Podcast Episode Summary

Podcast: New Books Network
Episode: Jane Eisner, "Carole King: She Made the Earth Move" (Yale UP, 2025)
Date: December 21, 2025
Host: Mel Rosenberg (Children's Literature Channel, New Books Network)
Guest: Jane Eisner (Author, Journalist)

Overview of the Episode

This episode features an engaging conversation between Mel Rosenberg and Jane Eisner about Eisner’s new book, Carole King: She Made the Earth Move, recently released as part of the Jewish Lives series by Yale University Press. The discussion traces Carole King’s artistic journey, her Jewish background, her musical innovation, and the broader cultural and historical forces that shaped her career. Jane Eisner brings both journalistic rigor and personal connection to this biography—the first full-scale biography of King apart from King’s own memoir—offering new insights and untold stories.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Personal and Professional Connection

• Eisner describes her long-time admiration of Carole King, beginning with listening to Tapestry as a teenager in the Bronx. She highlights personal affinities—both grew up in NYC, have curly hair, and value authenticity.

  “The music just spoke to me, as it did to, I think, millions of others since.” (03:38, Jane Eisner)

• Shared a personal, if indirect, family connection to King’s childhood community, Lake Waubeeka in Connecticut. Eisner’s relatives spent summers there, and she got to know King’s extended family and was invited to King’s iconic 1973 Central Park concert.

  “Her connection to that community really interested me. And I argue in the book that it was very important.” (07:38, Jane Eisner)

2. Carole King’s Jewish Background and Identity

• King’s upbringing was immersed in secular, working-class Jewish culture (Brooklyn’s Sheepshead Bay/Gravesend; Lake Waubeeka community).

  “This was a Jewish environment... not what we nowadays think of as religious or observant, but was very Jewish.” (10:26, Jane Eisner)

• Eisner and Rosenberg debate the extent of King’s Jewish influence—Rosenberg finds little trace in her songwriting, while Eisner suggests a more subtle, spiritual connection:

  “I have come to hear some of those songs in a way that you can interpret them as somehow singing to the divine.” (14:20, Jane Eisner)

• King partook in Jewish rituals at life milestones (e.g., bar mitzvah for her son, Jewish weddings, connections with rabbis), but did not foreground Jewishness in her public persona or art.

  “For her, it was this kind of ballast in her life, something that she called upon at different times, but not something that necessarily identified her life.” (21:14, Jane Eisner)

3. Navigating Jewishness in American Pop Culture

• The discussion contextualizes King alongside other Jewish songwriters (Irving Berlin, Gershwin, Paul Simon).

• They explore generational differences—earlier songwriters often disguised or downplayed Jewish identity, while King’s era saw more assimilation.

  “By the time Carole King came of age, there was much more assimilation, there was much more acceptance of Jews in especially cultural life.” (18:03, Jane Eisner)

• Notably, King changed her name from Klein to King not explicitly to mask her ethnicity, but perhaps influenced by earlier examples and the commonness of her birth name.

  "She never said that she changed her name from Klein to King because she wanted to hide her Jewishness. You know, was that a part of it? I don't know. Probably." (21:14, Jane Eisner)

4. Musical Innovation and Influence

• Discussion of King’s early Brill Building songwriting career with Gerry Goffin—emphasizing the collaborative, assembly-line processes of the era.

  “That era of songwriting was very atomized. One person wrote the music, one person wrote the lyrics...” (29:37, Jane Eisner)

• Her shift from writing for others to performing her own material marked a dramatic evolution, culminating in the Tapestry album. Eisner connects the album’s title and centrality of “earth” in its themes to King’s identity as an “earth mother,” domesticity, and environmental activism.

  “To me, the key word is earth... it was a gesture to... her environmental activism.” (25:40, Jane Eisner)

• Analyzes how songs like "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" and "You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman" subverted pop norms, with deep empathy and complex melodies.

  “They really were... had a kind of mystical collaboration... it’s kind of stunning that [Goffin] got into the head, into the heart of a woman...” (29:37, Jane Eisner)

• King’s music evolved from simple, direct songs to increasingly sophisticated melodies as her confidence and artistry matured.

  “It was just a natural evolution of her talent and more of a confidence in her own ability not just to compose, but to write.” (37:01, Jane Eisner)

5. Broader Cultural Context

• The show places King among a cohort of extraordinary, working-class Jewish artists from the NYC public school system—Barbra Streisand, Paul Simon, Neil Diamond, Neil Sedaka.

  “These were all actual peers. They were the same age and... with amazing, amazing talent. But also real deep desire to make.” (35:41, Mel Rosenberg; 35:53, Jane Eisner)

• The conversation touches on the openness of America post-WWII, the role of public transportation in allowing talented youth—especially women—to access Manhattan’s creative industries, and the gradual opening up for marginalized groups.

6. Writing the Biography: Approach and Challenges

• This is the first biography of Carole King outside her own memoir. Eisner’s approach as a journalist was to go beyond memoir, seek omitted stories, and conduct deep research and interviews.

• Notably, Eisner did not get to interview Carole King (who is described as "mediaphobic"), and she found the experience richer for needing to be more analytical and independent in assessing sources.

  “It’s a challenge to write about someone who’s still alive and is so mediaphobic that I was not able to interview her. So I actually think that made for a better book because I could be more analytical.” (41:23, Jane Eisner)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

Carole King's Jewish roots:

“There’s a kind of Jewish life that isn’t what we nowadays think of as religious or observant, but was very Jewish.”
— Jane Eisner (10:26)

On interpreting King's songs:

“I have come to hear some of those songs in a way that you can interpret them as somehow singing to the divine.”
— Jane Eisner (14:20)

Analyzing King’s hit songwriting:

“It’s kind of stunning that he got into the head, into the heart of a woman who has a romantic encounter and then wonders whether it’s going to continue past that evening.”
— Jane Eisner (29:37)

Singer-songwriter shift post-Beatles:

"The Beatles broke up at the very end of the 1960s... that's one of the reasons why the singer-songwriter movement... blossomed."
— Jane Eisner (38:23)

On Tapestry's iconic status:

"You listen to it for the first time... what is that? What she wrote those songs? What is going on here? Who is that?"
— Mel Rosenberg (27:27)

Book title meaning:

“To me, the key word is earth... it was a gesture to... her environmental activism.”
— Jane Eisner (25:40)

On not interviewing Carole King:

"It's a challenge to write about someone who's still alive and is so mediaphobic that I was not able to interview her. So I actually think that made for a better book because I could be more analytical."
— Jane Eisner (41:23)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:57] Introduction to Jane Eisner and the cover of the book
• [03:38] Who Carole King is to Eisner personally
• [05:42] Eisner’s indirect family connection to King’s childhood summer community
• [08:51] Significance of Lake Waubeeka and King’s connection to environment
• [10:26] Secular Jewish upbringing and influence
• [14:20] Spiritual readings of King’s lyrics
• [18:03] Generational change in Jewish self-presentation
• [21:14] Jewish rituals, identity, and King’s selective involvement
• [23:30] How and why Eisner wrote the biography; lack of previous full-scale bio
• [25:12] Meaning and choice of the book title, “She Made the Earth Move”
• [29:37] Detailed discussion of songwriting process and collaboration with Goffin
• [33:55] King’s ambition, drive, and context of post-war Jewish America
• [35:41] NYC public school peers (Streisand, Simon, Diamond, Sedaka)
• [37:01] Evolution of King’s music and confidence as songwriter/performer
• [38:23] The Beatles, the rise of the singer-songwriter movement
• [40:32] Cultural moment of “Laurel Canyon” and Tapestry/Blue/Mudslide Slim recording
• [41:23] Reflections on the process and challenges of writing about King

Additional Insights

• Jane Eisner explores not just Carole King’s well-publicized achievements, but also “omissions” and less-known aspects of her life, particularly the impact of her family and Jewish community.
• The episode offers a nuanced perspective on Jewish identity in 20th-century American culture—sometimes explicitly expressed, sometimes invisible, always influential.
• Carole King is positioned as a pivotal figure bridging the Brill Building era and the singer-songwriter age, with the Tapestry album seen as a watershed moment both musically and culturally.
• Eisner’s work combines journalistic inquiry with musical and cultural history, resulting in new depth to understanding King’s legacy.

Conclusion

This episode provides an in-depth, affectionate, and intellectually rich conversation about Carole King’s life, her art, her Jewish (and American) context, and the unique approach Jane Eisner took in writing her biography. Both fans and newcomers, as well as those interested in music history or Jewish studies, will find much to appreciate in this illuminating discussion.