Podcast
The American Writers Museum Podcasts
Hosted by The American Writers Museum · EN
A National Museum Celebrating American Writers
23episodes
Episodes
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Episode 236: Randall Sullivan
5d ago00:41:27Tap to summarizeThis week, acclaimed journalist Randall Sullivan talks about writing baseball and his new book The First All-Star Game: Babe Ruth, FDR, and America at the Crossroads. He is interviewed by comedian Joe Kilgallon. This program took place at the 2026 American Writers Festival. Co-hosted by the American Writers Museum and Chicago Public Library, the American [...]
Transcribe →Episode 235: America at 250: Untold Stories
2w ago00:46:15Tap to summarizeThis week, we explore America at 250 years old, through lenses of migration, Black history, and queer liberation. Darius Bost and C. Riley Snorton discuss their book A Black Queer History of the United States. And Anna O. Law discusses her book Migration and the Origins of American Citizenship: African Americans, Native Americans, and Immigrants. [...]
Transcribe →Episode 234: Rory O’Neill
3w ago01:09:31Tap to summarizeThis week, the American Writers Museum and the Consulate General of Ireland, Chicago present a conversation with writer, entertainer, drag queen, LGBTQ+ rights activist and ‘Queen of Ireland’ Rory O’Neill, also known as Panti Bliss. O’Neill visited the AWM to celebrate Bloomsday—the annual global celebration on June 16 of Irish writer James Joyce that commemorates [...]
Transcribe →Episode 60: Isaac Bashevis Singer
May 2800:58:36Tap to summarizeIn this episode, we discuss the life and legacy of Isaac Bashevis Singer. An immigrant to the United States, Singer was an esteemed essayist, short story writer, novelist, translator, and children’s book author. As a young man in Poland, Singer initially pursued rabbinical studies, but the pull of literature was too strong. He worked as [...]
Transcribe →Episode 233: Jennifer Keishin Armstrong – “Parks and Rec”
May 1800:48:16Tap to summarizeThis week, pop culture historian Jennifer Keishin Armstrong stops by to discuss her latest book Parks and Rec: The Underdog TV Show That Lit’rally Inspired a Vision for a Better America. Armstrong tells the definitive story of the creation and legacy of the beloved television show Parks and Recreation, with exclusive interview content from its [...]
Transcribe →Episode 59: Henry David Thoreau
May 1800:55:57Tap to summarizeIn this episode, we discuss the life and legacy of Henry David Thoreau. An essayist and poet, Thoreau lived a provocative life in which he endeavored to escape the limitations of human society by exploring the wider, wilder natural world. He was a naturalist, land surveyor, pencil maker, abolitionist, and student of Indigenous American culture [...]
Transcribe →Episode 232: Naoko Fujimoto
May 1100:44:54Tap to summarizeThis week, we chat with poet Naoko Fujimoto, a senior editor at RHINO Poetry. She stopped by the AWM the other week to discuss the work of translation, her poetry process, and her forthcoming book titled: of Women: 20 Japanese Female Poets / 20 Waka Poems, a collection of translated Japanese waka-poems, including text collage [...]
Transcribe →Episode 231: Marilyn Hacker & Deema K. Shehabi
May 400:48:25Tap to summarizeThis week, poets Marilyn Hacker and Deema K. Shehabi discuss their powerful new book Water to Water: Gaza Renga, a poetry collaboration in the call-and-response form of renga written during the conflict in Gaza. This conversation originally took place April 20, 2026 and was recorded live at the American Writers Museum. AWM PODCAST NETWORK HUB [...]
Transcribe →Episode 58: Tupac Shakur
Apr 1600:57:41Tap to summarizeIn this episode, we discuss the life and legacy of poet, actor, and rapper Tupac Shakur. Quoting from his official website: “Tupac Shakur is one of the greatest and most controversial artists of all time. More than a quarter of a century after his tragic death in 1996 at the age of just twenty-five, he [...]
Transcribe →Episode 230: Kati Curts
Mar 2300:50:52Tap to summarizeThis week, religious studies professor Dr. Kati Curts discusses her book Assembling Religion: The Ford Motor Company and the Transformation of Religion in America, which illustrates how Henry Ford institutionalized a social gospel. Though Ford’s efforts at the head of the Ford Motor Company have commonly been understood as secular, Ford himself was explicit that [...]
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