All Episodes
Read Beat (...and repeat) — 281 episodes
America’s Downtowns—A conversation with Erik Reader
“Stealing America” by Linford Fisher
"Born Sick in the USA" by Stephen Bezruchka
“America’s Hometown Movie Houses: Please Remain Standing” by Benita VanWinkle
"A High Price for Freedom" by Clyde W. Ford
“Disposing of Modernity” by Rebecca Graff
“The Courtyard” by Alexa Morris and Benjamin Parket
“The Devil’s Castle” by Susanne Paola Antonetta
“Why Q Needs U” by Danny Bate
“A Little Piece of Cuba” by Barbara Caver
"Heartland" by Keith O'Brien
“The Navigator’s Letter” by Jan Cress Dondi
"Tigers Between Empires" by Jonathan Slaght
"Boss Lincoln" by Matthew Pinsker
“Ms. Mebel Goes Back to the Chopping Block” by Jesse Sutanto
“The 100 Greatest Literary Characters” by James Plath, Gail Sinclair, and Kirk Curnutt
“Last of the Titans” by Richard Vinen
"CrimeReads" articles by Keith Roysdon
"Making Democracy Count" by Ismar Volic
“Winning the Earthquake” by Lorissa Rinehart
"Show Trial" by Thomas Doherty
"Road to Nowhere" by Emily Lieb
"Vote with Your Phone" by Bradley Tusk
"Everybody Loses: The Tumultuous Rise of American Sports Gambling" by Danny Funt
"Radical Cartography: How Changing Our Maps Can Change Our World" by William Rankin
"The Heartland: An American History" by Kristin Hoganson
"Artificially Intelligent" by David Eliot
"Troublemaker" by Carla Kaplan
"The Intelligence Explosion" by James Barrat
“The Hard Line” by Mark Greaney
“The Killing Age” by Clifton Crais
“The First Movie Studio in Texas” by Kathryn Fuller-Seeley and Frank Thompson
“When We Were Brilliant” by Lynn Cullen
"Retaining and Transitioning Businesses in Communities" by Norm Walzer and Christopher Merrett
"Marutas of Unit 731" by Jenny Chan
"Rewiring Democracy" by Bruce Schneier and Nathan Sanders
"American Oasis" by Kyle Paoletta
"Crossings--How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of Our Planet" by Ben Goldfarb
"The Accord" by Mark Peres
In the Japanese Ballpark by Robert Fitts
"That October" by Keith Roysdon
"Small Farms Are Real Farms" by John Ikerd
"When Can We Go Back to America?" by Susan Kamei
"Hollywood's Spies" by Laura Rosenzweig
"Your Money" by Carl Richards
"American Scary" by Jeremy Dauber
"They're Playing Our Song" by Bruce Pollock
"We'll Prescribe You Another Cat" by Syou Ishida
"The Martians" by David Baron
"Moses Jacob Ezekiel: Jewish, Confederate, Expatriate Sculptor" by Samantha Baskind
"Saving Ourselves from Big Car" by David Obst
"Launching Liberty" by Doug Most
"Wisdom of the Marsh" by Clare Howard (Photographs by David Zalaznik)
"Hollywood and Hitler: 1933-1939" by Thomas Doherty
"Strangers and Intimates: The Rise and Fall of Private Life"
"Eating Up Route 66" by T. Lindsay Baker
"The Devil Reached Toward the Sky" by Garrett Graff
"America America" by Greg Grandin
"The World's Greatest Detective and Her Just Okay Assistant" by Liza Tully
"Nightmare in the Pacific" by Michael Doyle
"The Age of Choice" by Sophia Rosenfeld
"Fallen Tigers" by Daniel Jackson
"Play This Book Loud" by Joe Bonomo
"Death of the Daily News" by Andrew Conte
"The Portable Ingersoll" by Tom Malone
"Red Scare" by Clay Risen
“Building Bridges” by Douglas Bristol Jr.
"To Die With Such Men" by Shannon Monaghan
"Pacific Atrocities Education" by Jenny Chan
"Welcome to Florida" by Craig Pittman
"Southern News, Southern Politics" by Rob Christensen
"Baseball's First Superstar" by Alan Gaff
"Mrs. Cook & the Klan" by Tom Chorneau
"Rebranding the Western: A History of Comics and the Mythic West" by William Grady
Pink Cars & Pocketbooks: How American Women Bought Their Way into the Driver's Seat" by Jessica Brockmole
"Maya Wisdom and the Survival of Our Planet" by Lisa Lucero
"What's Up With Women and Money?" by Alison Kosik
"One Death at a Time" by Abbi Waxman
"Becoming Madam Secretary" by Stephanie Dray
"Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man)" by Jesse Sutanto
"Maya Blue: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Ancient Pigment" by Dean Arnold
"Unveiling the Color Line" by Lisa McLeod
"Ida Lupino: Forgotten Auteur" by Alexandra Seros
"Et Cetera: An Illustrated Guide to Latin Phrases" by Maia Lee-Chin
"Midnight Black" by Mark Greaney
"Spiderweb Capitalism: How Global Elites Exploit Frontier Markets" by Kimberly Kay Hoang
“The Organization of Journalism” by Patrick Ferrucci
"What Works in Community News" by Dan Kennedy and Ellen Clegg
“Jeep Show: A Trouper at the Battle of the Bulge” by Robert B. O’Connor
"The Purpose Code" by Jordan Grumet MD
“The Uncomfortable Truth About Money” by Paul Podolsky
"Most Honorable Son" by Gregg Jones
"Carl Barks' Duck" by Peter Schilling Jr.
"Pickleballers" by Ilana Long
"Uncovering Dinosaur Behavior" by David Hone
"In the Shadow of the Big Top" by Maureen Brunsdale
"Onward to Chicago" by Larry M. McClellan
Petrochemical Fantasies: The Art and Fantasy of American Comics" by Daniel Worden
"The Golden Age of Red" by Doug Villhard
"Kingmaker: Pamela Harriman's Astonishing Life of Power, Seduction, and Intrigue" by Sonia Purnell
"When Women Ran Fifth Avenue: Glamour and Power of the Dawn of American Fashion" by Julie Satow
"Our Nation at Risk" edited by Julian Zelizer and Karen Greenberg
"A Quiet Company of Dangerous Men" by Shannon Monaghan
"Cow Hug Therapy" by Ellie Laks
Interview with illustrator Chris Sickles
"Season of Shattered Dreams" by Eric Vickrey
"The Editors" by Stephen Harrison
"A Mysterious Something in the Light: The Life of Raymond Chandler" by Tom Williams
"The President is a Sick Man" by Matthew Algeo
Discussion on the Golden Age of Radio by Eleanor Patterson
"Hammett in Hollywood" by Mark Dawidziak
"Black Cyclists: The Race for Inclusion" by Robert Turpin
"Sentinel" by Mark Greaney
"Native Nations" by Kathleen DuVal
"Bootlegging the Airwaves" by Eleanor Patterson
"All That Really Matters" by Dr. David Weill
"The Mind of a Bee" by Lars Chittka
"Westerns: A Women's History" by Victoria Lamont
"D-Day Girls" by Sarah Rose
"A Question of Value" by Robert Brunk
"Mike Donlin" by Steve Steinberg and Lyle Spatz
"Skies of Thunder" by Caroline Alexander
"Code to Joy" by Michael Littman
"The Octopus in the Parking Garage" by Rob Verchick
"Indian Burial Ground" by Nick Medina
"1898" Edited by Taina Caragol and Kate Clarke Lemay
"The Rural Voter" by Nicholas Jacobs and Daniel Shea
"Galloping Gourmet" by Steve Friesen
"Sleepless: Unleashing the Subversive Power of the Night Self" by Annabel Abbs-Streets
"The Mathematical Radio" by Paul Nahin
"The Chaos Agent" by Mark Greaney
"Living With Robots: What Every Anxious Human Needs to Know" by Ruth Aylett and Patricia Vargas
"Beaverland" by Leila Philip
“A City on Mars” by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith
"Godzilla" and "Godzilla Raids Again" by Shigeru Kayama and translated by Jeffrey Angles
"Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains" by Bethany Brookshire
"An American Banker in Paris" by William Engelbrecht and Karl Taylor
"Hedged: How Private Investment Funds Helped Destroy American Newspapers and Undermine Democracy"
Read Beat in review--excerpts from 2023
Interview with Samir "Mr. Magazine" Husni
"Selling Science Fiction Cinema" by J. P. Telotte
"The New Nancy" by Jeff Karnicky
“Driving the Green Book” by Alvin Hall (excerpt)
“Driving the Green Book” by Alvin Hall
“Look: How a Highly Influential Magazine Helped Define Mid-Twentieth Century America” by Andrew Yarrow
"Organic Rising" by Anthony Suau
"Branding Trust" by Jennifer Black
"Noir Bar" by Eddie Muller
"Valiant Women" by Lena Andrews
"Big Fiction: How Conglomeration Changed the Publishing Industry and American Literature" by Dan Sinykin
"Picasso's Lovers" by Jeanne Mackin
"Betty Friedan: Magnificent Disrupter" by Rachel Shteir
"Will Rogers and His America" by Gary Clayton Anderson
"The Night Stalker Companion" by Mark Dawidziak
"The Injustice of Place" by Kathryn J. Edin, H. Luke Shaefer and Timothy J. Nelson
"Beyond Piggly Wiggly" by Lisa Tolbert
"The Things We Make" by Bill Hammack
"From Rails to Trails: The Making of America's Active Transportation Network" by Peter Harnik
"Baseball: The Turbulent Midcentury Years" by Steven Gietschier
"Agriculture in the Midwest 1815-1900" by R. Douglas Hurt
“The First Atomic Bomb—The Trinity Site in New Mexico” by Janet Farrell Brodie
"Back From the Collapse" by Curtis Freese
"Ballists, Dead Beats and Muffins" by Robert Sampson
"The First Ladies" by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
"Shadow of the New Deal: The Victory of Public Broadcasting" by Josh Shepperd
"A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe" by Mark Dawidziak
“Television Finales—‘Howdy Doody’ to ‘Girls’” by Doug Howard and David Bianculli
"The Influencer Industry" by Emily Hund
"The West: A New History in 14 Lives" by Naoise Mac Sweeney
“The First Taste of Freedom” by Robert Turpin
"The Future is Analog" by David Sax
"The Magazine Century" by David Sumner and Samir Husni
"The American Way" by Helene Stapinski and Bonnie Siegler
"1876: Year of the Gun" by Steve Wiegand
"Eight Bears" by Gloria Dickie
"Marking Modern Time" by Alexis McCrossen
"Untold Power" by Rebecca Roberts
“The Sunday Paper” by Paul Moore and Sandra Gabriele
"Made in Chicago" by Monica Eng and David Hammond
"Rural Areas in Transition" by Norm Walzer and Chris Merrett
“Stone Cold Fox” by Rachel Koller Croft
"Burner" by Mark Greaney
“Playground to the Pros” by Jeff Karzen
“The Great Air Race” by John Lancaster
Dissertation on the Hell Pig, Vol. 2 with Joe Sawchak
"Stress-Free Productivity" by Alice Boyes
"The Good Country" by Jon Lauck
A Dissertation on the Hell Pig with Scott Foss
"How to Calm Your Mind" by Chris Bailey
"The Ascent of Information" by Caleb Scharf
"Illinois Trails & Traces" by Gary Marx and Dan Overturf
"The Art of Insubordination" by Todd Kashdan
"Framers" by Kenneth Cukier, Viktor Mayer-Schonberger and Francis de Vericourt
"Why We Fight" by Christopher Blattman
"A Place to Belong" by Amber O'Neill Johnston
"30 Days of Creativity" by Johanna Basford
"Influence is Your Superpower" by Zoe Chance
"Unraveled" by Maxine Bedat
"The Last King of America" by Andrew Roberts
"I Didn't Do the Thing Today" by Madeleine Dore
"Kingdom of Characters" by Jing Tsu
"Unremembered: Book 2" by Ken Zurski
"No Filter" by Paulina Porizkova
"People Get Ready" by Bob McChesney and John Nichols
"Power Failure" by William Cohan
"Magic Days" by Nadine Jane
"Art is Life" by Jerry Saltz
“You Are More Than Magic” by Minda Harts
"It's Not TV" by Felix Gillette and John Koblin
"Indivisible: Daniel Webster and the Birth of American Nationalism"
"Half American" by Matthew Delmont
"The Great Experiment" by Yascha Mounk
"Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away" by Annie Duke
"I Alone Can Fix It" by Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker
"Never Pay the First Bill" by Marshall Allen
"The Life of Crime" by Martin Edwards
"Take the Game Back" by Linda Flanagan
"Social TV" by Cory Barker
"What Do You Say?: by William Stixrud and Ned Johnson
“Platonic” by Marisa Franco
"The Biggest Ideas in the Universe" by Sean Carroll
"The First Survivors of Alzheimer's" by Dr. Dale Bredesen
"A Time of Islands--Stories of the Pacific War Isles" by Greg Wahl
"Build" by Chris Sickels
"Be a Plant-Based Woman Warrior" by Ann and Jane Esselstyn
"Roller Derby" by Michella Marino
"Streamliner" by John Wall
"California Burning" by Katherine Blunt
"The Man Who Invented Motion Pictures" by Paul Fischer
"Sinkable" by Daniel Stone
"Small Farms Are Real Farms" by John Ikerd
"The Fishermen and the Dragon" by Kirk Wallace Johnson
"Misfire: Inside the Downfall of the NRA" by Tim Mak
"The Warrior Within" by D.J. Vanas
"Reading For Our Lives" by Maya Payne Smart
"George Washington" by David Stewart
"All of the Marvels" by Douglas Wolk
"Revelations in Air" by Jude Stewart
"An Honest Living" by Dwyer Murphy
"Hollywood Ending" by Ken Auletta
"Aurora" by Dr. Lynne Fenton and Kerrie Droban
"Armoured" by Mark Greaney
"Thank You For Your Servitude" by Mark Leibovich
"Regeneration" by Paul Hawken
"The Ultimate Stay-at-Home Dad" by Shannon Carpenter
"To Boldly Grow" by Tamar Haspel
"Exploring the Land of Lincoln" by Charles Titus
"Jerks At Work" by Tessa West
"How To Take Over the World" by Ryan North
"The Power of Regret" by Daniel Pink
"Trillions" by Robin Wigglesworth
“Frequently Asked Questions About the Universe” by Jorge Cham and Daniel Whiteson
"Search" by Michelle Huneven
"Booth" by Karen Joy Fowler
"The Plant Hunter" by Cassandra Quave
"The Comfort Book" by Matt Haig
"Major Labels" by Kelefa Sanneh
"Red Carpet" by Erich Schwartzel
"Stacked" by Joe Saul-Sehy and Emily Guy Birken
"Black American Refugee" by Tiffanie Drayton
"Think Like a Horse" by Grant Golliher
"Phasers on Stun!" by Ryan Britt
"American Comics: A History" by Jeremy Dauber
"Destination Heartland" by Cynthia Clampitt
"Fire and Flood" by Eugene Linden
"When Women Invented Television" by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong
"Insect Crisis" by Oliver Milman
"Because He's Jeff Goldblum" by Travis Andrews
"Indelible City" by Louisa Lim
"Life on the Rocks" by Juli Berwald
"This is Where You Belong" by Melody Warnick
"Incomparable Grace--JFK in the Presidency" by Mark Updegrove
"Generation Sleepless" by Julie Wright and Heather Turgeon
"Dream-Build-Grow: A Female's Step-by-Step Guide for How to Start a Business" by Francie Hinrichsen
"What Happened to the Bennetts" by Lisa Scottoline
"Sandy Hook" by Elizabeth Williamson
"From Strength to Strength" by Arthur Brooks
"Can I Recycle This" by Jennie Romer
"Small World" by Jonathan Evison
"Shutdown: How Covid Shook the World's Economy"
Travels with George