Jurassic Park creator Michael Crichton spent years working on a manuscript about a volcano on the verge of a disastrous eruption in Hawaii. After he died in 2008, his wife Sherri found his boxes and boxes of research and decided the novel needed to be finished – so she hit up James Patterson. In today's episode, she and Patterson speak with NPR's Ari Shapiro about how they got Eruption across the finish line more than a decade after her husband's death, and how they managed to pass off the pen throughout the course of the novel.
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In the Spring of 1846, a group of intrepid pioneers set out from Independence, Missouri, to cross the Oregon Trail to seek a better life in the fertile Oregon Territory.
However, almost nothing went according to plan for this group. They got a late start, took a devastating wrong turn, and were delayed by many natural obstacles.
They ended up being stuck in the mountains during the winter in one of the more horrific episodes in the history of the American West.
Learn more about the Donner Party, what went wrong, and their horrific fate on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
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Supreme Court Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson remembers her first brush with the national spotlight as "white hot." When President Biden nominated her in 2022 to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, it kicked off an intense confirmation process for Jackson, the first Black woman ever appointed to the Supreme Court. In her new book, Lovely One: A Memoir, Jackson charts her path from the segregated South to the country's highest court. In today's episode, Justice Jackson sits down with NPR's Juana Summers to discuss whether the Supreme Court should adopt a more binding ethics code, the court's ability to deliver a credible opinion on this year's election and her family life, including her daughter's autism diagnosis.
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
Harriet Constable learned a lot about the real life of Anna Maria della Pietà — that she grew up in an orphanage, that she was a star violinist and a favored student of Antonio Vivaldi. But in her new novel, The Instrumentalist, Constable also merges fact with fiction to tell the story of Anna Maria's synesthesia and musical talents. In today's episode, she speaks with NPR's Scott Simon about Anna Maria's life, the challenges and excitement of the classical music world at the time, and what we make of Vivaldi today.
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If you think of the First World War, your mind probably turns to images of trench warfare and thousands of men losing their lives to try and gain just a few meters of land.
However, in the first few weeks of the war, this was not at all the case. In fact, it initially looked like the war might not even last two months.
What stopped the collapse of France and began widespread trench warfare was a desperate battle that took place in the first week of September 1914.
Learn more about the First Battle of the Marne on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
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Food is a source of nourishment, joy and autonomy for a lot of people – but in her new book, Ruin their Crops on the Ground, Andrea Freeman also tracks how the U.S. government has used food policy as a form of control and oppression. In today's episode, Freeman speaks with NPR's Ayesha Rascoe about how the book's title can be traced back to an order given by George Washington to destroy the food source of Indigenous nations, and how from slavery to Got Milk? campaigns to school lunches today, there's often a bigger political agenda behind nutrition education.
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
Located in the middle of the Old City of Jerusalem lies one of the most famous structures in the world.
In addition to being the visible symbol of the city, it lies on a plot of land that is one of the most historical and contested pieces of property on the planet.
It has been a center of controversy for thousands of years and looks to continue to do so for at least hundreds more.
Learn more about the Dome of the Rock and the ground it sits on, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
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