Podcasts about Philadelphians

We've got an exclusive! Coming soon to Philadelphia is a new museum all about the people living in this great city. The Museum of the Philadelphian is opening in Fishtown this fall. Host Trenae Nuri sits down with Brain Adoff, the curator behind this project (who also created Join Philly), to talk about why Philly needs this space. Plus, they talk about the sorts of artifacts that are going to be displayed and what's not included. Our newsletter has Philly news & events in your inbox every weekday morning. Call or text us: 215-259-8170 Instagram: @citycastphilly Support our show and get great perks as a City Cast Philly Neighbor. Sign up here. Advertise on the podcast or in the newsletter: citycast.fm/advertise Learn more about the sponsors of this episode: Philadelphia Union Fitler Club

The battle over replacing displays at the President's House exhibit on Independence Mall has bounced through the courts for a while, but, at least for now, the saga seems to be over. We explain why, and how, the Trump administration got its way, and finally had displays about George Washington's slave ownership replaced. Plus, we take a look at how Pennsylvania's new budget could impact Philadelphians, and why a proposed liquified natural gas facility has Delco residents up in arms. Listen to these stories and more, as told by experts from the KYW newsroom. 00:00 Rundown 02:00 Trump administration prevails, President's House displays replaced 06:50 Gov. Josh Shapiro signs state budget 12:45 Science and scares: explaining cyclosporiasis 18:20 Market Street Bridge repairs posed to make commuting mess 23:17 Eddystone angry over possible liquefied natural gas plant 29:48 Creating connections in LOVE Park, an old fashioned way Listen to The Week in Philly, hosted by KYW Newsradio's Matt Leon, every Saturday at 5am and 3pm, and Sunday at 3pm and 9pm.

Thomas Paine. He came. He wrote. And the world was changed forever.

Psychedelia is at the core of Zillas on Acid's musical manoeuvres. The Philadelphian duo, made up of Thomas Roland and James Weissinger, have been DJing together for almost two decades, and you can tell.  There's an intuitiveness to their sets; one that comes from an extended period spent building and evolving together. Their strung out, trippy sound takes cues from post-punk and acid house approached through that psychedelic lens they've become known for. It's no surprise then that they've been closely affiliated with Making Time, the Philadelphia institution helmed by Dave P, that treads similar transcendental terrain. Over the years they've notched up releases for some of our favourite labels, including Optimo Music, Live at Robert Johnson, Les Disques de la Mort and Running Back, and now they're bringing this music to life with their live band, adding vocalist Ari Ratner and bassist Matt O'Hare into the mix. Their latest offering, Rolling The Marble Wheel, comes via our sister label Human Endeavour and is Zillas at their best (not even biased...). Following the release, we asked them to contribute to our Ransom Note mix series. Dive into the Zillas world, it's a trip...

The Author Events Series presents Heather Ann Thompson | Fear and Fury In Conversation with Cherri Gregg On December 22, 1984, in a graffiti-covered New York City subway car, passengers looked on in horror as a white loner named Bernhard Goetz shot four Black teens,  Darrell Cabey, Barry Allen, Troy Canty, and James Ramseur, at point-blank range. He then disappeared into a dark tunnel. After an intense manhunt, and his eventual surrender in New Hampshire, the man the tabloid media had dubbed the ''Death Wish Vigilante'' would become a celebrity and a hero to countless ordinary Americans who had been frustrated with the economic fallout of the Reagan 80s. Overnight, Goetz's young victims would become villains. Out of this dramatic moment would emerge an angry nation, in which Rupert Murdoch's New York Post and later Fox News Network stoked the fear and the fury of a stunning number of Americans.  Drawing from never-before-seen archival materials, legal files, and more, Heather Ann Thompson narrates the Bernie Goetz Subway shootings and their decades-long reverberations, while deftly recovering the lives of the boys whom too many decided didn't matter. Fear and Fury is the remarkable account and a searing indictment of a crucial turning point in American history. Heather Ann Thompson is a historian and the Pulitzer Prize and Bancroft Prize-winning author of Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy. Thompson is also the author of Whose Detroit?: Politics, Labor, and Race in a Modern American City. She writes regularly on the criminal justice system for myriad publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, TIME, The Atlantic, and The New Yorker. Thompson's policy work includes serving on a National Academy of Sciences blue-ribbon panel that studied the causes and consequences of mass incarceration in the US. She also co-runs the Carceral State Research Project at the University of Michigan. Cherri Gregg, Esq. is a known quantity in the Greater Philadelphia region, serving as the co-host of WHYY's daily news show, Studio 2, as well as an afternoon drive news anchor for the station. An award-winning journalist, Cherri has a distinguished career covering civil rights, social justice, race, poverty and public affairs issues impacting marginalized communities. She spent nearly a decade on air at KYW Newsradio and several years doing reports for CBS 3 Eyewitness News. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 2/19/2026)

The Author Events Series presents M Lin | The Memory Museum: Stories In Conversation with 'Pemi Aguda Stretching from the present day to the near future, from China to America and beyond, M Lin's piercing and melodious debut captures the spirit of China's One-Child Generation as its characters navigate homes and cultures, hopes and contradictions, survival and resistance. These frank, tender, and playful stories offer profound insight into the ambivalence of migration, the perverse ways race and class can operate, and what it means to be Chinese today. The collection begins with ''Scenes from Childhood,'' in which a lonely, elderly woman in a dystopian reality remembers her grandfather's village. In ''Magic, or Something Less Assuring,'' a politically divided couple goes on a divorce honeymoon in Morocco. ''You Won't Read This in the News'' features four migrant workers during one night of petty theft and connection. In ''Tough Egg,'' a filmmaker thwarted by censorship untangles her fraught relationship to motherhood. Other stories portray a photographer reuniting with her first love in Beijing; the historic White Paper protests that ended the zero-COVID policy; and generations into the future, a newly instated Memory Museum where two sensory architects share their vision for a utopian world. With daring political and creative commitment, The Memory Museum brims with joy even as Lin exposes the knife's edge between powerlessness and agency, pain and intimacy, our memories and our futures. M Lin is a Chinese writer living in the US. Her stories have appeared in Ploughshares, Swamp Pink, Joyland, Epiphany, Fence, and Best Debut Short Stories 2023, and her nonfiction can be read in The New York Times, Guernica, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. 'Pemi Aguda is the author of One Leg on Earth, and Ghostroots, a finalist for the National Book Award, the LA Times First Fiction Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award. She is from Lagos, Nigeria. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 4/29/2026)

The Author Events Series presents Bob Spitz | The Rolling Stones: The Biography In Conversation with Dan DeLuca  All great music is a threat. What left is there to say about The Rolling Stones? A hell of a lot, it turns out. Bob Spitz has brought his indefatigable energy and five decades of experiences in the fields and hollows of rock 'n' roll to bear on his five-year journey to reexamine one of popular music's greatest stories. There are myriad revisions to the conventional narrative which underscore just how in control of that narrative the band has been up to now-small example: no, Muddy Waters was not mopping the floors at Chess Records when the Stones showed up. But in a larger sense, as with the Beatles and Led Zeppelin, Spitz's greatest gift is for the big picture. He knows where the magic is, and why it is. He is as clear-eyed a connoisseur of the show business, the spectacle and the collateral damage of this whirlwind as anyone alive, and that lucid gaze pierces a lot of incrusted bullshit, but the ultimate goal is to connect with a creative force whose power shows no signs of fading, over sixty years on. At its heart the story is about two boys, Mick and Keith, and their unique, fraught, alchemical bond, often tested, never sundered. The Glimmer Twins. The bandmates, like Charlie Watts, who found their groove in relation to this double star made the trip intact, while those who struggled, like Brian Jones and Mick Taylor, were chewed up and spit out. This is a story with many dark corners, including a surprising number of deaths. But whether Jagger and Richards sold their souls to the devil is at the crossroads for blues greatness or just squeezed their heroes for every drop of inspiration, in the end their connection to their music and to each other put them in a category of one, where they very much remain. Bob Spitz is the award-winning author of the biographies The Beatles and Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child, both New York Times bestsellers, as well as six other nonfiction books and a screenplay. He helped manage Bruce Springsteen and Elton John at crucial points in their careers. He's written hundreds of major profiles of figures, ranging from Keith Richards to Jane Fonda, from Paul McCartney to Paul Bowles. Dan DeLuca is the pop music critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer. He's been writing about music and pop culture for the Inquirer and other outlets for more than three decades. He grew up at the Jersey Shore and is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. He has interviewed Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Darryl Jones and saw the Charlie Watts Orchestra play at Pulsations nightclub in Glenn Mills, Pa. in 1986. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 4/28/2026)

The Author Events Series presents Sheinelle Jones | Through Mom's Eyes In Conversation with Mike Jerrick Montgomery Auditorium is now sold out. We have opened a rush line for anyone interested in purchasing Auditorium tickets at the door for $5. Please register for the rush line. The rush line will be available on a first come, first served basis. Guests will be asked to line up in the Lobby prior to the event. Auditorium seats are not guaranteed, but we are often able to accommodate a significant number of guests. A staff member will assess how many seats are empty approximately five minutes before the event commences and will allow the corresponding number of patrons into the Auditorium.  Please bring $5 cash in order to purchase a rush ticket. Credit cards or other forms of payment will not be accepted. From the beloved Today show host Sheinelle Jones comes an inspiring collection of heartfelt life-lessons from hard working moms who raised some of our favorite celebrities. When Sheinelle Jones launched ''Through Mom's Eyes,'' a recurring Today show segment interviewing celebrities' mothers about raising successful kids, she had an ulterior motive-she wanted to bring all their wisdom to bear on raising her own three children. So she asked Lin-Manuel Miranda's mom about staying present with kids while balancing a demanding career, talked with Lady Gaga's mom about how to recognize bullying, and got tips from Steph Curry's mom on making sure even future NBA royalty does his chores. She has since interviewed dozens of remarkable women and gathered a candid, warm, and insightful collection of valuable lessons about life, love, and parenthood. Now in her first book, Through Mom's Eyes, Sheinelle is ready to share even more of those life-changing secrets with the world. Combining insights from celebrity mothers with her own journey through modern parenting, Sheinelle reveals how to make it through the hard parts of motherhood and still tap into the joys of it with empathy, generosity, and solidarity. Through Mom's Eyes is a beautiful celebration of those who are the guiding light for their loved ones-mothers. Sheinelle Jones is the cohost of Today with Jenna and Sheinelle on NBC. She's also the host of Through Mom's Eyes, a digital and broadcast series for Today where she interviews mothers of celebrities to discuss their journeys raising successful children. She lives in New York City with her three kids. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 4/16/2026)

The Author Events Series presents Chanda Prescod-Weinstein | The Edge of Space-Time In Conversation with Airea D. Matthews In her highly acclaimed debut, distinguished cosmologist and particle physicist Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein shared with her audience an abiding sense of wonder at the cosmos, while imagining a world without the entrenched injustice that plagues her field. Now, in The Edge of Space-Time, she embraces that cosmic wonder, taking readers on a mind-altering journey to the boundaries of the universe, inviting us to spend time at the edge of what we know about space-time and about ourselves. Guided by her conviction that for humanity to go forward we must know our cosmic past and drawing on poetry and popular culture-from Langston Hughes, Queen Latifah, and Lewis Carroll, to Big K.R.I.T., Sun Ra, and Star Trek-Prescod-Weinstein renders accessible some of the most abstract concepts of theoretical physics to tell fascinating stories about the history and fundamental nature of our universe. Here we meet the quantum cat that is both dead and alive, learn the difference between dark matter and dark energy, explore the inner workings of black holes, and investigate the possibility of a unified theory of quantum gravity, following our guide out to the far reaches of the cosmic event horizon and down to the tiniest (and queerest) neutrino. Along the way, she calls on us to resist colonial approaches to space exploration and instead imagine a better path forward in our pursuit of humanity's undeniable connection with the stars. Through Prescod-Weinstein's clear-eyed and unique perspective, and informed by her deep knowledge of post-colonial history and Black feminist thought, The Edge of Space-Time argues that physics is an essential way for everyone to look at the universe and presents a compelling case that ''the edge'' is a powerful vantage point from which to see the big picture. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is an associate professor of physics and astronomy and core faculty in women's and gender studies at the University of New Hampshire. She conducts award-winning theoretical physics research on dark matter, the early universe, and neutron stars, while also researching Black feminist science studies. Her first book, The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred, won the 2021 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Science and Technology, the 2022 Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science, and a 2022 PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award. A columnist for New Scientist and Physics World, she is originally from East L.A., California, and now divides her time between the New Hampshire Seacoast and Cambridge, Massachusetts. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 4/8/2026)

The Author Events Series presents Senator Cory Booker | STAND In Conversation with Cherri Gregg SOLD OUT Join U.S. Senator Cory Booker for a timely and hopeful conversation about our shared American ideals. Centered around his new book, STAND, Senator Booker will share stirring personal reflections and powerful stories of leadership that will challenge us to reclaim our national story and work together to redeem the American dream.  STAND shows that our principles are not luxuries; they are vital, strategic keys to our survival and success. By wielding these tools, we can reclaim our sense of common cause and change the course of our country's history. In STAND, Senator Booker offers inspiring and actionable insights for Americans from all walks of life. Senator Cory Booker is the senior United States Senator from New Jersey. He served as mayor of Newark before becoming New Jersey's first Black senator and only the fourth popularly elected Black senator in US history.  Cherri Gregg is co-host of WHYY's flagship daily radio news show Studio 2. She is also the executive producer and creator of the Emmy Award winning Good Souls Project, WHYY's effort to highlight individuals serving as role models for compassion, generosity and service. Prior to her current position, Cherri covered civil rights, social justice, race and public affairs issues impacting marginalized communities, spending nearly a decade as the Community Affairs reporter for KYW Newsradio, also reporting for CBS 3 Eyewitness News. She was the creator, host and executive producer of the weekly, syndicated radio show and podcast, Flashpoint with Cherri Gregg. Cherri, who is a former attorney, is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Law & Justice Journalism Project, a non-profit focused on shifting the journalism narrative around public safety, crime and justice. Bundle tickets come with a pre-signed copy of STAND, published by St. Martins Press Pre-signed copies of STAND will be available for purchase at the event.  Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 3/26/2026)

The Author Events Series presents Lynn Matluck Brooks | Theatres of the Body  Theatres of the Body is Lynn Matluck Brooks' critical examination of danced stage productions in antebellum Philadelphia. Starting in the 1820s, Brooks explores visual art and social and theatrical dancing across different classes, focusing on the work of E. W. Clay. Continuing through the 1830s, she looks at pantomime ballets and blackface minstrelsy through a political lens, asking questions regarding citizenship, slavery, and freedom. At the time, the city boasted the largest number of native-born ballet dancers in the young nation. Philadelphia also became a creative home to blackface star T. D. Rice, who helped popularize that performance genre. Reviewing print culture in the 1840s, Brooks shows how newspapers, magazines, and popular fiction provided documentation of dancing in Philadelphia as well as the responses of dance commentators, practitioners, and moralists. Theatres of the Body also considers the interplay of science with dance in the 1850s, which impacted both dance practices and reception. Providing an expansive historiography of these significant contributions to dance in the United States, Brooks deepens our understanding of antebellum culture and history. Lynn Matluck Brooks is Arthur and Katherine Shadek Professor of Humanities, Emerita, at Franklin & Marshall College. She is the author of John Durang: Man of the American Stage, The Art of Dancing in Seventeenth-Century Spain: Juan de Esquivel Navarro and His World, and The Dances of the Processions of Seville in Spain's Golden Age and the editor of Women's Work: Making Dance in Europe before 1800. She was also editor of Dance Research Journal, Dance Chronicle, and thINKingDANCE.org. Lauren Putty White is a Baltimore-born dancer, choreographer, educator, and writer whose work blends the freedom of jazz with the depth of modern dance. She holds an M.F.A. in Dance from Montclair State University and a B.F.A. in Modern Dance Performance from the University of the Arts. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 3/17/2026)

The Author Events Series presents Karla Trotman & Cheryl McKissack Daniel | Dark, Dirty, Dangerous & The Black Family Who Built America  In Conversation with Joann Bell Karla Trotman is President and CEO of Electro Soft, Inc., a second-generation family business specializing in electronics contract manufacturing for defense, aviation, and transit markets. A passionate advocate for entrepreneurship as a path to building generational wealth and closing the Black wealth gap, Karla is the author of the #1 Amazon bestseller Dark, Dirty, Dangerous: Building the Vibrant Future of Manufacturing. She was named 2024 EY Entrepreneur of Year for Greater Philadelphia and serves on the boards of the Museum of the American Revolution, the Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation, and the African Women's Entrepreneurship Cooperative. A member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Karla holds a B.S. in Business Logistics from Penn State and an MBA from Drexel University. Through her work and advocacy, she inspires the next generation to see manufacturing and entrepreneurship as vehicles for transforming communities and creating lasting economic impact. Cheryl McKissack Daniel is Chair of the Board of McKissack & McKissack, the nation's oldest minority- and woman-owned design and construction firm, and former President and CEO from 2000 to 2025. A fifth-generation builder, civil engineer, and author of The Black Family Who Built America (Simon & Schuster, August 2025), she leads the firm's work across major infrastructure, healthcare, education, and transportation projects nationwide. A Howard University alumna, Cheryl is widely recognized for her leadership, board service, and commitment to equity, generational wealth, and inclusive growth. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 3/3/2026)

The Author Events Series presents Namwali Serpell | On Morrison In Conversation with Angela Flournoy  Toni Morrison, Nobel Laureate and one of our most beloved writers, has inspired generations of readers. But her artistic genius is often overshadowed by her monumental public persona, perhaps because, as Namwali Serpell puts it, ''she is our only truly canonical black, female writer-and her work is highly complex.'' In On Morrison, Serpell brings her unique experience as both an award-winning writer and professor who teaches a course on Morrison to illuminate her masterful experiments with literary form. This is Morrison as you've never encountered her before, a journey through her oeuvre-her fiction and criticism, as well as her lesser-known dramatic works and poetry-with contextual guidance and original close readings. At once accessible and uncompromisingly rigorous, On Morrison is a primer not only on how to read one of the most significant American authors of all time, but also on how to read great works of literature in general. This dialogue on the page between two black women artist-readers is stylish, edifying, and thrilling in its scope and intelligence. Namwali Serpell was born in Lusaka and lives in New York. Her debut novel, The Old Drift, won an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science Fiction, and the Los Angeles Times's Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. Her second novel, The Furrows, was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and was selected as one of The New York Times Ten Best Books of the Year. Her book of essays, Stranger Faces, was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism. She is a recipient of the Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction, the Caine Prize for African Writing, and a Rona Jaffe Foundation Award. She is a professor of English at Harvard University. Angela Flournoy is the author of The Turner House, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, an Indie Next pick, and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her fiction has appeared in The Paris Review, and she has written for The New York Times, The New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, and elsewhere. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Flournoy has taught at the University of Iowa, Princeton University, and UCLA. She lives in New York. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 2/25/2026)

The Author Events Series presents Dorothy Roberts | The Mixed Marriage Project In Conversation with Marcia Chatelain  Dorothy Roberts grew up in a deeply segregated Chicago of the 1960s where relationships barely crossed the ''colorline.'' Yet inside her own home, where her father was white and her mother a Black Jamaican immigrant, interracial marriage wasn't just a part of her upbringing, it was a shared mission. Her father, an anthropologist, spent her entire childhood working on a book about Black-white marriages-a project he never finished but shaped every aspect of their family life. As a 21-year-old graduate student, Dorothy's father dedicated himself to the study of interracial marriage and her mother soon became his full-time partner in that work. Together over the years they interviewed over 500 couples and assembled stunning stories about interracial marriages that took place as early as the 1880s-studying, but also living, championing, and believing in their power to advance social equality. Decades later, while sorting through her father's papers, Roberts uncovers a truth that upends everything she thought she knew about her family: her father's research didn't begin with her parents' love story-it came long before it. This discovery forces her to wrestle with her father's intentions, her own views about interracial relationships, and where she fits in that story. Rather than finish the book her father never published, Roberts immerses herself in their archive of interviews to trace the story of her parents and to better understand her own. Though grounded in her parents' research, it's Roberts' captivating storytelling that drives this memoir. In following the arc of her parents' interviews and marriage, The Mixed Marriage Project invites us into the everyday lives of interracial couples in Chicago over four decades. Along the way, Roberts reflects on her own childhood as a Black girl with a white father, and how those experiences shaped her into one of today's most prominent public thinkers and scholars on race. Blurring the boundaries between the political and the personal, between memoir and history, The Mixed Marriage Project is a deeply moving meditation on family, race, identity, and love. Dorothy Roberts is the George A. Weiss University Professor of Law and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, where she directs the Penn Program on Race, Science, and Society. The author of five books, including Killing the Black Body, a MacArthur Fellow, and member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, she lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Marcia Chatelain is the Presidential Penn Compact Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of two books, South Side Girls: Growing up in the Great Migration and the Pulitzer Prize winning Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America. Her forthcoming book, How Bright the Path Grows: The Women who Made the March on Washington will be released in fall 2026 with Pantheon Books. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 2/11/2026)

The Author Events Series presents Victoria Christopher Murray, author of the award winning book, The Personal Librarian. In Conversation with Elizabeth Wellington This partnership was inspired by Victoria Christopher Murray's role as an Honorary Member of The Society, Inc., and developed in collaboration with the Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation and The Greater Delaware Valley Chapter of The Society, Inc. The Society, Incorporated, is a non-profit national organization of women dedicated to enhancing, exposing, and promoting youth in the arts for the betterment of our communities, with a focus on under-served children. The group provides support for young literary, visual, vocal, and performing artists. Victoria Christopher Murray is a New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty novels, including her most recent release Harlem Rhapsody. With Marie Benedict, she coauthored The Personal Librarian, a Good Morning America book club pick, and The First Ladies, Target's 2023 Book of the Year. She is an NAACP Image Award Winner for Outstanding Literary Work for her novel Stand Your Ground, which was also a Library Journal Best Book of the Year. She holds an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 2/17/2026)

The Author Events Series presents Jodi Kantor | How to Start Join Jodi Kantor and Michael Solomonov for a discussion of the question: how, in these challenging times, can anyone discover and begin their life's work? Jodi Kantor's groundbreaking reporting has toppled media magnates, sparked reform worldwide, and foretold many of the unsettling changes we see in the workplace today. But before all of this, Kantor was kicked off her college newspaper. Society expects perfection, but Kantor knows those first professional steps are often rocky. She also knows that young people are facing new and frightening terrain, with political upheaval, skyrocketing costs of living, and the unknowns of AI. Kantor casts aside platitudes and false hope to offer tangible help. Work is how we spend much of our time. It's our engine of progress: how cancer therapies are invented, political campaigns won, thrilling art created and matched with an audience. Instead of letting cynicism take over, Kantor identifies two principles to help young people discover their life's work: craft and need. By pairing the two, they can navigate tough, sensitive choices: how to think about money. How much risk to take on. When to buck what others are saying. Powerful and provocative, How to Start is a statement of faith for young people as they make their way through uncertain times, offering wisdom, strategy, and a set of aspirations to launch their careers and last their whole lives. Jodi Kantor is a New York Times investigative reporter who has revealed hidden truths about power, technology, gender, law, and employment. In 2017, she and Megan Twohey exposed Harvey Weinstein's treatment of women, setting off the worldwide #Metoo reckoning. They were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service and co-authored She Said, a book taking readers inside their investigation, also made into a film. Recently, she has been working to illuminate one of our most secretive and critical institutions, the Supreme Court. Kantor lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband Ron Lieber and their two children. She began her journalism career by dropping out of law school, and she speaks at campuses across the country about finding work of meaning. As chef of the trailblazing restaurant Zahav, and co-owner of CookNSolo Restaurants with his twenty-year business partner Steve Cook, Michael Solomonov has redefined Israeli cuisine in the U.S. and beyond. With five James Beard Awards, including Zahav's ''Outstanding Restaurant'' accolade in 2019, he is celebrated for honoring Israel's diverse culinary traditions through innovative flavors and vibrant settings. Solomonov's Philadelphia-based group includes beloved concepts like Dizengoff, Goldie, K'Far and Laser Wolf, with recent expansions in New York and Miami's 1 Hotel South Beach. Through his acclaimed cookbooks and the launch of Zahav Restaurant Recipe Hummus at Whole Foods, he continue to share his signature approach to Israeli flavors with a nationwide audience. Outside of the restaurants, you can often find Michael with Steve at Pho 75 in South Philly, working out the kinks in their Israeli village.  Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 5/19/2026)

The Author Events Series presents James Martin, SJ | Work in Progress  In Conversation with Tamala Edwards Work in Progress, set in the Philly suburbs, is a snapshot of several years-first as a boy, then as a teenager, and finally as a young adult--of being thrown into a series of jobs for which Martin had zero training. He had never set foot in a restaurant kitchen before working as a busboy and dishwasher; never stepped onto a golf course before working as a caddy; and had never seen a factory floor before working as an assembly-line worker. He almost always felt uncomfortable, unsettled, and uneasy. But, like many of us, he needed the money. This coming-of-age story is set in the 1960s and 1970s, a lighthearted tale for readers who enjoy personal narratives, and it's unlike anything Father Martin has written before. As he puts it, "This is a spiritual memoir from a different angle ... told 'slant' as Emily Dickinson might say." Each chapter features photos of memories and milestones throughout Father Martin's young life. If you're an aficionado of snafus, you won't be disappointed. He's not the hero of these stories, more a hapless teenager who learns in each job, even the ones he loathes, something about the value of work, about what it means to be an adult, about people, and about life overall. Rev. James Martin, SJ, born in Philadelphia and raised in the suburbs, is a Jesuit priest, editor at large of America magazine, consultor to the Vatican's Dicastery for Communication, and author of the New York Times bestsellers Learning to Pray, Jesus: A Pilgrimage, and The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything. Father Martin is a frequent commentator in the national and international media, having appeared on all the major networks and outlets, like The Colbert Report, NPR's Fresh Air, The New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. Tamala Edwards joined 6abc in January of 2005. She is the weekday co-anchor of Action News Mornings from 4 a.m to 7 a.m. and is a regular co-host of Inside Story, conducting probing interviews with newsmakers like Governor Tom Corbett, Senator Bob Casey, Mayor Michael Nutter and others, as well as moderating many election debates. Prior to joining 6abc, Tamala Edwards was the anchor of ABC's World News Now, and World News This Morning. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable.   (recorded 2/5/2026)

The Author Events Series presents Matthew F. Delmont | Until the Last Gun Is Silent  In Conversation with Richard Brookshire As the civil rights movement blazed through America, more than 300,000 Black troops were drafted and sent to fight in the Vietnam War. These soldiers, often from disadvantaged backgrounds and subjected to the brutalities of racism back home, found themselves thrust onto the frontlines of a war many saw as unjust. On the homefront, Black antiwar activists faced another battle: Opposition to the Vietnam War, vilified by key allies in the media and government as anti-American, jeopardized the fight for civil rights. For Black Americans, the Vietnam War forced a generation to question what it truly meant to fight for justice. Award-winning civil rights historian Matthew F. Delmont weaves together the stories of two Black heroes of the Vietnam War era: Coretta Scott King, who bravely championed the antiwar cause-and eventually persuaded her husband to do the same-and Dwight ''Skip'' Johnson, a Medal of Honor recipient whose life ended tragically after returning from battle to his native Detroit. Together, these extraordinary accounts expose the contradictions of Black activism and military service during the Vietnam War. Through rich storytelling, Delmont offers a portrait of this period unlike any other, shedding light on a fractured civil rights movement, a generation of veterans failed by the country they served, and the valor of Black servicemen and peace advocates in the midst of it all. Vivid, revelatory, and meticulously researched, Until the Last Gun Is Silent: How a Civil Rights Icon and Vietnam War Hero Changed America is essential reading for anyone looking to understand the enduring legacy of Black military service, protest, and patriotism in the United States. Matthew F. Delmont is the Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professor of History at Dartmouth College. A Guggenheim Fellow and expert on African American history and the history of civil rights, he is the author of five books, most recently Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and several academic journals, and on NPR. Originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota, Delmont earned his BA from Harvard University and his MA and PhD from Brown University. Richard Brookshire is a multi-hyphenate storyteller and nationally recognized political communications strategist. As the co-CEO and co-founder of the Black Veterans Project, his work is advancing institutional reforms around racial equity and the case for reparations for Black veterans and military families. A former infantry combat medic and U.S. Army veteran of the War in Afghanistan, he is a graduate of Columbia University's School of International & Public Affairs, Fordham University and the New York Film Academy's Documentary Conservatory. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 2/4/2026)

The Author Events Series presents Marc Shaiman | Never Mind the Happy In Conversation with Alan Zweibel Featuring a special performance from Rob Reiner's THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT with MATTHEW GALLAGHER, Principal trumpeter of The Philly Pops Orchestra.  In Never Mind the Happy, musical dynamo Marc Shaiman looks back on five decades of Broadway triumphs, Hollywood hijinks, and unforgettable collaborations. Along the way, he charts the personal highs and heartbreaks that have shaped him-spending his teenage years in community theater, starting a decades-long collaboration with Bette Midler in the '70s, surviving the AIDS crisis of the '80s, his award-winning film music career in the Hollywood of the '90s, right up to the peaks (and valleys) of creating Broadway musicals from 2000 on. Candid, hilarious, and deeply human, Shaiman's story is a tribute to the power of music, the pull of the spotlight, and the beat that never stops. Part showbiz tell-all, part love letter to the melancholy that fuels creativity, told with perfect comic timing-along with a few wrong notes, and plenty of standing ovations. Marc Shaiman is a renowned American composer, lyricist, arranger, and music producer known for his work across film, television, and theater. Shaiman began his career as a musical director and arranger for Bette Midler before expanding into film scoring. He gained prominence with his work on films such as When Harry Met Sally, The Addams Family, Sister Act, City Slickers, A Few Good Men, Sleepless in Seattle, The American President, and South Park, on television with SNL, and on his recordings with Harry Connick Jr. and Mariah Carey. Shaiman earned widespread acclaim for co-writing the Broadway musical Hairspray alongside his longtime co-lyricist Scott Wittman. The duo has also co-created the musicals Catch Me If You Can, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Some Like It Hot, and Smash. He has been nominated for multiple Academy Awards and has won a Tony, two Emmys, and two Grammys. Marc Shaiman is celebrated for his versatile, emotionally resonant music and his ability to blend classic musical theater sensibilities with modern storytelling. Born and raised in New Jersey, he currently lives in New York with his husband, Lieutenant Commander (ret) Lou Mirabal. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! If you'd like to purchase two tickets but only one copy of the book, please email authorevents@freelibrary.org All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 1/29/2026)

The Author Events Series presents Lee Bollinger | University: A Reckoning In Conversation with Ali Velshi The American university-one of the most successful institutions in human history-is facing an unprecedented assault from the President of the United States. Experts on authoritarianism have drawn comparisons to Turkey and Hungary, where strongmen subdued universities as part of their power grabs. Yet as former Columbia president Lee C. Bollinger points out in his powerful account of the university's significance, in such dire times one has no choice but to state clearly and forcefully what one stands for. Defenses of the university usually emphasize the practical benefits it offers to society: highly skilled graduates who can thrive in an information-saturated world; scientific research that leads to important advances in health; technological breakthroughs that contribute to the American economy being the envy of the world. Bollinger offers a more original, and more sweeping, account. He reveals how the seemingly unwieldy structure of the university actually contributes to the success of the American system- providing those who study and work within it a degree of creative freedom hard to find elsewhere-and why that structure is both impossible to re-create and vulnerable to outside attack. The fundamental mission of the university is to enhance knowledge, but this is not merely a high-minded idea. It is, as Bollinger demonstrates, a notion rooted deeply in the Enlightenment ideas of the nation's founding documents, specifically the First Amendment to the Constitution, the basis of our political and civic life. The university helps realize the First Amendment; the First Amendment helps make the university. Bollinger argues that, in a challenging era for journalism, it is more essential than ever that the university stands strong as an essential source of truth-seeking for those who still believe in democracy. The stakes are self-evident: The university, like the press, must be defended if the American experiment is to continue. Lee C. Bollinger is an American legal scholar and educator who served as the nineteenth president of Columbia University, from 2002 to 2023. He is currently president emeritus and the Seth Low Professor of the University. He also served as the president of the University of Michigan from 1997 to 2002. A renowned expert on the First Amendment and freedom of speech and press, he lives in New York City. Ali Velshi is an award winning journalist, host of "Velshi" and Chief Correspondent for MS NOW, and a weekly economics contributor to NPR's "Here And Now." He hosts the "Velshi Banned Book Club'' on MS NOW, and the "Velshi Banned Book Club" podcast. He has been nominated for multiple Emmy Awards, and is the recipient of two National Headliner Awards and a Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Award. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 1/28/2026)

The Author Events Series presents Governor Josh Shapiro | Where We Keep the Light  SOLD OUT In Where We Keep the Light, Josh Shapiro, a leading voice in the Democratic party, shares powerful stories about his family, his faith, and his career in public service. From an early age, Shapiro learned and practiced the power of helping others, values which he carried through successful campaigns for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Montgomery County Commissioner, Pennsylvania Attorney General, and ultimately the Governorship, which he won in a decisive victory in 2022.  Here, Shapiro opens up about the toughest and most pivotal times of his life in public service – including: when an arsonist set fire to the Governor's residence while he and his family slept inside, when he was under consideration to be Kamala Harris' running mate in the 2024 election, and how experiences in his childhood shaped him to be the empathetic leader and pragmatic problem-solver that he is today.  Reflecting on what he has learned along his journey – knocking on doors, serving his community, and bringing people together to tackle the tough problems we face--Shapiro reminds us of the faith that guides so many and that there is more that unites us as Americans than divides us. Through it all, Shapiro shares the stories of the people who have impacted him along the way and how they've taught him where we keep the light. Josh Shapiro is the 48th Governor of Pennsylvania. He previously served as Pennsylvania's Attorney General, Chair of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners, and State Representative. From seeing his parents serve others-his father in the Navy and as the local pediatrician and his mother as an educator-to marrying his high school sweetheart, Lori, and raising four children in the community and traditions they grew up in, to a career fighting for the people of Pennsylvania, Governor Shapiro's life has been grounded in faith, family, and public service. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 1/24/2026)

The Author Events Series presents Quiara Alegría Hudes & Ray Beauchamp | The White Hot & Misunderstood The White Hot takes the form of a letter from mother to daughter about a moment of abandonment that would stretch from ten days to ten years-an explanation, but not an apology. Hudes narrates April's story-spiritual and sexy, fierce and funny-with delicate lyricism and tough love. Just as April finds in her painful and absurd sojourn the key to freeing herself and her family from a cage of generational trauma, so Hudes turns April's stumbling pursuit of herself into an unforgettable short epic of self-discovery. In Misunderstood, Allen Iverson shares in searing clarity and touching candor his meteoric rise from impoverished child in the Virginia projects to high school champion to Georgetown University protégé of legendary coach John Thompson, and finally to NBA All-Star and Reebok's Vice President of Basketball. Quiara Alegría Hudes is an American writer. Her work includes the Pulitzer Prize winning play Water by the Spoonful, the Tony Award winning Broadway musical and major motion picture In the Heights, the animated film Vivo, and the essay High Tide of Heartbreak. As a prison reform activist, Hudes and her cousin founded Emancipated Stories, a platform where people behind bars can share one page of their life story with the world. Ray Beauchamp has been a criminal defense attorney in New York for the last fifteen years, having advocated for the rights of indigent people at the Legal Aid Society in Manhattan and the Bronx. Prior to Legal Aid, he clerked in the Second Circuit and served as managing editor of the Fordham Law Review. And prior to all that, he was a kid in West Philly, developing and nurturing a deep love of the 76ers. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 1/14/2026)

The Author Events Series presents Ezekiel J. Emanuel | Eat Your Ice Cream  In Conversation with Maiken Scott  Everyone wants to live a full and healthy life-and every day brings a tidal wave of attention-grabbing misinformation, faddish ideas from ''wellness'' influencers, and bizarre advice from news outlets over-extrapolating the results of tiny, outlier studies. The ''Wellness Industrial Complex'' prescribes conflicting and complicated regimens while promising us more time to enjoy in the future-though it sure is demanding a lot of time right now. But what actually matters most to our health and longevity? What has the most robust, actionable evidence? What's the junk you can skip In Eat Your Ice Cream, renowned physician Ezekiel J. Emanuel argues that life is not a competition to live the longest and that ''wellness'' shouldn't be difficult; it should be an invisible part of one's lifestyle that yields maximum health benefits with the least work. Dr. Emanuel cuts through the noise with wit and good humor, giving readers just what they need: simple, high-impact, evidence-based guidelines on such issues as alcohol consumption, food and nutrition, exercise, sleep, mental acuity, and social engagement. Resisting the tide of the latest trends to extend life at all costs, Eat Your Ice Cream reveals that many of the tools for a long, healthy and meaningful life are already within reach. Pairing common sense with uncommon wisdom based on his decades of expertise and experience, Dr. Emanuel helps us consider which lifestyle changes are worth making and how to most easily implement them for longer, healthier, and happier lives. Readers will come away with greater clarity and a deeper understanding of what really matters for well-being-connection, purpose, and sustainable choices backed by rigorous science. Ezekiel J. Emanuel, MD is a vice provost and professor at the University of Pennsylvania. A bioethicist, health policy expert, and oncologist, he was one of the architects of the Affordable Care Act. He is a regular guest on CNN and MSNBC and often contributes to the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and Atlantic. He lives in Washington, DC. Maiken Scott is the host and executive producer of WHYY's The Pulse - a weekly, national health and science radio show and podcast that explores the people and places at the heart of health and science. The show airs on more than 120 public radio stations across the country and its podcast is presented by NPR. Before hosting The Pulse, Maiken covered behavioral health for WHYY. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 1/13/2026)

The Author Events Series presents Annette Gordon-Reed | Jefferson on Race: A Reader In Conversation with Patrick Spero, Ph.D Among America's Founding Fathers, none was more deeply, personally, or controversially entangled with race and slavery than Thomas Jefferson. The man whose Declaration of Independence proclaimed that ''all men are created equal'' enslaved more than 600 people of African descent even as he acknowledged the injustice of slavery, saw himself as its opponent, and condemned it in his writings. How is this possible? In Jefferson on Race, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed gathers Jefferson's most revealing writings about African Americans, slavery, and Native Americans, enabling readers as never before to directly explore his complex and contradictory thoughts, feelings, and decisions on these subjects-the most hotly debated aspect of his legacy. These selections come from Jefferson's public and private writings, letters, and plantation records, as well as accounts by contemporaries, including his son Madison Hemings and three other people formerly enslaved at Monticello. The book documents Jefferson's ideas about-and self-image in relation to-African Americans, slavery, and Native Americans, as well as his conduct, including interactions with individual Black and Native people. The writings show how Jefferson responded to living in a multiracial slave society while professing progressive ideals, and how his views on race and slavery were shaped by his experiences with enslaved Black people. Jefferson on Race is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand Jefferson's conflicted attitudes-and the impact of race and slavery on American history. Annette Gordon-Reed is the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University. Gordon-Reed won 16 book prizes, including the Pulitzer Prize  and the National Book Award, for The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family  (2008). She is the author of six books, and editor of two. She was the Vyvyan Harmsworth Visiting Professor of American History at the University of Oxford (Queen's College) 2014-2015, and was appointed an Honorary Fellow at Queen's in 2021. Gordon-Reed served as the 2018-2019 President of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, and is currently president of the Organization of American Historians.  Her honors include fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur Foundations, and the National Humanities Medal. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the British Academy.  Patrick Spero, Ph.D., is the Chief Executive Officer of the American Philosophical Society and a scholar of early American history. Dr. Spero is the author of four books on the era of the American Revolution. They are Frontier Country: The Politics of War in Early Pennsylvania (2016), which was named a staff pick by the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2017, Frontier Rebels: The Fight for Independence in the American West, 1765-1776 (2018), winner of the Philadelphia Athenaeum's Literary Award and a finalist for the Journal of the American Revolution's best book of the year, The Scientist Turned Spy: Andre Michaux, Thomas Jefferson, and the Kentucky Conspiracy of 1793 (2024), and The Other Presidency: Thomas Jefferson and the American Philosophical Society (2024).  Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 5/7/2026)

The Author Events Series presents Eddie S. Glaude, Jr. | America, U.S.A.  In Conversation with Senator Cory Booker SOLD OUT Celebrated public intellectual Eddie S. Glaude, Jr. presents a groundbreaking analysis of the vicious cycles of American history and the country's enduring refusal to face its true nature-especially at the moments when national anniversaries steer us back toward the mythology meant to disguise the truth. America, U.S.A., deliberately formulated and beautifully written, details a heart-wrenching exploration of America's legacy. It is a magnificently complex combination of lessons and voices-from W.E.B. DuBois and John Dos Passos to Herman Melville and Martin Luther King, Jr.-that, together, paint a sprawling and honest tableau of the United States, its complicated past, and ever more tenuous future. Glaude's is a powerful voice of conscience in our tumultuous world. He pulls no punches, calling on us to interrogate our conceptions of innocence and freedom and the stories we tell ourselves about our past and present. Centered around the major celebrations of America's milestone birthdays across 250 years of history, the book offers a riveting look at the battles over who has a stake in writing the American story. Devastatingly candid, profoundly moving, and deeply reflective, America, U.S.A. is a shining meditation on how we must reckon with a grim past in order to strive for the better angels of our future. Eddie S. Glaude, Jr. is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor at Princeton University and author of New York Times bestselling Begin Again and Democracy in Black. Senator Cory Booker is the senior United States Senator from New Jersey. He served as mayor of Newark before becoming New Jersey's first Black senator and only the fourth popularly elected Black senator in US history.  Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 5/27/2026)

The Author Events Series presents Barbara McQuade | The Fix: Saving America from the Corruption of a Mob-Style Government In Conversation with Zane Memeger In The Fix, McQuade draws on her decades of experience as a federal prosecutor to reveal how systems of organized crime and political opportunism exploit the levers of power-using corruption, cruelty, and chaos as tools to dominate institutions and eliminate accountability. With clarity, precision, and moral force, she exposes the tactics of today's far-right MAGA system: information warfare, aggressive retribution, conformism enforced by fear, and pervasive dismantling of legal checks and balances necessary to defend the public interest and uphold justice. Weaving together courtroom stories, real-time political analysis, and cautionary lessons from history and democratic backsliding abroad, McQuade makes the case that the threats we face are not future possibilities-they're already here. Yet The Fix is not just a warning; it is a call to action. In the book's final chapters, McQuade outlines common-sense reforms and strategies that can reclaim the rule of law and recenter democracy with the power of the people. Accessible, eye-opening, and grounded in constitutional faith, The Fix is essential reading for everyone concerned about the future of America-and ready to work together to take a stand for it. Barbara McQuade is a professor at the University of Michigan Law School, where she teaches criminal law and national security law. She is also a legal analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. From 2010 to 2017,  McQuade served as the U.S Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. She was appointed by President Barack Obama, and was the first woman to serve in her position. McQuade also served as vice chair of the Attorney General's Advisory Committee and co-chaired its Terrorism and National Security Subcommittee. She and her husband live in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and have four children. Zane Memeger is the Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Innocence Project; a non-profit organization focused on exonerating those convicted of crimes they did not commit and helping the wrongfully convicted transition to freedom. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 6/2/2026)

The Author Events Series presents Matt Haig | The Midnight Train In Conversation with Katy Waldman When your life flashes before your eyes, where would you stop? No one can change the past, but the Midnight Train can take you there. The chance to re-live the moments that meant most. To see what kind of person you really were. For Wilbur his best days were with Maggie, the love of his life. On his honeymoon in Venice. Before he gave it all away. He wishes he could go back and live differently. But to do so risks everything . . . A magical, time-travelling love story, from the world of The Midnight Library. Matt Haig is the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of the novels The Midnight Library, The Life Impossible, and How to Stop Time, along with four other novels, the acclaimed memoirs Reasons to Stay Alive and Notes on a Nervous Planet, and several award-winning children's books. His work has been published in fifty territories across the world. Katy Waldman is a staff writer at The New Yorker, for which she writes about books, culture, and more. Previously, she was a staff writer at Slate and the host of the ''Slate's Audio Book Club'' podcast. She won the National Book Critics Circle's Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing in 2019 and the American Society of Magazine Editors's award for journalists under thirty in 2018; her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, New York magazine, the Paris Review, and elsewhere. She lives with her husband and dog in Washington, D.C. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. If you'd like to purchase two tickets but only one copy of the book, please email authorevents@freelibrary.org Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 6/4/2026)

The Author Events Series presents Danielle Allen | Radical Duke An explosive, deeply revisionist work that reveals how a renegade English Duke and Thomas Paine, the firebrand polemicist, almost brought the American Revolution to Britain. When Danielle Allen discovered a parchment of the Declaration of Independence buried away in Sussex, England, little did she know that she had stumbled onto a larger story that fundamentally changes our understanding of eighteenth-century British and American history. Demonstrating in Radical Duke that the Age of Revolution began neither with Boston patriots nor with Parisian Jacobins, Allen shows how Charles Lennox, the progressive Third Duke of Richmond, along with radical pamphleteer Thomas Paine secretly fomented a political revolution in which they supported their rebelling American brethren, led the first proposals for universal manhood suffrage, and argued for freedom of the press and religious toleration. Identifying for the first time the anonymous authors of Britain's seditious Junius letters and revealing that Paine cowrote The Juryman's Touchstone of 1771, Radical Duke sets the historical record straight, conjoining radical thought in America and Britain and revealing the complex foundation of modern constitutional monarchy and our own age. Danielle Allen is the James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University and author of Justice by Means of Democracy, Cuz, and Our Declaration, winner of the Parkman Prize. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the American Academy of Sciences and Letters, she lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 6/9/2026)

The Author Events Series presents Amitav Ghosh | Ghost-Eye In Conversation with Brooke O'Harra Past and present collide in a novel about a girl who might just be a "case of the reincarnation type." Varsha Gupta wants fish for lunch. Her family is shocked; the three-year-old has never tasted fish in her life. The Guptas are strict vegetarians and don't allow it inside their Calcutta mansion. But Varsha claims she can remember another life, in a mud house by a river where she caught and cooked fish with a different mother. Perplexed, the Guptas turn to Dr. Shoma Bose, a psychologist who has been investigating what are known as "cases of the reincarnation type" for years. But her understanding of the world is changed forever by Varsha's revelations. Half a century later, Varsha's case file catches the attention of a group of environmental activists, and Shoma's nephew Dinu is drawn inexorably into their plans. As Dinu finds himself caught up in the search for Varsha, buried memories of his own past begin to surface. Traveling between late 1960s Calcutta and present-day Brooklyn, Amitav Ghosh's Ghost-Eye is an urgent and expansive novel from one of our greatest living storytellers, about family, fate, and our fragile planet. Amitav Ghosh is the author of the bestselling Ibis Trilogy, composed of Sea of Poppies (short-listed for the Man Booker Prize), River of Smoke, and Flood of Fire. His other novels include The Circle of Reason, which won the Prix Médicis étranger, and The Glass Palace. He is also the author of many works of nonfiction, including The Great Derangement, The Nutmeg's Curse, and Smoke and Ashes. In 2018, Ghosh became the first English-language writer to win the Jnanpith Award, India's highest literary honor. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. Brooke O'Harra (she/her) is a professional director, artist and writer. Brooke and Amitav collaborated with musician Ali Sethi in May 2022 to stage a musical performance of Ghosh's book Jungle Nama. Brooke O'Harra is a queer autuer theater director who often works in collaboration with poets, writers, composer and musicians. O'Harra's current projects include the upcoming performance of Be Holding, to be performed at 59th Carnegie International in Pittsburgh 2026. O'Harra (director) co-created the project with poet Ross Gay, composer Tyshawn Sorey, and the new ensemble Yarn/Wire.  She is also commissioned to develop an original performance work with the museum docents for the 59th Carnegie International. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 6/16/2026)

The Author Events Series presents Ben Crump | Worse Than A Lie First 100 people to arrive onsite receive a free copy of the book. It's the night of November 4, 2008. America's first Black president has just been elected. And fifty-three-year-old Hollis Montrose-a Black ex–police officer from the suburbs of Chicago-has become the latest victim of a brutal attack. As the result of a traffic stop gone wrong, Hollis is shot ten times in cold blood, by four white men who could have been his colleagues back in his police days. Beau Lee Cooper was born serious, as if on an urgent mission with little time to waste. Raised in the tumultuous world of 1970s Texas, he always dreamed of becoming a lawyer and fighting for what's right, ever since he was a little boy reading To Kill a Mockingbird. And now, ten years into running his own law firm with his best friend and partner in crime, Nelson ''Nellie'' Rivers, and his suave right-hand-man, Brent ''Cape'' Capers, he feels he's finally making a difference. When Beau Lee learns about Hollis's situation, he's determined to help. Miraculously, Hollis survives the encounter, but the Chicago police department has already spun the narrative in its favor, and Hollis is given a wrongful prison sentence with an unreasonable bail. What really happened that night the car was pulled over? Was it random or was Hollis targeted? Beau Lee knows he's treading in dangerous waters, and finding evidence of the truth will be his biggest challenge yet, but with troubling powers at play, one innocent man's life hangs in the balance. Named to the TIME100 list of the 100 most influential people in 2021 and The NNPA Top Black Newsmaker of the 21st Century in 2026, Attorney Ben Crump is known as "Black America's Attorney General" and has established himself as one of the nation's foremost lawyers and advocates for social justice. He has represented families in the most high-profile cases in the country, including Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Tyre Nichols, and Henrietta Lacks in a landmark medical reparations case. Crump is co-founder of DreamFi, a financial empowerment platform, and author of Open Season: Legalized Genocide of Colored People and debut novel Worse Than a Lie. As founder of Ben Crump Law, he continues fighting for justice nationwide. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 3/10/2026)

The Author Events Series presents Geraldine Brooks | Memorial Days  In Conversation with Tamala Edwards Barbara Gohn Day Memorial Lecture A heartrending and beautiful memoir of sudden loss and a journey towards peace, from the bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Horse. Many cultural and religious traditions expect those who are grieving to step away from the world. In contemporary life, we are more often met with red tape and to-do lists. This is exactly what happened to Geraldine Brooks when her partner of more than three decades, Tony Horwitz – just sixty years old and, to her knowledge, vigorous and healthy – collapsed and died on a Washington, D. C. sidewalk. After spending their early years together in conflict zones as foreign correspondents, Geraldine and Tony settled down to raise two boys on Martha's Vineyard. The life they built was one of meaningful work, good humor, and tenderness, as they spent their days writing and their evenings cooking family dinners or watching the sun set with friends at the beach. But all of this ended abruptly when, on Memorial Day 2019, Geraldine received the phone call we all dread. The demands were immediate and many. Without space to grieve, the sudden loss became a yawning gulf. Three years later, she booked a flight to a remote island off the coast of Australia with the intention of finally giving herself the time to mourn. In a shack on a pristine, rugged coast she often went days without seeing another person. There, she pondered the various ways in which cultures grieve and what rituals of her own might help to rebuild a life around the void of Tony's death. A spare and profoundly moving memoir that joins the classics of the genre, Memorial Days is a portrait of a larger-than-life man and a timeless love between souls that exquisitely captures the joy, agony, and mystery of life. Geraldine Brooks is the author of six novels, including Horse, People of the Book, Year of Wonders, and the Pulitzer Prize–winning March. She has also written acclaimed works of nonfiction, including Nine Parts of Desire and Foreign Correspondence. Her books have been translated into more than thirty languages and have sold millions of copies around the world. Born and raised in Australia, Brooks divides her time between Sydney and Martha's Vineyard. Tamala Edwards joined 6abc in January of 2005. She is the weekday co-anchor of Action News Mornings from 4 a.m to 7 a.m. and is a regular co-host of Inside Story, conducting probing interviews with newsmakers like Governor Tom Corbett, Senator Bob Casey, Mayor Michael Nutter and others, as well as moderating many election debates. Prior to joining 6abc, Tamala Edwards was the anchor of ABC's World News Now, and World News This Morning. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 4/30/2026)

The Schuylkill River flows 137 miles through Schuylkill, Berks, Montgomery, Chester, and Philadelphia Counties before reaching the Delaware River. Philadelphians fish, boat, and live next to these rivers, but what's below the water's surface? Can you eat fish from the rivers? Should you swim in them? Host Trenae Nuri speaks with Erin Mooney, executive director at The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education.  Our newsletter has Philly news & events in your inbox every weekday morning. Call or text us: 215-259-8170 Instagram: @citycastphilly Support our show and get great perks as a City Cast Philly Neighbor: membership.citycast.fm Advertise on the podcast or in the newsletter: citycast.fm/advertise Learn more about the sponsors of this episode: Story Strolls Brooklyn Bowl Philly Fitler Club Philadelphia Union 

The FIFA World Cup is in full swing, and soccer fans from around the world are here in Philly. But some countries have a different tipping culture from here in the United States. And recently, tipping in Philly has reached a new level. It's everywhere. So will international visitors this summer properly tip our service workers? Because even Philadelphians don't know when, who, and how much to tip. Here's a conversation from last fall with host Trenae Nuri, food contributor Alisha Miranda, and executive producer Matt Katz about Philly's tipping culture and how to tip in various situations.  Our newsletter has Philly news & events in your inbox every weekday morning. Call or text us: 215-259-8170 Instagram: @citycastphilly Support our show and get great perks as a City Cast Philly Neighbor: membership.citycast.fm Advertise on the podcast or in the newsletter: citycast.fm/advertise Learn more about the sponsors of this episode: Story Strolls Brooklyn Bowl Philly

Hour 3: A plea for fans to behave respectfully and the Knicks will win if they run the offense though KAT. Act like New Yorkers instead of Philadelphians and let the offense flow through KAT, trust Jalen late and win game 4.

Street Vibes: Pulse of the Street is back on The Neoliberal Round this summer!In this episode, Renaldo McKenzie vibes with Margo at the African American Herbal Store in Maplewood Mall, Germantown, Philadelphia. Margo is a dynamic creator offering African herbs, scents, clothing, textiles, and all things holistic and African.The experience was powerful. The moment you walk in, the space breathes catharsis, therapy, peace, and culture. Margo is indomitable, pleasant, radiant, and welcoming, with a beautiful smile and a spirit that makes the room feel like home.Joining Renaldo on this Street Vibe is Benjamin Graves, a local Philadelphian who helped facilitate the discussion.Street Vibes is a production of The Neoliberal Round Podcast by Renaldo McKenzie and The Neoliberal Corporation.Visit: https://theneoliberal.com or https://renaldocmckenzie.com

When the TV cameras go live, interviews go viral. And that's how we end up meeting some of the most interesting Philadelphians. Local Philadelphia TV news has captured some of our city's most viral moments, turning ordinary people into celebrities overnight. What makes these interviews so memorable? And is there anything unsettling about the attention? Host Trenae Nuri and executive producer Matt Katz chat about some of Philly's most memorable TV news interviews.  Our newsletter has Philly news & events in your inbox every weekday morning. Call or text us: 215-259-8170 Instagram: @citycastphilly Support our show and get great perks as a City Cast Philly Neighbor: membership.citycast.fm Advertise on the podcast or in the newsletter: citycast.fm/advertise Learn more about the sponsors of this episode: Taskrabbit Fitler Club Brooklyn Bowl Philly

12 - How was your weekend? Any protests at ICE facilities by you? What does Mikie Sherrill have to say about the disgraceful behavior in Newark? 1215 - Side - associated with westerns 1220 - Whoopi Goldberg wants no accountability for Graham Platner. Do any Democrats? Should Wawa bend over backwards to appease the Mayor's office? Your calls. 1230 - Dom reminisces on the past. 1240 - Your calls. 1250 - Who are the 100 most influential people from the Philadelphia area according to Wikipedia? Your calls to end the hour. 1 - More of your calls and famous Philadelphians. Will Colbert's replacement make money unlike his predecessor? 120 - Would you pretend to be Canadian when traveling abroad? Your calls. 130 - NJ Senator Jon Bramnick is here with us today. What does Jon think of Mikie Sherrill's handling and response to protests in Newark? Why does the Senator still think ICE agents should be unmasked? Why are Jon and Dom so far apart on this issue? What's the biggest issue Jon wants to highlight right now? Is there a South Jersey? 150 - Dom Giordano Presents: Progressive Women Gone Wild! 2 - We guess Scott Presler is on his flight right now. Why is The Inquirer going after Jeff van Drew? 205 - Your calls. We revisit Abdul Carter's comments regarding his teammate Jaxson Dart introducing Trump. 215 - Dom's Money Melody! 220 - How was the pro-ICE rally this weekend? Your calls. What can be done to curtail Trump hatred? 235 - NJ Assemblyman Paul Kanitra is here after going undercover at Delaney Hall last week. What was it like being undercover? Why did being at an event highlight the reasons ICE agents should be masked up? What does Paul want you to know about Jersey Democrats before heading to the polls? 250 - The Lightning Round!

1 - More of your calls and famous Philadelphians. Will Colbert's replacement make money unlike his predecessor? 120 - Would you pretend to be Canadian when traveling abroad? Your calls. 130 - NJ Senator Jon Bramnick is here with us today. What does Jon think of Mikie Sherrill's handling and response to protests in Newark? Why does the Senator still think ICE agents should be unmasked? Why are Jon and Dom so far apart on this issue? What's the biggest issue Jon wants to highlight right now? Is there a South Jersey? 150 - Dom Giordano Presents: Progressive Women Gone Wild!

If you enjoy this episode, we're sure you will enjoy more content like this on The Occult Rejects.  In fact, we have curated playlists on occult topics like grimoires, esoteric concepts and phenomena, occult history, analyzing true crime and cults with an occult lens, Para politics, and occultism in music. Whether you enjoy consuming your content visually or via audio, we've got you covered - and it will always be provided free of charge.  So, if you enjoy what we do and want to support our work of providing accessible, free content on various platforms, please consider making a donation to the links provided below.  Thank you and enjoy the episode!Links For The Occult Rejectshttps://linktr.ee/theoccultrejectsOccult Research Institutehttps://www.occultresearchinstitute.org/Cash Apphttps://cash.app/$theoccultrejectsVenmo@TheOccultRejectsBuy Me A Coffeebuymeacoffee.com/TheOccultRejectsPatreonhttps://www.patreon.com/TheOccultRejectsPart 2 — Core Citations / BibliographySecondary Works and Reference SourcesEncyclopaedia Britannica. “Perpetua.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “The Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicity.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Polycarp.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Christianity: Relations between Christianity and the Roman Government and the Hellenistic Culture.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Decius.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Diocletian.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Christianity: Catechesis: Instructing Candidates for Baptism.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Kerygma and Catechesis.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Exorcism.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Eucharist.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Early Christian Art.”Smarthistory. “Catacomb of Priscilla, Rome.”Vatican Museums. “Jonah Sarcophagus.”Yale News. “House Call: A New Study Rethinks Early Christian Landmark.”Yale News. “Yale Art Gallery Painting Might Be Oldest Known Image of the Virgin Mary.”Yale University Art Gallery. Materials on Dura-Europos and the Christian Building/Baptistery.Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Chi-Rho.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Paschal Controversies.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Melito of Sardis.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Christology: Early History.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Docetism.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Adoptionism.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Cerinthus.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Theodotus the Tanner.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “St. Ignatius of Antioch.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Apologist.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Saint Justin Martyr.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “First Apology.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Dialogue with Trypho.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Celsus.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Christianity: Apologetics: Defending the Faith.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Tertullian.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Athenagoras.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “First Letter of Clement.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “St. Cyprian.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Novatian.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Saint Irenaeus.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Christianity: Aversion of Heresy: The Establishment of Orthodoxy.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “The Process of Canonization.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Late 2nd-Century Canons.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Muratorian Fragment.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Biblical Canon.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Codex.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Christianity: Authority and Dissent.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Christianity: Relations between Christianity and Judaism.”Joshua Ezra Burns. “The Parting of the Ways in Contemporary Perspective.” In The Christian Schism in Jewish History and Jewish Memory. Cambridge University Press.Adam H. Becker and Annette Yoshiko Reed, eds. The Ways That Never Parted: Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Fortress Press.Judith Lieu. Neither Jew nor Greek? Constructing Early Christianity. T&T Clark.Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Constantine I.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Arianism.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “First Council of Nicaea.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Saint Athanasius.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Festal Letters.”Encyclopaedia Britannica. “First Council of Constantinople.”Primary Texts UsedThe Martyrdom of Polycarp. Used for the early literary shaping of martyrdom, witness, bishop-martyr memory, and the theological interpretation of death.The Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicity. Used for imprisonment, trial, visions, martyrdom, and the rare preserved voice of a female Christian martyr.Apostolic Tradition, traditionally associated with Hippolytus. Used for baptismal preparation, catechumenal scrutiny, exorcism, fasting, vigil, renunciation, oil, and immersion.1 John 4. Used for the anti-docetic pressure around confessing Jesus Christ as having “come in the flesh.”Ignatius of Antioch. Letter to the Smyrnaeans. Used for Christ's real flesh, real suffering, Eucharistic theology, and bishop-centered unity.Ignatius of Antioch. Letter to the Philadelphians and related letters. Useful backup for episcopal unity, Eucharistic order, and anti-schismatic arguments.Melito of Sardis. On Pascha. Used for Paschal theology, Christ as Pascha, typology, and Christian interpretation of Passover.Justin Martyr. First Apology. Used for apologetics, public defense, accusations against Christians, Eucharistic misunderstanding, and Christian worship.Justin Martyr. Dialogue with Trypho. Used for Christian-Jewish polemic, scriptural inheritance, fulfillment arguments, and the hardening separation between Christianity and Judaism.Athenagoras. A Plea for the Christians / Embassy for the Christians. Used as a major example of second-century apologetics addressed to imperial authority.Athenagoras. On the Resurrection of the Dead. Used as a philosophical Christian defense of resurrection.Tertullian. Apology. Used for Latin apologetics, Christian defense against Roman accusation, and the combative posture toward pagan criticism.Tertullian. Prescription Against Heretics. Useful backup for rule of faith, public apostolic teaching, and anti-heretical boundary-making.Origen. Against Celsus. Used for Celsus' pagan critique and Origen's major intellectual defense of Christianity.Celsus. The True Word / True Doctrine. Survives mainly through Origen's quotations and refutations; used for educated pagan criticism of Christianity.First Letter of Clement. Used for early ministry order, Roman intervention in Corinth, appointed bishops and deacons, and the emerging logic of succession.Cyprian of Carthage. On the Unity of the Catholic Church. Used for episcopal unity, schism, discipline, and the theological seriousness of the bishop's office.Novatian. De Trinitate. Used as a witness to mid-third-century theological conflict and Roman Latin theology.Irenaeus. Against Heresies. Used for anti-gnostic consolidation, rule of truth, fourfold Gospel authority, apostolic succession, and public apostolic memory.Eusebius. Ecclesiastical History. Used for the Paschal controversy, Polycarp and Anicetus, Victor and Polycrates, Irenaeus' intervention, early church memory, and the broader historical framing.The Didachē. Used as part of the wider early Christian literary world that remained influential outside the final New Testament canon.Letter of Barnabas. Used for anti-Jewish polemic, allegorical reading of Hebrew Scripture, and Christian claims over Israel's inheritance.The Shepherd of Hermas. Used as an example of a beloved early Christian text that was widely read but later excluded from the New Testament canon.Apocalypse of Peter. Used as part of the wider early Christian apocalyptic library that circulated before the canon fully closed.Muratorian Fragment. Used for the late-second-century Roman list of recognized Christian writings and the emerging shape of the New Testament.Cyril of Jerusalem. Mystagogical Catecheses. Used for post-baptismal instruction and the interpretation of initiation after the rite had been received.Ambrose of Milan. On the Mysteries and On the Sacraments. Used for mystagogical teaching, baptismal interpretation, anointing, and sacramental instruction.The Nicene Creed / First Council of Nicaea, 325. Used for creed formation, anti-Arian settlement attempts, and the conciliar compression of Christological conflict.Athanasius. Festal Letter 39. Used for the earliest surviving list matching the 27-book New Testament canon recognized in the mainstream tradition.Constantinopolitan Creed / First Council of Constantinople, 381. Used for the later stabilization and expansion of Nicene theological identity.Also want to remind people about the website, if you're into reading we have tons of information by multiple contributors, and we got t-shirts up on the site if you're interested. Fun fact, the art is all based on the eyeball. A

America is turning 250, and Philadelphia is going to be a playground for visitors to learn about the history of the country and the city that started it all. But what about us, the locals who will be here whether or not we care about the semiquincentennial? Host Trenae Nuri speaks with the City of Philadelphia 2026 Director Michael Newmuis to put you onto all of the money, programs, initiatives, and events meant to benefit Philadelphians during the summer's celebrations.  Our newsletter has Philly news & events in your inbox every weekday morning. Call or text us: 215-259-8170 Instagram: @citycastphilly Support our show and get great perks as a City Cast Philly Neighbor: membership.citycast.fm Advertise on the podcast or in the newsletter: citycast.fm/advertise Learn more about the sponsors of this episode: Free Library of Philadelphia

Philly's food and beverage landscape is constantly expanding. New businesses are popping up all the time, and many originate from other places across the country – particularly New York City. In the past few years, restaurants have expanded out of Texas, New York, California, and many other states. Host Trenae Nuri is talking with senior producer Abby Fritz and newsletter editor Siani Colón about what these restaurants bring to Philly, and how some just don't get Philadelphians.  Our newsletter has Philly news & events in your inbox every weekday morning. Call or text us: 215-259-8170 Instagram: @citycastphilly Support our show and get great perks as a City Cast Philly Neighbor: membership.citycast.fm Advertise on the podcast or in the newsletter: citycast.fm/advertise Learn more about the sponsors of this episode: Visit Philadelphia Philly Foodworks - use the code CITYCAST to receive 20% off your first three orders, plus enjoy a free pound of strawberries 

It's that time of year when Philadelphians are making their summer plans. And that means it's time to book those weeks and weekends down the shore. But with several dozen towns along the New Jersey coastline, where are we supposed to go? Which boardwalk is the best? Where do we take the kids? Where do we party? That's why we're listening back to our conversation with journalist and Jersey Shore expert Jen Miller about some of her hacks for navigating the beaches, boardwalks, and partying along the coastline.  This episode originally aired April 29, 2025.  Our newsletter has Philly news & events in your inbox every weekday morning. Call or text us: 215-259-8170 Instagram: @citycastphilly Support our show and get great perks as a City Cast Philly Neighbor: membership.citycast.fm Advertise on the podcast or in the newsletter: citycast.fm/advertise Learn more about the sponsors of this episode: Free Library of Philadelphia Philly Foodworks - use the code CITYCAST to receive 20% off your first three orders, plus enjoy a free pound of strawberries 

Success leaves cluesThis week on the podcast I'm joined by Ron, legendary Philadelphian and CEO of The Foreman Hardhat. Ron and I discuss the driving factor behind him becoming a union carpenter. He talks about the catalyst for inventing blue tooth hard hats and how insane the reception has been.

12 - What is oikophobia? Are you patriotic? 1205 - Kathy Hochul is signing off on school choice! Will Josh Shapiro follow suit? Is voting for a black candidate racist against black people? 1215 - Side - associated with New York 1220 - Will Marco Rubio be the next President? Will there be an all-Latino ticket? Are there aliens out there? Your calls. 1235 - How much money is the city's Sheriff spending compared to the Police Department? 1240 - More of your calls. 1250 - The Friday Five: Top 5 Philadelphians

12 - What is oikophobia? Are you patriotic? 1205 - Kathy Hochul is signing off on school choice! Will Josh Shapiro follow suit? Is voting for a black candidate racist against black people? 1215 - Side - associated with New York 1220 - Will Marco Rubio be the next President? Will there be an all-Latino ticket? Are there aliens out there? Your calls. 1235 - How much money is the city's Sheriff spending compared to the Police Department? 1240 - More of your calls. 1 - There's a lawsuit against the President from The View? Allyn in Yardley joins us today as she speaks on the Garden of Reflection not being able to hold a candlelight vigil for the 25th anniversary of 9/11 as it coincides with Rosh Hashanah. She takes us through the background of the problem the vigil is facing. Why is the Lower Makefield Township being difficult? What does the Jewish population think of the “problem”? Is the Township cowtailing to Josh Shapiro, who simply does not care about the event? What can we do to help the situation? 115 - Trump is going up against FIFA trying to drive down ticket prices. 120 - Your calls. 135 - We welcome Maple Shade Township Manager Susan Danson and Maples Shade Police Officer Lt. Dan O'Brien to the program today. Are the reports about what happened at their town carnival accurate? What happened that led this to getting out of control? Were the unruly kids challenging the officers? Can the troublemaking kids be charged? What about their parents? Why cancel the fair for Saturday after the debacle on Friday? Can anything be done going forward? Were these kids local to the area? Will we see this event again next year? 145 - The Friday Five: Top 5 Philadelphians 150 - Recapping the interview with our friends from Maple Shade. Your calls. 2 - Brent Sadler, Senior Research Fellow for Naval Warfare and Advanced Technology in the Allison Center for National Security, is here today. How does he see what we're looking for in the Strait of Hormuz and with Iran? Can we guarantee safety for ships? What leverage do we have over Iran? Will Trump make a deal with the Chinese? Does Brett see this oil conflict the same way as Dom and Dr. Coates? Is China holding up their end of the deal with the US? 215 - Dom's Money Melody! 225 - Your calls. 235 - Chrisitne Hanlon, NJ CGOP Chair and Monmouth County Clerk, joins us this afternoon after announcing the Election Integrity Task Force in the Garden State to help combat voter fraud. Why did she do this? With the ever changing voter laws, why is it so important to have people who understand the law and not just grandstanders looking to play politics? Will Mikie Sherrill sign up for school choice in NJ after Kathy Hochul did in New York? 250 - The Lightning Round!

Another viral Philadelphian moment allows us to revisit some of the best ever.

Nightlife seems to be getting earlier in Philly, and that's given rise to a new trend – aperitivo hour. Think small plates, small bites, and low-ABV cocktails. Host Trenae Nuri talks with  City Cast Philly food contributor Alisha Miranda about how Philadelphians are maximizing aperitivo hour this spring – and where you should be going to have the ultimate aperitivo experience.   Our newsletter has Philly news & events in your inbox every weekday morning. Call or text us: 215-259-8170 Instagram: @citycastphilly Support our show and get great perks as a City Cast Philly Neighbor: membership.citycast.fm Advertise on the podcast or in the newsletter: citycast.fm/advertise Learn more about the sponsors of this episode: Heiler Painting Free Library of Philadelphia

The Mets beat the Giants as Torrens had a pinch hit RBI double. Jared Young had 3 hits and played well in the field. The Yankees lost to the Marlins as Jake Bird struggled on the mound. Brodes in Philadelphia was screaming about the Flyers. The Moment of The Day: ‘I will beat Geno's Ass'.

In September 1777, just fourteen months after declaring independence, Philadelphia fell to the British Army. For nearly nine months, the new nation's capital was occupied territory. But what did that actually mean for the people who lived there?  Not the generals, not the Congress: ordinary Philadelphians who had to decide whether to flee or stay, share their homes with British officers, watch their fences get chopped up for firewood, and figure out which neighbors to trust when it was all over. In this episode, Aaron Sullivan, a professor of History at Rider University, George Boudreau, a public historian and Executive Director of the Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion Museum in Germantown, PA, and historical interpreter Kalela Williams, now the Director of the Virginia Center for the Book, take us inside occupied Philadelphia. Together, they reveal how a city that was never fully committed to independence experienced nine months of British rule, and what the occupation cost everyone who lived through it: Quaker women negotiating with soldiers at their back gates, merchants whose fortunes rose on British hard currency while their neighbors went hungry, and Black Philadelphians who looked at the upheaval and asked whether it might open a door to freedom. Plus: the most extravagant party thrown in eighteenth-century America, staged while the city's almshouses overflowed. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/332RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES

For a special Friday the 13th episode, Eric and Steve help a caller with a hex. Later they get spooked by what a deep voiced Philadelphian has under his stairs.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.