
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

Feb 18, 2025 • 1h 10min
Victoria Christopher Murray with Melissa Noel: Harlem Rhapsody
Bestselling author Victoria Christopher Murray sits down with journalist Melissa Noel to discuss her latest book, Harlem Rhapsody: The Extraordinary Story of the Woman Who Ignited the Harlem Renaissance.

Feb 11, 2025 • 1h 2min
Jennifer Finney Boylan with Roxane Gay: Cleavage
In 2003, author Jennifer Finney Boylan published She’s Not There, which became the first bestselling work by a transgender American and established Boylan as a go-to source for public conversation about the impact of gender on our lives. More than two decades later, her new memoir, Cleavage, returns with older and wiser eyes to examine the joys and the struggles of being transgender. In this episode of Library Talks, Boylan sits down with bestselling author Roxanne Gay to discuss her latest memoir and her hope for a future in which we all have the freedom to live joyfully as men, as women, and in the space between us.

Feb 4, 2025 • 52min
David Wright Faladé with Julie Orringer: The New Internationals
Writer and scholar David Wright Faladé sits down with Julie Orringer to discuss his latest book, The New Internationals, a stunning historical novel that sets a coming-of-age narrative and cross-cultural romance amidst a vibrant political moment in postwar Paris.

Jan 28, 2025 • 56min
Martha Hodes with Stacy Schiff: My Hijacking
When author and historian Martha Hodes was 12-years-old she was flying unaccompanied on a plane that was hijacked. Nearly half a century later she explores her memories of that event in her book My Hijacking, which draws on deep archival research and extensive interviews both to re-create what happened to her as a child and to understand the larger context of the world-historical event in which she unwittingly participated.

Jan 21, 2025 • 1h 14min
New York State Poet Patricia Spears Jones in Conversation with Brent Hayes Edwards
New York State Poet Laureate Patricia Spears Jones is a poet, playwright, educator, and cultural activist. Her most recent book The Beloved Community was released in 2023. Here she is in conversation with Brent Hayes Edwards, professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature and the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University.

Jan 14, 2025 • 59min
Deondra Rose and Angelo Pinto: The Power of Black Excellence
Join author and professor Deondra Rose as she discusses her new book The Power of Black Excellence: HBCUs and the Fight for American Democracy with activist Angelo Pinto.

Jan 7, 2025 • 55min
Caoilinn Hughes with Brandon Taylor: The Alternatives
Caoilinn Hughes joins fellow author Brandon Taylor to discuss her latest book, The Alternatives, a story of four brilliant Irish sisters, orphaned in childhood, who scramble to reconnect when the oldest disappears into the Irish countryside.

Dec 31, 2024 • 60min
Josephine Quinn with Ken Chen: How the World Made the West
Josephine Quinn sits down with award-winning poet Ken Chen to discuss her book How the World Made the West. Quinn's book poses a bold challenge to “civilizational thinking” on the origins of Western culture—that is, the idea that civilizations arose separately and distinctly from one another. Rather, she locates the roots of the modern West in everything from the law codes of Babylon, Assyrian irrigation, and the Phoenician art of sail to Indian literature, Arabic scholarship, and the metalworking riders of the Steppe.

Dec 24, 2024 • 58min
Jean Strouse with Hernan Diaz: Family Romance
Jean Strouse sits down with Pulitzer Prize–winner Hernan Diaz to discuss her latest book Family Romance: John Singer Sargent and the Wertheimers. Strouse's account illuminates a period of tumultuous social change that saw the declining fortunes of the British aristocracy, the dramatic rise of new wealth on both sides of the Atlantic, and the birth of the modern art market.

Dec 17, 2024 • 58min
Dava Sobel with Angela Saini: The Elements of Marie Curie
Dava Sobel, a renowned science writer known for works like Longitude, discusses her latest book on Marie Curie with Angela Saini, an insightful science journalist. They delve into Curie's inspiring life, her Polish roots, and the 45 women who contributed to her groundbreaking research. Sobel highlights the challenges these women faced in a male-dominated field, illuminating Curie's resilience amid personal and professional tribulations. The conversation underscores the importance of recognizing female contributions in science and the art of effective science communication.