An interview with Joseph Finder, author of the new novel, The Oligarch’s Daughter. The book is a thrilling story of dizzying spycraft following an everyman on the run for his life.By Bob Kustra

An interview with Zach Weinersmith, co-author of the new book, A City on Mars. The book is a funny and deeply-researched off-world investigation into the question of space settlement.By Bob Kustra

An interview with Dipo Faloyin, debut author of Africa is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent. In the book, Faloyin explores the youth-led cultural and political movements that are defining and reimagining Africa on their own terms. This is the second of a two-part interview.By Bob Kustra

An interview with Chris Pavone, author of the thrilling novel, The Doorman. The book follows a blue collar doorman for a glitzy apartment building in a combustible story of class, privilege, sex, and murder.By Bob Kustra

An interview with Matthew Goodman, author of Paris Undercover. The book tells the gripping story of two women in Nazi-occupied Paris who create a daring escape line that rescues dozens of Allied servicemen.By Bob Kustra

An interview with Dipo Faloyin, debut author of Africa is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent. In the book, Faloyin explores the youth-led cultural and political movements that are defining and reimagining Africa on their own terms.By Bob Kustra

An interview with Sonia Purnell, author of Kingmaker. In the book, Purnell tells the secret history of Winston Churchill’s daughter-in-law, Pamela Churchill Harriman, whose image as a vapid socialite masked her powerful influence on the world stage for five decades.By Bob Kustra

An interview with Steve Coll, author of the new book, The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the CIA, and the Origins of America’s Invasion of Iraq.The book offers the definitive story of the decades-long relationship between the United States and Saddam Hussein, and an investigation into one of the costliest geopolitical conflicts of our time.…

Note: This is an encore edition of Reader's Corner. The episode originally aired in January 2023. In 1990, as the United States cobbles together a coalition to undo Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, six US officers are trapped in Iraq with intelligence that could ruin Operation Desert Storm, if it falls into the wrong hands. Desperate, the CIA a…

An interview with Mark L. Clifford, author of The Troublemaker. The book is a comprehensive biography of billionaire businessman Jimmy Lai, a leading Hong Kong democracy activist who became China’s most famous political prisoner.By Bob Kustra

An interview with Nils Barrett, joining Reader's Corner to talk about his late father’s memoir, Inside the President's Team. The book offers an up-close view of the Ford presidency by one of his closest and most-trusted advisors.By Bob Kustra

Bob Kustra interviews Tod Lending, author of the novel, The Umbrella Maker’s Son. The book is a coming-of-age tale following a 17-year-old Polish Jew as he fights for his life and experiences his first love, set during WWII.By Bob Kustra

An interview with Craig Foster, author of Amphibious Soul. The book is a lyrical memoir drawing from the author’s decades of daily ocean dives, wisdom from Indigenous teachers, and cutting-edge science.By Bob Kustra

An interview with Sandra Matz, author of the new book, Mindmasters. The book is an exploration of how algorithms penetrate and influence the most intimate aspects of our psychology.By Bob Kustra

An interview with Nathan J. Robinson, co-author of the new book, The Myth of American Idealism. The book is an indictment of both American foreign policy and the political influence that supports it.By Bob Kustra

Note: This is an encore edition of Reader's Corner. The episode originally aired in November 2022. An interview with Ben Macintyre, author of the new book, Prisoners of the Castle: An Epic Story of Survival and Escape from Colditz, the Nazis’ Fortress Prison. In the book, Macintyre looks at one of history’s most notorious prisons, and the remarkabl…

An interview with Kevin Grange, author of Grizzly Confidential. Part science, part travelogue, the book is a both a gripping account of the famous North American species and a passionate plea for bear conservation.By Bob Kustra

An interview with Russell Muirhead, co-author of the new book, Ungoverning: The Attack on the Administrative State and the Politics of Chaos. The book details how a concentrated attack on political institutions threatens to disable the essential workings of government.By Bob Kustra

An interview with Marsha E. Barrett, author of Nelson Rockefeller's Dilemma. The book is a compelling political history of the influential career of the four-time New York State governor and US vice president.By Bob Kustra

An interview with legendary travel writer Rick Steves about his new book, On the Hippie Trail. The book offers a glimpse into the memories and misadventures of his formative 1978 trek from Istanbul to Kathmandu.By Bob Kustra

An interview with Christian Cooper, author of the book, Better Living Through Birding. Part memoir, part travelogue, the book explores how birding helped Cooper during the most difficult parts of his life, and how we can all benefit from looking up more.By Bob Kustra

An interview with Sy Montgomery, author of What the Chicken Knows. Part science writing, part personal narrative, the book explores the surprising traits and unique personalities of the world’s most recognizable bird.By Bob Kustra

An interview with Greg Barnhisel, author of Code Name Puritan. The book is a fascinating biography of Norman Holmes Pearson, an unassuming literary scholar and part-time spy who transformed postwar American culture.By Bob Kustra

An interview with Maria Popova, co-author of the new book, Russia and Ukraine: Entangled Histories, Diverging States. The book examines how the fall of the Soviet Union started an identity and regime divergence between Russia and Ukraine, and set both countries on an inevitable collision course.By Bob Kustra

Note: This is an encore edition of Reader's Corner. The episode originally aired in November 2022.An interview with Nate Schweber, author of the new book, This America of Ours: Bernard & Avis DeVoto and the Forgotten Fight to Save the Wild. In the book, Schweber tells the story of the extraordinary couple who rescued national parks from McCarthyism…

An interview with Mark Greaney, author of the new thriller, Midnight Black. The book is a taut new addition to Greaney’s bestselling Gray Man series.By Bob Kustra

An interview with David Rohde, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Where Tyranny Begins. In the book, Rohde details how Donald Trump used threats, co-option, and conspiracy theories to bend DOJ and FBI officials to his will.By Bob Kustra

An interview with Lindsey Cormack, author of the new book, How to Raise a Citizen. The book is a practical guide to nurturing the next generation of responsible, informed citizens.By Bob Kustra

An interview with Bryce Andrews, author of the new book, Holding Fire. The book is a memoir of inheritance, history, and one gun’s role in the violence that shaped the American West.By Bob Kustra

Note: This is an encore edition of Reader's Corner. The episode originally aired in October 2022. An interview with Chris Pavone, author of the thrilling novel, Two Nights in Lisbon. The book is story of a woman under pressure, and what she will resort to when everything is on the line.By Bob Kustra

An interview with Hansen Shi, author of the thrilling new novel, The Expat. The book follows a young businessman who travels to China for a job offer, only to find himself thrust into a world of corporate espionage.By Bob Kustra

An interview with Adam Higginbotham, author of Challenger. The book is a thrilling minute-by-minute account of the 1986 Challenger shuttle disaster, based on new archival research.By Bob Kustra

Producer's Note: This is an encore edition of Reader's Corner. The episode originally aired in October 2022. An interview with Toya Wolfe, debut author of the novel, Last Summer on State Street. The book is a striking coming-of-age debut about friendship, community, and resilience, set in the housing projects of Chicago.…

An interview with Marcel Dirsus, author of How Tyrants Fall. The book is a deeply-researched examination of how dictators are overthrown, and what happens to nations in the aftermath.By Bob Kustra

An interview with Brian Rosenwald, author of the book, Talk Radio's America. The book takes a close look at the infotainment format pioneered by Rush Limbaugh on AM radio, and the effect it had on the Republican party.By Bob Kustra

Note: This is an encore edition of Reader's Corner. The episode originally aired in September 2022. An interview with Mark Follman, author of Trigger Points: Inside the Mission to Stop Mass Shootings in America. The book casts new light on the behind-the-scenes work being done to predict and prevent mass shootings.…

An interview with Rob Hart, author of the new novel, Assassins Anonymous. The book is a thrilling story of suspense, murder, and redemption, as a reformed hitman tries to stay on the straight and narrow while running for his life.By Bob Kustra

An interview with Arlie Russell Hochschild, author of Stolen Pride. Set in Appalachia, the book takes a hard look at the “pride paradox” that has given the Right Wing’s appeals such resonance.By Bob Kustra

Note: This is an encore presentation of Reader's Corner. The episode originally aired in September 2022.An interview with Edward H. Miller, author of A Conspiratorial Life: Robert Welch, the John Birch Society, and the Revolution of American Conservatism. In the book, Miller argues that Welch’s paranoid right-wing nativism, dismissed by thinkers li…

An interview with Melissa B. Jacoby, author of the new book, Unjust Debts. The book offers an incisive look at the hidden role of bankruptcy in perpetuating inequality in America.By Bob Kustra

An interview with Amor Towles, bestselling author of the new book, Table for Two. The book is a collection of short fiction based in New York, along with a novella set in the Golden Age of Hollywood.By Bob Kustra

Note: This is an encore episode of Reader's Corner. The episode originally aired in June 2022. An interview with David Gelles, author of The Man Who Broke Capitalism: How Jack Welch Gutted the Heartland and Crushed the Soul of Corporate America―and How to Undo His Legacy. In the book, Gelles profiles the man who ushered in a new, cutthroat era of A…

An interview with Timothy Snyder, author of the new book, On Freedom. The book is an exploration of the American ideal of freedom—what it is, how it’s been misunderstood, and why it may be our only chance for survival.By Bob Kustra

An interview with Sergey Radchenko, author of the new book, To Run the World. The book offers a detailed portrait of Russian leadership during the Cold War, helming a sprawling nation with irreconcilable ambitions as a self-proclaimed superpower and the leader of global revolution.By Bob Kustra

An interview with Illia Ponomarenko, author of the new book, I Will Show You How It Was. The book is powerful and personal chronicle of the war in Ukraine from the front lines.By Bob Kustra

Note: This is an encore edition of Reader's Corner. The episode originally aired in August 2022. An interview with Scott Weidensaul, author of A World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds. The book is exhilarating exploration of the science and wonder of global bird migration.By Bob Kustra

An interview with Jonathan Blitzer, author of Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here. The book is a vivid portrait of the people whose lives ebb and flow across the U.S. border, and how the immigration crisis shapes American politics and culture.By Bob Kustra

An interview with Minxin Pei, author of The Sentinel State. The book argues that the endurance of dictatorship in China owes less to advanced technology than it does to the human resources of the Leninist surveillance state.By Bob Kustra

Note: This is an encore edition of Reader's Corner. The episode originally aired in August 2022. An interview with Tom Lin, author of the novel, The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu. A twist on the classic western, it’s a story of one man's quest for redemption in the face of a distinctly American brutality.…

An interview with Paul Hendrickson, author of the new book, Fighting the Night. The book is a moving story of his father’s wartime service as a night fighter pilot, and the prices he and his fellow soldiers paid for their selfless acts of service.By Bob Kustra