Episodes
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Jennifer Egan is an author of novels and short stories. As a journalist, she frequently writes for the New York Times Magazine . Her novel A Visit from the Goon Squad won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2011 and her most recent work Manhattan Beach won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction in 2018.
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Richard Russo is the Pulitzer Prize winning author of Empire Falls . His most recent novel is Chances Are .
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Missing episodes?
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Andri Snær Magnason is an Icelandic writer and environmental activist. His latest book is the young adult novel, The Casket of Time .
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In Contrast will return with a new episode on September 11th with author Andri Snær Magnason.
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Ken Rosenthal is one of the founders of Hampshire College in Amherst Massachusetts. Known for its innovative approach to education, Hampshire announced in 2018 that it was facing a financial crisis and that it was not going to admit a full-class in the fall of 2019. In April 2019, Rosenthal was appointed interim president. The future of Hampshire, like many small liberal arts colleges, is in question.
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Aaron Becker is an author and illustrator of children’s books. In 2014, Becker was a Caldecott honoree for “Journey,” part 1 of a trilogy of books that includes “Quest” and “Return.”
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Carolyn Beeler is an environmental reporter for the Public Radio International program The World . She recently returned from Antarctica where she was on a scientific expedition to the Thwaites Glacier which many scientists believe is melting because of global climate change.
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A teacher at Amherst College, Jennifer Acker is the founder and editor of the literary magazine The Common . The Limits of the World is her debut novel.
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Barry Lopez is the author of sixteen books of both fiction and nonfiction. Regarded as one of the nation’s premier nature writers, Lopez won a National Book Award in 1986 for Arctic Dreams and was a finalist for Of Wolves and Men . Lopez has travelled extensively to remote regions of the world, an experience that he chronicles in his most recent book Horizon .
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Peter Cole is a MacArthur winning poet and translator. He is the author of several books of his poetry and translations of medieval and contemporary Hebrew and Arabic poetry.
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Jarrett Krosoczka is an author and illustrator best known for his Lunch Lady Series of books. In 2018, he published Hey Kiddo , a graphic memoir about growing-up with his grandparents because his mother was a heroin addict.
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Marcelo Brodsky is an Argentine photographer and human rights activist. His recent work has explored violence in Mexico, South Africa and the United States.
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Born in the Philippines, Grace Talusan is the 2017 Restless Books Prize winner for New Immigrant Writing for Nonfiction. She is the author of the memoir, The Body Papers , a courageous memoir that explores immigration, the trauma of abuse and the female body.
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Christopher King is a collector of 78 RPM records and a producer and author specializing in pre-war rural American music and music from Eastern Europe, the Balkans and the Mediterranean. He is the author of Lament from Epirus: An Odyssey into Europe’s Oldest Surviving Folk Music and the compiler of several recent recordings specializing in the music from northern Greece.
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Martha Nussbaum is a philosopher known for her work in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, political philosophy, feminism and ethics. A teacher at the University of Chicago, she is the author of numerous books, the latest being The Monarchy of Fear: A Philosopher Looks at Our Political Crisis .
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Andre Dubus III, author of the novels House of Sand and Fog and The Garden of Last Days and the memoir Townie , talks with Ilan Stavans about writing, reading and his latest novel Gone So Long .
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Stephanie Houtzeel is a mezzo-soprano who is currently a member of the Vienna State Opera. Pianist John Milbauer is a Steinway artist and teacher at the University of Arizona.
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Magos Herrera is a Mexican born jazz singer. Brooklyn Rider is a string quartet known for their performances of both the standard classical repertoire and for performances of new music. In 2018, Herrera and Brooklyn Rider collaborated on the recording “Dreamers.” Magos Herrera is joined by Brooklyn Rider violinist Colin Jacobsen for this interview with Ilan Stavans.
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Merriam-Webster editors Peter Sokolowski and Emily Brewster talk about the words of 2018.
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Amartya Sen is a noted economist and philosopher. The author of many books and articles including Development as Freedom and The Idea of Justice , Sen was awarded a Nobel Prize in economics in 1998.
