
Library Talks
Join The New York Public Library and your favorite writers, artists, and thinkers for smart talks and provocative conversations from the nation’s cultural capital.
Latest episodes

May 23, 2017 • 53min
Jane Mayer, Winner of the Bernstein Award
Is the Trump Administration a dream or a nightmare for the Koch brothers? This week's episode asks and answers many questions about the intricate relationship between money and politics in American life with Jane Mayer, a New Yorker staff writer and winner of NYPL's 2017 Bernstein Award for her book "Dark Money."

May 15, 2017 • 1h 15min
George Packer and Reihan Salam with Tony Marx
Explore both the seeds and the fruits of our present American political condition with New Yorker writer George Packer, National Review editor Reihan Salam, and New York Public Library President Tony Marx.

May 9, 2017 • 46min
Syria's Human Side, with Janine di Giovanni
Bernstein Award finalist Janine di Giovanni talks about her book, "The Morning They Came For Us: Dispatches from Syria," the story of Syria's civil war as told through the people who have lived through it.

May 2, 2017 • 1h 1min
Charlotte McDonald-Gibson, Bernstein Award Finalist
Bernstein Award finalist Charlotte McDonald-Gibson talks about her book, 'Cast Away: True Stories of Survival from Europe's Refugee Crisis,' which follows individuals fleeing violence and persecution in Syria, Libya, Nigeria, and Eritrea.

Apr 27, 2017 • 40min
The Librarian Is In: American Passions
BONUS: We're giving you a taste of the Library's other podcast, The Librarian Is In. Each week hosts Gwen and Frank discuss books, culture, what you should read next , and interview interesting figures from the world of books and libraries. Give it a listen, and subscribe if you like what you hear! Back to regularly scheduled programing on Tuesday.

Apr 25, 2017 • 1h 20min
Lawrence Krauss w/ Alan Alda. Reality, the Real Story
A hilarious, confounding, perplexing, and thoroughly engrossing conversation between theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss and actor Alan Alda. They came to the LIVE from the NYPL stage to discuss Krauss’s new book, The Greatest Story Ever Told…So Far: Why Are We Here?

Apr 18, 2017 • 55min
Gary Younge, Bernstein Award Finalist
An interview with Bernstein finalist and Guardian editor-at-large Gary Younge. His book is called Another Day in the Death of America: a Chronicle of Ten Short Lives. On an average day in the U.S., seven children and teens will die from gun violence. Younge picked one such day in November 2013 and told the stories of the ten young people whose lives were lost in that 24-hour span.

Apr 11, 2017 • 59min
Like Passover, But Funnier
If you’ve ever made it through a full Seder, you know that celebrating Passover can last as long as the Exodus itself. Today, on day two of the annual holiday, the NYPL podcast has a measure of comic relief for you in the form of an all-new Haggadah called For This We Left Egypt? It's written by Dave Barry, Alan Zweibel, and Adam Mansbach.

Apr 4, 2017 • 57min
Sonia Shah & Pandemic, Bernstein Award Finalist
Sonia Shah's new book 'Pandemic' uses the history of cholera as a template toward understanding the life cycles of disease outbreaks and how our how our next global pandemic might arise.

Mar 28, 2017 • 1h 20min
Women's and Girls' Lives Matter
An extraordinary group of women who are on the front lines of the fight for bettering the lives for young black women and girls across the country gathered at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture this International Women's Day to highlight the roles, needs, and contributions of black women and girls in the context of the Black Lives Matter.