Free Library Podcast

The Author Events Series presents Caro De Robertis | So Many Stars REGISTER In Conversation with Dr. Michelle Taylor So Many Stars knits together the voices of trans, nonbinary, genderqueer, and two-spirit elders of color as they share authentic, intimate accounts of how they created space for themselves and their communities in the world. This singular project collects the testimonies of twenty elders, each a glimmering thread in a luminous tapestry, preserving their words for future generations--who can more fully exist in the world today because of these very trailblazers. De Robertis creates a collective coming-of-age story based on hundreds of hours of interviews, offering rare snapshots of ordinary life: kids growing up, navigating family issues and finding community, coming out and changing how they identify over the years, building movements and weathering the AIDS crisis, and sharing wisdom for future generations. Often narrating experiences that took place before they had the array of language that exists today to self-identify beyond the gender binary, this generation lived through remarkable changes in American culture, shaped American culture, and yet rarely takes center stage in the history books. Their stories feel particularly urgent in the current political moment, but also remind readers that their experiences are not new, and that young trans and nonbinary people today belong to a long lineage. The anecdotes in these pages are riveting, joyful, heartbreaking, full of personality and wisdom, and artfully woven together into one immersive narrative. In De Robertis's words, So Many Stars shares "behind-the-scenes tales of what it meant--and still means--to create an authentic life, against the odds." A writer of Uruguayan origins, Caro De Robertis is the author of six novels, including The Palace of Eros, Cantoras, and more. Their books have been translated into seventeen languages and have received numerous honors, including two Stonewall Book Awards, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature, which they were the first openly nonbinary writer to receive. De Robertis is also an award-winning literary translator and a professor at San Francisco State University. They live in Oakland, California with their two children. Dr. Michelle Taylor holds a Ph.D. in Africology & African American Studies from Temple University and is an educator, writer, and activist. She also earned an M.S.W. from CUNY-Hunter College and served her community as a social worker for eighteen years prior to entering academia. Dr. Taylor is the author of Reclaiming Our Space: How Black Feminists Are Changing the World from the Tweets to the Streets and her work focuses on African American women, mass media, and social justice. Dr. Taylor founded Sankofa Summer School, a ritual Afrocentric academy that educates students about topics relevant to people of the African Diaspora. The 2024/25 Author Events Series is presented by Comcast. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 6/2/2025)

The Author Events Series presents Jake Tapper & Alex Thompson | Original Sin Tickets to the Montgomery Auditorium are now sold out, but you can still get tickets for the simulcast live screening in Room 108. REGISTER In Conversation with Tamala Edwards In Greek tragedy, the protagonist's effort to avoid his fate is what seals his fate. In 2024, American politics became a Greek tragedy. Joe Biden launched his successful 2020 bid for the White House with the stated goal of saving the nation from a second Trump presidential term. He, his family, and his senior aides were so convinced that only he could beat Trump again, they lied to themselves, allies, and the public about his condition and limitations. At his debate with Trump on June 27, 2024, the consequences of that deception were exposed to the world. It was shocking and upsetting. Now the full, unsettling truth is being told for the first time. Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson take us behind closed doors and into private conversations between the heaviest of hitters, revealing how big the problem was and how many people knew about it. From White House staffers at the highest to lowest levels, to leaders of Congress and the Cabinet, from governors to donors and Hollywood players, the truth is finally being told. What you will learn makes President Biden's decision to run for reelection seem shockingly narcissistic, self-delusional, and reckless-a desperate bet that went bust-and part of a larger act of extended public deception that has few precedents. The story the authors tell raises fundamental issues of accountability and responsibility that will continue for decades. The irony is biting: In the name of defeating what they called an existential threat to democracy, Biden and his inner circle ensured it, tossing aside his implicit promise to serve for only one term, denying the existence of health issues the nation had been watching for years, dooming the Democrats to defeat. The decision to run again, the Original Sin of this president, led to a campaign of denial and gaslighting, leading directly to Donald Trump's return to power and all that has happened as a consequence. Rarely does hubris meet nemesis more explosively. Wherever you stand on the political spectrum, Original Sin is essential reading. Tamala Edwards joined 6abc in January of 2005. She is the weekday co-anchor of Action News Mornings from 4 a.m to 7 a.m. and is a regular co-host of Inside Story, conducting probing interviews with newsmakers like Governor Tom Corbett, Senator Bob Casey, Mayor Michael Nutter and others, as well as moderating many election debates. Prior to joining 6abc, Tamala Edwards was the anchor of ABC's World News Now, and World News This Morning. The 2024/25 Author Events Series is presented by Comcast. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 5/29/2025)

The Author Events Series presents Senator Ron Wyden | It Takes Chutzpah: How to Fight Fearlessly for Progressive Change REGISTER In Conversation with Michael Solomonov Endowed Lecture: Pine Tree Foundation It Takes Chutzpah is an inspirational call to action by a senior U.S. politician, describing how Americans of all age groups, persuasions, and occupations can defy convention, chart new pathways for their communities, schools, at work and in life. US Senator Ron Wyden is widely praised for coming up with sensible-sounding ideas no one else had thought of and making the counter-intuitive political alliances that prove helpful in passing bills. In It Takes Chutzpah, he offers a progressive leader's manifesto for being a courageous warrior during turbulent times. "Chutzpah" is a Yiddish word that describes a trait that many Jews consider in-born. Ron explores chutzpah's long history and many interpretations and reclaims the word chutzpah for a new American generation, showing how it can be used for good to reclaim idealism and enact positive change. He shares "Ron's 12 Rules of Chutzpah" that enable any individual or group to achieve their objectives, including: 1. If you want to make change, you've got to make noise. 2.In a world where everyone thinks and acts for the short-term, always play the long game. 3. Leading is coaching: Whether in legislation or in life, you've got to bring people and ideas together around a shared goal. Ron identifies several key values--free speech, health care, reproductive rights, a clean environment, and reigning in Big Tech--and draws on his decades of public service to stress that preserving those values means that loud brashness and boldness will be needed now more than ever. The 2024/25 Author Events Series is presented by Comcast. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 5/15/2025)

The Author Events Series presents Jonathan Capehart | Yet Here I Am: Lessons from a Black Man's Search for Home Tickets to the Montgomery Auditorium are now sold out, but you can still get tickets for the simulcast live screening in Room 108. REGISTER In Conversation with David Brooks Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, editor, and TV host Jonathan Capehart on growing up, coming out, finding his voice, battles lost and won, and the path to a meaningful life Before meeting with success as a journalist, Jonathan Capehart struggled with his identity. Capehart grew up without his father and, as a child, lived with his mother in New Jersey and spent his summers living with relatives in North Carolina. Whether in the North or the South, Capehart had to contend with being told he was too smart or not smart enough, too black or not black enough. His was a struggle to identify and become. Yet Here I Am takes us along Capehart's journey, from his years at Carleton College, where he learns to embrace his identity as a gay, black man surrounded by a likeminded community; to his decision to come out to his family, risking rejection; and finally, his move to New York City and where he landed his first break in television news. Capehart, gaining confidence, eventually found his singular voice – as a writer, editor, and broadcaster – and used it to propel himself and the causes of others. Indeed, it was his voice that helped him find his place in the world, contemplating the complexities of race, place, reporting, and home. Honest and endearing, Yet Here I Am is an inspirational memoir of identity, opportunity, and purpose. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jonathan Capehart is anchor of The Saturday Show and The Sunday Show on MSNBC. In the spring, he will become a co-host of the morning edition of The Weekend on MSNBC. Capehart is Associate Editor at the Washington Post, where he is also an opinion writer. He is also an analyst on The PBS News Hour. Capehart was deputy editorial page editor of the New York Daily News (2002-2004) and served on its editorial board (1993-2000). His editorial campaign in 1999 to save the Apollo Theater earned the board the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing. David Brooks is a columnist for The New York Times and a contributor to The Atlantic. He is a commentator on ''The PBS Newshour." His latest book is ''How To Know A Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen.'' His previous three books were ''The Second Mountain,'' ''The Road to Character,'' and ''The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement,'' all #1 New York Times bestsellers. The 2024/25 Author Events Series is presented by Comcast. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 5/22/2025)

The Author Events Series presents Paul Muldoon | Joy in Service on Rue Tagore: Poems REGISTER In Conversation with Daisy Fried Since his 1973 debut, New Weather, Paul Muldoon has created some of the most original and memorable poetry of the past half century. Joy in Service on Rue Tagore sees him writing with the same verve and distinction that have consistently won him the highest accolades. Here, from artichokes to zinc, Muldoon navigates an alphabet of image and history, through barleymen and Irish slavers to the last running wolf in Ulster. The search involves the accumulated bric-a-brac of a life, and a reckoning along the way of gains against loss. In the poet's skillful hands, ancient maps are unfurled and brought into focus--the aggregation of Imperial Rome and the dismantling of Standard Oil, the pogroms of a Ukrainian ravine and of a Belfast shipyard. Through modern medicine and warfare, disaster and repair, these poems are electric in their energy, while profoundly humane in their line of inquiry. Paul Muldoon was born in County Armagh in 1951. He now lives in New York. A former radio and television producer for the BBC in Belfast, he has taught at Princeton University for thirty-five years. He is the author of fourteen previous collections of poetry, including Moy Sand and Gravel, for which he won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize. Daisy Fried is the author of five books of poetry: My Destination (forthcoming next year from Flood Editions and Carcanet Press), The Year the City Emptied, Women's Poetry: Poems and Advice, My Brother is Getting Arrested Again, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle, and She Didn't Mean to Do It. She has been awarded Guggenheim, Hodder and Pew Fellowships. A core faculty member in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, and an occasional poetry critic for the New York Times, Poetry Foundation and elsewhere, she has lived in Philadelphia for decades, but will be moving to San Francisco at the end of the summer. The 2024/25 Author Events Series is presented by Comcast. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 5/14/2025)

The Author Events Series presents Dr. Judith Joseph | High Functioning REGISTER In Conversation with Hannah Williams Emcee - Dr. Dalesa Rueda The first book to unmask the hidden face of depression. If you look fine on the outside but don't feel fine on the inside, learn five tools to break the cycle of High Functioning Depression and experience more joy in your life. In High Functioning, Dr. Judith Joseph reveals that what we're feeling is not simply ''negativity'' or stress. Drawing on original research, client cases, and her personal experience with HFD, Dr. Judith radically shifts the way those of us with HFD see ourselves, and empowers us with five simple tools to reclaim our lives from this widespread yet poorly understood condition. By following her 5 V's - validation, venting, values, vision, and vitals - we can wake up happier, find more satisfaction in our relationships, and feel better in the present while also looking forward to the future. Hannah Williams is a social activist and former data analyst tackling a major issue: salary transparency. After finding out she was underpaid, Hannah created Salary Transparent Street, a viral series interviewing strangers about their pay to help workers learn and earn more. She's testified in support of pay transparency bills in Virginia, Maryland, and DC, and her work has been featured by major media organizations like The Washington Post, TIME and BBC News. In 2023, she was named a Money.com Changemaker, and in 2024, she made the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. Dr. Dalesa Rueda is a licensed marriage and family therapist and the founder of Inspired & Free, a multi-state virtual therapy practice rooted in culturally responsive care. With over 20 years of experience, she specializes in helping individuals and couples heal from anxiety, trauma, and relationship challenges. Known for her warm, relatable approach and deep community ties in Philadelphia, Dr. Dalesa is passionate about making emotional wellness accessible and empowering for all. The 2024/25 Author Events Series is presented by Comcast. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. All tickets are non-refundable. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! The views expressed by the authors and moderators are strictly their own and do not represent the opinions of the Free Library of Philadelphia or its employees. (recorded 5/8/2025)

The Author Events Series presents Elie Mystal | Bad Law: Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining America REGISTER In Conversation with Cherri Gregg In Bad Law, the New York Times bestselling author of Allow Me To Retort: A Black Guy's Guide to the Constitution brings his trademark legal acumen and passionate snark to a brilliant takedown of ten of what he considers the most egregiously awful laws on the books today. These are pieces of legislation that are making life worse rather than better for Americans, and that, he argues with trenchant wit and biting humor, should be repealed completely. On topics ranging from abortion and immigration to voting rights and religious freedom, we have chosen rules to live by that do not reflect the will of most of the people. With respect to our decision to make a law that effectively grants immunity to gun manufacturers, for example, Mystal writes, ''We live in the most violent, wealthy country on earth not in spite of the law; we live in a first-person-shooter video game because of the law.'' But, as the man Samantha Bee calls ''irrepressible and righteously indignant'' and Matt Levine of Bloomberg Opinion calls ''the funniest lawyer in America,'' points out, these laws do not come to us from on high; we write them, and we can and should unwrite them. In a marvelous and original takedown spanning all the hot-button topics in the country today, one of our most brilliant legal thinkers points the way to a saner tomorrow most brilliant legal thinkers points the way to a saner tomorrow. The 2024/25 Author Events Series is presented by Comcast. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 4/30/2025)

The Author Events Series presents Mike Sielski | Magic in the Air REGISTER In Conversation with Buzz Bissinger The evolution of basketball, and much of the social and cultural change in America, can be traced through one powerful act on the court: the slam dunk. The dunk's history is the story of a sport and a country changed by the most dominant act in basketball, and it makes Magic in the Air a rollicking and insightful piece of narrative history and a surefire classic of sports literature. When basketball was the province of white men, the dunk acted as a revolutionary agent, a tool for players like Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell to transform the sport into a Black man's game. The dunk has since been an expression of Black culture amid the righteous upheaval of the civil-rights movement, of the threat that Black people were considered to be to the establishment. It was banned from college basketball for nearly a decade--an attempt to squash the individual expression and athleticism that characterized the sport in America's cities and on its playgrounds. The dunk nevertheless bubbled up to basketball's highest levels. From Julius Erving to Michael Jordan to the high flyers of the 21st century, the dunk has been a key mechanism for growing the NBA into a global goliath. Drawing on deep reporting and dozens of interviews with players, coaches, and other hoops experts, Magic in the Air brings to life the tale of the dunk while balancing sharp socio-racial history and commentary with a romp through American sports and culture. There's never been a basketball book quite like it. MIKE SIELSKI is a columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer and the author of four books. The Associated Press Sports Editors voted him the country's top sports columnist in 2015, and his previous book, The Rise: Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit of Immortality, was published in 2022. Sielski lives in Bucks County, Pa., with his wife and two sons. Buzz Bissinger is among the nation's most honored and distinguished writers. A native of New York City, Buzz is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Livingston Award, the American Bar Association Silver Gavel Award and the National Headliners Award, among others. He also was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. He is the author of the highly acclaimed nonfiction books: Friday Night Lights, A Prayer for the City, Three Nights in August, Shooting Stars and Father's Day. The 2024/25 Author Events Series is presented by Comcast. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. All tickets are non-refundable. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! The views expressed by the authors and moderators are strictly their own and do not represent the opinions of the Free Library of Philadelphia or its employees. (recorded 4/29/2025)

The Author Events Series presents Rhodri Lewis | Shakespeare's Tragic Art REGISTER In Conversation with Emily Wilson In Shakespeare's Tragic Art, Rhodri Lewis offers a powerfully original reassessment of tragedy as Shakespeare wrote it-of what drew him toward tragic drama, what makes his tragedies distinctive, and why they matter. After reconstructing tragic theory and practice as Shakespeare and his contemporaries knew them, Lewis considers in detail each of Shakespeare's tragedies from Titus Andronicus to Coriolanus. He argues that these plays are a series of experiments whose greatness lies in their author's nerve-straining determination to represent the experience of living in a world that eludes rational analysis. They explore not just our inability to know ourselves as we would like to, but the compensatory and generally unacknowledged fictions to which we bind ourselves in our hunger for meaning-from the political, philosophical, social, and religious to the racial, sexual, personal, and familial. Lewis's Shakespeare not only creates tragedies that exceed those written before them. Through his art, he also affirms and invigorates the kinds of knowing that are available to intelligent animals like us. A major reevaluation of Shakespeare's tragedies, Shakespeare's Tragic Art is essential reading for anyone interested in Shakespeare, tragedy, or the capacity of literature to help us navigate the perplexities of the human condition. After many years at the University of Oxford, Rhodri Lewis moved to Princeton in 2018-where he teaches English and comparative literature. His new book, Shakespeare's Tragic Art, was a New Yorker Book of the Year for 2024, and for the duration of the 2025-26 academic year he will be a Guggenheim Fellow. Previous books include Hamlet and the Vision of Darkness (Princeton UP 2017) and Language, Mind, and Nature: Artificial Languages in England from Bacon to Locke (Cambridge UP 2007). He is now at work on two projects: a biography of the great literary critic Frank Kermode, and a new edition (and translation) of Francis Bacon's Wisdom of the Ancients. The 2024/25 Author Events Series is presented by Comcast. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 4/23/2025)

The Author Events Series presents Rebecca Romney | Jane Austen's Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector's Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend REGISTER In Conversation with Allie Alvis Jane Austen's Bookshelf investigates the disappearance of Austen's heroes--women writers who were erased from the Western canon--to reveal who they were, what they meant to Austen, and how they were forgotten. Each chapter profiles a different writer including Frances Burney, Ann Radcliffe, Charlotte Lennox, Charlotte Smith, Hannah More, Elizabeth Inchbald, Hester Lynch Thrale Piozzi, and Maria Edgeworth--and recounts Romney's experience reading them, finding rare copies of their works, and drawing on connections between their words and Austen's. Romney collects the once-famed works of these forgotten writers, physically recreating Austen's bookshelf and making a convincing case for why these books should be placed back on the to-be-read pile of all book lovers today. Jane Austen's Bookshelf will encourage you to look beyond assigned reading lists, question who decides what belongs there, and build your very own collection of favorite novels. Rebecca Romney is a rare book dealer and the cofounder of Type Punch Matrix, a rare book company based in Washington, DC. Rebecca is the author Printer's Error: Irreverent Stories from Book History (HarperCollins; with JP Romney) and The Romance Novel in English: A Survey in Rare Books, 1769-1999; her current book is Jane Austen's Bookshelf (Simon & Schuster), chronicling her efforts to build a book collection of Austen's favorite women writers. Since 2011 she has appeared as the rare book specialist on the History Channel's show Pawn Stars; she was also featured in the 2019 documentary The Booksellers. Allie Alvis is Curator of Special Collections of the Winterthur Library, where they are responsible for the stewardship and engagement of the collection. They have previously worked as an antiquarian bookseller at Type Punch Matrix (Washington, DC) and as the special collections reference librarian for the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives. Allie's research is diverse and far-reaching, with interests in physical patterns of use in books, the history of ephemera, and Arts and Crafts bookbindings. They are particularly involved in the study and act of using social media for communicating book history, and maintain popular accounts across various platforms as Book Historia. The 2024/25 Author Events Series is presented by Comcast. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 4/24/2025)

The Author Events Series presents Jaap de Roode | Doctors by Nature: How Ants, Apes, and Other Animals Heal Themselves REGISTER Ages before the dawn of modern medicine, wild animals were harnessing the power of nature's pharmacy to heal themselves. Doctors by Nature reveals what researchers are now learning about the medical wonders of the animal world. In this visionary book, Jaap de Roode argues that we have underestimated the healing potential of nature for too long and shows how the study of self-medicating animals could impact the practice of human medicine. Drawing on illuminating interviews with leading scientists from around the globe as well as his own pioneering research on monarch butterflies, de Roode demonstrates how animals of all kinds--from ants to apes, from bees to bears, and from cats to caterpillars--use various forms of medicine to treat their own ailments and those of their relatives. We meet apes that swallow leaves to dislodge worms, sparrows that use cigarette butts to repel parasites, and bees that incorporate sticky resin into their hives to combat pathogens. De Roode asks whether these astonishing behaviors are learned or innate and explains why, now more than ever, we need to apply the lessons from medicating animals--it can pave the way for healthier livestock, more sustainable habitats for wild pollinators, and a host of other benefits. Doctors by Nature takes readers into a realm often thought to be the exclusive domain of humans, exploring how scientists are turning to the medical knowledge of the animal kingdom to improve agriculture, create better lives for our pets, and develop new pharmaceutical drugs. Jaap de Roode is Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Biology at Emory University, where he is director of the Infectious Diseases across Scales Training Program, which trains graduate students in interdisciplinary science to study and control infectious disease. The 2024/25 Author Events Series is presented by Comcast. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 4/22/2025)

The Author Events Series presents Katie Kitamura | Audition: A Novel REGISTER In Conversation with Adam Dalva One woman, the performance of a lifetime. Or two. An exhilarating, destabilizing Möbius strip of a novel that asks whether we ever really know the people we love. Two people meet for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant. She's an accomplished actress in rehearsals for an upcoming premiere. He's attractive, troubling, young-young enough to be her son. Who is he to her, and who is she to him? In this compulsively readable, brilliantly constructed novel, two competing narratives unspool, rewriting our understanding of the roles we play every day – partner, parent, creator, muse – and the truths every performance masks, especially from those who think they know us most intimately. Taut and hypnotic, Audition is Katie Kitamura at her virtuosic best. Katie Kitamura is the author of four previous novels, most recently A Separation and Intimacies, which was longlisted for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award and was a finalist for a Joyce Carol Oates Prize. She is a recipient of the Rome Prize in Literature, a Lannan fellowship, and many other honors, and her work has been translated into twenty-one languages. She teaches in the creative writing program at New York University. Adam Dalva's writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and The New York Review of Books. He serves on the board of the National Book Critics Circle and is a Contributing Fiction Editor of The Yale Review. The 2024/25 Author Events Series is presented by Comcast. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 4/9/2025)

The Author Events Series presents Dr. Anthony Fauci | On Call: A Doctor's Journey in Public Service THIS EVENT IS NOW SOLD OUT! In Conversation with Dave Davies Anthony Fauci is arguably the most famous - and most revered - doctor in the world today. His role guiding America sanely and calmly through Covid (and through the torrents of Trump) earned him the trust of millions during one of the most terrifying periods in modern American history, but this was only the most recent of the global epidemics in which Dr. Fauci played a major role. His crucial role in researching HIV and bringing AIDS into sympathetic public view and his leadership in navigating the Ebola, SARS, West Nile, and anthrax crises, make him truly an American hero. His memoir reaches back to his boyhood in Brooklyn, New York, and carries through decades of caring for critically ill patients, navigating the whirlpools of Washington politics, and behind-the-scenes advising and negotiating with seven presidents on key issues from global AIDS relief to infectious disease preparedness at home. ON CALL will be an inspiration for readers who admire and are grateful to him and for those who want to emulate him in public service. He is the embodiment of "speaking truth to power," with dignity and results. Dave Davies is a regular contributor and guest host for NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. In addition to his work on Fresh Air, Davies spent more than three decades covering city government and state and local politics in Philadelphia, for WHYY-FM, KYW Newsradio and the Philadelphia Daily News. Davies is a graduate of the University of Texas. The 2024/25 Author Events Series is presented by Comcast. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 4/3/2025)

The Author Events Series presents Maria Shriver | I Am Maria REGISTER In Conversation with Dr. Martha Beck Special Guests: Bob Roth & Kate Baer Please join us in celebrating Maria Shriver's I Am Maria: My Reflections and Poems on Heartbreak, Healing, and Finding Your Way Home. A book like no other, I Am Maria weaves Shriver's hard-earned wisdom with her own deeply personal poetry. I Am Maria reminds readers there is strength and love on the other side of all of our hardest days. Maria will be joined in conversation by Martha Beck, and the evening will feature meditation, music, and intimate discussions about life's defining moments-the heartbreaks that shape us, the healing that transforms us, and the journey back to ourselves. Drawing from her own life experiences, I Am Maria tells the story of how Maria emerged from heartbreak and uncertainty-universal moments in every life lived fully-with renewed clarity and strength. The poems in this collection speak to timeless themes of love, loss, longing, and healing, offering readers a comforting reminder that hope can be found even after the most difficult moments. Maria's legacy is built on social impact, deep empathy, and a profound understanding of human connection. Through her leadership, activism, and media presence, she continues to inspire and uplift others. Now, with the release of I Am Maria, she offers these deeply personal poems as a guide for those navigating their own life journeys. Through her intimate reflections, Maria invites readers to shed self-criticism, embrace every part of themselves, and discover the profound healing that comes with forgiveness and self-compassion. The book encourages readers to rediscover poetry as a tool for self-exploration, paving the way to uncover a deeper version of themselves. Maria Shriver is a mother and grandmother, a Peabody and Emmy Award-winning journalist and producer. She is the author of seven New York Times bestselling books, the former First Lady of California, an NBC News Special Anchor, founder of Shriver Media, The Women's Alzheimer's Movement, co-founder of the brain health brand MOSH, and the publisher of The Open Field. When she's not thinking or writing, she can be found hanging with her kids and grandkids. Dr. Martha Beck, PhD, is a bestselling author, coach, and speaker. She has spent a lifetime offering powerful, practical, and entertaining teachings that help people improve every aspect of their lives. Oprah Winfrey has called her ''one of the smartest women I know.'' The founder of Wayfinder Life Coach Training, Martha is a passionate and engaging speaker, and her teachings are very popular for their unique blend of science, spirituality, and humor. The 2024/25 Author Events Series is presented by Comcast. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. All tickets come with a copy of the book! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 4/2/2025)

The Author Events Series presents Laurie Woolever | Care and Feeding: A Memoir REGISTER In Conversation with Reem Kassis In this moving, hilarious, and insightful memoir, Laurie Woolever traces her path from a small-town childhood to working at revered restaurants and food publications, alternately bolstered and overshadowed by two of the most powerful men in the business. But there's more to the story than the two bold-faced names on her resume: Mario Batali and Anthony Bourdain. Behind the scenes, Laurie's life is frequently chaotic, an often pleasurable buffet of bad decisions at which she frequently overstays her welcome. Acerbic and wryly self-deprecating, Laurie attempts to carve her own space as a woman in this world that is by turns toxic and intoxicating. Laurie seeks to try it all--from a seedy Atlantic City strip club to the Park Hyatt Tokyo, from a hippie vegetarian co-op to the legendary El Bulli--while balancing her consuming work with her sometimes ambivalent relationship to marriage and motherhood. As the food world careens toward an overdue reckoning and Laurie's mentors face their own high-profile descents, she is confronted with the questions of where she belongs and how to hold on to the parts of her life's work that she truly values: care and feeding. Laurie Woolever has written about food and travel for the New York Times, GQ, Saveur, and many others. Reem Kassis is a Palestinian writer and author of the best-selling and award-winning cookbooks The Palestinian Table (2017) and The Arabesque Table (2021) and the children's book We Are Palestinian (2023). Her writing regularly appears in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post in addition to various news outlets, magazines and academic journals. She grew up in Jerusalem, then obtained her undergraduate and MBA degrees from UPenn and Wharton and her MSc in social psychology from the London School of Economics. She now lives in the Philadelphia area with her husband and three daughters. The 2024/25 Author Events Series is presented by Comcast. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 3/18/2025)

The Author Events Series presents Fawn Weaver | Love & Whiskey: The Remarkable True Story of Jack Daniel, His Master Distiller Nearest Green, and the Improbable Rise of Uncle Nearest REGISTER In Conversation with Michelle Miller Embark on a captivating journey with Love & Whiskey. New York Times bestselling author Fawn Weaver unveils the hidden narrative behind one of America's most iconic whiskey brands. This book is a vibrant exploration set in the present day, delving into the life and legacy of Nearest Green, the African American distilling genius who played a pivotal role in the creation of the whiskey that bears Jack Daniel's name. Set against the backdrop of Lynchburg, Tennessee, this narrative weaves together a thrilling blend of personal discovery, historical investigation, and the revelation of a story long overshadowed by time. Through extensive research, personal interviews, and the uncovering of long-buried documents, Weaver brings to light not only the remarkable bond between Nearest Green and Jack Daniel but also Daniel's concerted efforts during his lifetime to ensure Green's legacy would not be forgotten. This deep respect for his teacher, mentor, and friend was mirrored in Jack's dedication to ensuring that the stories and achievements of Nearest Green's descendants, who continued the tradition of working side by side with Jack and his descendants, would also not be forgotten. Love & Whiskey is more than just a recounting of historical facts; it's a live journey into the heart of storytelling, where every discovery adds a layer to the rich tapestry of American history. Weaver's pursuit highlights the importance of acknowledging those who have shaped our cultural landscape; yet remained in the shadows. As Weaver intertwines her present-day quest with the historical threads of Green and Daniel's lives, she not only pays homage to their legacy but also spearheads the creation of Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey. This endeavor has not only brought Nearest Green's name to the forefront of the whiskey industry but has also set new records, symbolizing a step forward in recognizing and celebrating African American contributions to the spirit world. Love & Whiskey invites readers to witness a story of enduring friendship, resilience, and the impact of giving credit where it's long overdue. It's an inspiring tale of how uncovering the past can forge new paths and how the spirit of whiskey has connected lives across generations. Join Fawn Weaver on this extraordinary adventure, as she navigates through the layers of history, friendship, and the unbreakable bonds formed by the legacy of America's native spirit, ensuring the stories of Nearest Green and his descendants live on in the heart of American culture. The 2024/25 Author Events Series is presented by Comcast. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 3/19/2025)

The Author Events Series presents Chris Hayes | The Sirens' Call REGISTER In Conversation with Kate Shaw We all feel it--the distraction, the loss of focus, the addictive focus on the wrong things for too long. We bump into the zombies on their phones in the street, and sometimes they're us. We stare in pity at the four people at the table in the restaurant, all on their phones, and then we feel the buzz in our pocket. Something has changed utterly: for most of human history, the boundary between public and private has been clear, at least in theory. Now, as Chris Hayes writes, "With the help of a few tech firms, we basically tore it down in about a decade." Hayes argues that we are in the midst of an epoch-defining transition whose only parallel is what happened to labor in the nineteenth century: attention has become a commodified resource extracted from us, and from which we are increasingly alienated. The Sirens' Call is the big-picture vision we urgently need to offer clarity and guidance. Because there is a breaking point. Sirens are designed to compel us, and now they are going off in our bedrooms and kitchens at all hours of the day and night, doing the bidding of vast empires, the most valuable companies in history, built on harvesting human attention. As Hayes writes, "Now our deepest neurological structures, human evolutionary inheritances, and social impulses are in a habitat designed to prey upon, to cultivate, distort, or destroy that which most fundamentally makes us human." The Sirens' Call is the book that snaps everything into a single holistic framework so that we can wrest back control of our lives, our politics, and our future. Chris Hayes is the Emmy Award-winning host of All In with Chris Hayes on MSNBC and the New York Times bestselling author of A Colony in a Nation and Twilight of the Elites. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and children. Kate Shaw is a Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, where she teaches and writes about the presidency, the law of democracy, the Supreme Court, and reproductive rights and justice. Her scholarly writing has appeared, among other places, in the Harvard Law Review, the Columbia Law Review, the Michigan Law Review, and the Northwestern University Law Review, and her popular writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Atlantic. She co-hosts the Supreme Court podcast Strict Scrutiny and is a Contributing Opinion Writer with the New York Times. The 2024/25 Author Events Series is presented by Comcast. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Extra copies of the books will be available for purchase at the library on event night. All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 3/3/2025)

The Author Events Series presents Marlene Daut | The First and Last King of Haiti REGISTER In Conversation with Grace Sanders Johnson Slave, revolutionary, traitor, king, and suicide, Henry Christophe was, in his time, popular and famous the world over. Born in 1767 to an enslaved mother on the Caribbean island of Grenada, Christophe first fought to overthrow the British in North America, before helping his fellow enslaved Africans in Saint-Domingue, as Haiti was then called, to gain their freedom from France. Yet in an incredible twist of fate, Christophe ended up fighting with Napoleon's forces against the very enslaved men and women he had once fought alongside. Later, reuniting with those he had betrayed, he offered to lead them and made himself their king. But it all came to a sudden and tragic end when Christophe--after nine years of his rule as King Henry I--shot himself in the heart, some say with a silver bullet. Why did Christophe turn his back on Toussaint Louverture and the very revolution with which his name is so indelibly associated? How did it come to pass that Christophe found himself accused of participating in the plot to assassinate Haiti's first ruler, Dessalines? What caused Haiti to eventually split into two countries, one ruled by Christophe in the north, who made himself king, the other led by President Pétion in the south? The First and Last King of Haiti is a riveting story of not only geopolitical clashes on a grand scale but also of friendship and loyalty, treachery and betrayal, heroism and strife in an era of revolutionary upheaval. Marlene Daut is Professor of French and African Diaspora Studies at Yale University. She teaches courses in anglophone, francophone Caribbean, African American, and French Colonial and historical studies. Grace L. Sanders Johnson is a historian, visual artist, and associate professor of Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Her areas of study include modern Caribbean history, transnational feminisms, oral history, and environmental humanities. Her most recent work can be found in several journals including Her most recent work can be found in several journals including Palimpsest: A Journal on Women, Gender, and the Black International (2024), Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism (2023), Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism (2022), American Anthropologist (2022), and Caribbean Review of Gender Studies (2018). Sanders Johnson is the author of White Gloves, Black Nation: Women, Citizenship, and Political Wayfaring in Haiti (University of North Carolina Press, 2023) which won the 2023 Haitian Studies Association Best Book Award, and honorable mention for the 2024 Mary Nickliss Prize in U.S. Women's and/or Gender History from the Organization of American Historians; White Gloves, Black Nation is also one of the top 5 finalist for the 2024 African American Intellectual History Pauli Murray Book Prize and Choice Journal's 2024 list of Outstanding Academic Titles. The 2024/25 Author Events Series is presented by Comcast. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 2/13/2025)

The Author Events Series presents Brian Kelly | How to Win at Travel REGISTER In Conversation with Haley Sacks In How to Win at Travel, Brian Kelly shares his greatest tips and strategies to experience the world in ways you never thought possible. This compre­hensive guide is a road map with all of the knowledge and tools you need to become an expert traveler. Get practical advice on a range of topics, including how to find the cheapest flights; effectively leverage airline, hotel, and credit card loyalty programs; conquer your fear of flying; beat jet lag; and score free flights and upgrades. Kelly also covers the ins and outs of travel insurance and getting the right credit cards to make your travel more affordable and enjoyable. He discusses the art of dealing with travel mishaps, speaks to the technology you need to manage modern travel, and shares ideas for pinpointing the best destination for you. Whether you're a young adult traveling solo, a road warrior business traveler, a growing family looking for new experiences, or a retiree ready to explore the world, reach for this guide to plan an unforgettable trip. Easy to read, informative, and inspirational, How to Win at Travel is the definitive travel guide for your next adventure, no matter how big or small. The 2024/25 Author Events Series is presented by Comcast. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 2/3/2025)

The Author Events Series presents Judy Giesberg & Lee Hawkins | Last Seen: The Enduring Search by Formerly Enslaved People to Find Their Lost Families AND I Am Nobody's Slave: How Uncovering My Family's History Set Me Free REGISTER In Conversation with Cherri Gregg Judith Giesberg draws on the archive that she founded--containing almost five thousand letters and advertisements placed by members of the Freedom Generation--to compile these stories in a narrative form for the first time. Her in-depth research turned up additional information about the writers, their families, and their enslavers. With this critical context, she recounts the moving stories of the people who placed the advertisements, the loved ones they tried to find, and the outcome of their quests to reunite. This story underscores the cruelest horror of slavery--the forced breakup of families--and the resilience and determination of the formerly enslaved. Thoughtful, heart-wrenching, and illuminating, Last Seen finally gives this lesser-known aspect of slavery the attention it deserves. I Am Nobody's Slave tells the story of one Black family's pursuit of the American Dream through the impacts of systemic racism and racial violence. This book examines how trauma from enslavement and Jim Crow shaped their outlook on thriving in America, influenced each generation, and how they succeeded despite these challenges. To their suburban Minnesotan neighbors, the Hawkinses were an ideal American family, embodying strength and success. However, behind closed doors, they faced the legacy of enslavement and apartheid. Lee Hawkins, Sr. often exhibited rage, leaving his children anxious and curious about his protective view of the world. Thirty years later, his son uncovered the reasons for his father's anxiety and occasional violence. Through research, he discovered violent deaths in his family for every generation since slavery, mostly due to white-on-Black murders, and how white enslavers impacted the family's customs. Hawkins explores the role of racism-triggered childhood trauma and chronic stress in shortening his ancestors' lives, using genetic testing, reporting, and historical data to craft a moving family portrait. This book shows how genealogical research can educate and heal Americans of all races, revealing through their story the story of America--a journey of struggle, resilience, and the heavy cost of ultimate success. The 2024/25 Author Events Series is presented by Comcast. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 2/6/2025)