Big Books & Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller
854 episodes - English - Latest episode: 15 days ago - ★★★★ - 179 ratingsWhere Readers Meet Writers. Conversations on books and ideas, Fridays at 11 a.m.
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Can the fabric of a friendship be rewoven?
April 05, 2024 16:00 - 51 minutes - 23.7 MBMyriam J. A. Chancy spent her childhood in Haiti and then moved with her family to Winnipeg. But those island roots shaped who she became and inspired her latest novel, “Village Weavers.” It follows a complicated female friendship that spans decades and countries. Growing up in 1940s Port-au-Prince, Gertie and Sisi are enthralled with each other — until their families discover a secret and force them apart. As girls, they didn’t understand why. But as they grow and weave in and out...
Kao Kalia Yang channels her mother in the memoir ‘Where Rivers Part’
March 29, 2024 16:00 - 54 minutes - 24.9 MBWhen Kao Kalia Yang’s mother was a child growing up in Laos, she lived a comfortable life. Her father was a prosperous merchant. She was the only Hmong girl in the village to go to school. She felt valued. The war changed all that. Hunted by North Vietnamese soldiers, Yang’s maternal family had to flee into the jungle and live a desperate existence for years. Eventually, her mother met a boy also in hiding, and they married. She was 16. It was an extraordinary chapter in her mot...
What the deepest ocean reveals and how to save it
March 22, 2024 18:14 - 48 minutes - 22.3 MBWhat do you see, hear and experience when you drop miles into the deepest parts of the ocean? For journalist Susan Casey, it was transformative — even emotional. Her latest book, “The Underworld,” is a homage to the abyss and the scientists who explore it. She also describes her own dives in deep-sea submersibles, through the oceanic “twilight zone,” which is rich with bioluminescent creatures, down to depths of 5,000 meters, where utter darkness still teems with life. Casey joi...
How memory works
March 15, 2024 16:00 - 1 hour - 29.5 MBIf you’ve ever struggled to remember where you set down your phone, or how you know the person you just ran into at the grocery store, you’re not alone. Everyday forgetfulness is a part of living — and of aging. But for neuroscientist Charan Ranganath, more compelling than what we remember is why we remember. “The human brain is not a memorization machine; it's a thinking machine,” he writes in his new book “Why We Remember: Unlocking Memory's Power to Hold on to What Matters.” ...
Tommy Orange’s new ‘Wandering Stars’ traces a long trail of trauma and belonging
March 08, 2024 17:00 - 49 minutes - 22.7 MBAt the center of Tommy Orange’s new novel sits a family nearly destroyed. It’s suffering the long-term effects of government-ordered separation, from decades of displacement and neglect, and from the white American philosophy best summed up by the phrase: Kill the Indian, save the man. It’s a theme familiar to readers who loved Orange’s first novel, “There There.” In fact, “Wandering Stars” functions as both a prequel and a sequel to that best-seller. Orange joined MPR News Host...
A prescription to modernize public health
March 01, 2024 17:00 - 51 minutes - 23.7 MBIn many ways, the COVID-19 pandemic was public health’s finest hour. Millions of lives were saved, thanks to isolation measures. Vaccines were developed in record time. Systems were developed for contract tracing and testing. But it was also an apocalyptic moment for a system under strain. As a result, trust in doctors and scientists has plummeted. A recent Pew Research Center poll found that Americans who say they have a great deal of confidence in scientists dropped from 39 perc...
Heather Cox Richardson on 'Democracy Awakening'
February 23, 2024 17:00 - 51 minutes - 23.6 MBThis week, Big Books and Bold Ideas is launching an election year series that asks: What is American democracy in 2024? Americans come to that question with significantly different views. And what American democracy was when this country was founded isn’t necessarily what it is today or what it will be in the future. Democracy is dynamic. Heather Cox Richardson spends a lot of time thinking about democracy. She’s a historian and the force behind the most popular newsletter on Su...
Memorable moments with women of faith
February 16, 2024 17:41 - 52 minutes - 24 MBMPR News host Kerri Miller has never skirted the topic of faith. On her former weekday show, she regularly dialoged with leaders like Jenan Mohajir from Interfaith America, activist and author Anne Lamott, theologian Jemar Tisby, Sister Joan Chittister, and evangelical disrupter Rachel Held Evans. She even did a year-long series with women from a variety of faith backgrounds in 2019. So it seemed fitting, during the 2024 winter member drive, to return to this theme and remember a...
Family lore becomes rich historical fiction in 'The Storm We Made'
February 09, 2024 17:31 - 51 minutes - 23.7 MBChoices made in a moment reverberate for generations, despite best intentions. Vanessa Chan adeptly explores this concept in her debut novel, “The Storm We Made” — a work of historical fiction set in her home country of Malaysia, which was inspired by stories her grandmother would tell. The main character is Cecily, a discontented housewife in 1930s Malaya, who is charmed into becoming a spy for the Japanese during the British occupation. She is increasingly disillusioned with th...
How women of the CIA changed history
February 02, 2024 17:00 - 53 minutes - 24.6 MBWomen spies pop up in Hollywood movies all the time. But as Liza Mundy’s new book reveals, it took determined persistence, personal risk and a lot of sacrifice for women to be welcomed as CIA operatives. “The Sisterhood” is a meticulously researched, seven-decade history of women who worked behind the scenes at America’s premier foreign intelligence agency. Mundy details how women opened up new avenues of recruiting for assets, formed a team that uncovered a Russian mole operating...
Tracy K. Smith delivers a plea for the American soul
January 26, 2024 17:00 - 51 minutes - 23.7 MBTracy K. Smith is known for her powerful poetry. She's a Pulitzer Prize winner and former U. S. Poet Laureate. Yet her newest book, “To Free the Captives: A Plea for the American Soul,” is memoir — a classification she initially resisted. But as she tells MPR News host Kerri Miller, she eventually saw that her own story is a kind of microcosm of America’s story. It’s a meditation on who we’ve been, who we are and who we want to become. On this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas, Smi...
Can higher education be saved from itself?
January 19, 2024 17:00 - 58 minutes - 26.8 MBAmericans’ faith in the value of higher education is faltering. Unlike our global peers, the U.S. is seeing a steady decline in college enrollment and graduation rates, especially among young men. Since 1992, the sticker price for four-year private colleges has almost doubled and more than doubled for four-year public colleges, even after adjusting for inflation. Student debt is paralyzing. And Gen Z is watching. About half believe a high school diploma is sufficient to “ensure fin...
The inside story of the government’s search for alien life
January 12, 2024 17:00 - 51 minutes - 23.7 MBAre you convinced the U.S. government knows more than it will reveal about UFOs? After doing a deep dive into the history, journalist Garrett Graff is too. But he doesn’t think the cover-up is a necessarily hiding alien life. “There are two obvious cloaks of secrecy that surrounds the government cover-up of its understanding of what UFOs and UAPs (unidentified aerial phenomena) are today,” Graff tells MPR News host Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas. “One level...
Three historians and authors reflect on this American moment
January 05, 2024 17:00 - 52 minutes - 23.9 MBThis year, Big Books and Bold Ideas is introducing an occasional series that will feature books on democracy. That series begins as we mark the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection. To gain context, we invited three historians and authors from different regions of the country to reflect on this American moment. Can history be a guide to where we are? Do we have the chaos and divisiveness we deserve? How do we approach what comes next with clarity and perspective? Guests: ...
How a pastor's faith survived 'Beautiful and Terrible Things'
December 29, 2023 17:00 - 51 minutes - 23.6 MB“Here is the world,” writes theologian Frederick Buechner. “Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid.” Those words rooted Amy Butler through some of the darkest moments of her life. As Butler slowly embraced her call to be a pastor, she was rejected by her conservative evangelical family, who doesn’t believe women should be in pastoral roles. She was the first woman ever appointed to lead the historic Riverside Church in New York City, but the challenges of brea...
Can a 5,000-mile journey help a mother and son survive their differences?
December 22, 2023 17:00 - 52 minutes - 24 MBFor years, author Jedidiah Jenkins and his mother, Barbara, have flirted with the idea of a cross-country road trip together. The goal: to retrace Barbara’s route across America which she walked with her husband, travel writer Peter Jenkins, in the 1970s. But there is one problem: they have wildly disparate world views. Barbara is a baby boomer who lives in rural Tennessee. She supports Trump, listens to conservative media and is a deeply passionate evangelical Christian. Jedidi...
Poet Major Jackson on writing poetry that connects
December 15, 2023 17:00 - 1 hour - 32.7 MBMembers of MPR and supporters of The Slowdown came together in mid-October to celebrate poetry with Major Jackson. The poet was in the Twin Cities to speak at the Twin Cities Book Festival, which is where he also learned that The Slowdown — a daily poetry podcast that he hosts — had won the prestigious Signal Award for Best Daily Podcast of 2023. MPR News' Kerri Miller in Conversation with The Slowdown's Major Jackson It was on that jubilant note that he spoke with host Kerri M...
Rethinking roads
December 08, 2023 17:00 - 49 minutes - 22.6 MBTo humans, roads are so ubiquitous, they are almost invisible. They crisscross every continent and allow for travel, exploration and connection. But to wildlife, roads are dangerous divisions of habitat. Around a million animals are killed by cars every day. Roads change migration patterns, cut off animals from their food sources and create noise so loud that it drowns out the ability for some animals to communicate with each other or hunt their prey. But road ecologists are work...
Decoding the 'familect'
December 07, 2023 17:05 - 48 minutes - 22.1 MBWhat word or phrase conjures immediate understanding in your family — but puzzled looks from everyone else? In one family, pizza crust is known as “pizza bones.” In another, children who weren’t allowed to say fart were instructed to use the word “foof” instead. This Thursday, MPR News host Kerri Miller talked about “familect” with word wizard Anatoly Liberman. Guest: Anatoly Liberman is a linguist and professor of languages at the University of Minnesota. His latest book i...
Safiya Sinclair liberates herself in 'How to Say Babylon'
December 01, 2023 17:40 - 51 minutes - 23.5 MBTo the strict Rastafari father of Jamaican poet Safiya Sinclair, Babylon was not just an ancient city. It was a symbol for corruption, for wickedness, for decadence and depravity. And it was everywhere. So he kept his family tightly controlled, separate from outside influences that could contaminate. It was in that environment that Sinclair first grew and then stifled. Her father’s Rastafari faith was all-encompassing. While her mother taught her the music of nature and encourag...
Kerri Miller and two book lovers share their favorite books of 2023
December 01, 2023 16:55 - 47 minutes - 22 MBWhat book did you read this year that you immediately recommended to all your friends? That was the topic MPR News host Kerri Miller tackled Monday at 9 a.m. for a special live edition of her regular Friday show, Big Books and Bold Ideas. Instead of chatting with an author, Miller took calls and chatted with Glory Edim, the founder of Well-Read Black Girl, and Julie Buckles, the owner of Honest Dog Books in Bayfield, Wis. Before the show, we asked our social media followers what t...
Tour the galaxy with the 'Bad Astronomer'
November 17, 2023 17:00 - 51 minutes - 23.7 MBCan you imagine a day when families visit the moon for summer vacation? When travel to see Saturn’s rings up close is a romantic getaway? When humans living on Mars schedule tours of Olympus Mons — a volcano roughly the size of Arizona? The day is coming. But since it’s not possible quite yet, the would-be space traveler can do the next best thing: Take the scenic route through the galaxy with astronomer and science communicator Philip Plait in his new book, “Under Alien Skies.” ...
Talking Volumes: Margaret Renkl on 'The Comfort of Crows'
November 10, 2023 18:06 - 1 hour - 46.4 MBThe season finale of Talking Volumes brought author and columnist Margaret Renkl to Minnesota, hours after the first snow carpeted our Northern landscape. She declared it “magical” — a theme familiar to those who’ve read her New York Times columns or her new book, “The Comfort of Crows.” In it, the self-described backyard naturalist details what she saw in her Tennessee half-acre backyard over the course of 52 weeks. She laughs at the bumblebees and fusses over foxes. She laments...
A hard look at gun violence in 'The Bodies Keep Coming'
November 03, 2023 16:00 - 51 minutes - 23.4 MBOn July 7, 2016, a Black gunman ambushed Dallas police officers working a peaceful protest, shooting 14 and killing five. The trauma surgeon who worked to save many of those officers — Dr. Brian H. Williams — made headlines when he spoke at a press conference after the incident. In an emotional moment, he confessed his complicated feelings as a Black man in America to the mix of race, policing and guns. “I want the Dallas P.D. to also see me, a Black man, and understand that I su...
Talking Volumes: Viet Thanh Nguyen on being 'A Man of Two Faces'
October 27, 2023 16:00 - 1 hour - 43.2 MBViet Thanh Nguyen has a critical mind. He’s critic of populist politics. He’s a critic of history. He’s a critic of the country where he was born, Vietnam, and he’s a critic of the country he calls home, the United States. He’s even a critic of his own memories. But Nguyen says his captious lens isn’t meant to blister. It’s simply meant to reveal truth. And if you write truthfully, you will likely offend. Talking Volumes with Viet Thanh Nguyen Nguyen joined host Kerri Miller ...
'Land of Milk and Honey' depicts a future without the pleasure of food
October 20, 2023 16:00 - 48 minutes - 22 MBIn C Pam Zhang’s dystopian not-too-distant future, the planet is covered in a crop-killing smog. Food as we know it is rapidly disappearing to be replaced by a gray, mung bean flour. Zhang’s protagonist, a young unnamed Asian chef, decides to flee her dreary career and lies her way into becoming the head cook at a mountaintop research community, where the sky is still clear and the uber-rich work to recreate and hoard the world’s biodiversity. The prose in “Land of Milk and Hone...
Talking Volumes: Ann Patchett on 'Tom Lake'
October 06, 2023 16:00 - 1 hour - 50.8 MBAnn Patchett is a perennial favorite at Talking Volumes. So it’s no surprise that she sold out the Fitz for her conversation with host Kerri Miller on Sept. 28. What ensued was a raucous two hours of honest conversation. Just a few of the topics they covered: Ann’s “shiny new attitude” about book tours, how to be a feminist while still making dinner every night, why Ann keeps a drawer stocked with $20s in her desk and — last but certainly not least — Ann’s new novel, “Tom Lake.” ...
A young girl runs from Jamestown in Lauren Groff's new book, 'The Vaster Wilds'
September 29, 2023 16:50 - 51 minutes - 23.6 MBLauren Groff’s new novel, “The Vaster Wilds,” begins in the bleak winter of 1609, when the residents of the early American colony of Jamestown are diseased and starving. A young servant girl, who was brought to the new world by a prosperous and indifferent family, decides to run from the desolation. But she leaves Jamestown not knowing her direction, her surroundings or even her name. Can she survive the untouched wilderness? Groff says her new book is haunted by climate change —...
Talking Volumes: Abraham Verghese on 'Covenant of Water'
September 22, 2023 16:00 - 1 hour - 47.7 MBWhen Dr. Abraham Verghese released his debut novel in 2009 it was an literary marvel. “Cutting for Stone” captivated readers, sold more than 1.5 million copies in the U.S. alone and remained on the New York Times bestseller list for two years. Readers had to wait 14 years for another book by Verghese, but by all accounts, his new novel was worth the wait. Oprah Winfrey named it a book club pick, called saying it was “one of the best books I’ve read in my entire life — and I’ve b...
Healing from trauma in the northern Wisconsin woods
September 15, 2023 16:00 - 48 minutes - 22.2 MBCarol Dunbar didn’t set out to be an writer. For more than a decade, she was an actress based in the Twin Cities. She told stories by embodying them. But then she and her husband — also an actor — decided to leave it all behind. They moved off the grid, to rural Wisconsin, so her husband could handcraft furniture. It was there, while learning to split wood and pump water and raise two toddlers in the midst of the chaos, that Dunbar came to the stunning conclusion that she was a s...
Minnesota novelist Julie Schumacher on 'The English Experience'
September 08, 2023 16:00 - 54 minutes - 25.2 MBJason Fitger is not a likeable character. A creative writing professor at the fictitious Payne University, an aptly named small liberal arts college in the Midwest, Fitger is cantankerous and acid-tongued, beleaguered and inappropriate. He doesn’t really like students — and he doesn’t like England, which is where he has been pressured into leading a study abroad program. The students on the tour are equally hapless. For the most part, this is their first trip away from home. One...
Nostalgia becomes a weapon in the sci-fi thriller 'Prophet'
September 01, 2023 16:00 - 56 minutes - 25.9 MBThe first time Helen Macdonald and Sin Blaché met, it was to finish the book they had been cowriting for a year. Macdonald, author of the best-selling “H is for Hawk,” and Blaché, an artist living in Ireland, first met online. During the COVID lockdowns, bored and restless, they started to play with the idea of writing a book together. Chapters began to fly digitally over the Irish Sea. What resulted is “Prophet,” a fast-paced techno-thriller that centers around a lethal mystery...
Novel asks: ‘What if your two favorite people hate each other with a passion?’
August 18, 2023 16:00 - 55 minutes - 25.4 MBA pair of best friends determine to leave behind their conservative families and societal expectations, and live by a new motto: By Myself, For Myself. What happens when one of those friends marries, and the other friend sees the new husband as a betrayal of their values? That’s the premise behind British-Nigerian author Ore Agbaje-Williams debut novel, “The Three of Us.” The story plays out on a single wine- and whiskey-soaked afternoon, when the wife, husband and best friend ...
Christian Cooper on what it means to be a Black man in the natural world
August 10, 2023 16:28 - 56 minutes - 25.8 MBChristian Cooper’s visibility as a lifelong birder exploded after a woman in Central Park refused to leash her dog and reported, wrongly, that she was being threatened. Three years later, Cooper is out with a powerful new memoir and a National Geographic TV show he hopes will attract more people of color to the world of bird-watching. Don’t miss this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas, when Cooper talks with host Kerri Miller about how a self-described nerdy gay kid from Long Island ...
Minnesota's supper clubs set the table for a delicious family drama
August 04, 2023 16:00 - 51 minutes - 23.7 MBJ. Ryan Stradal knows supper club culture. Growing up in Hastings, Minn., his family milestones were marked by dressing up, sitting in a leather booth at the Wiederholt's Supper Club, picking at a relish tray and watching the grown-ups enjoy a brandy Old Fashioned. He even worked at a supper club across the river, in Prescott, Wisc., where he went behind the double-swinging doors and had his views about restaurant work forever changed. So it is with a deep sense of fondness, w...
Luis Urrea's new novel is inspired by his mother's wartime experiences
July 28, 2023 16:38 - 54 minutes - 25 MBUntil writer Luis Alberto Urrea inherited his mother’s journals, he knew very little about what she’d seen and done in World War II. He knew she served on a team of Donut Dollies, women who volunteered with the Red Cross to provide mobile food, entertainment and comfort to U.S. servicemen station on many European battlefronts. But he didn’t know she’d been on the front lines in one of the most ferocious battles, or that the nightmares she suffered her whole life stemmed from her ex...
In 'Shy,' a troubled teenage boy gets a last chance
July 21, 2023 16:00 - 1 hour - 28.1 MBShy, the teenage boy at the heart of Max Porter’s latest novel, defies classification. He is moody and violent, traits which heartbreak his mother and get him sent to the Last Chance boarding school. He is also sensitive and vulnerable, a boy who seems to be missing a layer of skin to protect himself from the world’s hypocrisy and starkness. This paradox is at the heart of “Shy” — and in fact, the heart of most teenagers. Porter took pains to not describe Shy’s inner world but...
'Of White Ashes' brings the WWII Japanese-American experience to life
July 14, 2023 16:00 - 51 minutes - 23.7 MBWhen Ruby Ishimaru and her family are sent away from Hawaii to a mainland internment camp in 1942, Ruby packs her treasures — photographs, seashells and the books of Laura Ingalls Wilder. She finds comfort in Laura’s adventures even as she and her family are thrust into the frightening unknown. On the other side of the world, the unknown is also baring down on Japan, where young Koji Matsuo watches the country rally for war from his home in Hiroshima. When Ruby and Koji eventual...
Rachel Louise Snyder's memoir is as beautifully complex as her life.
July 07, 2023 16:00 - 1 hour - 30.2 MB“Cancer took my mother. But religion would take my life.” So writes journalist Rachel Louise Snyder in her new memoir, “Women We Buried, Women We Burned.” It recounts with brutal honesty how the death of her mother upended her previously peaceful world, launching her father into a new marriage within the confines of a strict, fundamentalist Christianity. Violence and rage became her new norm, until she was kicked out at age 16 for refusing the obey the many rules her father impos...
A historical swashbuckler from author David Grann
June 30, 2023 16:00 - 53 minutes - 24.5 MBThe latest book from journalist and bestselling author David Grann details the true story of a 1741 shipwreck that he believes has "surprising resonance … with our own contemporary, turbulent times.” When a squadron of ships left England in the fall of 1740, with secret hopes of capturing a Spanish galleon filled with gold, they had little idea what might befall them. They were overloaded with men, many who were old and infirmed. They were equipped with rudimentary navigation tool...
Women bootleggers in the time of Prohibition
June 23, 2023 16:00 - 51 minutes - 23.6 MBEditor’s note: This program was originally preempted by breaking news coverage. The post has been updated to reflect the new broadcast date. Jeannette Wells’ 2009 memoir “The Glass Castle” has been a New York Times bestseller for more than eight years. The movie adaptation starring Brie Larson, Woody Harrelson and Naomi Watts also won awards. Her much-anticipated new book, “Hang the Moon,” is worth the wait. Set in 1920s rural Virginia, it centers on young Sallie Kincaid whose da...
What it really means to be all-American
June 09, 2023 16:00 - 57 minutes - 26.6 MBJoe Milan Jr.’s debut novel, “The All-American,” is about immigration — but it’s not a story about what it means to leave a foreign land and start over in America. Instead, it’s about what it means to leave America, unwillingly, and start over in a foreign land. Milan’s protagonist, 17-year-old Bucky Yi, knows nothing about his birth country of South Korea. Raised in rural Washington, he has only one goal — to become a college football player. But when he tangles with local law ...
Minnesota writer William Kent Krueger on the importance of place
June 02, 2023 16:00 - 1 hour - 39.6 MBMinnesota author William Kent Krueger has written 19 books that star his primary protagonist, private investigator Cork O’Connor. But just as central to his writing is the landscape of Northern Minnesota. It’s more than a setting. It’s a character. “I write profoundly out of a sense of place,” Krueger told MPR News host Kerri Miller at a special spring Talking Volumes earlier this month. “When I used to teach writing, I taught place as character. Place is one of the most importa...
From the archives: William Kent Krueger on 'Lightning Strike'
May 30, 2023 19:00 - 52 minutes - 24.1 MBMinnesota writer William Kent Krueger is a fan favorite, thanks largely to his series of crime novels featuring private investigator Cork O'Connor. Krueger joined host Kerri Miller in Duluth earlier this week for a special spring edition of Talking Volumes. You’ll hear that conversation on Friday. So it’s only fitting that this week’s archive is Krueger’s last appearance on the Talking Volumes stage. He was at the Fitzgerald Theater in 2021 to discuss his book, “Lightning Strike.”...
Journalist Jeff Sharlet on America's slow civil war
May 26, 2023 19:14 - 56 minutes - 25.9 MBWhen Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene proposed the United States would benefit from a “national divorce,” many scoffed and labeled her statements as incendiary pot-stirring. Journalist Jeff Sharlet was not one of them. After traveling the country for more than a dozen years, reporting on the intersection between religion and far-right politics, he believes remarks like Rep. Greene’s should be taken seriously and at face value. His latest book, “The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil W...
Drew Brockington takes fans into 'meowter' space at Talking Volumes
May 19, 2023 16:00 - 1 hour - 29 MBCats … in space? It’s not a crazy notion for fans of Drew Brockington’s “CatStronauts,” who’ve devoured his graphic novels the way pilot Waffles eats a tuna fish sandwich. After six books detailing the adventures of Waffles, Blanket, Pom-Pom and Major Meowser, Brockington recently launched a prequel series detailing the kittenhood adventures of siblings Waffles and Pancakes. How did they end up wanting to be catstronauts? At a special Talking Volumes in Rochester, Minn., earli...
From the archives: 'CatStronauts' author Drew Brockington blasts off into fun
May 16, 2023 17:30 - 31 minutes - 14.3 MBCats are known to like their space. But outer space? That we didn’t learn until Minneapolis author and illustrator Drew Brockington’s put a crew of feline scientists on a rocket in his 2017 book, “CatStronauts: Mission Moon.” Turns out, Waffles, Blanket, Pom-Pom and Major Meowser are capable and witty astronauts, adapt at both saving the universe and delighting kids with their antics. Brockington’s graphic novels have won acclaim and fans across the galaxy. Last week, Brockington...
'Symphony of Secrets' is an ode to music stolen and composers erased
May 12, 2023 16:00 - 57 minutes - 26.2 MBIn his new novel, “Symphony of Secrets,” Brendan Slocumb once again tucks a mystery inside a musical thriller. But underscoring the plot are some big questions about our culture. Whose music gets heard and honored? Who gets to claim the ownership and rewards of a song? And who gets to tell the story of how that music came to be? Slocumb’s protagonist is Bern Hendricks, a musicologist thrilled to be given the chance to authenticate a just discovered opera, attributed to his musical...
How dogs become themselves and other wonders of puppyhood
May 05, 2023 16:00 - 53 minutes - 24.3 MBIf you want to know canine psychologist Alexandra Horowitz’ best advice for training a puppy, it can be summed up in one sentence: “Expect that your puppy will not be who you think, nor act as you hope.” That truth — which can both delight and confound new puppy caretakers — is at the center of her 2021 book, “The Year of the Puppy.” A longtime researcher of canine behavior, Horowitz realized she had never examined those critical first months of a dog’s life. So in 2020, she starte...
Environmental journalist Oliver Milman on why you should care about 'The Insect Crisis'
April 28, 2023 13:30 - 51 minutes - 23.8 MBApril is Animal Month on Big Books and Bold Ideas. But this time, we’re not talking about dogs, monkeys or bats — but bees, beetles and butterflies. It might not seem like it on a summer night in Minnesota — when mosquitos are swarming your campfire — but Earth’s kingdom of insects is diminishing so rapidly, scientists have declared it a crisis. In 2019, a report in published in Biological Conservation found that 40 percent of all insect species are declining globally and a third...