Bay Area Book Festival Podcast

Twenty-five years ago, Walter Mosley introduced us to Easy Rawlins, an Army vet turned private eye, to tell the story of black postwar Los Angeles. Today, with 55 critically acclaimed books, Mosley is one of America’s best-known and most beloved living writers. (Former president Bill Clinton named Mosley one of his favorite authors.) His writing is both prolific and spans many genres, from young adult to science fiction to politics. How does he do it? Learn how Mosley crafts his trademark accessibility, along his penchant for creating narratives that both entertain and instruct.

Join Charlie Jane Anders, Cory Doctorow, Annalee Newitz and John Scalzi as they kick ass, take names and decide who goes down first, and hardest, in an epic discussion about new directions in science fiction and fantasy.

As much as we think of the act of writing as solitary, art never occurs in a vacuum. Author and editor Hannah Tinti talks with bestselling author Dani Shapiro about the necessity of mentorship, literary friendships, and the surprising joys and hard truths of living the writer’s life.

They’re longtime friends (so we’ll call them Jack and Scoop) and two of America’s most respected Buddhist teachers. For more than forty years they’ve studied mindfulness and other strategies to live in the moment. In a new book (his first major one in several years), Jack tells us we all can be happy and free right now, no matter the circumstances. Scoop, also a comedian and radio host, will interrogate. Come listen on their conversation. There will be time for questions.

Activism is undergoing a re-evaluation. Is protest still effective? What can work today? Micah White (co-creator of Occupy Wall Street and author of ‘The End of Protest: A New Playbook for Revolution’), named by Esquire as one of the most influential young thinkers alive today, and Becky Bond (former senior advisor to Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign and co-author of ‘Rules for Revolutionaries: How Big Organizing Can Change Everything’) will offer guidance and action for a new era of social change and activism. If you’ve ever thought of joining a march or demonstration, White and Bond will make you smarter about it. Mother Jones’ Monika Bauerlein moderates.

What makes a person “difficult”? Fiction writer, essayist, and activist Roxane Gay has been called “the brilliant girl-next-door: your best friend and your sharpest critic” by People magazine. She has authored the stunning novel ‘An Untamed State,’ the powerhouse essay collection ‘Bad Feminist,’ and now a new collection of stories, ‘Difficult Women,’ where she casts her incisive gaze at issues of race, class and gender. Famed for both fearlessness and vulnerability on the page, she tackles issues that lie at the heart of body, identity, relationship and society. In conversation with Rafia Zakaria of The New Republic.

Being a teenager isn’t easy. Everything is changing both physically and emotionally, and you’re thrust into the most intense situations of your lives, facing heartbreak, anxiety, low self-esteem, peer pressure, and so much more. Reading stories about other teens in real-life situations can help you feel validated—and can often illuminate paths forward. Four authors who write for young adults, Kristin Elizabeth Clark (‘Jess, Chunk, and the Road Trip to Infinity’), Kim Culbertson (‘The Wonder of Us’), Sandhya Menon (‘When Dimple Met Rishi’) and Alexandra Sirowy (‘The Creeping’) share how they capture the unique interior worlds—the joys, the pitfalls, the intimate struggles—of young adults.

The Nation has been fighting for racial justice since abolitionists founded the magazine in 1865; its writers have included W.E.B. DuBois, Martin Luther King, Jr., James Baldwin, Toni Morrison and Alice Walker. Now join some of The Nation’s finest current contributors for a fierce, free-ranging discussion of how to advance racial justice in today’s America. Panelists include Alicia Garza, co-founder of Black Lives Matter; Walter Mosley, the essayist and novelist; Steve Phillips, author of ‘Brown Is the New White’; Joan Walsh, The Nation’s national political correspondent; and moderator Mark Hertsgaard, author and investigative editor for The Nation.