Podcast Summary: The New Yorker Radio Hour – "Summer, By The Book"

Episode Date: July 30, 2019
Host: David Remnick
Production: WNYC Studios & The New Yorker

Overview

This episode celebrates summer reading by showcasing New Yorker staffers’ personal book recommendations. Through relaxed, insightful conversations and in-the-field storytelling, host David Remnick and colleagues explore new fiction, overlooked historical nonfiction, and the enduring magic of children's literature. Notable guests include Doreen St. Félix on pop satire and celebrity, Jelani Cobb on meaningful historical works, and Gia Tolentino and Rivka Galchen reminiscing (and analyzing) the power of kids’ books.

Key Segments and Insights

1. Pop Culture, Celebrity, and the Artifice of Fame (00:09–13:00)

Contributors: Doreen St. Félix, Justin Kuritzkes (author), David Remnick

• Book Pick: Famous People by Justin Kuritzkes (debut novel)
  • Genre: Fake memoir, stream-of-consciousness, celebrity satire with empathy.
  • Follows an unnamed 22-year-old pop star, famous since age 12, reckoning with personal and public identity.
  • “He's so desperate to understand what it is about him that his fans love so much.” — Doreen St. Félix (00:41)
• Field Interview: Doreen and Justin visit Madame Tussauds in Times Square to discuss fame while surrounded by wax effigies of celebrities.
  • The wax museum is recast as a "temple of celebrity strangeness"—a site where the artifice of fame becomes literal.
  • Justin reflects on empathy for celebrities and the unavoidable knowledge of mega-stars like Justin Bieber:

    “Even if you didn't want to know anything about Justin Bieber, you're gonna know a lot about Justin Bieber...I was trying to find some meaning in why it's this guy.” — Justin Kuritzkes (05:53)

  • Discussion of Justin's multi-faceted career (playwright, YouTuber, musician), especially his YouTube cult hit “Potion Seller.”
  • Reflection on accidental internet fame:

    “If I die tomorrow, my obituary is going to say YouTuber Justin Kuritzkes, who also wrote a book, you know, who also wrote some plays. But mostly it's gonna lead with Potion Seller Dies.” — Justin Kuritzkes (09:03)

  • Doreen likens celebrity worship at Madame Tussauds to the veneration of religious objects, probing the human need for connection and idolization (09:55).
• Meta moments: Acknowledgement of Madame Tussaud, her historical role, and the enduring, factory-like artistry of her enterprise.
  • “Madame Tussaud is one of the most successful artists of all time. We're standing in a monument to this woman's art.” — Justin Kuritzkes (11:38)

2. Historical Nonfiction: America in Context (13:00–20:10)

Contributors: Jelani Cobb, David Remnick

• Book Recommendations (the "Syllabus for the Summer" 19:56):
  • The Improbable Wendell Willkie by David Levering Lewis
    • Biography of a Republican businessman who won the 1940 presidential nomination, offering perspective on a less-partisan era in American politics and moments of genuine bipartisanship:

      “There's a kind of improbable point at which people do something we wouldn't imagine now and they think about things in the bigger picture and bipartisan relationships.” — Jelani Cobb (14:32)

  • Unexampled Courage by Judge Richard Gergel
    • Tells the story of Isaac Woodard, a Black soldier brutalized by police in 1946 South Carolina, the activism and judicial shift it provoked, and its influence on postwar civil rights jurisprudence.

      “The aftermath is what becomes really interesting. It sparked Judge Waring to move in a much more progressive direction in the bench, issuing rulings on civil rights that ultimately make him such a pariah that he leaves Charleston.” — Jelani Cobb (18:16)

  • The Second Founding by Eric Foner
    • Analysis of America’s “second founding” via the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, focusing on questions of citizenship and democracy’s unfinished work—especially relevant to ongoing debates on immigration and voting rights:

      “Eric Foner makes a compelling argument that the unresolved questions of the American Revolution...take the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments [to] put into place.” — Jelani Cobb (18:50)

3. The Enduring Magic of Children's Books (21:16–31:11)

Contributors: Gia Tolentino, Rivka Galchen

• Setting: Books Are Magic, Brooklyn – a cozy neighborhood bookstore.
• Book Nostalgia: Childhood reading memories—library haunts, favorite bookshops, the lineage of treasured hand-me-downs.
  • “I grew up in Texas, yeah.” — Rivka Galchen (22:02)
  • “No one in my house read. It was considered strange...The only books I would find at friends’ houses.” — Gia Tolentino (22:34)
• Personal Classics Discussed:
  • The Phantom Tollbooth — described as "the perfect book," praised for its clarity of writing and the melancholy, bored protagonist Milo "waking up" to the world.

    “All the Lewis Sacher books I still find, like, incredibly sophisticated...It starts with this kid who's just. Everything is wrong in his life...and then it has this iconic first line: there's no lake at Camp Green Lake.” — Gia & Rivka (24:01–25:34)

  • Holes — celebrated for intricate plotting and depth.
  • Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret and Judy Blume classics—fears of puberty, cover art nostalgia, and the importance of unmediated childhood reading.
  • Anne of Green Gables, Little House on the Prairie, Encyclopedia Brown—as sources of adventure, secret powers, and models of “headstrong” heroines.
  • Discussion of the gender balance in children’s literature—and how boys, in particular, might lose lifelong reading habits despite identifying flexibly with female protagonists (28:10).
  • The role of adventure in children's fiction and its capacity for fulfilling young readers' yearning for significance and agency.

    “I do think when you're a kid, you feel you have this, like, capacity for a greater adventure than you're having. These books sort of fulfill that dream of something of the appropriate size to your heart occurring to you.” — Gia Tolentino (29:58)

  • “These books maybe admit that so much more than adult fiction, right? What we really long for is really different than what our lives are.” — Rivka Galchen (31:11)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “He’s a kind of heartbreaking narrator, this kid, because…he’s so desperate to understand what it is about him that his fans love so much.” — Doreen St. Félix on Famous People (00:41)
• “I wanted to write into being the character that I needed these people to be so that I could continue being invested in their lives through no choice of my own.” — Justin Kuritzkes (07:06)
• “If I die tomorrow, my obituary is going to say YouTuber Justin Kuritzkes…But mostly it's gonna lead with Potion Seller Dies.” — Justin Kuritzkes (09:03)
• “Madame Tussaud is one of the most successful artists of all time…she popularized an entire genre. I don’t think that’s anything to shake a stick at.” — Justin Kuritzkes (11:38)
• “There's a kind of improbable point at which people do something we wouldn't imagine now and…think about things in the bigger picture and bipartisan relationships.” — Jelani Cobb on mid-century US politics (14:32)
• “The aftermath is what becomes really interesting. It sparked Judge Waring to move in a much more progressive direction in the bench…” — Jelani Cobb (18:16)
• “All the Lewis Sacher books I still find, like, incredibly sophisticated…these books are like, what I really want to be doing is riding horses on the prairie or like discovering I have a secret power.” — Gia Tolentino (25:19/30:28)

Important Timestamps

• 00:09 – Introduction to summer reading: Doreen St. Félix on Famous People
• 03:46 – Doreen and Justin Kuritzkes' tour of Madame Tussauds; discussion of celebrity and artifice
• 09:03 – Justin Kuritzkes on accidental YouTube fame (“Potion Seller”)
• 13:59 – Jelani Cobb’s summer reading list: history, biography, civil rights
• 18:50 – The continuing relevance of the Reconstruction amendments
• 21:16 – Gia Tolentino & Rivka Galchen at Books are Magic: childhood and children's literature
• 24:01 – Depth and clarity in Phantom Tollbooth, Holes, Newbery favorites
• 28:10 – Gender and identification in kids' books
• 30:28 – The wish fulfillment and imaginative expansion of childhood reading

Conclusion

“Summer, By The Book” is a lively exploration of how books shape, reflect, and comfort us—whether you’re longing for literary adventure, probing America’s historical schisms, or pondering the loneliness of stardom. The episode’s book picks span from sharp contemporary satire to the foundational questions of civil rights and democracy, and the magical landscapes of children’s fiction, reminding listeners: summer is for reading, and books are for everyone.