Library Talks

Prize-winning author Vauhini Vara sits down with Leslie Jamison to discuss her first collection of short stories, This Is Salvaged.

Authors Ayana Mathis, author of The Unsettled, and Justin Torres, author of Blackouts, speak about their award-winning novels.

In this episode of Library Talks, author Kliph Nesteroff sits down with comedian Marc Maron to discuss his new book, Outrageous, which chronicles the controversies of American show business and the ongoing attempts to change what we watch, read, and hear.

Politicians and activists discuss the continuing push to revive the much-contested Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).

Mary Beard returns to the Library to talk with Tim Gunn about her new book, Emperor of Rome, her long-awaited follow up to the international bestseller SPQR.

In this episode of Library Talks, C Pam Zhang sits down with Padma Lakshmi to discuss her latest novel Land of Milk and Honey, which tells the story of climate disaster and a young chef discovering pleasure at the end of the world. Zhang is the winner of the Academy of Arts and Letters Rosenthal Award and the Asian/Pacific Award for Literature, a Booker Prize nominee, and a finalist for numerous other prizes, including the the PEN/Hemingway Award and the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Zhang’s writing appears in Best American Short Stories, The Cut, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. She is a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Honoree and a New York Public Library Cullman Fellow. Padma Lakshmi is an Emmy-nominated producer, television host, food expert, and a New York Times best-selling author and one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People (2023).

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Matthew Desmond’s latest book, Poverty, by America, reimagines the American debate on poverty, making an original and ambitious argument about why it persists here: because too many of us benefit from it. In this episode of Library Talks, Desmond speaks with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Andrea Elliot to discuss his new ways of thinking around this morally urgent, uniquely American problem—and imagines practical, achievable solutions for making poverty disappear.

Karen Kornbluh, Maria Ressa, Olatunbosun Tijani, and Tim Wu discuss the need for global collaboration in AI governance and policy, including the challenges and dangers of AI tools. They explore the role of the OECD in establishing a global governance framework, as well as the significance of regional approaches in countries like Nigeria. The negative impacts of algorithmic amplified news and the role of social movements in shaping AI accountability are also discussed.

The new novel by award-winning author Luis Alberto Urrea, Good Night, Irene, tells an overlooked story of women’s heroism in World War II, inspired by the experiences of his own mother. Urrea speaks about his “moving and graceful tribute to heroic women” that asks whether a friendship forged on the front lines of war defines a life forever.

Sasha Velour is an iconic queen. Turns out she’s also a historian! In this episode of Library Talks, Velour sits down with drag historian Joe E. Jeffreys to discuss her new book, The Big Reveal: An Illustrated Manifesto of Drag, a treasure trove of revelations about radical queer expressions throughout time. The revered entertainer and winner of RuPaul's Drag Race weaves together gender theory, politics, and memoir to tell the story of drag. Velour redefines drag for a new generation while uncovering the history of queer life that made it all possible.