Live At Politics And Prose

McCabe started working at the FBI in 1996 and served in many capacities, from street agent on the Eurasian Organized Crime Task Force to leading the Counterterrorism Division, the National Security Branch, and the Washington Field Office as well as serving as the first director of the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group. Yet that estimable career came to a sudden end when Trump fired McCabe on March 16, 2018. In this book McCabe refutes Trump’s assertion that the firing was “A great day for Democracy.” In fact, as McCabe shows, Trump’s action was just the opposite. Giving a detailed insider’s view of the FBI, McCabe charts the Bureau’s last twenty years, during which time its most important task became protecting the country from terrorists—though now perhaps the major threat to Constitutional rights is the Trump administration itself.https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9781250207579Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Buttigieg left a successful business career to return to South Bend, Indiana, his hometown had been declared a “dying city” by Newsweek magazine. Elected mayor in 2011 and re-elected in 2015, Buttigieg, a Harvard-educated Rhodes Scholar and U.S. Navy veteran, was determined to change that. Going directly to the community, he met with residents, reclaimed abandoned houses, confronted gun violence, and attracted high-tech industry. Today South Bend is a shining success, and Buttigieg’s candid and compassionate account is both an inspiring story of how politics can and should work and an introduction to one of today’s rising political figures.Buttigieg is in conversation with Jonathan Allen of NBC News.https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9781631494369Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Awarded the 2016 J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award, Luxenberg’s second book is a deeply researched account of events leading up to the infamous “separate but equal” Plessy v. Ferguson decision. Announced on May 18, 1896, the decision had a deceptively quiet reception. But as Luxenberg shows, the case went to issues at the heart of the nation’s unresolved image of itself. Focusing on the individuals involved in bringing, arguing, and deciding the case as well as on the broader separatist currents throughout the era of westward expansion and industrialization, Luxenberg, a longtime Washington Post senior editor, forces us to see both how entrenched racism has been as well as how some have always struggled to root it out. https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9780393239379Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Drawing from African history, mythology, and his own rich imagination, Marlon James’ new book, Black Leopard, Red Wolf, is a novel unlike anything that's come before it: a saga of breathtaking adventure that's also an ambitious, involving read. Defying categorization and full of unforgettable characters, it is both surprising and profound as it explores the fundamentals of truth, the limits of power, and our need to understand them both. Author of The New York Times’ bestseller A Brief History of Seven Killings and winner of the Man Booker Prize, James’ first installment in the Dark Star trilogy combines myth, fantasy, and events of the past to create an epic, awe-inspiring thriller.https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9780735220171Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In July 2014, Washington Post Tehran bureau chief Jason Rezaian was arrested by Iranian police and accused of spying for America. Initially, Rezaian thought the whole thing was a terrible misunderstanding, but soon realized that it was much more dire as it became an eighteen-month prison stint with impossibly high diplomatic stakes. In Prisoner, Rezaian writes of his exhausting interrogations and farcical trial, his bond with his Iranian father, and his life-changing decision to move to Tehran. Written with wit, humor, and grace, Prisoner brings to life a fascinating, maddening culture in all its complexity.Rezaian is in conversation with Frank Sesno, author, former CNN correspondent, and director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at The George Washington University.https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9780062691576Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

April Ryan, Washington Bureau chief for American Urban Radio Networks and author of Under Fire, At Mama’s Knee, and The Presidency in Black and White returns for the sixth in an ongoing series of discussions focusing on race in America.  As in previous presentations, Ryan will moderate a panel of leading writers and commentators to examine recent and longstanding issues. Panelists include Donna Brazile, Democratic political strategist, TV commentator, and co-author of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics; Jason Riley, member of The Wall Street Journal editorial board and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute; and Wesley Lowery, Pulitzer-winning national correspondent for The Washington Post and author of They Can't Kill Us All.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In her new book, The Truths We Hold, Senator Harris draws on her own career and the work of those who have most inspired her to offer a master class in problem solving, crisis management, and leadership in challenging times. Known for being a voice for the voiceless, Senator Harris will explore the themes of The Truths We Hold and share her vision of our shared struggle, purpose, and values. Sen. Harris is in conversation with Jonathan Capehart, writer for The Washington Post's PostPartisan blog and contributor for MSNBChttps://www.politics-prose.com/book/9780525560715Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Now in paperback, Pink’s fascinating study of timing starts with intriguing and seemingly inexplicable observations: why are prisoners eligible for parole more likely to get a favorable ruling earlier in the day? Why are adolescents who start school before 8 a.m. at an academic disadvantage? Drawing on research from psychology, biology, and economics, Pink shows that timing has strong and predictable effects on people’s thoughts and emotions, and that by understanding these patterns, we can maximize our potential by planning the timing of important events and decisions. Pink, the award-winning author of bestsellers including Drive, To Sell Is Human, and A Whole New Mind, makes the science of time compelling as well as useful, telling many stories and interweaving tips from his own “Time Hacker’s Handbook.”https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9780735210639Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At once a mystery, a cultural history, and a deeply personal love letter to reading, Orlean’s compelling new book starts with a disaster. On April 29, 1986, the Los Angeles Public Library went up in flames. The worst library fire in American history, the blaze destroyed more than 400,000 books and damaged another 700,000. It lasted for more than seven hours and temperatures reached 2,000 degrees. Over thirty years later, the cause of the fire is still unknown. Adding her own investigation to existing theories, Orlean, a New Yorker staff writer since 1992 and the author of The Orchid Thief, profiles the library’s staff and patrons, looks at the global history of libraries and the challenges these institutions face today, and irrefutably demonstrates the national and personal value of these truly public places.https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9781476740188Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nearly a thousand authors visited Politics and Prose last year; here’s a collection of some of our favorite moments from 2018- including Michael Arceneaux, Kristin Hannah, Alexander Chee, Roxane Gay, Gary Trudeau, Lorrie Moore, Olga Tokarczuk, and Adam Hochschild.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Congo Stories, John Prendergast and Fidel Bafilemba reveal how the people of Congo are fighting back against a tidal wave of international exploitation and governmental oppression to make things better for their nation, their communities, and their families. The book contains stunning photographs taken by actor Ryan Gosling, Bafilemba's profiles of heroic Congolese activists, and Prendergast's narratives of the extraordinary history and evolving social movements that directly link the Congo with the United States and Europe. Congo Stories provides windows into the history, the people, the challenges, the possibilities, and the movements that could change the course of Congo's destiny.JOHN PRENDERGAST is a New York Times bestselling author who founded and runs both the Enough Project and The Sentry.FIDEL BAFELIMBA is a Congolese field researcher who coordinates a civil society network called GATT-RN.RYAN GOSLING is an actor and filmmaker.CHOUCHOU NAMEGABE is a Congolese journalist and activist, who founded

Expanding on her August 12, 2017 New York Times op-ed, Ghodsee looks at all facets of American women’s lives—relationships, parenting, work, politics—showing how each is harmed by unregulated capitalism and how a socialist model could improve the situation. A skilled ethnographer and professor of Russian and East European studies, Ghodsee has spent years studying the impact of the shift from socialism on women. Her witty, engaging, and utterly serious analysis finds that socialism provides better labor conditions, leads to greater economic independence, and improves the work-life balance so many Western women struggle with. As discussion around sexual harassment and assault grows and women turn to Bernie Sanders and new kinds of leader in his wake, Ghodsee shows how adapting socialist ideas can take us all closer to a fair and equal society.https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9781568588902Kristen R. Ghodsee has her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley and is professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University

When Pagels, author of groundbreaking studies of the Gnostic Gospels, was asked, “Why religion?" she found that her own life illuminates both why she’s made a career of studying religious texts as well as why religion itself still exists in the supposedly secular 21st-century. The daughter and wife of scientists, Pagels was taught to trust the rational, but she found herself attracted to religious music and rituals for how they engaged the imagination. After the loss of her five-year-old son in 1987, followed by her husband’s death in an accident in 1988, Pagels turned to religion for help in facing her grief and anger. Interweaving the fascinating scholarship behind books such The Origin of Satan and Revelations with her own experiences, Pagels’s memoir is as emotionally affecting as it is thought-provoking.Pagels is in conversation with Dr. Eric Motley, executive vice president at the Aspen Institute and author of the memoir Madison Park.https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9780062368539Learn more about your

Senator Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign was a beginning, not an ending. In Where We Go From Here: Two Years in the Resistance, New York Times bestselling author Bernie Sanders chronicles the day-by-day struggles that he and his progressive colleagues have waged over the last two years in the fight against Donald Trump’s agenda and for a government that works for all. The good news is, progressive voices are making significant strides. Where We Go From Here shows how citizens all across America are standing up to the Trump government.https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9781250163264Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The key to success, Gethard says, is failure. He knows this from experience. While he’s now the host of his own truTV talk show and the weekly podcast Beautiful Stories from Anonymous People, he also suffered the humiliation of having his Comedy Central sitcom cancelled after just seven episodes. But he didn’t just bounce back from this and other missteps. Rather, he used the frustrations and disappointments as tools to discover who he really is, what he most wants, and how he could get it. As he shows in this engaging and funny collection of stories, failure is inevitable and it’s also empowering—a necessary, if messy, step to the better things we can be.https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9780062691415Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Halliday’s debut novel was one of the literary events of the year, earning uniformly rave reviews and a place on innumerable bestseller lists. Now available in paperback, the narrative ingeniously combines two starkly different narratives to give us a startling view of today’s world. The book starts with Alice, a young editor and writer in New York, and her relationship with an older, established novelist, a character based on Philip Roth. In the second section, Halliday turns to Amar, an Iraqi-American man who is detained by immigration officers at Heathrow as he’s en route to see his brother in Kurdistan. How these two stories are related is the subject of the book’s stunning conclusion.https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9781501166785Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Laymon’s novel, Long Division, was named to several Best Of lists in 2013 and his collection of autobiographical essays, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, showed him as a powerful social and cultural commentator. In his new memoir, he expands on the experiences he discussed in his earlier works, talking bluntly and honestly about growing up with racism, income disparity, addiction, eating disorders, and a complicated mother-son dynamic. Often directly addressing his mother—a divorced, impoverished woman who became a political science professor at Jackson State—Laymon makes his story immediate and vivid, from his problems with weight, ostracism, violence, and gambling to his views on women and politics.https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9781501125652Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Blight, the award-winning author of histories including American Oracle and Race and Reunion, is perhaps the foremost Frederick Douglass scholar at work today. He’s edited the annotated editions of Douglass’s first two autobiographies, and he draws on this close work and on newly discovered issues of Douglass’s newspapers and other documents for this definitive biography. An escaped slave, Douglass (1818-1895) became a leading abolitionist, an outstanding orator, and one of the most prominent literary figures of his time. Blight looks in detail at Douglass’s speeches and examines his complicated views of a country he both loved and severely criticized. He follows Douglass on his overseas lecture tours and illuminates the complicated thinking behind the three versions of Douglass’s autobiography. He also discusses Douglass’s two marriages, his relationships with members of his extended family, and parses his religious beliefs.https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9781416590316Learn more about your ad choices. Vi

Rebecca Traister is one of today’s most powerful feminist voices. She’s written about women in politics, media, popular culture, and at home, exploring the rise of single women in her bestselling All the Single Ladies and the 2008 Democratic primary in Big Girls Don’t Cry. In Good and Mad, she dives deep into the history and value of female rage, reminding us that women’s anger was a force to be reckoned with long before the 2016 election and the #MeToo movement. She tracks the importance of female anger as political fuel, and deconstructs society’s negative reactions to women who dare to get mad.Traister is in conversation with Fatima Goss Graves, the president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center.https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9781501181795Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gerald’s extraordinary memoir cuts a swath through a dizzying number of socio-cultural sectors, enacting an American dream that questions the very assumptions behind it. Growing up in Dallas, Gerald was immersed in his grandfather’s evangelical church, a source of stability when his mother’s disability checks could barely support the family. When he was recruited to play football for Yale, Gerald’s life changed. But as he moved up, earning a Harvard MBA, he was shocked by the disparity between his old life and his new one. Writing with force and eloquence, humor and outrage, he questions the meanings of power and success, illuminating the ideals that caused his Harvard Business School commencement speech to go viral and made him, at barely thirty, one of Fast Company’s “Most Creative People in Business.”Gerald is in conversation with Dr. Matthew D. Morrison, Assistant Professor in the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and former Editor-in-Chief of the mu