Episodes

Join Michael in his conversation with Randy Blythe the frontman for the Lamb of God heavy metal band about his new memoir Just Beyond The Light, Making Peace with the Wars Inside our Head. Randy is a writer, photographer, actor, and frontman for the heavy metal band Lamb of God. This is his second book. He lives in Richmond, VA when he is not on the road touring. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Legendary author Judith Viorst joins Michael to talk about her latest book, Making the Best of What's Left, When We're Too Old to Get the Chairs Reupholstered, in which she writes about the late life meaning of wisdom, happiness, second chances, and being home. Judith is the author of the beloved Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day, the Lulu books, including Lulu and the Brontosaurus, the New York Times bestseller, Necessary Losses, four musicals, and poetry for children and...

Join Michael in his conversation with Melissa Ludtke about her new book Locker Room Talk, A Woman’s Struggle To Get Inside which chronicles her years long effort to get major league baseball to provide her and other women sports reporters with equal access to the NY Yankees locker room so she could do her job as a baseball reporter for Sports Illustrated. Melissa was a reporter for Sports Illustrated, a correspondent for Time magazine, and an editor of the Nieman Reports at Harvard University. ...

Join Michael Zeldin in his conversation with Jeffrey Toobin about his new book, The Pardon: The Politics of Presidential Mercy, which explores the most controversial pardon in American history—Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon—and its profound implications for our current political situation. Jeffrey is a longtime CNN Legal Analyst, author of ten books including, Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism which we featured on this podcast in June 2023. Jeffrey is an in...

Join Michael in his conversation with Don Lemon about his new book I Once Was Lost, My Search for God in America which tells his personal journey as a person of deep religious faith but also serves as a warning about the hijacking of religion by the religious right and its implications for American Democracy. Don Lemon is an award winning journalist who has spent three decades on local and national TV, a trusted voice after the Sandy Hook massacre, in war-torn Eastern Europe, and during the rio...

Join Michael in his conversation with Juan Williams about his new book New Prize for These Eyes, The Rise of America’s Second Civil Rights Movement which traces the rise of the second civil rights movement beginning with then Illinois State Senator Barack Obama’s 2004 keynote address to the Democratic National Convention. It is a perfect primer for understanding the Trump 2.0 attacks on the movement for racial justice. Juan is a prizewinning journalist and historian. He has written several bests...

Join Michael in his conversation with Charles Duhigg about his book Supercommunicators, How To Unlock the Secret Language of Connection which is a fascinating exploration of what makes conversations work, and how we can all learn to be supercommunicators at work and in life. It is especially interesting for those who are dating. Charles is an American journalist and non-fiction author. He was a reporter for The New York Times where he was part of a Pulitzer Prize Award winning team for explanat...

Join Michael as we revisit his conversation with Sandy Greenberg as they discuss his memoir, Hello Darkness, My Old Friend, How Daring Dreams and Unyielding Friendship Turned One Man’s Blindness Into An Extraordinary Vision For Life which recounts how he was blinded at age 19 and, against all odds, and with the help of Art Garfunkel, Sandy graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia University, was a Marshall Fellow at Oxford University, and earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University and went on to have ...

Join Michael in his discussion with Professor Justene Hill Edwards about her powerful new book, Savings and Trust the Rise and Betrayal of the Freedmen's Bank. Created after the Civil War, The Freedmen’s Bank was where tens of thousands of formerly enslaved people placed their savings only to have them stolen by corrupt white bankers. Savings and Trust | Justene Hill Edwards | W. W. Norton & Company Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/pr...

Join Michael in his conversation with senior Rolling Stone music writer David Browne about his new book Talkin’ Greenwich Village: The Heady Rise and Slow Fall of America’s Bohemian Music Capital which traces the history of the folk, rock, and blues music scene in the West Village from 1957 through the end of the 1980s. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Join Michael in his discussion with Eddie Glaude Jr. to discuss the crossroads at which America finds itself and his prescription for action. Professor Glaude is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and a MSNBC political commentator. He is the author of numerous award-winning books; including: Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own and We Are the Leaders We Have Been Looking For (The W. E. B...

Join Michael in his conversation with Caroline Alexander about her new book Skies of Thunder: The Deadly World War II Mission Over the Roof of the World which is a breathtaking account of combat and survival in one of the most brutally challenging and rarely examined campaigns of World War II in the China, Burma, India theater of war. Caroline is the author of numerous bestselling books of non-fiction including a new translation of Homer’s Iliad.She writes frequently for The New Yorker and Nati...

Join Michael in his conversation with Corey du Browa about his fun book An Ideal For Living, A Celebration of the EP—Extended Play which chronicles the history of the extended play record and offers Corey’s selection of the top EP by decade and of all time. Corey duBrowa - https://x.com/coreydu Burson - https://x.com/bursonglobal Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Saving Grace: Speak Your Truth, Stay Centered, Learn to Coexist with People Who Drive You Nuts. Saving Grace offers a compelling prescription for navigating the times in which we find ourselves. Grace, Kirsten compellingly, argues is what makes human coexistence possible. Guest Kirsten Powers Kirsten Powers is a New York Times bestselling author, USA Today columnist and CNN senior political analyst where she regularly appears on Anderson Cooper 360, CNN Tonight and The Lead with Jake Tapper. Th...

Join Michael in his discussion with Lydia Abarca Mitchell in part two of our discussion of The Swans of Harlem which tells the story of the creation of the Dance Theater of Harlem and their five original dancers. Lydia was the first principal ballerina for the Dance Theater of Harlem. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Join Michael in his conversation with Karen Valby about her new book The Swans of Harlem:Five Black Ballerinas, Fifty Years of Sisterhood, and their Reclamation of a Groundbreaking History which tells the story of the five original ballerinas in the Dance Theater of Harlem. This is Karen’s second book. She is a frequent contributor to Vanity Fair, and her writing has appeared in, among other places, The New York Times, Fast Company, Time, Glamour, and Entertainment Weekly, where she spent fifte...

Douglas Brinkley, Rice University Professor of Humanities and History and CNN Presidential historian, joins host Michael Zeldin to discuss how history will assess the Trump presidency, Trumpism, and this period of American history Douglas Brinkley’s previous conversation with Michael https://redcircle.com/shows/9628320e-8ac7-43bc-b394-79d0ca7fc4d7/episodes/e2c0f018-e24b-4ea0-82ad-d465eab19917 Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Tragedy on Trial, The Story of the Infamous Emmett Till Murder Trial, which reveals as never before the entire and shocking story of the 1955 trial of Emmett Till’s murderers. Based on extensive research, and accompanied by photos of the trial Collins brings the story alive, revealing all its manipulations of justice. https://www.amazon.com/Tragedy-Trial-Infamous-Emmett-Murder/dp/1531027490 Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Michael is speaking with Wright Thompson about his new book, The Barn The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi which is a revelatory account of the murder of Emmett Till. https://www.instagram.com/wrightthompsonbooks/ Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Abbott Kaler’s new book Eden Undone, a true story of sex, murder, and utopia at the dawn of World War II, explores the universal and timeless desire to seek utopia by three sets of exiles to the Galapagos Islands. Abbott is the author of four New York Times bestselling works of narrative nonfiction. She is a native of Philadelphia, where she has spent six years as a journalist covering crime, advocating for abused women, and hanging out with mafia bosses, baseball wives, and others. https://www....

Michael’s guest is ​Thomas ​Fuller. He’s here to talk ​about ​his ​inspirational ​new ​book, ​The ​Boys ​of ​Riverside, ​A ​Deaf ​Football ​Team ​and ​the ​Quest ​for ​Glory, ​which ​tells ​the ​story ​of ​the ​California ​school ​for ​the ​Deaf, ​Riverside ​and ​its ​pursuit ​of ​a ​football ​championship ​in ​California. The Boys of Riverside: A Deaf Football Team and a Quest for Glory: 9780385549875: Fuller, Thomas Transcript of the conversation Thomas Fuller Thomas Fuller (@thomasfullerNY...

Join Michael in his conversation with Graham Moore about his new book of historical fiction entitled The Wealth of Shadows, Money is a Dangerous Weapon in which he tells the story of a group of US Treasury Department officials and their efforts to bring down Nazi Germany through economic warfare. Graham is a New York Times-bestselling novelist and Academy Award-winning filmmaker. His novels — The Wealth of Shadows (2024), The Hold Out (2020), The Last Days of Night (2016), and The Sherlockian ...

Join Michael in his conversation with Dana Bash about her important new book America’s Deadliest Election the Cautionary Tale of the Most Violent Election in American History which tells the story of the 1872 Louisiana Governor’s race and the lessons it holds for the present. From CNN’s Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash, the fast-paced story of the extraordinary election that led to hundreds of murders, warfare in the streets of New Orleans, two governors of Louisiana—and changed the cour...

Join Michael in his conversation with John Della Volpe the Director of Polling in the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School about his book Fight, How Gen Z is Channeling their Fear and Passion to Save America as well as the results of his September 2024 Harvard YouthPoll. Fight, has been called “the definitive account of America’s next great generation,” and provides an in depth exploration of Gen Z the events that have shaped them, and what it means for America and our future. Sep...