Free Library Podcast

Free Library of Philadelphia
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The Free Library Podcast is an easy way to participate in the author events and lectures that take place at the Parkway Central Library. Visit Author Events to find upcoming events.

  1. 3d ago

    Roz Chast | The Two Saddest Kitchens: A Comics Conversation

    The Author Events Series presents Roz Chast | The Two Saddest Kitchens: A Comics Conversation In Conversation with Jason Adam Katzenstein #1 New York Times bestselling, award-winning author Roz Chast teams up with her fellow New Yorker cartoonist Jason Adam Katzenstein to rip the Tupperware lid off what's really going on in their kitchens. ''I don't think I've ever laughed so hard.'' – Ruth Reichl The kitchen is the ''heart of the home,'' or at least it's supposed to be. But wait! What's that lurking under the sink? Behind the cabinets? In the back of the refrigerator?! When celebrated New Yorker cartoonists Roz Chast and Jason Adam Katzenstein confessed to each other that their kitchens were far from Martha Stewart perfect, they knew they couldn't be the only ones cracking under the pressure of their pressure cookers. In The Two Saddest Kitchens, Roz and Jason combine their hilarious cartoon sensibilities to take (chicken) stock of everything from tragic pantries to the secret double life of Mr. Clean. Let Roz and Jason guide you through their divine kitchen comedy as they ponder the fancy utensils that will never be used, the recipes that will never be followed, and the dream kitchens that exist only on the astral plane, which is maybe for the best.  ROZ CHAST‘s cartoons began appearing in the New Yorker in 1978. She is the author of the graphic memoirs Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?, a #1 New York Times bestseller (100 weeks), a National Book Critics Circle Award and Kirkus Prize winner and finalist for the National Book Award; national bestseller I Must Be Dreaming; Going Into Town (Winner of the New York City Book Award); What I Hate: From A to Z; and her cartoon collections The Party, After You Left and Theories of Everything, among others. She was awarded the Harvey Hall of Fame Award, and in 2024 was awarded the National Humanities Medal. She lives in Connecticut and New York. JASON ADAM KATZENSTEIN is a cartoonist and comedy writer whose work has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, and MAD Magazine. He is the author and illustrator of the graphic memoir Everything Is an Emergency. He lives in New York. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. All tickets are non-refundable.   (recorded 10/15/2026)

  2. 3d ago

    Roz Chast | The Two Saddest Kitchens: A Comics Conversation

    The Author Events Series presents Roz Chast | The Two Saddest Kitchens: A Comics Conversation In Conversation with Jason Adam Katzenstein #1 New York Times bestselling, award-winning author Roz Chast teams up with her fellow New Yorker cartoonist Jason Adam Katzenstein to rip the Tupperware lid off what's really going on in their kitchens. ''I don't think I've ever laughed so hard.'' – Ruth Reichl The kitchen is the ''heart of the home,'' or at least it's supposed to be. But wait! What's that lurking under the sink? Behind the cabinets? In the back of the refrigerator?! When celebrated New Yorker cartoonists Roz Chast and Jason Adam Katzenstein confessed to each other that their kitchens were far from Martha Stewart perfect, they knew they couldn't be the only ones cracking under the pressure of their pressure cookers. In The Two Saddest Kitchens, Roz and Jason combine their hilarious cartoon sensibilities to take (chicken) stock of everything from tragic pantries to the secret double life of Mr. Clean. Let Roz and Jason guide you through their divine kitchen comedy as they ponder the fancy utensils that will never be used, the recipes that will never be followed, and the dream kitchens that exist only on the astral plane, which is maybe for the best.  ROZ CHAST‘s cartoons began appearing in the New Yorker in 1978. She is the author of the graphic memoirs Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?, a #1 New York Times bestseller (100 weeks), a National Book Critics Circle Award and Kirkus Prize winner and finalist for the National Book Award; national bestseller I Must Be Dreaming; Going Into Town (Winner of the New York City Book Award); What I Hate: From A to Z; and her cartoon collections The Party, After You Left and Theories of Everything, among others. She was awarded the Harvey Hall of Fame Award, and in 2024 was awarded the National Humanities Medal. She lives in Connecticut and New York. JASON ADAM KATZENSTEIN is a cartoonist and comedy writer whose work has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, and MAD Magazine. He is the author and illustrator of the graphic memoir Everything Is an Emergency. He lives in New York. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. All tickets are non-refundable.   (recorded 10/15/2026)

  3. 3d ago

    Yiyun Li | Music Against the Night: A Novel

    The Author Events Series presents Yiyun Li | Music Against the Night: A Novel In Conversation with Weike Wang In Dublin, as the eighteenth century nears its end, a young musical virtuoso comes of age. John Field, an awkward and sensitive child, is preternaturally gifted, and his family has visions of him becoming the next Mozart. His talent takes him far-to England, France, and then Russia, where he becomes a famous pianist and composes dreamy, languorous melodies that enchant the night air. John calls them nocturnes, but the prodigy who immortalizes them is Chopin. Oceans away in Pondicherry, in French India, Adelaide Percheron has a startling rise of her own. Orphaned at a young age, she is raised by her imperious, enterprising grandmother. Her cousins give her the name Percherette, an impish reminder that despite their shared relations, Adelaide is not one of the crowd, owing to her parents' differing ancestry. Without a connection to aristocracy or the luxury of riches, only marriage seems to offer prosperity-until she sets her sights on a pianoforte. Driven by her secret love of music and a desire to see the world, Percherette engineers her exodus, escaping to Paris and later to Moscow, as Napoleon's army sets out to conquer the continent. Drawing inspiration from the past but finding entirely new forms, Music Against the Night comes to life with the sweep and dimension of the Romantic era and a deep understanding of the demands of living and of art.  Yiyun Li is the author of several works of fiction-Wednesday's Child; The Book of Goose; Must I Go; Where Reasons End; Kinder Than Solitude; Gold Boy, Emerald Girl; The Vagrants; and A Thousand Years of Good Prayers-and the memoirs Things in Nature Merely Grow and Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life. She is the recipient of many awards, including the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Memoir or Autobiography, a PEN/Faulkner Award, a PEN/Malamud Award, a PEN/Hemingway Award, a PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, a MacArthur Fellowship, and a Windham–Campbell Prize. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, A Public Space, The Best American Short Stories, and The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories, among other publications. She teaches at Princeton University and lives in Princeton, New Jersey.  Weike Wang is the author of 4 novels, the most forthcoming IRIS (Riverhead 2027).  She is the recipient of a Pen Hemingway, a Whiting award and a National Book Foundation 5 under 35.  Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper's Magazine, Best American Short Stories and has won two O. Henry Prizes. She earned her MFA from Boston University and her other degrees from Harvard. She currently lives in New York City and has taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, Barnard College and Boston University. Weike is not on social media.  Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 10/20/2026)

  4. 5d ago

    Malcolm Gladwell | The American Way of Killing: The Invention of an Epidemic

    The Author Events Series presents Malcolm Gladwell | The American Way of Killing: The Invention of an Epidemic In Conversation with Tamala Edwards Sheldon and Jill Bonovitz Lecture SOLD OUT Malcolm Gladwell returns with his most urgent book yet: a provocative investigation of America's epidemic of gun violence. The United States has far more homicides than any of its peers around the world. Why? In this groundbreaking book, Malcolm Gladwell explores the American "peculiarity"--how the world's wealthiest country came to suffer from a problem typically only seen in the world's poorest countries. Drawing on original interviews, archival and social science research, and his trademark insight, Gladwell approaches the American paradox through a series of stories. What can we learn from the miracle of a young gunshot victim in Washington, D.C.? How have the legal troubles of a seventeenth-century English knight influenced American attempts at gun control? Why would a European police chief be baffled by the graduation ceremony at any American police academy? In a sweeping narrative, Gladwell travels from a shooting range in North Carolina, to the South Side of Chicago, to an old plantation house in Alabama, painting a picture of a country that does not understand its most pressing social problem, and as result, does not understand how to fix it. Malcolm Gladwell is the author of eight New York Times bestsellers: The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, What the Dog Saw, David and Goliath, Talking to Strangers, The Bomber Mafia, and Revenge of the Tipping Point. He is also the cofounder of Pushkin Industries, an audio-content company that produces Revisionist History, among other podcasts and audiobooks. He was born in England, raised in Canada, and lives outside New York with his family and a cat named Biggie Smalls.  Tamala Edwards joined 6abc in January of 2005. She is the weekday co-anchor of Action News Mornings from 4 a.m to 7 a.m. and is a regular co-host of Inside Story, conducting probing interviews with newsmakers like Governor Tom Corbett, Senator Bob Casey, Mayor Michael Nutter and others, as well as moderating many election debates. Prior to joining 6abc, Tamala Edwards was the anchor of ABC's World News Now, and World News This Morning. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 10/14/2026)

  5. Oct 23

    Imbolo Mbue | Every Story is A Love Story

    The Author Events Series presents Imbolo Mbue | Every Story is A Love Story In Conversation with Justin McDaniel From the New York Times bestselling author of Behold the Dreamers, a captivating novel about love lost-and the weight of regret What if I'd never gotten into that car? What if I'd pulled out of the driveway five minutes earlier, or ten minutes later? Three years ago, Wolo's wife was killed in a tragic car accident. In an instant, the great love of his life was gone, and so was their beautiful future. In the face of a loss that seemed insurmountable, Wolo has slowly rebuilt a semblance of a life: he goes to work, hangs out with a small circle of friends, and fends off the matchmaking efforts of the older women in his family. The grief that dogged him has, with time, become a little gentler. Until a letter arrives one day, unbidden, threatening to upend his life once again. It is from Victoria, the woman who was behind the wheel that terrible day. Wolo's family pastor tells him the letter is the work of the devil; his mother expressly forbids him from making further mention of it; his father's second wife calls, from Cameroon, to tell him to destroy it. But Wolo ponders it for days, and ultimately agrees to meet with the woman who killed his wife. When he does, the compassion and deep remorse of the woman affects him in ways he had never imagined, and he begins to wonder if the long road to healing can be shared.   What do we owe to those who have hurt us? Are we defined by our worst moments and our deepest regrets?  And, more than anything, can forgiveness ease our suffering? Moving and full of life, Every Story Is a Love Story charts the uneven path from heartbreak to healing.  IMBOLO MBUE is the author of the New York Times bestseller Behold the Dreamers, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and was an Oprah's Book Club selection. Her second novel, How Beautiful We Were, about a fictional African village's fight against an American oil company, was named by the New York Times as ''One of the 10 Best Books'' of 2021. A native of Limbe, Cameroon, Mbue lives in New York.  Justin McDaniel is a writer, teacher, and pedagogical innovator. He is the Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He earned his PhD in Sanskrit and Indian Studies from Harvard University. He has been a Fulbright, Mellon, Rockefeller, Templeton, Carpenter, and Guggenheim Fellow, and has won numerous teaching and advising awards including the Kahin Prize and the Becker Prize for writing. He was named one of the top ten most innovative professors in America by the Chronicle of Higher Education and one of the hundred top cultural influencers by Cultured Magazine in 2026. His work on pedagogical methods in the courses Existential Despair and Living Deliberately has been featured on NPR, Huffington Post, Washington Post, the New York Times and many other venues. He lives in Philadelphia. His latest book, Existential Despair (Crown, a division of Penguin Random House) will be published in January 2027. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 10/8/2026)

  6. Sep 30

    Andy Beshear | Go and Do Likewise

    The Author Events Series presents Andy Beshear | Go and Do Likewise In Conversation with Michael Smerconish SOLD OUT Join Governor Andy Beshear for a hopeful conversation about reclaiming faith as a force for good instead of harm and healing a divided nation through our shared values. Centered around his new book, GO AND DO LIKEWISE: How We Heal a Broken Country, Governor Beshear will share stories of healing, justice, forgiveness, welcoming, and moral clarity. In GO AND DO LIKEWISE, Governor Beshear shares what his own faith has meant to him, how it has informed his family and his public life-and serves as a rebuke to how faith has been hijacked, profaned, misused, and corrupted by Donald Trump and other public figures. By regrounding faith in compassion and kindness, Beshear believes we can start to heal as a country. Whether you support organized religion or simply believe in the golden rule, this evening is a powerful reminder of the values that can truly unite us.  Governor Andy Beshear is a born-and-raised Kentuckian. Before he was elected Governor in 2019, Andy served as the state's Attorney General since 2015, working as a lawyer on behalf of the government for the people of Kentucky. Andy and his wife, Britainy, have two children, Will and Lila, and dog Winnie. His family attends Beargrass Christian Church, where both Andy and Britainy serve as deacons. He is a graduate of Vanderbilt with a bachelor's in political science and anthropology and holds a Juris Doctorate from the University of Virginia law school. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Every ticket that includes a book comes with a pre-signed copy of GO AND DO LIKEWISE, published by St. Martins Press Pre-signed copies of GO AND DO LIKEWISE will be available for purchase at the event. All tickets are non-refundable.   (recorded 9/23/2026)

  7. Sep 30

    Emily Wilson | Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea

    The Author Events Series presents Emily Wilson | Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea In Conversation with Merve Emre SOLD OUT In this sharp and often entertaining tour through antiquity, Emily Wilson--whose renditions of Homer's Odyssey and Iliad have captured a generation's imagination--explores the complicated terrain of reading and writing about the ancient past. Drawing on twenty years of scholarship and teaching, Wilson explores the difficult choices that translators must make, the pleasures of finding new solutions to old problems, and the inevitable frustrations of never fully capturing what is in the original work. Across chapters that range from the politics of Helen of Troy to the obscenities of Aristophanes, from Roman imitation of Greek models to contemporary debates over "foreignizing" and "domesticizing" styles, Wilson examines how modern norms of gender, sexuality, violence, humor, and power complicate our readings of ancient works, and how translation always risks denaturing what is unique and strange about the ancient world. Brilliant, erudite, and yet accessible to readers with no classical background, Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea is at once an introduction to the wonders of Greek and Roman literature, a manifesto for the value of translation in a rapidly changing world, and an invitation to encounter ancient cultures anew.  Emily Wilson is a professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She has been named a fellow of the American Academy in Rome, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a MacArthur Fellow. In addition to Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, she has also published translations of Sophocles, Euripides, and Seneca. She lives in Philadelphia. Merve Emre is the Shapiro-Silverberg Professor of Creative Writing and Criticism at Wesleyan University and the Director of the Shapiro Center for Creative Writing and Criticism. Her books include Paraliterary: The Making of Bad Readers in Postwar America, The Personality Brokers (selected as one of the best books of 2018 by the New York Times, The Economist, NPR, and The Spectator), The Ferrante Letters (winner of the 2021 PROSE award for literature), and The Annotated Mrs. Dalloway. She has been awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize, the Robert B. Silvers Prize for Literary Criticism, and the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing by the National Book Critics Circle. She is a contributing writer at The New Yorker. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 9/22/2026)

  8. Sep 30

    Kevin Powell | A Poem for Evangeline & Other Songs

    The Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation presents a night of words and conversation with Kevin Powell With this, his 17th book and his 4th poetry collection, Kevin Powell further cements his legacy as one of the most celebrated political, cultural, literary, and hip-hop voices in America. A Poem for Evangeline, And Other Songs, is a series of tender and skillfully constructed love letters to his wife, yes. But it is also a sensitive and sacred poetic manifesto for humanity, for America. Be it hate or violence in all forms, mental health, family, history, childhood traumas, the meaning of manhood, or his profound longing for peace, Powell channels forebears like Lucille Clifton, like Federico García Lorca, like the purple cadences and skylight hues of our kinfolk. The result is a poetry book for our times, yes, but also for the times not yet imagined. Kevin Powell is one of the most celebrated political, cultural, literary, and hip-hop voices in America. He is a GRAMMY-nominated poet, a human and civil rights activist, a journalist, a filmmaker, a former two-time candidate for the United States Congress in New York City, and a public speaker who has been to all 50 American states and 5 of the world's 7 continents. Kevin is also the author of 17 books, including A Poem for Evangeline, And Other Songs, his newest collection of poetry; and The Kevin Powell Reader, which represents 30plus years of his life work as a writer, public speaker, and social justice advocate. Kevin's upcoming book will be a biography of Tupac Shakur, who he interviewed several times while a senior writer for Quincy Jones' Vibe magazine. Kevin is currently a WEBBY Award-winning opinion columnist for Newsweek magazine and regular Sirius XM radio guest host. Kevin's writings have also appeared in a wide range of publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Ebony, Essence, NPR, The Guardian, Complex, and HuffPost. Kevin's new documentary film, When We Free The World, is a deep dive about healthy manhood versus toxic manhood, through the lens and lives of five generations of Black males. A native of Jersey City, New Jersey, Kevin is a proud and long-time resident of Brooklyn, New York. You can reach him via email: kevin@kevinpowell.net, or follow him on all social media platforms by typing poet Kevin Powell Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Recorded on September 17, 2026 The views expressed by the authors and moderators are strictly their own and do not represent the opinions of the Free Library of Philadelphia or its employees. Follow us on social media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorevents/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flpauthorevents/ (recorded 9/17/2026)

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4.2
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About

The Free Library Podcast is an easy way to participate in the author events and lectures that take place at the Parkway Central Library. Visit Author Events to find upcoming events.

Information

  • Creator
    Free Library of Philadelphia
  • Years Active
    2007 - 2026
  • Episodes
    300
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 1990 - 2026 Free Library of Philadelphia
  • Show Website
    Free Library Podcast

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