PODCAST · arts
Biographers International Organization
by Biographers International Organization
Sharing a passion for biography!
Episodes
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Podcast #271 – Sam Tanenhaus
Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America, published by Random House in June 2025, is the latest book by this best-selling and award-winning author of books on American politics and the media. Tanenhaus is the former editor-in-chief of The New York Times Book Review, and he has...
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Podcast #270 – April F. Masten
Diamond and Juba: The Raucous World of 19th-Century Challenge Dancing is this author’s dual biography of Irish American John Diamond and African American William Henry Lane (nicknamed Juba). Published by the University of Illinois Press in December 2025, this biography explores the lives of these...
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Podcast #269 – Richard Kopley
Photo: David Shopper Edgar Allan Poe: A Life is the latest book by this distinguished Penn State DuBois professor emeritus and author. Published in March 2025 by the University of Virginia Press, it won the Patrick F. Quinn Award for outstanding monograph, offered by the Poe Society, and was...
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Podcast #268 – Susannah Cahalan
The Acid Queen: The Psychedelic Life and Time and Counterculture Rebellion of Rosemary Woodruff Leary is the latest book by this New York Times bestselling author, journalist, and public speaker. It was published by Viking in April 2025. Cahalan’s first book, Brain on Fire, sold over a million...
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Podcast #267 – T.J. Stiles, Part II
This celebrated author received the Biographers International Organization’s 2026 BIO Award—an annual and prestigious recognition of individuals who have made significant contributions to the art and craft of biography. Stiles’ Custer’s Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America won the 2016...
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Podcast #266 – T.J. Stiles, Part I
This celebrated author received the Biographers International Organization’s 2026 BIO Award – an annual and prestigious recognition of individuals who have made significant contributions to the art and craft of biography. Stiles’ Custer’s Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America won the…
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Podcast #265 – Victoria Johnson
Photo by Shelley Thomas Glorious Country: How the Artist Frederic Church Brought the World to America and America to the World is the latest book by this author and professor of urban policy and planning at Hunter College in New York City. Johnson’s biography of Church, a highly regarded...
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Podcast #264 – Andy Beta
Photo by Natalie Keyssar Andy Beta is an award-winning arts and music writer. His newest book, Cosmic Music: The Life, Art, and Transcendence of Alice Coltrane, was published in March by Da Capo. His writing on rock, jazz, experimental, and electronic music has appeared in The New York Times, The...
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Podcast #263 – Steven C. Smith
Photo by Mark A. Vieir Hitchcock & Herrmann: The Friendship & Film Scores That Changed Cinema was written by award-winning author Steven C. Smith. He is a four-time Emmy-nominated documentary producer of over 200 documentaries about film and music. Smith has collaborated with filmmakers Steven...
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Podcast #262 – Steven C. Bowie
Concerto for Cootie: The Life and Times of Cootie Williams, published by the University of Mississippi Press in October 2025, is this author’s exploration of the legendary trumpeter and longtime member of the Duke Ellington big band. A curator and host of the Duke Ellington-themed podcast…
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Podcast #261 – Mary Lisa Gavenas
Selling Opportunity: The Story of Mary Kay, published by Viking in April 2026, is this author’s latest book, which grew out of a fellowship at the Leon Levy Center for Biography. It’s a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, and the book was praised by The Wall Street Journal, Texas Monthly,...
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Podcast #260 – Jon Meacham, Part II
Photo by Heidi Ross American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union, published by Random House in February 2026, is the latest book by this Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer and historian. Meacham has authored New York Times bestsellers, including And There Was…
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Podcast #259 – Jon Meacham, Part I
Photo by Heidi Ross American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union, published by Random House in February 2026, is the latest book by this Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer and historian. Meacham has authored New York Times bestsellers, including And There Was…
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Podcast #258 – Hester Kaplan
Photo by Rupert Whiteley This author’s Twice Born: Finding My Father in the Margins of Biography was published by Catapult Press in October 2025. Kaplan has authored novels and story collections, including The Edge of Marriage, winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. Her fiction...
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Podcast #257 – Adam Henig
Baseball’s Outcast: The Story of Ron LeFlore is this author’s latest book, published by Bloomsbury Academic in April 2026. Henig has also penned the well-received Watergate’s Forgotten Hero: Frank Wills, Night Watchman, as well as Alex Haley’s Roots: An Author’s Odyssey, and Baseball Under Siege:...
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Podcast #256 – Gayle Feldman
Photo by Michael Lionstar Nothing Random: Bennett Cerf and the Publishing House He Built is the latest book by veteran journalist and author Gayle Feldman. Published by Random House in January 2026, this biography explores the life of a driven young man who vowed to become a great publisher – and...
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Podcast #255 – “Four Paths, One Impossible Dream,” Part VI: Still Writing
In this final episode of our six-part miniseries, we’re in January 2026. Kate’s already researching her next book, and it turns out it connects everything she’s ever written. Kevin has one goal: to finish first. Katie Rose has a draft proposal, three kids under five, and no intention of stopping....
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Podcast #254 – “Four Paths, One Impossible Dream,” Part V: Community and Solitude
Sara offers her advice to anyone writing their first book: get a therapist and take a walk. Kate cut a story she loved — about two sisters fighting over politics in 1880 — because it didn’t belong. Kevin is in a race he didn’t sign up for, and Katie Rose is asked if she’s ever thought about...
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Podcast #253 – “Four Paths, One Impossible Dream,” Part IV: Challenging the Canon
In this fourth episode of our six-part miniseries, Sara finds out that President Lincoln presided over the largest mass execution on American soil, and she wants to know why nobody taught her that. Kevin has a death certificate that answers a question other scholars keep pretending is a mystery....
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Podcast #252 – “Four Paths, One Impossible Dream,” Part III: The Business of Biography
The third episode of our six-part miniseries goes behind the scenes of biography’s business realities — the contracts, proposals, and market pressures authors navigate to get their books published. “Four Paths, One Impossible Dream” follows four authors navigating the challenges of writing...
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Podcast #251 – “Four Paths, One Impossible Dream,” Part II: The Work
In the second episode of our special six-part miniseries, the authors share updates on their research and writing. “Four Paths, One Impossible Dream” follows four authors navigating the challenges of writing biography. Over eight months in 2025, BIO Podcast producer Jenny Skoog spoke with…
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Podcast #250 – “Four Paths, One Impossible Dream,” Part I
This time, we present the first episode in a special six-part miniseries that follows four authors on their biographical path. We spent the last eight months of 2025 with comedian Sara Benincasa who is tackling Abraham Lincoln; professor Kate Culkin is publishing a book about Ralph Waldo…
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Podcast #249 – David Margolick
When Caesar Was King: How Sid Caesar Reinvented American Comedy is the latest book by veteran journalist and author David Margolick. Published by Schocken in November 2025, this book examines the life of one of America’s most enigmatic and influential comedians. Margolick reported on legal…
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Podcast #248 – Peter Cozzens
Deadwood: Gold, Guns, and Greed in the American West (Knopf, 2025) is the latest book by this award-winning author and editor of nineteen books on the American Civil War and the American West. A retired Foreign Service Officer at the U.S. Department of State, Cozzens also served as a captain in…
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Podcast #247 – Ethelene Whitmire
This author’s The Remarkable Life of Reed Peggram: The Man Who Stared Down World War II in the Name of Love was published by Viking/Penguin Random House this month. Whitmire is a respected historian and African American Studies professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research has…
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Podcast #246 – Andrew Maraniss
Strong Inside: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South (Vanderbilt University, March 2024) is the tenth anniversary edition of this author’s award-winning, New York Times bestselling biography. Maraniss has authored nonfiction sports and social justice books for adults,...
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Podcast #245 – Ashley D. Farmer
Queen Mother: Black Nationalism, Reparations, and the Untold Story of Audrey Moore, published by Pantheon in November 2025, is this latest book by this internationally known and award-winning writer, cultural analyst, and associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin. Farmer’s first...
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Podcast #244 – Andrew S. Curran
This author and scholar’s latest book, Biography of a Dangerous Idea: A New History of Race from Louis XIV to Thomas Jefferson, will be published in February 2026 by Other Press. Curran, a distinguished humanities professor at Wesleyan University, has written or edited six books, including Who’s...
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Podcast #243 – Carla Kaplan & Amanda Vaill
Troublemaker: The Fierce, Unruly Life of Jessica Mitford and Pride (Harper, November 2025) and Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, October 2025) are the latest books by these veteran authors. Carla Kaplan is an award-winning Northeastern...
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Podcast #242 – Ron Chernow, Part II
Mark Twain, published in May 2025 by Penguin Press, is this celebrated, multiple award-winning biographer’s latest book. Chernow is the recipient of the 2015 National Humanities Medal, and his first book, The House of Morgan, won the National Book Award. Chernow’s Washington: A Life won the...
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Podcast #241 – Ron Chernow, Part I
Mark Twain, published in May 2025 by Penguin Press, is this celebrated, multiple award-winning biographer’s latest book. Chernow is the recipient of the 2015 National Humanities Medal, and his first book, The House of Morgan, won the National Book Award. Chernow’s Washington: A Life won the...
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Podcast #240 – Todd Goddard
Devouring Time: Jim Harrison, A Writer’s Life, is the latest book by this scholar and author, published in November 2025 by Blackstone Publishing. Goddard is an associate professor of literary studies at Utah Valley University, and the Mellon Foundation and a Bordin-Gillette Fellowship from the...
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Podcast #239 – Daniel Brook
The Einstein of Sex: Dr. Magnus Hirschfield, Visionary of Weimar Berlin, is this journalist and author’s latest book. It was published by W. W. Norton & Company in May 2025. Brook’s writing has appeared in Harper’s, the New York Times Magazine, and The Nation. One of his previous books, A History...
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Podcast #238 – Cindy Schweich Handler
This journalist’s biography, A German Jew’s Triumph: Fritz Oppenheimer and the Denazification of Germany, was published by McFarland in April 2025. Handler’s work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsweek, and a host of other national publications. A former editor-in-chief...
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Podcast #237 – Marion Orr
House of Diggs: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Consequential Black Congressman, Charles C. Diggs Jr., is the latest book by this political scientist and the inaugural Frederick Lippitt Professor of Public Policy at Brown University. House of Diggs was published by the University of North...
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Podcast #236 – Tim Greiving
John Williams: A Composer’s Life, published by Oxford University Press in September 2025, is the first biography by this arts journalist. Greiving, a longtime fan of Williams’ celebrated film scores, has contributed stories to NPR, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and the New York…
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Podcast #235 – Francesca Wade
Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife, published by Scribner in October 2025, is the latest book by London-based author Francesca Wade. Additionally, Wade is the author of Square Haunting: Five Writers in London Between the Wars, and her writing has appeared in The New York Review of Books, London Review…
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Podcast #234 – Todd S. Purdum
Photo by James MacMillan Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Invented Television, published by Simon and Schuster in June 2025, is the latest book by this veteran journalist and author. Purdum also authored Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Broadway Revolution and An Idea Whose Time Has Come…
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Podcast #233 – Dana A. Williams
Toni at Random: The Iconic Writer’s Legendary Editorship, the latest book by author Dana A. Williams about Toni Morrison’s significant tenure as an editor at Random House, was published by Amistad in June 2025. Williams is Professor of African American literature and Dean of the Graduate School…
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Podcast #232 – James M. Bradley
Martin Van Buren: America’s First Politician is James M. Bradley’s current book. It was published in December 2024 by Oxford University Press. Bradley co-edits the Martin Van Buren Papers, based at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee, and he serves as an adjunct instructor in the public...
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Podcast #231 – Lindsay M. Chervinsky
This historian and author’s latest book, Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic, was published by Oxford University Press in September 2024. Her other books include the award-winning The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution,...
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Podcast #230 – Marcus J. Moore
High and Rising: A Book About De La Soul, published by Dey Street Books in November 2024, is the latest offering by this critically acclaimed author and university professor. Moore’s work explores the intersections of music, race, and culture, and he is the author of The Butterfly Effect: How...
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Podcast #229 – Dan Nadel
This author’s latest book, Crumb: A Cartoonist’s Life, examines the life of Robert Crumb, one of the most celebrated artists of the 20th century. Scribner published Crumb in April 2025, and its author is the Steven and Ann Ames Curator of Drawings and Prints at The Whitney Museum of American Art....
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Podcast #228 – Alison Owings
Mayor of the Tenderloin: Del Seymour’s Journey from Living on the Streets to Fighting Homelessness, is this former broadcast journalist and author’s latest book. It was published by Beacon Press in September 2025, and her previous books include Frauen: German Women Recall the Third Reich – a New...
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Podcast #227 – Alec Nevala-Lee
This author’s latest book, Collisions: A Physicist’s Journey From Hiroshima to the Death of the Dinosaurs, was published by W. W. Norton & Company in June 2025. It explores the life and times of Nobel Prize-winning physicist, Luis W. Alvarez. Nevala-Lee also authored Inventor of the Future: The...
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Podcast #226 – Mimi Pond
Do Admit: The Mitford Sisters and Me is the award-winning cartoonist, illustrator, and author Mimi Pond’s latest book. Published by Drawn & Quarterly this month, Do Admit is Ponds’ graphic biography of the six famous Mitford sisters of England. Pond’s earlier graphic novel, Over Easy, a...
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Podcast #225 – Nicholas Boggs
Baldwin: A Love Story, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in August 2025, is author Boggs’s examination of writer James Baldwin — the first major biography of this influential, controversial, and compelling author in three decades. Boggs also rediscovered and co-edited the out-of-print...
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Podcast #224 – Eve M. Kahn
This independent scholar and award-winning author’s latest book, Queen of Bohemia Predicts Own Death: Gilded-Age Journalist Zoe Anderson Norris, was published this month by Fordham University Press. It explores the life of reformer and journalist Zoe Anderson Norris, who used her pen prolifically...
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Podcast #223 – A’Lelia Bundles
Joy Goddess: A’Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance is the latest book by this award-winning journalist and author. Published by Scribner this June, it is the first major biography of Bundles’ great-grandmother. Bundles, a Forbes Magazine’s 50 Over 50 Impact honoree, also authored On Her Own...
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Podcast #222 – Marc Leepson
This journalist, historian, and Vietnam War veteran is the author of eleven books. His most recent book, The Unlikely War Hero: A Vietnam War POW’s Story of Courage and Resilience in the Hanoi Hilton, was published by Stackpole Press in December 2024. Leepson’s Ballad of the Green Beret: The Life...
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How many episodes does Biographers International Organization have?
Biographers International Organization currently has 263 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
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Sharing a passion for biography!
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Biographers International Organization publishes regularly with 263 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
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