Author Interviews

Journalist David Zucchino says Wilmington, N.C., was once a mixed-race community with a thriving black middle class. Then, in 1898, white supremacists staged a murderous coup that changed everything.

NPR's Steve Inskeep, discussing his book Imperfect Union: How Jesse and John Fremont Mapped the West, Invented Celebrity and Helped Cause the Civil War, touches on parallels to U.S. politics in 2020.

Anna Wiener's new memoir chronicles the time she spent working in Silicon Valley tech startups. She says industry narratives tend to be about genius and innovation — not ordinary employees.

NPR's Scott Simon speaks with author Meng Jin about her debut novel Little Gods, about a 17-year-old whose journey to China reveals the life of her mother, a former physicist who died in America.

Scarlett Thomas' novel, set among wealthy girls at a British boarding school, is an audacious examination of disordered eating and social competition that turns dark when one of the girls drowns.

Author Andrea Bernstein says Donald Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, have benefited from family connections — and the influence of money in politics.

Author Peggy Orenstein spoke to more than 100 young men of diverse backgrounds about sex, porn, gender and intimacy. Boys, she found, often lack "permission or space" to discuss their interior lives.

Ada Calhoun talked to a lot of Gen X women about the angst they feel as they approach midlife — the pressure to have it all and the feeling that they should have done better for themselves.

NPR's Sarah McCammon speaks with debut novelist Miranda Popkey about her new book, Topics of Conversation.

A new book, The Joy of Movement, offers more motivation to exercise. It's not just about getting fit or looking good: Exercise can give you courage, pleasure and better friendships.

This week, we're listening back to some favorite Fresh Air interviews from the past decade. The punk icon reflected on her career and her 22-year friendship with artist Robert Mapplethorpe in 2010.

This week, we're listening back to some favorite Fresh Air interviews from the past decade. The Nobel Prize winner, who died in 2019, spoke about aging and regret in this 2015 interview.