Podcast
Biographers International Organization
Hosted by Biographers International Organization · EN
Sharing a passion for biography!
27episodes
Episodes
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Podcast #257 – Adam Henig
2w ago00:32:15Tap 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
3w ago00:26:06Tap 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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Podcast #255 – “Four Paths, One Impossible Dream,” Part VI: Still Writing
4w ago00:16:54Tap to summarizeIn 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. And Sara has a message for anyone who’s ever thought about writing a book. BIO Podcast producer Jenny Skoog guides listeners through this series’ finale. “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 comedian Sara Benincasa, tackling Abraham Lincoln; professor Kate Culkin, working on a book about Ralph Waldo Emerson’s daughters; historian Kevin McGruder, who has spent decades researching Harlem Renaissance writer Rudolph Fisher; and journalist Katie Rose Quandt, on the challenges of completing a book proposal while pregnant.
Transcribe →Podcast #254 – “Four Paths, One Impossible Dream,” Part V: Community and Solitude
Apr 1000:19:08Tap to summarizeSara 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 quitting. She says no. She wants this book to exist; that’s enough. Part five of our podcast miniseries, produced by Jenny Skoog, explores the quiet, unglamorous work of writing biography — and what it actually feels like. “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 comedian Sara Benincasa, tackling Abraham Lincoln; professor Kate Culkin, working on a book about Ralph Waldo Emerson’s daughters; historian Kevin McGruder, who has spent decades researching Harlem Renaissance writer Rudolph Fisher; and journalist Katie Rose Quandt, on the challenges of completing a book proposal while pregnant.
Transcribe →Podcast #253 – “Four Paths, One Impossible Dream,” Part IV: Challenging the Canon
Apr 300:18:08Tap to summarizeIn 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. Katie Rose reads congressional testimony from a hundred years ago that could have been written this morning. And Kate has to reckon with the fact that one of her subjects was a racist. The ideas. The arguments. The stuff that keeps them up at night, and BIO Podcast producer Jenny Skoog explores these dilemmas with the four authors. “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 comedian Sara Benincasa, tackling Abraham Lincoln; professor Kate Culkin, working on a book about Ralph Waldo Emerson’s daughters; historian Kevin McGruder, who has spent decades researching Harlem Renaissance writer Rudolph Fisher; and journalist Katie Rose Quandt, on the challenges of completing a book proposal while pregnant.
Transcribe →Podcast #252 – “Four Paths, One Impossible Dream,” Part III: The Business of Biography
Mar 2700:16:42Tap to summarizeThe 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 biography. Over eight months in 2025, BIO Podcast producer Jenny Skoog spoke with comedian Sara Benincasa, tackling Abraham Lincoln; professor Kate Culkin, working on a book about Ralph Waldo Emerson’s daughters; historian Kevin McGruder, who has spent decades researching Harlem Renaissance writer Rudolph Fisher; and journalist Katie Rose Quandt, on the challenges of completing a book proposal while pregnant.
Transcribe →Podcast #251 – “Four Paths, One Impossible Dream,” Part II: The Work
Mar 2000:17:34Tap to summarizeIn 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 comedian Sara Benincasa, tackling Abraham Lincoln; professor Kate Culkin, working on a book about Ralph Waldo Emerson’s daughters; historian Kevin McGruder, who has spent decades researching Harlem Renaissance writer Rudolph Fisher; and journalist Katie Rose Quandt, on the challenges of completing a book proposal while pregnant.
Transcribe →Podcast #250 – “Four Paths, One Impossible Dream,” Part I
Mar 1300:23:48Tap to summarizeThis 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 Emerson’s daughters that nobody taught her how to promote; historian Kevin McGruder has been carrying around his subject, Harlem Renaissance writer Rudolph Fisher, for decades; and journalist Katie Rose Quandt is finishing a book proposal about five influential women while pregnant with her third child. BIO member Jenny Skoog sat down with each of these writers to ask the obvious question: who gets to write biography?
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Podcast #249 – David Margolick
Mar 600:28:31Tap to summarizeWhen 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 affairs for The New York Times, and he was then a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. His many books include Beyond Glory: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, and A World on the Brink, Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song, Dreadful: The Short Life and Gay Times of John Horne Burns, and Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock. Fellow biographer and BIO member Lisa Napoli interviewed David Margolick.
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Podcast #248 – Peter Cozzens
Feb 2700:32:11Tap to summarizeDeadwood: 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 the U. S. Army. His previous book, The Earth Is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West, received the 2017 Gilder Lehrman Prize for the best military history work in the English language. In December 2024, The Economist selected it as one of the seven greatest military history books ever written. In 2002, Cozzens received the American Foreign Service Association’s highest award, given annually to one Foreign Service Officer for exemplary moral courage, integrity, and creative dissent. Fellow biographer and BIO member John A. Farrell interviewed Peter Cozzens.
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