Podcast
Biographers International Organization
Hosted by Biographers International Organization · EN
Sharing a passion for biography!
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Episodes
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Podcast #265 – Victoria Johnson
1w ago00:27:28Tap to summarizePhoto 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 19th-century painter and landscape artist, was published by Scribner in May 2026. Johnson also authored American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic, which was a finalist for the National Book Award for Nonfiction, the Pulitzer Prize for History, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Biography. Additionally, the book was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and was shortlisted for the Cundill History Prize. Fellow biographer and BIO member Natalie Dykstra interviewed Victoria Johnson. BIO Podcast is going on a summer break! We’ll return with new episodes in September. Catch up on past podcast episodes here.
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Podcast #264 – Andy Beta
2w ago00:32:11Tap to summarizePhoto 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 Wall Street Journal, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Texas Monthly, NPR, We Jazz magazine, and many more. Andy Beta was interviewed by BIO member and podcast producer Karolyn van Putten.
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Podcast #263 – Steven C. Smith
3w ago00:32:58Tap to summarizePhoto 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 Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, Stephen Sondheim, John Williams, Julie Andrews, and Sidney Poitier. His biographies of composers Bernard Herrmann and Max Steiner each received the ASCAP Foundation Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award, and he has lectured at the Library of Congress, American Film Institute, Academy of Motion Pictures Museum, and other organizations. He has written for The Wall Street Journal, The Hollywood Reporter, and the Los Angeles Times. Fellow biographer and BIO member Sonja Williams interviewed Steven C. Smith.
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Podcast #262 – Steven C. Bowie
4w ago00:28:14Tap to summarizeConcerto 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 Ellington Reflections, Bowie also has presented papers on Williams and Kenny Burrell for conferences held by the Duke Ellington Society of Sweden, and his articles have appeared in DownBeat and Jazz Improv magazines. Fellow biographer and BIO member Kevin McGruder interviewed Steven Bowie.
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Podcast #261 – Mary Lisa Gavenas
May 2900:23:05Tap to summarizeSelling 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, Lit Hub, and other outlets for its lively cultural history of midcentury America, making Kirkus’s list of “Nonfiction Books That Read Like Novels.” A former editor at Glamour, Mirabella, and InStyle and columnist at ELLE, Gavenas has contributed to Fast Company, Health, The Hollywood Reporter, The New York Times Magazine, Salon, and other national outlets. Her previous books include Color Stories: Behind the Scenes in America’s Billion-Dollar Beauty Industry and The Fairchild Encyclopedia of Menswear. Fellow biographer and BIO member Lisa Napoli interviewed Mary Lisa Gavenas.
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Podcast #260 – Jon Meacham, Part II
May 2200:20:04Tap to summarizePhoto 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 Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle; Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power; American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House; Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship; Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush; and His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope. He holds the Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Chair at Vanderbilt University and is a fellow of the Society of American Historians. Fellow biographer and BIO member John A. Farrell interviewed Jon Meacham.
Transcribe →Podcast #259 – Jon Meacham, Part I
May 1500:33:55Tap to summarizePhoto 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 Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle; Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power; American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House; Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship; Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush; and His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope. He holds the Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Chair at Vanderbilt University and is a fellow of the Society of American Historians. Fellow biographer and BIO member John A. Farrell interviewed Jon Meacham.
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Podcast #258 – Hester Kaplan
May 800:30:59Tap to summarizePhoto 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 and nonfiction have appeared in literary journals and anthologies, including The Best American Short Stories series. She is the recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts Awards, and she was named a Mark Twain Fellow for Twice Born. BIO member and podcast producer Jenny Skoog Mondesir interviewed Hester Kaplan.
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Podcast #257 – Adam Henig
May 100:32:15Tap to summarizeBaseball’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: The Yankees, the Cardinals, and a Doctor’s Battle to Integrate Spring Training. His writings have appeared in Time, Tampa Bay Times, Washington Independent Review of Books, Detroit Metro Times, and BlackPast. He is an active member of the Biographers International Organization and the Society for American Baseball Research. BIO member and podcast producer Jenny Skoog Mondesir interviewed Adam Henig.
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Podcast #256 – Gayle Feldman
Apr 2400:26:06Tap to summarizePhoto 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 did. Feldman has served as a senior staff editor for Publishers Weekly and a U.S. correspondent for The Bookseller. Her features, reviews, and essays have appeared in a wide range of periodicals, including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Times of London, The Nation, and The Daily Beast. Feldman’s previous books were You Don’t Have to Be Your Mother and Best and Worst of Times: The Changing Business of Trade Books. Fellow biographer and BIO member Lisa Napoli interviewed Gayle Feldman.
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