The author Esmeralda Santiago has been writing about Puerto Rico and questions of immigration and identity since the early nineties. But, in 2008, she suffered a stroke that left her unable to decipher words on a page. In the months that followed, she relied on some of the same strategies she’d used to teach herself English after moving to the United States ... Show More
Jun 16
The Sports Journalist Pablo Torre Has a Pulitzer, but Still Feels Like the “Turd” in the Pool
The sports journalist Pablo Torre recently won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for audio reporting for an investigation on his podcast, “Pablo Torre Finds Out.” Torre talks with David Remnick about the challenge of investigative reporting in professional sports—where leagues, owners, pla ... Show More
21m 1s
Jun 12
Rachel Goldberg-Polin on Losing a Son in Gaza
When Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s son, Hersh, was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, 2023, she became a prominent spokesperson for the families of Israeli hostages. Throughout Hersh’s captivity, and then after his murder, Goldberg-Polin, who was born in Chicago and emigrated to Isra ... Show More
39m 9s
Jun 9
Seeing the Dark Side of the Moon on NASA’s Artemis II Mission
In April, the four crew members of NASA’s Artemis II mission were the first humans to ever glimpse something that cannot be seen from Earth—the so-called dark side of the moon. The mission’s commander, the former Navy captain Reid Wiseman, is fifty years old, which also makes him ... Show More
24m 17s
Aug 2023
Esmeralda Santiago is Back in the Book Case
We talked to the renowned bilingual author Esmeralda Santiago a few months about her incredible trilogy of memoirs. So when she sent us her new novel, Las Madres, we couldn’t wait. Turns out she is just as good of a fiction writer as she is a memoirist. This is a searing, funny a ... Show More
42m 47s
Jan 2021
Turn memory into art: Isabel Allende on “The House of the Spirits”
How do you write the stories of your life? Any time, any place, any order. Isabel Allende was 39, and a refugee from her native Chile, when she started writing a letter to her dying grandfather – recounting the family stories he'd told her – of love, loss, memory, magic. This let ... Show More
38m 9s
Jan 2021
#309 Kate Elizabeth Russell: Writing Fiction & Setting Boundaries
Kate Elizabeth Russell is a writer, based in Oregon. Her debut novel, My Dark Vanessa, was published in 2020 and has been translated into thirty-five languages. It’s been both a Sunday Times Bestseller and a New York Times Bestseller. Stephen King himself described it as ‘a hard ... Show More
30m 51s
<p>Jerry Craft’s graphic novel <a href="https://jerrycraft.com/books/new-kid/" target="_blank"><i>New Kid</i></a> has won multiple awards, made the New York Times Best Sellers List, and is beloved by children across the country.But this year, <i>New Kid </i>made headlines for a d ... Show More