If We Can Keep It: Two Takes To Keep The Republic Strong (Rebroadcast)
Have we lost our way, or did the Founding Fathers build a system with unforeseen flaws?
Books
In 'Working,' Writer Robert Caro Explains His Process — And What Drives Him
The memoir is a window into the seemingly superhuman reporting, researching, writing and will-power that have led Caro's reinvention of the political biography. But when's the next LBJ book coming?
Robert Caro's 'Working' Details His Life On The Job
NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Robert Caro about his book: Working, which is an uncharacteristically short memoir. Caro says he was a fast-writing newspaperman until he recalled a professor's advice.
Questions For Arkady Martine, Author Of 'A Memory Called Empire'
City planner and Byzantine historian Arkady Martine puts her academic experience to work in a new novel about an ambassador from a small space station who comes to the court of a devouring empire.
'The Old Drift' Takes The Long View Of Human (And Mosquito) History
Namwali Serpell's lush, sprawling new novel is a speculative history — and future — of Zambia, from colonialism to an ill-fated space program and the age of mass surveillance and drone warfare.
Chef's Memoir Tackles What It's Like To Be Young, Gifted And Black In Fine Dining
Kwame Onwuachi's new memoir, Notes From A Young Black Chef, isn't just about his rise from poverty to celebrated restaurateur. It's also a meditation on being a black man in a rarefied world.
Salvador Dalí Meets The Marx Brothers In 'Giraffes On Horseback Salad'
Salvador Dalí's friendship with Harpo Marx led him to write a Marx Brothers movie treatment, Giraffes on Horseback Salad. Studio head Louis B. Mayer killed it, but it lives again as a graphic novel.
Monsters Imaginary And Real Haunt The Caves Of 'The Luminous Dead'
Caitlin Starling's tense new horror novel follows a desperate young cave diver who's lied her way into a job on a dangerous planet, and the supervisor who may not have her best interests at heart.
These 'Women Talking' Build Their Own Faith And Future
Miriam Toews' new novel follows a group of women in an isolated religious colony as they struggle to reconcile their faith with a series of horrific sexual assaults committed by the colony's men.
Novel Material: Ann Beattie, Voice Of The Boomers, Turns Her Focus To Millennials
"I never really think that I'm defining a generation," Beattie says. "What I am doing is talking about individual psychology." Her latest novel is called A Wonderful Stroke of Luck.