inner wisdom, strength, and resilience. With 180 actionable tools teens can use on their personal journey to wellness, The Life Guide for Teens is an invaluable resource for anyone wanting to feel calm, capable, and confident.

Matt Crawford speaks with author Denise Haynes about her book, Talent Show. Do you really know your parents? We all think we do but never consider them as persons before parenthood descended. And do they know you? In Talent Show an introverted father becomes talkative and lifts the curtain on who his wife was before she was a mother, who she became after, and who each of his children were in his eyes. He reveals a few secrets of his own and describes life in a household of ten children as a perpetual talent show. Everyone is always anxious to perform, to shine and to receive applause, even if they don't know what their talent is. Life is a rehearsal for the family talent shows, or is it the other way around? The children get their bit in as they reply with their own versions and reveal who they are. One thing is clear- there is no shared version of a family's life. Everyone has their own and pain is often hidden in the busyness of family life until family members speak honestly.

Matt Crawford speaks with author Rebe Huntman about her book, My Mother in Havana: A Memoir of Magic and Miracle. Writing with a physicality of language that moves like the body in dance, Rebe Huntman, a poet, choreographer, and dancer, embarks on a pilgrimage into the mysteries of the gods and saints of Cuba and their larger spiritual view of the Mother. Huntman offers a window into the extraordinary world of Afro-Cuban gods and ghosts and the dances and rituals that call them forth. As she explores the memory of her own mother, interlacing it with her search for the sacred feminine, Huntman leads us into a world of séance and sacrifice, pilgrimage and sacred dance, which resurrect her mother and bring Huntman face to face with a larger version of herself.

Matt Crawford speaks with Editor at large for Project Censored about its State of the Free Press 2025. We discuss media bias, under reported news stories and how algorithms are controlling most of the information we consume. A worthy and thought-provoking listen.

Matt Crawford speaks with author Christian Sheppard about his book, The Ancient Wisdom of Baseball: Lessons for Life from Homer's ODYSSEY to the World Series.  Who are you, how are you supposed to live, and what about happiness? Answers to age-old questions are offered in classic myths about heroes, gods, and monsters, and at the ballgame. In The Ancient Wisdom of Baseball, author Christian Sheppard interweaves Homer's epics with glorious stories from the green fields of America's pastime, celebrating Achilles' courage and Odysseus' cunning along with the virtues of Hall of Fame players such as Jackie Robinson and Babe Ruth and of great teams such as the 2004 Red Sox and the 2016 Cubs. Along the way, Sheppard humorously recollects trying to raise his baby daughter true to the teachings of ancient myth and his beloved game. The result is an endearing, insightful, and inspiring guide to cultivating virtue and becoming the hero of your own life's odyssey.

Matt Crawford speaks with author Cassidy Randall about her book, Thirty Below: The Harrowing and Heroic Story of the First All-Women's Ascent of Denali. Cassidy Randall draws on extensive archival research and original interviews to tell an engrossing, edge-of-the-seat adventure story about a forgotten group of climbers who had the audacity to believe that women could walk alone in extraordinary and treacherous heights. Grace Hoeman dreamed of standing on top of Denali. The tallest peak in North America, the fierce polar mountain loomed large in many climbers' imaginations, and Grace, a doctor in Alaska, had come close to the top, only to be turned back by altitude sickness and a storm that took the lives of seven fellow climbers in one remorseless blow. Other expeditions denied her a place because of her gender, and when a letter arrived from a climber in California named Arlene Blum, who'd also been barred from expeditions—unless she stayed in base camp and cooked for the men, Grace got a defiant idea: she would organize and lead the first-ever all-female ascent of the frozen Alaskan peak. Everyone told the “Denali Damsels,” as the team called themselves, that it couldn't be done: Women were incapable of climbing mountains on their own. Men had walked on the moon; women still had not stood on the highest points on Earth. But these six women were unwilling to be limited by sexists and misogynists. They pushed past barriers in society at large, the climbing world, and their own bodies. And then, when disaster struck at the worst time on their expedition, they could either keep their wits and prove their mettle, or die and confirm the worst opinions of men.

Matt Crawford speaks with author Howard Lewis about his book, Leave Your Phone at the Door: The Joy of Offline.  Real life happens beyond your phone screen. Leave Your Phone at the Door embraces the OFFLINE philosophy, which is a celebration of the much underrated virtues of randomness and serendipity. Whether sharing stories of unexpected encounters, alarming behavioral trends or the joys of quiet and contemplation, Howard Lewis encourages us to adopt an open mind and a generosity of spirit whenever we are confronted by the unfamiliar or surprising or different. We all have an innate desire to communicate but our constant reliance today upon personal technology is stripping our sensibilities bare. But rather than focusing upon the limitations of social media and phones, Lewis is far more animated by the mindful reframing of our place in the world. He offers his insights on the importance of relating to people in person and advice on developing social skills and habits that enrich our lives. What began as an informal gathering with friends led to the launch of the OFFLINE dinner, which he has hosted for over fifteen years in London. Guests are drawn from all walks of life and invited to engage with one another without the distraction of their phones. OFFLINE is designed to be the antithesis of everything online but also recognizes that veering off road and then back on it is both valuable and necessary. It aims to challenge and provoke, question and answer, stimulate and amuse, nurture and nourish in a delightful and congenial setting. This book is an embodiment of that ethos. Leave Your Phone at the Door acts as a timely and topical reminder to look beyond our phones and enjoy the physical benefits of community, randomness and serendipity. Who knows where it may take you and whom you might meet?!

Matt Crawford speaks with author Edward L. Jones III about his book, Medication, Mental Illness, and Murder: What Really Killed the Crespi Twins. While Kim Crespi was getting a haircut, her husband David murdered their five-year-old twin daughters during a game of hide and seek. In the aftermath, family, friends, and even David have more questions than answers. In 2005, Kim Crespi had what she later described as “the perfect life.” She and her husband, David—a gentle giant of a man, devoutly religious, a loving father, and a proven star in the world of finance—had five healthy, happy children. No one, least of all Kim, ever suspected that the life the Crespis had lovingly woven together could be destroyed in less than forty minutes. In Medication, Mental Illness, and Murder, author Edward L. Jones III chronicles David Crespi's struggles with insomnia and depression, the role SSRI antidepressants may have played in the killings, and Kim's unimaginable journey of trauma, suffering, and eventual forgiveness as documented by her journal entries. Using letters and other forms of personal communications with David, plus excerpts from scholarly articles and more, Jones takes readers on a journey into the dark heart of psychosis, of North Carolina's penal and mental health systems, and of Big Pharma.

Matt Crawford speaks with author Samuel Ashworth about his book, The Death and Life of August Sweeney: A Novel.  Legendary chef August Sweeney has served his final meal, dying in the middle of service in the very restaurant he built to secure his legacy. When Dr. Maya Zhu, a guarded, intense autopsist, is summoned to investigate, she discovers she must operate under strict conditions Sweeney himself dictated before he died. As she digs deeper into his immense body, everything that can go wrong, does, because August Sweeney isn't about to let a little thing like death stop him from raising hell.The Death and Life of August Sweeney finds two people drawn together across the barrier of death. In her ruthless drive to excel as a doctor, Zhu has walled herself off from almost everything. As she dissects Sweeney, teasing out the mysteries hidden in his body, she begins to understand that she is doing an autopsy on her counterpoint: an equally ruthless artist who made excess his muse. As she obsesses over what happened to Sweeney under the strangest conditions of her career, her life– and August' s death– will never be the same.An epic novel about life, death, and the worlds in between, The Death and Life of August Sweeney examines what it means to be driven, to be famous, and to be alive. A true book of the body, the author spent years researching clinical pathology and fine dining alike, spending weeks observing autopsies and working as a stagiaire in a Michelin-starred kitchen.

Matt Crawford speaks with Neurologist and author Dr. Suzanne O'Sullivan about her book, The Age of Diagnosis: How Our Obsession with Medical Labels is Making Us Sicker. We live in an age of diagnosis. Conditions like ADHD and autism are on the rapid rise, while new categories like long Covid are being created. Medical terms are increasingly used to describe ordinary human experiences, and the advance of sophisticated genetic sequencing techniques means that even the healthiest of us may soon be screened for potential abnormalities. More people are labeled "sick" than ever before—but are these diagnoses improving their lives? With scientific authority and compassionate storytelling, neurologist Suzanne O'Sullivan argues that our obsession with diagnosis is harming more than helping. It is natural when we are suffering to want a clear label, understanding, and, of course, treatment. But our current approach to diagnosis too often pathologizes difference, increases our anxiety, and changes our experience of our bodies for the worse. Through the moving stories of real people, O'Sullivan compares the impact of a medical label to the pain of not knowing. She explains the way the boundaries of a diagnosis can blur over time. Most importantly, she calls for us to find new and better vocabularies for suffering and to find ways to support people without medicalizing them.

Matt Crawford speaks with author Kit Karson about her book, Nefarious Intent: A Sheriff Elliott Mystery. Holiday festivities in tiny Anderson, Montana take an unexpected turn when a welfare check becomes a murder investigation. Stone County deputy Tom Edwards discovers the frozen corpses of a local couple bound to chairs at their home in the Moonlight Mountains. The couple's son and daughter-in-law soon go missing, the only clue a puddle of blood. A tragic bus accident and embezzled church funds add suspects and complicate motives. Stone County Sheriff Peter Elliott and his crew are once again faced with more suspects than clues and an increasingly hostile press in their struggle to solve these murders.

Matt Crawford speaks with Dr. Henry Gee about his book, The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire. In this provocative book, award-winning science writer Henry Gee offers a concise, brilliantly-told history of our species--and argues that we are on a rapid, one-way trip to extinction. The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire narrates the dramatic rise of humanity, how a scattered range of small groups across several continents eventually inbred, interacted, fought, established stable communities and food supplies, and began the process of dominating the planet. The human story is relatively brief―the oldest fossils of H. Sapiens date to approximately 300,000 years ago―yet the spread of our species has been unstoppable…until recently. As Gee demonstrates, our population has peaked, and is declining; our environment is becoming inimical to human life in many locations; our core resources of water, arable land, and air are diminishing; and new diseases, simmering conflicts, and ambiguous technologies threaten our collective health. Can we still change our course? Or is our own extinction inevitable? There could be a way out, but the launch window is narrow. Unless Homo sapiens establishes successful colonies in space within the next two centuries, our species is likely to stay earthbound and will have vanished entirely within another ten thousand years, bringing the seven-million-year story of the human lineage to an end. With assured narration, dramatic stories, and his signature sprightly humor, Henry Gee envisions new opportunities for the future of humanity―a future that will reward facing challenges with ingenuity, foresight, and cooperation.

Matt Crawford speaks with entrepreneur and CEO Tom Kubiniec about his career and company SecureIT Tactical. How did Tom go from a promising guitarist to a business owner, serial entrepreneur and CEO of SecureIT Tactical, a secure firearm storage after never owning a firearm until 2011? Give a listen and prepare to be inspired. We often think the inspiration we seek is linear and must come from the area we look to delve into. Obviously, that is not the case, but this is a conversation that proves that innovation can come from anywhere if you are willing to listen and act.

Matt Crawford speaks with professor of Biology at John Jay University and author Nathan Lents about his book, The Sexual Evolution: How 500 Million Years of Sex, Gender, and Mating Shape Modern Relationships.  Evolutionary biologist Nathan H. Lents knows what makes humans unique—and it's most definitely not our sexual diversity. A professor at John Jay College, Lents has spent his career studying what makes us, well, us, and contrary to what the culture warriors want people to believe—diverse sexual behavior is not a new development, or even a human one. It didn't just emerge from a progressive culture; it's the product of billions of years of evolutionary experimentation throughout the animal kingdom. It's not a modern story, a Florida story, or even a human story. It's a biological story. In The Sexual Evolution, Lents takes readers on a journey through the animal world, from insects to apes, revealing what the incredible array of sexual diversity can teach us about our own diverse beauty. Nature, it turns out, has made a lot of space for diverse genders and sexual behaviors. And why? Because when it comes to evolution—diversity wins. This is not just a political or social message, instead it's rooted in science and cultivated from understanding the full breadth of sexuality that exists throughout the world. With shades of both Frans de Waal and Esther Perel, Lents's storytelling is as fascinating as it is topical, offering eye-opening stories about the diversity of animal life, while relating it to our own sexual journey as a species. At once a forceful rebuttal to bigotry and a captivating dive into the secret sex lives of animals, The Sexual Evolution is the rare book of pop science that leans into the controversy. Sex, the reactionaries say, should only be for procreation between a man and a woman, anything else goes against nature. Well, nature would like a word with them.

Matt Crawford speaks with lawyer, judge, painter, illustrator and author Etienne Labuschagne about his work and his book, Bedtime Stories for Clever Children. Etienne and I discuss how to broach difficult subjects with children and how to empower them to tackle the challenging moments in life. Many of us try to protect our kids from the moments in life that will test them, but we do them no favors in doing so. 

Matt Crawford speaks with author N.L Holmes about her book, Flowers of Evil: Hani's Daughter Mysteries. When two young women in ancient Egypt open a medical dispensary, they don't expect their first patient to be a dying florist of Amen whose last words are totally mysterious. It's Neferet and Bener-ib's nature to want to appease the ba of the murder victim by finding his killer, and their teenaged apprentice is a born detective. But between the skepticism of their own families and the malice of a rival healer, they find out the simple desire to do the right thing gets them into more trouble than they could have imagined!

Matt Crawford speaks with executive director of the New York based Falun Dafa information center about Shen Yun. We have all seen the ads on T.V but what exactly is Shen Yun and why was it started? Based on the Falun Gong teaching Shen Yun is a celebration of over 5000 years of Chinese heritage with choreography, vibrant handmade costumes, a dynamic live orchestra and an emcee that makes sure no one is unsure of what the symbolism of it all means.

Matt Crawford speaks with author and illustrator Maria Van Lieshout about her book, Song of a Blackbird. In 1943 Amsterdam, Emma Bergsma's world changes when she witnesses Jewish families being forcibly deported to concentration camps. That pivotal moment lights a fire within her, and she decides to join the Dutch Resistance. Before long, Emma is drawn into a clandestine world of printing presses and counterfeiters, with thousands of lives on the line. In 2011 Amsterdam, teenage Annick's world has changed as well. A search for a bone marrow donor for her beloved oma leads to a shocking revelation: her grandmother was secretly adopted as a child. The only clues to finding their lost family are a series of art prints hanging on the wall―each signed by a mysterious “Emma B.” This timely graphic novel weaves together two timelines to reveal how art, in the face of political upheaval and nearly insurmountable adversity, can become our greatest lifeline.

Matt Crawford speaks with author Dr. Neal Baer about his book, The Promise and the Peril of CRISPR.  Scientists and genetic engineers are becoming increasingly adept at editing the human genome. How far can—and should—they go in editing future generations? In The Promise and Peril of CRISPR, editor Neal Baer brings together a timely collection of essays by influential bioethicists, philosophers, and geneticists to explore the moral, ethical, and policy challenges posed by CRISPR technology. We are at a technological and ethical crossroads in grappling with the impacts of genetic editing. Gene-editing technology holds the promise of curing more than 7,000 known genetic diseases. Yet with that promise comes the peril of using CRISPR to edit the human genome, which could not only lead to manipulating human evolution, but also to creating and releasing pathogens capable of wreaking havoc on human, animal, and plant life. Although CRISPR has already cured several genetic diseases, it could also be used to design biological weapons or to edit the embryos of people who can afford to purchase genetic "enhancements" for their children. What role can and should the public play in discussing the far-reaching implications of gene editing? What oversights should be put in place to prevent a rogue scientist from engineering another baby – as was recently done with twins in China? Essay contributors offer informed predictions and guidelines for how the uses of CRISPR today will affect life in the future. Decisions we make now may have unpredictable consequences for future generations. For anyone concerned about the uses and potential abuses of gene editing, these essays provide a critical and comprehensive discussion of the central issues surrounding CRISPR technology. Contributors: Florence Ashley, R. Alta Charo, Marcy Darnovsky, Kevin Doxzen, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Gigi Kwik Gronvall, Jodi Halpern, Katie Hasson, Andrew C. Heinrich, Jacqueline Humphries, J. Benjamin Hurlbut, Ellen D. Jorgensen, Peter F. R. Mills, Carol Padden, Marcus Schultz-Bergin, Robert Sparrow, Sandra Sufian, Krystal Tsosie, Ethan Weiss, Rachel M. West

Matt Crawford speaks with author Don Johnston about his book, By Means of Peace: A Novel. In a world teetering on the brink of chaos, one man's promise of peace becomes humanity's greatest threat. Reuben Rogov, a charismatic third-party President, emerges as a beacon of hope in troubled times. He brokers peace in the Middle East, faces down global superpowers, and conquers both the border crisis and a deadly pandemic. As the world hails him a sociopolitical messiah, Rogov ascends to unparalleled power–but at what cost? Darien and Marisa, a young couple from Houston, find themselves caught in the crosshairs of a rapidly changing political landscape. As Marisa is drawn into the heart of the new world order in Washington, their relationship is tested by distance, loyalty, and mounting suspicions about the true nature of Rogov's regime. Don Johnston's gripping narrative serves as a stark warning about the potential consequences of unchecked power and the seductive allure of false peace, all the while keeping pages turning like a classic by Philip K. Dick or Ray Bradbury. Kirkus Reviews hails it as “A chilling, futuristic tale of freedom lost.” Don't miss this thought-provoking thriller that will leave you pondering long after you've turned the last page.

Matt Crawford speaks with author Robert B. O'Connor about his book, Jeep Show: A Trouper at the Battle of the Bulge. Jim Tanzer is an ordinary soldier tasked with an extraordinary mission, travelling across Europe during World War II performing Jeep shows – small variety acts put on for the infantry just behind the front lines. These presentations are more than just entertainment, they are a beacon of hope, bringing brief moments of song, dance, and laughter to war weary troops, letting them know they are not forgotten. When Jim gets caught up in the Battle of the Bulge, the shows stop, and the action begins. Jim's courage and determination in the face of overwhelming odds is a testament to the human spirit. Jeep Show is fiction based on little-known aspects of the U.S. World War II effort seen through the eyes of an unlikely hero. It is a compelling and human story that will appeal to fans of works like Band of Brothers, Saving Private Ryan, and Ken Burns' The War. O'Connor peppers the narrative with fascinating details about the show business world of the 1920s, 30s, and early 40s, while also capturing the grim realities of war. This is a fiction book but based in reality and these Jeep Shows were an integral part of the war effort. O'Connor really brings us back to just what these shows meant to our troops who were far from home and at war for so long.