Listen as Rob confesses about that time where he sorta…kinda…maybe…beat up a guy at a Portishead concert in 1997. Stay as he dives into the world of trip-hop while celebrating Portishead’s “Glory Box” as well as other bands such as Massive Attack.
For the first few years that National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward was writing her new novel, Let Us Descend, she says she really struggled to tap into her main character. Annis is an enslaved Black woman who faces unsurmountable hardships – but she also finds deep comfort in the spirits and elements that surround her. In today's episode, Ward tells NPR's Ayesha Rascoe why she needed to incorporate spirituality into the Southern hellscape Annis faces; and why as hard as it can be to read about slavery, it's also an act of memory and resistance.
To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday
Methadone is a powerful drug that is often dosed out by the government for those in the criminal legal system who are able jump through the proper legal hoops. Helen Redmond of Filter says it serves as a mechanism for government control of people.
In this episode, Msgr. Hilary Franco joins Mark Bauerlein to discuss his new book “Six Popes: A Son of the Church Remembers.”
Music by User:Quinbrid (Luigi Boccherini) via Creative Commons. Track cropped.
Today we talk about the ramped-up anti-Semitic violence exploding almost simultaneously across the country, including the fatal attack on a Jewish man in Los Angeles. What's going on and how did we get here? Give a listen.
In the early 1960’s the Soviet space program was on a roll. They launched the first satellite into space. They launched the first man and woman into space. They conducted the first space walk.
Then, around 1966, everything changed.
The momentum they had ground to a halt, and the Americans quickly surpassed them in the space race.
What happened?
Learn more about Sergei Korolev, the most important Russian you probably have never heard of, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
Hugo Contreras, the protagonist of Raul Palma's new novel, is a babaláwo; he can cleanse evil spirits. Except he doesn't really believe in the whole thing. So when he's able to strike up a deal with a debt collector – get rid of the ghosts in his house in exchange for a clean slate – he assumes he can mostly fake it. In today's episode, Palma joins NPR's Scott Simon to discuss A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens, and how the concept of debt – not just financial, but personal, too – stirs up a lot of trauma for Hugo.
To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday
It’s Election Day, with big implications for abortion, democracy, and much more in Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky, and Mississippi. It's also one year out from the 2024 presidential election, and a new set of battleground polls in the New York Times shows Donald Trump ahead of Joe Biden just about everywhere. Meanwhile, Trump takes the stand in his civil fraud case while his advisors draw up plans to use the military against protesters if he wins the election. Then, Barack Obama sits down with Jon, Tommy, Dan and Alyssa Mastromonaco for an expansive conversation on democracy, violence in the middle east, and his memories of winning the presidency fifteen years ago.
For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.
Amanda Holmes reads Pablo Neruda’s “I Explain a Few Things,” translated from the Spanish by Galway Kinnell. Have a suggestion for a poem by a (dead) writer? Email us: podcast@theamericanscholar.org. If we select your entry, you’ll win a copy of a poetry collection edited by David Lehman.
This episode was produced by Stephanie Bastek and features the song “Canvasback” by Chad Crouch.