This book podcast is like Radiolab for books, studying different aspects of books, reading, and language. Past episodes have focused on the 2018 Nobel crisis in literature, Agatha Christie’s mysterious disappearance, and how Shakespeare was saved.
How a gimmick to write more became one of the biggest literary events online.
The affirming, surprising, and most of all lasting legacy of The Baby-Sitters Club.
What if the whole world spoke the same language? How would it work? Who would be interested in speaking it? In this episode, the dream, the reality, and the hope that is Esperanto.
Sometimes people refer to a book they really liked as "life-changing." But what if you read a book, and it really did change your life in a big way? In this episode, stories of people reading books and making a big change.
In this episode, the story of the interrupted literary career of Freido Lampe, and how his story reveals the underpinnings of the Nazi obsession with books and literature.
There are few places books can be put to better use than in prisons. So why is it so hard to get books into the hands of people in jail? In this episode, we look at how Washington state tried to radically restrict the flow of books into prisons.
How Khalil Gibran's The Prophet became a quiet cultural powerhouse.
In this episode, a look at how Drag Queen Story Hour became a public library phenomenon.
In this episode, three stories about books, or parts of books, going viral.
In this episode, how Barnes & Noble became a dominant force, why its not now, and what the future of the big bookstore could be.
In this episode, we profile the most famous American writer you probably never heard of--Edna Ferber.
People don't read as much as they used to. At least that's what people say. But is it true? And if they are reading less, why does it matter? Or does it matter? And the internet is bad for reading right? These questions and more in this episode.
The story of how Andrew Carnegie transformed the public library in America.
The story of how Louis Braille brought reading to the blind.
Last month, a large used book collection and distribution company suddenly went out of business, leaving a hole in the local used book ecosystem. In this episode, we follow that story into the modern world of used book-selling.