Timothy Garton Ash on What It Means to Be European
Bookstack returns with renowned Oxford professor of European studies Timothy Garton Ash. In his latest book, Homelands: A Personal History of Europe, Garton Ash chronicles the spread of freedom across Europe since 1945 through his personal perspective as an “English European.” He sits down with host Richard Aldous to share
Janno Lieber on Transforming NYC Transit
Less traffic. Cleaner air. Safer streets. Better transit. That’s the personal motto of Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber of the Metropolitan Transit Authority. And it’s certainly a good one aspirationally. The challenge is putting it into practice. Lieber joins host Charles Lane to discuss the triumphs and pitfalls
Tara Isabella Burton on Self Creation across the Ages
Could there really be a straight line between the self-made person of talent and the branded personality made famous by reality TV and the internet? In Self-Made: Creating Our Identities from Da Vinci to the Kardashians, Tara Isabella Burton shows how the curating of an “authentic” self so characteristic of
Yasmine El Rashidi on Egypt’s Fortunes
If political activism has died down in Egypt since the 2011 revolution, there is energy bubbling beneath the surface, says Yasmine El Rashidi in Laughter in the Dark: Egypt to the Tune of Change. The country experiencing its harshest repression in decades is at the same time inhabited by a
Gov. John Bel Edwards on Being a Deep South Democrat
Louisiana is a unique state and Charles Lane knows its history; his 2008 book, The Day Freedom Died, told the story of the Colfax Massacre of 1873, in which dozens of Black men were slain. And the state has a unique governor, John Bel Edwards, who has been elected to
Hugh Howey on the Silo Series
Hugh Howey created a fantastical post-apocalyptic underground world in the first book of his Silo series, Wool, off of which Apple TV launched its eponymous series this spring. Howey joins host Richard Aldous to discuss how he explores ideas about humanity and social order through the genre of sci-fi, and
Daniel Gordis on Israel at 75
The State of Israel engenders a wide range of emotions among onlookers, running the gamut from admiration to revulsion. In his new book Impossible Takes Longer, Daniel Gordis uses a wide lens to assess where the country is today in light of the goals of those who founded it. He
Ronnie Janoff-Bulman on the Moral Divide in U.S. Politics
Why are Americans today so hostile toward opposing political viewpoints? Ronnie Janoff-Bulman contends that the answer has a lot to do with the different ways conservatives and liberals think about morality, and the fact that Republicans and Democrats are more cleanly sorted along this divide than in the past. She
