This week, Big Books and Bold Ideas is launching an election year series that asks: What is American democracy in 2024?

Americans come to that question with significantly different views. And what American democracy was when this country was founded isn?t necessarily what it is today or what it will be in the future. Democracy is dynamic.

Heather Cox Richardson spends a lot of time thinking about democracy. She?s a historian and the force behind the most popular newsletter on Substack, with more than 1.3 million subscribers. In 2023, she released her latest book, ?Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America,? which is a reflection on the the evolution of American democracy.

On this week?s Big Books and Bold Ideas, Richardson joined host Kerri Miller to parse the current condition of democracy in America and lay out how the system can be exploited by authoritarians or supported by the populace.

Guest:

Heather Cox Richardson is an author, a historian, a professor Boston College and the writer of Letters from an American, the most popular newsletter on Substack. Her latest book is ?Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America.?

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MPR News host Kerri Miller has never skirted the topic of faith.

On her former weekday show, she regularly dialoged with leaders like Jenan Mohajir from Interfaith America, activist and author Anne Lamott, theologian Jemar Tisby, Sister Joan Chittister, and evangelical disrupter Rachel Held Evans. She even did a year-long series with women from a variety of faith backgrounds in 2019.

So it seemed fitting, during the 2024 winter member drive, to return to this theme and remember a few of the best conversations.

Included are portions of Miller?s recent discussion with Pastor Amy Butler, who penned the memoir, ?Beautiful and Terrible Things;? Miller?s 2019 conversation with podcaster Misha Euceph about being Muslim in America; and a snippet of the 2023 Talking Volumes season finale with author Margaret Renkl about why Renkl left the Catholic church of her upbringing and found a new one in nature.

Choices made in a moment reverberate for generations, despite best intentions.

Vanessa Chan adeptly explores this concept in her debut novel, ?The Storm We Made? ? a work of historical fiction set in her home country of Malaysia, which was inspired by stories her grandmother would tell.

The main character is Cecily, a discontented housewife in 1930s Malaya, who is charmed into becoming a spy for the Japanese during the British occupation. She is increasingly disillusioned with the colonizing force and intrigued by a vision of ?an Asia for Asians.? But her decisions ripple through the lives of her children in unforeseen and disastrous ways.

Chan doesn?t judge.

?Morality is very much dependent on circumstances,? the author tells host Kerri Miller on this week?s Big Books and Bold Ideas. ?You cannot tell when faced with survival whether or not you?ll be as heroic or as cowardly as you think you?re going to be.?

Tune in this week for a warm conversation about roots, family lore and unanswered questions.

?I wrote about the ambiguity of right and wrong when survival is at stake,? Chan says in her forward. ?I wrote because, at the end of the day, remembering is how we love.?

Guest:

Vanessa Chan is a Malaysian author. Her debut novel, ?The Storm We Made,? was one of the most anticipated books of 2024 and has sold rights in more than 20 countries.

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Women spies pop up in Hollywood movies all the time. But as Liza Mundy?s new book reveals, it took determined persistence, personal risk and a lot of sacrifice for women to be welcomed as CIA operatives.

?The Sisterhood? is a meticulously researched, seven-decade history of women who worked behind the scenes at America?s premier foreign intelligence agency. Mundy details how women opened up new avenues of recruiting for assets, formed a team that uncovered a Russian mole operating within the agency and rooted out where Osama bin Laden was hiding.

She joined host Kerri Miller on this week?s Big Books and Bold Ideas to share stories of the women who fought through blatant sexism to became some of the CIA?s most ingenious operatives.

Guest:

Liza Mundy is an award-winning journalist and the New York Times bestselling author of five books. Her latest is ?The Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA.?

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Tracy K. Smith is known for her powerful poetry. She's a Pulitzer Prize winner and former U. S. Poet Laureate.

Yet her newest book, ?To Free the Captives: A Plea for the American Soul,? is memoir ? a classification she initially resisted. But as she tells MPR News host Kerri Miller, she eventually saw that her own story is a kind of microcosm of America?s story. It?s a meditation on who we?ve been, who we are and who we want to become.

On this week?s Big Books and Bold Ideas, Smith joins Miller to expand on the ideas in her latest work, as it examines the nature of power, freedom, race, prayer, her parent?s lives, her own drinking and what she calls "the conundrum of history.?

Guest:

Tracy K. Smith?s poetry has won many awards, including a Pulitzer. She was the U.S. poet laureate from 2017 to 2019. Currently, she is a professor of English and African American studies at Harvard University. Her new book is ?To Free the Captives: A Plea for the American Soul.?

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Americans? faith in the value of higher education is faltering.

Unlike our global peers, the U.S. is seeing a steady decline in college enrollment and graduation rates, especially among young men. Since 1992, the sticker price for four-year private colleges has almost doubled and more than doubled for four-year public colleges, even after adjusting for inflation. Student debt is paralyzing. And Gen Z is watching. About half believe a high school diploma is sufficient to ?ensure financial security.?

What can higher education do?

Macalester College President Emeritus Brian Rosenberg has some thoughts ? but he admits, many in academia won?t like them. His provocative new book is ?Whatever It Is, I?m Against It: Resistance to Change in Higher Education,? and he joins host Kerri Miller this week for a discussion that names those things. Is it possible for colleges and universities to stay relevant and adapt to a changing world?

Guest:

Brian Rosenberg is president emeritus of Macalester College and is currently a visiting professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. His new book is ?Whatever It Is, I?m Against It:? Resistance to Change in Higher Education.?

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Are you convinced the U.S. government knows more than it will reveal about UFOs? After doing a deep dive into the history, journalist Garrett Graff is too. But he doesn?t think the cover-up is a necessarily hiding alien life.

?There are two obvious cloaks of secrecy that surrounds the government cover-up of its understanding of what UFOs and UAPs (unidentified aerial phenomena) are today,? Graff tells MPR News host Kerri Miller on this week?s Big Books and Bold Ideas.

?One level is we don?t know what level of public UFO sightings are our own government?s secret development projects.?

?The other is that ? some chunk of UAPS are advanced adversary technology being tested against us ? drones from other countries. So the military doesn?t want to say what it?s detected lest it give away too much.?

But is there alien life? Graff feels certain there is. He just doesn?t see proof that it?s visiting earth.

His new book looks at the history of UFO sightings in the United States, including the large reports of flying saucers after WWII, UFO conspiracy theories after Watergate and the U.S. government?s efforts in recent years to engage in more open dialogue about extraterrestrial life.

Guest:

Garrett Graff is a journalist and the author of many books. His latest is ?UFO: The Inside Story of the US Government?s Search for Alien Life Here ? and Out There.?

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This year, Big Books and Bold Ideas is introducing an occasional series that will feature books on democracy. That series begins as we mark the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection.

To gain context, we invited three historians and authors from different regions of the country to reflect on this American moment. Can history be a guide to where we are? Do we have the chaos and divisiveness we deserve? How do we approach what comes next with clarity and perspective?

Guests:

Carol Anderson a historian and professor of African-American studies at Emory University. She?s the author of many books, including ?White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide? and ?One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying our Democracy.?

Elizabeth Cobbs is a historian, an author and the Melbern Glasscock Chair at Texas A&M University. Her most recent book is ?Fearless Women: Feminist Patriots from Abigail Adams to Beyoncé.?

Eric Foner is one of the nation?s leading historians and the author of many award-winning books on the Civil War and Reconstruction, including ?The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution.? He is also a professor emeritus at Columbia University.

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?Here is the world,? writes theologian Frederick Buechner. ?Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don?t be afraid.?

Those words rooted Amy Butler through some of the darkest moments of her life. As Butler slowly embraced her call to be a pastor, she was rejected by her conservative evangelical family, who doesn?t believe women should be in pastoral roles.

She was the first woman ever appointed to lead the historic Riverside Church in New York City, but the challenges of breaking the ?stained glass ceiling? almost caused her to lose her faith.

In her new memoir, ?Beautiful and Terrible Things,? Butler takes us inside her life story. She covers joyful and painful moments, including the loss of a child, her unexpected divorce and the hardships of being a woman in ministry.

But ultimately, as she tells MPR News host Kerri Miller on this week?s Big Books and Bold Ideas, she found that vulnerability is worth it.

Butler writes in the introduction, ?The invitation to become who we?re meant to be happens at the intersection of human pain and divine hope, and almost always in the context of relationship.?

Guest:

Rev. Amy Butler is currently pastoring a Baptist church in her home state of Hawaii. Her new book is ?Beautiful and Terrible Things: Faith, Doubt and Discovering a Way Back To Each Other.?

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For years, author Jedidiah Jenkins and his mother, Barbara, have flirted with the idea of a cross-country road trip together. The goal: to retrace Barbara?s route across America which she walked with her husband, travel writer Peter Jenkins, in the 1970s.

But there is one problem: they have wildly disparate world views. Barbara is a baby boomer who lives in rural Tennessee. She supports Trump, listens to conservative media and is a deeply passionate evangelical Christian.

Jedidiah is almost the opposite. He?s a gay man, who lives on the West Coast and is politically progressive.

But they love each other. And Jedidiah is keenly aware of his mother?s age and the passing of time. So they set off on their joint adventure, hoping for fresh insight into the complex questions many are asking today: How do we stay in relationship when it hurts? When are boundaries needed? Is it possible to love someone who disagrees with you on almost everything?

This week on Big Books and Bold Ideas, Jedidiah Jenkins joined host Kerri Miller for a thoughtful, funny and reflective conversation about mothers, nuance and the key ingredient needed to stay in painful relationships.

Guest:

Jedidiah Jenkins is an author and adventurer. His latest memoir is ?Mother, Nature: A 5000-Mile Journey to Discover if a Mother and Son Can Survive Their Differences.?

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Members of MPR and supporters of The Slowdown came together in mid-October to celebrate poetry with Major Jackson. The poet was in the Twin Cities to speak at the Twin Cities Book Festival, which is where he also learned that The Slowdown ? a daily poetry podcast that he hosts ? had won the prestigious Signal Award for Best Daily Podcast of 2023.

It was on that jubilant note that he spoke with host Kerri Miller about his love for the art form of words. In the past, he has said that he finds ?the writing of a poem a kind of plunging, a willful dive below the surface of who I am.?

During their conversation, Jackson explored those ideas with Miller. He spoke about how to avoid solipsism when writing poetry, how his childhood faith taught him the musicality of words and why it?s crucial that poetry be a mode of inquiry, not a collection of answers.

Guest:

Major Jackson is the author of six books of poetry, most recently ?Razzle Dazzle.? He teaches writing at Vanderbilt University and is host of APM?s daily poetry podcast, The Slowdown.

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To humans, roads are so ubiquitous, they are almost invisible. They crisscross every continent and allow for travel, exploration and connection.

But to wildlife, roads are dangerous divisions of habitat. Around a million animals are killed by cars every day. Roads change migration patterns, cut off animals from their food sources and create noise so loud that it drowns out the ability for some animals to communicate with each other or hunt their prey.

But road ecologists are working on solutions. In his new book, ?Crossings,? Science Journalist Ben Goldfarb lays out the repercussion of roads and invites us to rethink their design. For example, California is planning to build a literal animal crossing over Highway 101, to allow safe passage for a variety of creatures.

Goldfarb joined host Kerri Miller on this week?s Big Books and Bold Ideas to share what he learned when he started to research road ecology and how scientists are using innovative solutions to minimize the damage roads cause.

Guest:

Ben Goldfarb is an environmental journalist and author. His latest book is ?Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of Our Planet.?

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What word or phrase conjures immediate understanding in your family ? but puzzled looks from everyone else?

In one family, pizza crust is known as ?pizza bones.? In another, children who weren?t allowed to say fart were instructed to use the word ?foof? instead.

This Thursday, MPR News host Kerri Miller talked about ?familect? with word wizard Anatoly Liberman.

Guest:

Anatoly Liberman is a linguist and professor of languages at the University of Minnesota. His latest book is, ?Take My Word For It: A Dictionary of English Idioms.?

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To the strict Rastafari father of Jamaican poet Safiya Sinclair, Babylon was not just an ancient city. It was a symbol for corruption, for wickedness, for decadence and depravity. And it was everywhere.

So he kept his family tightly controlled, separate from outside influences that could contaminate.

It was in that environment that Sinclair first grew and then stifled. Her father?s Rastafari faith was all-encompassing. While her mother taught her the music of nature and encouraged her to read, her father became obsessed with keeping his daughters pure. So they had few friends or hobbies, outside of schoolwork. Sinclair dreaded adolescence, when she knew menstruation would make her unclean. She grudgingly kept her dreadlocks ? a symbol of Rastafari piety ? and chafed under her father?s gospel that good Rasta women are submissive and quiet.

But Sinclair found her voice in poetry. In her new memoir, ?How to Say Babylon,? Sinclair recounts her journey from a subdued and sheltered daughter into a strong and self-assertive woman.

This week on Big Book and Bold Ideas, Sinclair joined host Kerri Miller to talk about the perils of fundamentalism and patriarchy, in all its forms, and how she wrote a memoir about her childhood that both honors her family and her own truth.

Guest:

Safiya Sinclair is a Jamaican poet and memoirist. Her debut poetry collection, ?Cannibal,? won several awards. Her new memoir is ?How to Say Babylon.?

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What book did you read this year that you immediately recommended to all your friends?

That was the topic MPR News host Kerri Miller tackled Monday at 9 a.m. for a special live edition of her regular Friday show, Big Books and Bold Ideas. Instead of chatting with an author, Miller took calls and chatted with Glory Edim, the founder of Well-Read Black Girl, and Julie Buckles, the owner of Honest Dog Books in Bayfield, Wis.

Before the show, we asked our social media followers what their favorite books of the year were and the top responses were: ?Lessons in Chemistry? by Bonnie Garmus, ?Tom Lake? by Ann Patchett and ?Demon Copperhead? by Barbara Kingsolver.

?Age of Vice? by Deepti Kapoor

?How to Say Babylon? by Safiya Sinclair

?State of Wonder? by Ann Patchett

?The Unwinding of the Miracle: A Memoir of Life, Death, and Everything That Comes After? by Julie Yip-Williams

?The Last Ranger? by Peter Heller

"Tom Lake" by Ann Patchett

?Good Night, Irene? by Luis Alberto Urrea

?Bel Canto? by Ann Patchett

?The Paris Bookseller? by Kerri Maher

?The Diary of a Bookseller? by Shaun Bythell

?You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir? by Maggie Smith

?The River: A Novel? by Peter Heller

?Company: Stories? by Shannon Sanders

?Witness? by Jamel Brinkley

?The Fraud? by Zadie Smith

?The Color Purple? by Alice Walker

?Family Lore? by Elizabeth Acevedo

?The Unsettled? by Ayana Mathis

?Moonrise Over New Jessup? by Jamila Minnicks

?Winter?s Song: A Hymn to the North? by TD Mischke

?Foster? by Claire Keegan

?West with Giraffes: A Novel? by Lynda Rutledge

?Angry Water? by Allen Theisen

?The Seed Keeper? by Diane Wilson

?The Comfort of Crows? by Margaret Renkl

?Lessons in Chemistry? by Bonnie Garmus

?The Jungle Book: by Rudyard Kipling

?Mr. Texas: A Novel? by Lawrence Wright

?Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America? by Heather Cox Richardson

?The Measure? by Nikki Erlick

?A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan?s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them? by Timothy Egan

?Whiskey When We?re Dry: A Novel? by John Larison

?Chenneville? by Paulette Jiles

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Can you imagine a day when families visit the moon for summer vacation? When travel to see Saturn?s rings up close is a romantic getaway? When humans living on Mars schedule tours of Olympus Mons ? a volcano roughly the size of Arizona?

The day is coming. But since it?s not possible quite yet, the would-be space traveler can do the next best thing: Take the scenic route through the galaxy with astronomer and science communicator Philip Plait in his new book, ?Under Alien Skies.?

Written as a lively adventure through the cosmos, Plait uses both the latest scientific research and a lively imagination to transport readers to ten of the most astonishing sights space has to offer.

This week on Big Books and Bold Ideas, Plait joined host Kerri Miller to give listeners a personal tour through the galaxy.

Guest:

Philip Plait is an astronomer, a self-proclaimed sci-fi dork and all-around science enthusiast. His latest book is ?Under Alien Skies: A Sightseer's Guide to the Universe.? He also writes the Bad Astronomy newsletter.

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The season finale of Talking Volumes brought author and columnist Margaret Renkl to Minnesota, hours after the first snow carpeted our Northern landscape.

She declared it ?magical? ? a theme familiar to those who?ve read her New York Times columns or her new book, ?The Comfort of Crows.?

In it, the self-described backyard naturalist details what she saw in her Tennessee half-acre backyard over the course of 52 weeks. She laughs at the bumblebees and fusses over foxes. She laments the absence of birds and butterflies that used to be proliferate. But she also refuses to give in to despair.

For those of us paying attention, she told MPR host Kerri Miller, it would be ?easy for the grief to take over.?

?But what a waste it would be if we did that,? she added. ?If it?s true, that we?re going to lose all the songbirds ? at least the migratory ones ? how much more are we obliged to notice them and treasure them while we have them??

Don?t miss this warm and candid conversation about the gift of nature, the solace of observation and the gospel Renkl finds in her own backyard. Musical guest The Dollys rounded out the evening.

Guest:

Margaret Renkl is an award-winning author and a New York Times columnist. Her latest book is ?The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year.?

Use the audio player or video player above to listen to the conversation.

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On July 7, 2016, a Black gunman ambushed Dallas police officers working a peaceful protest, shooting 14 and killing five.

The trauma surgeon who worked to save many of those officers ? Dr. Brian H. Williams ? made headlines when he spoke at a press conference after the incident. In an emotional moment, he confessed his complicated feelings as a Black man in America to the mix of race, policing and guns.

?I want the Dallas P.D. to also see me, a Black man, and understand that I support you, I will defend you, and I will care for you,? he said.

?But that doesn't mean that I do not fear you,? he added. ?That doesn?t mean that if you approach me I will not immediately have a visceral reaction and start worrying for my personal safety.?

It was that moment that catapulted Dr. Williams into the national spotlight and pushed him to offer a diagnosis on a system that is failing almost everyone.

This week on Big Books and Bold Ideas, Dr. Williams talks with MPR News host Kerri Miller about that fateful day in Dallas. They also talk about what led him to medicine in the first place, the systemic racism he witnessed in the health care field and why he still believes healing is possible.

Guest:

Dr. Brian H. Williams is a trauma surgeon, an Air Force Academy alumnus and a former congressional health policy advisor. His new book is ?The Bodies Keep Coming: Dispatches from a Black Trauma Surgeon on Racism, Violence, and How We Heal.?

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Viet Thanh Nguyen has a critical mind.

He?s critic of populist politics. He?s a critic of history. He?s a critic of the country where he was born, Vietnam, and he?s a critic of the country he calls home, the United States. He?s even a critic of his own memories.

But Nguyen says his captious lens isn?t meant to blister. It?s simply meant to reveal truth. And if you write truthfully, you will likely offend.

Nguyen joined host Kerri Miller on stage at the Fitzgerald Theater for the third conversation in the 2023 Talking Volumes season. Their discussion was candid and eloquent, poignant and funny, as they talked and shared photos from Nguyen?s new memoir, ?A Man of Two Faces.?

They were joined by musician D?Lourdes, who sang two songs off their new EP, ?softer, for now.?

Guest:

Viet Thanh Nguyen won the Pulitzer Prize in 2016 for his novel, ?The Sympathizer.? His new book, ?A Man of Two Faces? is an unconventional memoir that combines his own story of being a Vietnamese refugee with larger themes of colonization, war and perceptions about America.

Use the audio player or video player above to listen to the conversation.

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In C Pam Zhang?s dystopian not-too-distant future, the planet is covered in a crop-killing smog. Food as we know it is rapidly disappearing to be replaced by a gray, mung bean flour.

Zhang?s protagonist, a young unnamed Asian chef, decides to flee her dreary career and lies her way into becoming the head cook at a mountaintop research community, where the sky is still clear and the uber-rich work to recreate and hoard the world?s biodiversity.

The prose in ?Land of Milk and Honey? is as rich and sensual as a good meal. But it is the constant trade-offs made by the chef that keep the book evolving.

This week, on Big Books and Bold Ideas, host Kerri Miller sat down with Zhang to talk about what moved her to write this book, how her faith background informs her view of science and why she moved from California to New York City during the pandemic.

Guest:

C Pam Zhang is an author who currently lives in Brooklyn. Her most recent novel is ?Land of Milk and Honey.?

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Ann Patchett is a perennial favorite at Talking Volumes. So it?s no surprise that she sold out the Fitz for her conversation with host Kerri Miller on Sept. 28.

What ensued was a raucous two hours of honest conversation. Just a few of the topics they covered: Ann?s ?shiny new attitude? about book tours, how to be a feminist while still making dinner every night, why Ann keeps a drawer stocked with $20s in her desk and ? last but certainly not least ? Ann?s new novel, ?Tom Lake.?

Don?t miss this lively exchange, which includes music by singer-songwriter Sarah Morris and closes with a special guest appearance by the author to whom Ann dedicated ?Tom Lake? ? Minnesotan Kate DiCamillo.

Guests:

Ann Patchett is the author of many beloved books, including ?Commonwealth,? ?The Dutch House,? ?Bel Canto? and ?Truth and Beauty.? Her latest novel is ?Tom Lake.? She also owns Parnassus Books, an independent bookstore in Nashville, and she adores her husband, Karl ? even if he doesn?t make dinner.

Kate DiCamillo is also an author of many beloved books, including ?Because of Winn-Dixie,? ?Flora and Ulysses,? ?The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane? and the forthcoming, ?The Puppets of Spelhorst.? She is a staunch friend of Ann Patchett, which is why ?Tom Lake? is dedicated to her and how she ended up on stage with Ann at Talking Volumes.

Use the audio player or video player above to listen to the conversation.

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Lauren Groff?s new novel, ?The Vaster Wilds,? begins in the bleak winter of 1609, when the residents of the early American colony of Jamestown are diseased and starving.

A young servant girl, who was brought to the new world by a prosperous and indifferent family, decides to run from the desolation. But she leaves Jamestown not knowing her direction, her surroundings or even her name. Can she survive the untouched wilderness?

Groff says her new book is haunted by climate change ? the fact that we, as a species, are also running into the vast unknown. But like her unnamed protagonist, she finds moments of ecstasy in the starkness of nature, times when she sees her own body experience euphoria in the midst of pain.

This week, Groff joined host Kerri Miller on Big Books and Bold Ideas for a conversation about ?The Vaster Wilds.? Like her other books, this one plays with themes of feminism, religion and morality, and she dives into all those topics.

But she also reveals how many covers she and her publishing house went through before they settled on the one that was printed, and how many books she?s writing right now, simultaneously.

Guest:

Lauren Groff is a New York Times bestselling author of several books, including ?Matrix? and ?Fates and Furies.? Her new novel is ?The Vaster Wilds.?

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When Dr. Abraham Verghese released his debut novel in 2009 it was an literary marvel. ?Cutting for Stone? captivated readers, sold more than 1.5 million copies in the U.S. alone and remained on the New York Times bestseller list for two years.

Readers had to wait 14 years for another book by Verghese, but by all accounts, his new novel was worth the wait. Oprah Winfrey named it a book club pick, called saying it was ?one of the best books I?ve read in my entire life ? and I?ve been reading since I was three!?

It was a pleasure to have him kick off the 2023 season of Talking Volumes. Dr. Verghese joined host Kerri Miller on stage at the Fitzgerald Theater the evening of Sept. 14 and talked about redemption, inspiration, how his ?day job? as a doctor informs his writing (and vice versa) and why his belief in the essential goodness of humanity is core to his novels.

Their conversation was complimented by Kerala folk music played by local musician Nirmala Rajasekar, who was joined onstage by one of India?s premier percussionists, Thanjavur Murugaboopathi.

Guest:

Dr. Abraham Verghese is a physician and professor at the School of Medicine at Stanford University. He is also a best-selling author. His latest novel is ?The Covenant of Water.?

Use the audio player or video player above to listen to the conversation.

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Carol Dunbar didn?t set out to be an writer.

For more than a decade, she was an actress based in the Twin Cities. She told stories by embodying them.

But then she and her husband ? also an actor ? decided to leave it all behind. They moved off the grid, to rural Wisconsin, so her husband could handcraft furniture. It was there, while learning to split wood and pump water and raise two toddlers in the midst of the chaos, that Dunbar came to the stunning conclusion that she was a storyteller ? just one who had been working in the wrong art form. So she began to write.

Her first book, ?The Net Beneath Us? won the Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award and told the story of a young woman learning to live close off the land in Wisconsin after her husband has a logging accident. Her new novel, ?A Winter?s Rime,? is also set in northern Wisconsin and plays with truths Dunbar has learned firsthand about PTSD, healing and place.

This week?s Big Book and Bold Ideas features a conversation between host Kerri Miller and Dunbar. They talk about how the rural north woods influence Dunbar?s writing, how both her books are informed by her own story and why learning to forgive one?s self might be the key to redemption.

Guest:

Carol Dunbar is a novelist who lives off the grid in northern Wisconsin and writes from a solar-powered office on the second floor of a water tower. Her latest book is ?A Winter?s Rime.?

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Jason Fitger is not a likeable character.

A creative writing professor at the fictitious Payne University, an aptly named small liberal arts college in the Midwest, Fitger is cantankerous and acid-tongued, beleaguered and inappropriate. He doesn?t really like students ? and he doesn?t like England, which is where he has been pressured into leading a study abroad program.

The students on the tour are equally hapless. For the most part, this is their first trip away from home. One believes they are actually going to the Caribbean. And another remarks that she has never left her cat. Someone writes in his application that he is ?a business major ? for obvious reasons. There are no jobs out there for people who just want to read.? 

It?s enough to push Professor Fitger to the brink ? and that is the story told in ?The English Experience,? Minnesota novelist Julie Schumacher?s final book in the trilogy that follows Fitger?s academic misadventures.

This week, on Big Books and Bold Ideas, Schumacher joined host Kerri Miller in the studio for a rollicking and candid conversation about how Schumacher channels Fitger, why she hopes he?s likeable in spite of all his faults, and the frustrations she shares with him about the future of academia.

Guest:

Julie Schumacher lives in St. Paul and is a faculty member in the Creative Writing Program and the Department of English at the University of Minnesota. ?The English Experience? is the completion of her trilogy about Professor Fitger.

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The first time Helen Macdonald and Sin Blaché met, it was to finish the book they had been cowriting for a year.

Macdonald, author of the best-selling ?H is for Hawk,? and Blaché, an artist living in Ireland, first met online. During the COVID lockdowns, bored and restless, they started to play with the idea of writing a book together. Chapters began to fly digitally over the Irish Sea.

What resulted is ?Prophet,? a fast-paced techno-thriller that centers around a lethal mystery: Someone has developed an aerosol that can weaponize nostalgia, bringing people?s happiest memories to life only to have them be killed by it.

?Prophet? doubles as a queer odd-couple romance, thanks to the main characters, whom Blaché and Macdonald fondly call ?our terrible men.? Adam is a gruff American super solider, and Rao is a former British intelligence officer who has a gift for telling when people are lying ? unless that person is Adam.

On this week?s Big Books and Bold Ideas, MPR News host Kerri Miller talks with Macdonald and Blaché about why cowriting a book online turned out to be a raucous, joyful thing and how their shared love for tropes and pop culture influenced the book.

Guests:

Helen Macdonald and Sin Blaché cowrote ?Prophet.? It will not be their last project together.

Use the audio player above to listen to the podcast version of the conversation.

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A pair of best friends determine to leave behind their conservative families and societal expectations, and live by a new motto: By Myself, For Myself.

What happens when one of those friends marries, and the other friend sees the new husband as a betrayal of their values?

That?s the premise behind British-Nigerian author Ore Agbaje-Williams debut novel, ?The Three of Us.? The story plays out on a single wine- and whiskey-soaked afternoon, when the wife, husband and best friend Temi toy with the fine line between compromise and betrayal when it comes to themselves and the people they love.

On this week?s Big Books and Bold Ideas, Agbaje-Williams joins MPR News host Kerri Miller to discuss the power of female friendships, why her story had to unfold in a single afternoon, and how love and loyalty can shape our lives.

Guest:

Ore Agbaje-Williams is a British-Nigerian writer. ?The Three of Us? is her debut novel.

Use the audio player above to listen to the podcast version of the conversation.

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Christian Cooper?s visibility as a lifelong birder exploded after a woman in Central Park refused to leash her dog and reported, wrongly, that she was being threatened.

Three years later, Cooper is out with a powerful new memoir and a National Geographic TV show he hopes will attract more people of color to the world of bird-watching.

Don?t miss this week?s Big Books and Bold Ideas, when Cooper talks with host Kerri Miller about how a self-described nerdy gay kid from Long Island fell in love with our feathered friends and how the incident that pushed him into the national spotlight distracts from what he sees as the bigger issues.

He also shares stories about his work as a Marvel comics writer and has a few tips for want-to-be birders.

Guest:

Christian Cooper is a science and comics writer and the host and consulting producer of Extraordinary Birder on National Geographic. His memoir is ?Better Living Through Birding.?

Use the audio player above to listen to the podcast version of the conversation.

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J. Ryan Stradal knows supper club culture.

Growing up in Hastings, Minn., his family milestones were marked by dressing up, sitting in a leather booth at the Wiederholt's Supper Club, picking at a relish tray and watching the grown-ups enjoy a brandy Old Fashioned.

He even worked at a supper club across the river, in Prescott, Wisc., where he went behind the double-swinging doors and had his views about restaurant work forever changed.

So it is with a deep sense of fondness, with a side of realism, that his latest novel centers around a supper club in the fictitious northern Minnesota town of Bear Jaw.

Main character Mariel has inherited the Lakeside Club from her grandparents and is wrestling with its future ? and her own. Meanwhile, her husband stands to take on his own family?s restaurant legacy, a growing chain of family diners. Which future will they pursue? And will old family wounds deepen in the process, or be healed?

This week on Big Books and Bold Ideas, Stradal joined host Kerri Miller in the studio to trade stories about their own experiences with the supper club scene. They also talked about the purpose and value of nostalgia and how Stradal works to balance sentimentality with reality in his writing.

Guest:

J. Ryan Stradal is a native Minnesotan and a New York Times bestselling author. His latest novel is ?Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club.?

Use the audio player above to listen to the podcast version of the conversation.

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Until writer Luis Alberto Urrea inherited his mother?s journals, he knew very little about what she?d seen and done in World War II. He knew she served on a team of Donut Dollies, women who volunteered with the Red Cross to provide mobile food, entertainment and comfort to U.S. servicemen station on many European battlefronts.

But he didn?t know she?d been on the front lines in one of the most ferocious battles, or that the nightmares she suffered her whole life stemmed from her experiences there. Like many people who?ve lived through extreme trauma, his mother mostly avoided the topic while she was alive.

As Urrea combed through her journals and scrapbooks after her death, he encountered a woman who was marked by her time serving as a Donut Dolly in the war. His new novel, ?Good Night, Irene? is not a biography of his mother, but it is inspired by her courage and experiences.

This Friday, on Big Books and Bold Ideas, Urrea joined MPR News host Kerri Miller to tell stories about his mother and her fellow Donut Dollies. It?s a conversation about the power of friendship, the trauma of war, and why laughter might be the most important human quality.

Guest:

Luis Alberto Urrea is the critically acclaimed and best-selling author of 19 books. His latest novel is ?Good Night, Irene.?

Use the audio player above to listen to the podcast version of the conversation.

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Shy, the teenage boy at the heart of Max Porter?s latest novel, defies classification.

He is moody and violent, traits which heartbreak his mother and get him sent to the Last Chance boarding school.

He is also sensitive and vulnerable, a boy who seems to be missing a layer of skin to protect himself from the world?s hypocrisy and starkness.

This paradox is at the heart of ?Shy? ? and in fact, the heart of most teenagers. Porter took pains to not describe Shy?s inner world but to transcribe it. His novel is a collection of jumbled thoughts, inner speak, lyrics and beats from the night Shy attempts to escape the boarding school.

Like a cut, ?Shy? stings and reminds us we are alive.

Don?t miss this week?s Big Books and Bold Ideas, when host Kerri Miller talks with Porter. It?s a conversation that ranges from parenting teenage boys to junglist music, to the importance of literacy and the essentialness of trees.

Guest:

Max Porter is a novelist. His latest book ?Shy.?

Use the audio player above to listen to the podcast version of the conversation.

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When Ruby Ishimaru and her family are sent away from Hawaii to a mainland internment camp in 1942, Ruby packs her treasures ? photographs, seashells and the books of Laura Ingalls Wilder. She finds comfort in Laura?s adventures even as she and her family are thrust into the frightening unknown.

On the other side of the world, the unknown is also baring down on Japan, where young Koji Matsuo watches the country rally for war from his home in Hiroshima.

When Ruby and Koji eventually meet in California, their love story begins. But can their traumas be overcome?

It?s a question familiar to author Kent Matsumoto, who together with his wife, Constance, mined his own family history to tell the stories of Ruby and Koji. Their new novel, ?Of White Ashes,? tells a fictionalized version of his parents experiences in World War II. Destined to become a classic in the classroom, it artfully depicts the frustration of American citizens being incarcerated by their own country and the horrors of the atomic bomb.

MPR News host Kerri Miller was joined by the Matsumotos on this week?s Big Books and Bold Ideas, to talk about how they did their research, their realizations and their hopes for ?Of White Ashes.?

Guests:

Constance and Kent Matsumoto?s novel is ?Of White Ashes.?

Use the audio player above to listen to the podcast version of the conversation.

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?Cancer took my mother. But religion would take my life.?

So writes journalist Rachel Louise Snyder in her new memoir, ?Women We Buried, Women We Burned.?

It recounts with brutal honesty how the death of her mother upended her previously peaceful world, launching her father into a new marriage within the confines of a strict, fundamentalist Christianity. Violence and rage became her new norm, until she was kicked out at age 16 for refusing the obey the many rules her father imposed.

But that dark moment turned out to be a gift. Snyder found support in unlikely places and forged a new path, one where light and dark coexist and where forgiveness is not synonymous with exoneration.

This week, on Big Books and Bold Ideas, Snyder joins MPR host Kerri Miller to talk about her journeys. They discuss how the prosperity gospel dismantles human agency, how her work investigating violence led her to think about her own, and how travel can heal past wounds and open up new vistas.

Guest:

Rachel Louise Snyder is a journalist and a professor of creative writing and journalism at American University. Her memoir is ?Women We Buried, Women We Burned.?

Use the audio player above to listen to the podcast version of the conversation.

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The latest book from journalist and bestselling author David Grann details the true story of a 1741 shipwreck that he believes has "surprising resonance ? with our own contemporary, turbulent times.?

When a squadron of ships left England in the fall of 1740, with secret hopes of capturing a Spanish galleon filled with gold, they had little idea what might befall them. They were overloaded with men, many who were old and infirmed. They were equipped with rudimentary navigation tools. And none of them had ever sailed around Cape Horn, the southernmost tip of South America, which we now know is one of the most treacherous seas on the planet.

The disastrous voyage ended with a shipwreck off the coast of Patagonia. But the story only deepens there. The cadre of men who survived faced starvation, murder and mutiny while trying to find a way home. And once they get there, the competing stories of what really happened on the island transfixed a nation.

As he did in his previous best sellers, ?Killers of the Flower Moon? and ?The Lost City of Z,? Grann recounts this true story with vivid detail. On this week?s Big Books and Bold Ideas, he told host Kerri Miller that, far from being just a swashbuckling tale, the story of The Wager echoes themes we grapple with today, like the dangers of imperialism and the war over truth.

Guest:

David Grann is a New York Times bestselling author and an award-winning staff writer at The New Yorker magazine. His latest book is ?The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Murder and Mutiny.?

Use the audio player above to listen to the conversation.

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Editor?s note: This program was originally preempted by breaking news coverage. The post has been updated to reflect the new broadcast date.

Jeannette Wells? 2009 memoir ?The Glass Castle? has been a New York Times bestseller for more than eight years. The movie adaptation starring Brie Larson, Woody Harrelson and Naomi Watts also won awards.

Her much-anticipated new book, ?Hang the Moon,? is worth the wait. Set in 1920s rural Virginia, it centers on young Sallie Kincaid whose daddy runs the county where they live. Sallie wants to go into the family business, which includes running moonshine. But is she ready to fight through the conflict that awaits her?

This week, on Big Books and Bold Ideas, Wells joined MPR News host Kerri Miller to talk about the relative morality of Prohibition in America.

?In my neck of the woods, rural Virginia, whiskey making had long been a tradition,? says Wells. ?What Prohibition did was turn this money-making operation, that for many was the only cash crop they had, into something illegal. It turned law-abiding folk into outlaws.?

Wells also talked with Miller about how the era mirrors the tumultuousness of America today.

Guest:

Jeannette Walls is the author of ?The Glass Castle? and ?The Silver Star.? She lives in rural Virginia with her husband, writer John Taylor.

Use the audio player above to listen to the conversation.

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Joe Milan Jr.?s debut novel, ?The All-American,? is about immigration ? but it?s not a story about what it means to leave a foreign land and start over in America. Instead, it?s about what it means to leave America, unwillingly, and start over in a foreign land.

Milan?s protagonist, 17-year-old Bucky Yi, knows nothing about his birth country of South Korea. Raised in rural Washington, he has only one goal ? to become a college football player.

But when he tangles with local law enforcement, and his adoptive mom can?t produce proof of U.S. citizenship, Bucky is deported to a country where he knows no one and can?t speak the language.

He has to tap into his inner running back to deal with situations both extreme and familiar to any young person on the cusp of adulthood. Is he Korean, or American? Is he Bucky, or Beyonghak? Is he a boy, or a man? Does he want to go home? Or has he made a new home?

This Friday, on Big Books and Bold Ideas, Milan joined MPR News host Kerri Miller to talk about his book, his own identity conundrum, what it means to embody American values, and how football ties it all together.

Guest:

Joe Milan Jr. is a second-generation Korean American and an assistant professor of creative writing at Waldorf University. ?The All-American? is his first novel.

Use the audio player above to listen to the conversation.

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Minnesota author William Kent Krueger has written 19 books that star his primary protagonist, private investigator Cork O?Connor.

But just as central to his writing is the landscape of Northern Minnesota. It?s more than a setting. It?s a character.

?I write profoundly out of a sense of place,? Krueger told MPR News host Kerri Miller at a special spring Talking Volumes earlier this month. ?When I used to teach writing, I taught place as character. Place is one of the most important and versatile characters in any story.?

Don?t miss this warm and revealing conversation between Miller on Krueger, recorded on stage at The College of St. Scholastica in Duluth.

They talk about the development of O?Connor as an Irish-Ojibwe man, how Anishinaabe mythology shaped Krueger?s writing and why he believes mysteries should not be underestimated as classic literature. Krueger also shares the jaw-dropping prologue for his next stand-alone novel, ?The River We Remember,? which comes out later this year.

Miller and Krueger were joined on stage by musical guests Clancy Ward and Kyle Orla.

Guest:

William Kent Krueger is a prolific author, known best for his Cork O?Connor mysteries, which are set in Northern Minnesota. His next novel, ?The River We Remember,? publishes in September 2023.

Use the audio player or video player above to listen to the conversation.

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Minnesota writer William Kent Krueger?is a fan favorite, thanks largely to his series of crime novels featuring private investigator Cork O'Connor.

Krueger joined host Kerri Miller in Duluth earlier this week for a special spring edition of Talking Volumes. You?ll hear that conversation on Friday. So it?s only fitting that this week?s archive is Krueger?s last appearance on the Talking Volumes stage. He was at the Fitzgerald Theater in 2021 to discuss his book, ?Lightning Strike.?

Guest:

William Kent Krueger is a prolific author, known best for his Cork O?Connor mysteries set in Northern Minnesota.

Use the audio player above to listen to the conversation.

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When Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene proposed the United States would benefit from a ?national divorce,? many scoffed and labeled her statements as incendiary pot-stirring.

Journalist Jeff Sharlet was not one of them. After traveling the country for more than a dozen years, reporting on the intersection between religion and far-right politics, he believes remarks like Rep. Greene?s should be taken seriously and at face value.

His latest book, ?The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War,? details what he found as he traveled through states like Wisconsin and Nebraska, talking to ordinary people who love fishing and their neighbors ? and also believe another civil war is inevitable and even necessary to correct decades of ?immoral decadence.?

MPR News host Kerri Miller talks with Sharlet about his reporting on this week?s Big Books and Bold Ideas. It?s a sobering conversation about the people Sharlet met and the undercurrent of fascism he sees rippling across the country.

Guest:

Jeff Sharlet is a journalist and the New York Times best-selling author or editor of eight books, including ?The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power,? and ?This Brilliant Darkness.? His latest book is ?The Undertow.?

Use the audio player above to listen to the conversation.

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Cats ? in space?

It?s not a crazy notion for fans of Drew Brockington?s ?CatStronauts,? who?ve devoured his graphic novels the way pilot Waffles eats a tuna fish sandwich.

After six books detailing the adventures of Waffles, Blanket, Pom-Pom and Major Meowser, Brockington recently launched a prequel series detailing the kittenhood adventures of siblings Waffles and Pancakes. How did they end up wanting to be catstronauts?

At a special Talking Volumes in Rochester, Minn., earlier this month, Brockington told MPR News host Kerri Miller about the ?Waffles and Pancakes? books and why he first decided to send cats to outer space in the first place. Waffles also made a surprise appearance and took questions from kids in the audience.

This is a show that will leave everyone ?feline? good.

Guest:

Drew Brockington is the author and illustrator of the ?CatStronauts? series and the new ?Waffles and Pancakes? prequels. His latest book, ?Waffles and Pancakes: Failure to Launch,? published spring 2023. Brockington lives with his family in Minneapolis.

You can listen to the full conversation using the audio player above, or watch a video of the interview by clicking play on the main image.

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Cats are known to like their space.

But outer space? That we didn?t learn until Minneapolis author and illustrator Drew Brockington?s put a crew of feline scientists on a rocket in his 2017 book, ?CatStronauts: Mission Moon.?

Turns out, Waffles, Blanket, Pom-Pom and Major Meowser are capable and witty astronauts, adapt at both saving the universe and delighting kids with their antics. Brockington?s graphic novels have won acclaim and fans across the galaxy.

Last week, Brockington (and Waffles) joined MPR News host Kerri Miller for a special family edition of Talking Volumes. You?ll hear that conversation on Friday?s Big Books and Bold Ideas.

Until then, enjoy this blast from the past, when Brockington first talked with Miller about how his love of space fueled the series and what humans can learn from his intrepid kitty crew.

Guest:

Drew Brockington is the author of the "CatStronauts" series and several other books for kids. He lives with his family in Minneapolis.

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above. 

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In his new novel, ?Symphony of Secrets,? Brendan Slocumb once again tucks a mystery inside a musical thriller. But underscoring the plot are some big questions about our culture. Whose music gets heard and honored? Who gets to claim the ownership and rewards of a song? And who gets to tell the story of how that music came to be?

Slocumb?s protagonist is Bern Hendricks, a musicologist thrilled to be given the chance to authenticate a just discovered opera, attributed to his musical hero, Frederick Delaney. But as he investigates the long missing masterpiece, Hendricks uncovers the true source of Delaney?s genius ? a neurodivergent Black woman named Josephine Reed, who was never credited for her work. Will he be able to right history?s wrongs? Or will the powerful musical establishment erase Reed?s genius a second time?

Slocumb?s debut novel, ?The Violin Conspiracy,? was a book club favorite. This week, Slocumb returned to Big Books and Bold Ideas to talk with MPR News host Kerri Miller about the messy ways music is written and how to decipher the line between borrowed and stolen.

Guest:

Brendan Slocumb is a musician, a music educator, a novelist and host of the podcast, ?How Music Can Save Your Life.? His latest book is ?Symphony of Secrets.?

Use the audio player above to listen to the conversation.

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If you want to know canine psychologist Alexandra Horowitz? best advice for training a puppy, it can be summed up in one sentence: ?Expect that your puppy will not be who you think, nor act as you hope.?

That truth ? which can both delight and confound new puppy caretakers ? is at the center of her 2021 book, ?The Year of the Puppy.? A longtime researcher of canine behavior, Horowitz realized she had never examined those critical first months of a dog?s life. So in 2020, she started to observe litters from birth on. When the pandemic shut down the world, she brought one of those puppies into her already animal-centric home ? and almost immediately had second thoughts.

But adapting to Quiddity, their new pup, gave her fresh insight into doggie development. Ultimately, it reinforced her belief that human companions need to respect and enjoy these creatures that live with us but are fundamentally different. If all we do is focus on how to train the puppy, we miss them becoming themselves.

It?s a fascinating and validating conversation, so we pulled it from the archives for an encore performance during our spring member drive. Don?t miss this conversation between Horowitz and fellow dog lover, MPR News host Kerri Miller.

Guest:

Alexandra Horowitz observes dogs for a living. Her research began more than two decades ago, studying dogs at play, and continues today at her Dog Cognition Lab at Barnard College. Her latest book is ?The Year of the Puppy.?

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above. 

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April is Animal Month on Big Books and Bold Ideas. But this time, we?re not talking about dogs, monkeys or bats ? but bees, beetles and butterflies.

It might not seem like it on a summer night in Minnesota ? when mosquitos are swarming your campfire ? but Earth?s kingdom of insects is diminishing so rapidly, scientists have declared it a crisis.

In 2019, a report in published in Biological Conservation found that 40 percent of all insect species are declining globally and a third of them are endangered.

The reasons why are myriad. And while it might be tempting to hope for a planet without wasps that sting and roaches in the kitchen, journalist Oliver Milman says human beings would be in big trouble without insects.

Bugs play critical roles in pollinating plants, breaking down waste and laying the base of a food chain that other animals rely on ? including us.

This week, on Big Books and Bold Ideas, host Kerri Miller talked with Milman about his new book, ?The Insect Crisis.? They explored what?s causing the decline and what can be done about it ? and discuss some fun facts about insects, too.

Guest:

Oliver Milman is an environmental correspondent for The Guardian. His book is ?The Insect Crisis: The Fall of the Tiny Empires That Run the World.?

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

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Insects ? or the lack thereof ? are the focus of this week?s Big Books and Bold Ideas. On Friday, host Kerri Miller will talk with environmental journalist Oliver Milman about how the silent collapse in global insect populations is disrupting many of our most important ecosystems.

Here in Minnesota, bees are the insects whose absence is most keenly felt. Back in 2013, University of Minnesota entomologist Marla Spivak talked with Miller about what she was seeing. But she also gave advice about how to help the bees: Plant flowers.

?We really have a flowerless landscape out there, and bees need flowers for good nutrition,? Spivak said. ?If bees have good nutrition, and a lot of pollen and protein coming in and nectar coming in, they're better able to fight off these diseases. And it helps them detoxify some of the pesticides. We really need bee-friendly flowers out there, everywhere.?

Guest:

Marla Spivak is an entomologist and Distinguished McKnight University Professor at the University of Minnesota specializing in apiculture and social insects. She is the author of ?Attracting Native Pollinators? published in 2011.

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

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All animals use their senses to perceive the world, humans included. But not every animal senses the same thing.

In Pulitzer prize-winning science journalist Ed Yong?s 2022 book, ?An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us,? he explores the way each species sees the world through its own sensory lens and explains why those differences should both delight and humble us.

?Senses always come at a cost,? Yong writes. ?No animal can sense everything well.?

MPR News host Kerri Miller spoke with Yong last year about his research. It?s a fascinating conversation that we thought deserved an encore, since this April, we are celebrating animals at Big Books and Bold Ideas.

Don?t missing Yong sharing stories about why jumping spiders have eight eyes, how octopus arms operate without the brain, why Morpho butterflies have ears on their wings ? and why we should gently resist the tendency to view other animals? senses through the limited view of our own.

Guest:

Ed Yong is an award-winning science journalist for The Atlantic where he did exceptional reporting on the pandemic. His new book is ?An Immense World.?

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

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It helps for a veterinarian to be an animal lover.

It doesn?t help for her to be allergic to cats.

But Karen Fine didn?t let that stop her. Nor was she cowered by the fact that, in the 1980s, when she went to vet school, almost all the students were male. She followed in her physician grandfather?s path and became a veterinarian who made house calls, ?laid hands? on her patients and always took time to listen ? both to the pets and the caretakers.

Fine?s new book, ?The Other Family Doctor? is a collection of stories she amassed while practicing veterinary medicine. But it also functions as a memoir. She weaves in tales of her own pets: the birds, cats, and dogs who have taught her that caring for the animals in our lives can teach us to better care for ourselves.

Join MPR News host Kerri Miller as she talks with Fine about pets, mindfulness and how even vets struggle with knowing when it?s time to say good-bye.

Guest:

Karen Fine is a holistic veterinarian who owned and operated her own house-call practice for twenty-five years. Her new book is ?The Other Family Doctor: A Veterinarian Explores What Animals Can Teach Us About Love, Life and Mortality.?

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

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Renown underwater photographer David Doubilet has been donning a mask and flippers and descending into what he calls ?the secret garden of the sea? since he was 12. What he saw there captivated him and eventually fueled his career.

He?s photographed powerful sharks, brightly colored fish, the splendor of the coral reefs and the destruction caused by warming oceans. He?s published 12 books chronicling his work and he regularly contributes to National Geographic.

In 2006, Doubilet visited Minneapolis to showcase his work and stopped by MPR News? St. Paul studios to chat with host Kerri Miller about his passion. We are reviving the conversation now to continue our celebration of April as Animal Month on Big Books and Bold Ideas.

Guest:

David Doubilet is considered to be one of the best underwater photographers in the world. He?s published a dozen books and and is a frequent contributor to National Geographic.

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

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Once you start looking, wolves are everywhere.

A wolf plays the the villain in ?Little Red Riding Hood? and ?The Three Little Pigs.? The boy who cried wolf is ultimately destroyed by his lie. A person who isolates from society is called a ?lone wolf.? A dangerous mob is named a ?wolfpack.?

And of course, the animals themselves are both feared and admired.

Wolves have intrigued writer Erica Berry since she was a child growing up in Oregon, where the animals enjoyed an uneasy truce with ranchers. But she believes wolves are more than what they seem ? that we project our fears onto them and make them symbols of everything that terrifies us.

Her new book, ?Wolfish,? examines that premise, and it?s the perfect launch of Animal Month here on Big Books and Bold Ideas.

Don?t miss this thoughtful conversation between MPR News host Kerri Miller and Berry as they talk about why our culture sees wolves as a threat, and how getting close to the wolf could help us transform our fears.

Guest:

Erica Berry is a writer and teacher. Her nonfiction debut is ?Wolfish: Wolf, Self, and the Stories We Tell About Fear.?

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

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Diana Abu-Jaber?s family has deep roots in Jordan. Her father came to America after a failed marriage proposal ? an act of ?revenge immigration,? she laughs. And while he lived in the U.S., married here and raised a family here, his never truly left his homeland behind.

Growing up in a thoroughly Jordanian household within an American context shaped Abu-Jaber?s life. She traveled to Jordan with her family and was often startled to discover hidden aspects to her father during her visits.

It was this mix of identity and heritage, of belonging to a culture or land that one can no longer possess, that inspired her latest novel, ?Fencing with the King? ? so named because she learned, later in life, that her father was once a favorite sparring partner with the king of Jordan.

?It?s like he had a before and after life,? she tells MPR News host Kerri Miller on this week?s Big Books and Bold Ideas. ?Dad was trained to spar with King Hussein, and this was something he never talked about when we were growing up. I didn?t even know he knew how to fence until I was an adult.?

Her book vividly takes readers on a journey to the modern day Middle East, where questions of displacement and reclamation, of family identity and inheritance linger. Join Abu-Jaber and Miller for a conversation about homeland, myths and legacy on this week?s Big Books and Bold Ideas.

Guest:

Diana Abu-Jaber is an award-winning author and a professor at Portland State University. Her latest book, ?Fencing with the King,? was just released in paperback.

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

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