Hopeton Hay Podcasts

Hopeton Hay
  • 5.0 (9)
  • Society & Culture
  • Updated Weekly

Hopeton Hay Podcasts is the founder, producer, and host of Diverse Voices Book Review (formerly known as KAZI Book Review) which features interviews with a wide range of culturally diverse authors of recently published fiction and nonfiction, and Economic Perspectives, an audio interview show featuring discussions on finance, economic,  and small businesses and policies.

  1. A Fresh Historical Perspective on the Renaissance

    3d ago

    A Fresh Historical Perspective on the Renaissance

    Historian Ada Palmer provides a fresh perspective on the Renaissance in her book INVENTING THE RENAISSANCE: The Myth of A Golden Age. In the conversation with Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay, Palmer shared why this celebrated era of history, spanning the 14th to the 17th century, was both the best of times and the worst of times for Renaissance Italy.Ada Palmer is a historian, novelist, and composer, and a professor in the History Department at the University of Chicago. She also writes science fiction and fantasy.  Her first novel TOO LIKE THE LIGHTNING, begins the four volume science fiction series Terra Ignota. Follow her on Bluesky at @adapalmer.bsky.social or on her web site ExUrbe.Follow Diverse Voices Book Review on Social Media: Facebook - @diversevoicesbookreview Instagram - @diverse_voices_book_review  Bluesky - @diversevoicesbooks.bsky.social

  2. Austin Nonprofit & Black Bookstore Support Local Storytelling

    Jun 3

    Austin Nonprofit & Black Bookstore Support Local Storytelling

    Austin nonprofit Put It In A Book and Black Pearl Books recently launched a new program to support community storytelling. Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Katrina Brooks, founder of Put It In A Book and owner of Black Pearl Books, Eric Brooks, Put It In A Book board treasurer and owner of Black Pearl Books, and Put It In A Book executive director Charley Rejsek. The new initiative, Put Your Story In A Book: A Community Writing Project, is a three-month community writing journey that will culminate with a published anthology. In the interview they also discussed the journey of Black Pearl Books, the other programs of Put It In A Book, and why Katrina created Put It In A Book.Follow Diverse Voices Book Review on Social Media: Facebook - @diversevoicesbookreview Instagram - @diverse_voices_book_review  Bluesky - @diversevoicesbooks.bsky.social

    31 min
  3. Andi Osho Novel Examines Couple's Desperation to Buy Home

    May 30

    Andi Osho Novel Examines Couple's Desperation to Buy Home

    British writer and actor Andi Osho's latest novel explores how a couple's desperation to buy a home in a hot housing market pushes them into petty crime in her novel MOST WANTED. In her conversation with Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay, she shared how she really wanted the young couple to be hapless and out of their depth. They also discussed how she used her experiences as an actor and television writer in creating her novels.Andi Osho is an accomplished actor, writer, stand up comedian and film maker. As an actor, Andi has appeared in US and UK TV shows including Blue Lights, Breeders, I May Destroy You, The Sandman, Curfew, Death In Paradise, EastEnders, Pandora and Stay Close. Shazam and Lights Out are among her film credits. MOST WANTED is her third novel.Follow her on Instagram at @theandioshow, and on Facebook at TheAndiOshow.Follow Diverse Voices Book Review on Social Media: Facebook - @diversevoicesbookreview Instagram - @diverse_voices_book_review  Bluesky - @diversevoicesbooks.bsky.social

    31 min
  4. Mystery Novel Explores Hawaiian Culture and Family Drama

    May 23

    Mystery Novel Explores Hawaiian Culture and Family Drama

    In this episode of Diverse Voices Book Review, host Hopeton Hay and author Tori Eldridge discuss her writing experience exploring Hawaiian cowboys, the Paniolos, a suspicious death, and family drama in her latest novel HAWAII RAGE. This is her second novel featuring ranger Makalani Panukula. In the interview Eldridge explained she wrote the book because "I really wanted to celebrate our Paniolo culture. I mean, come on, cowboys in Hawaii, how sexy is that?" Tori Eldridge is the bestselling author of Kaua‘i Storm (Ranger Makalani Pahukula Mystery) and the Lily Wong mystery thriller series—The Ninja Daughter, The Ninja’s Blade, The Ninja Betrayed, and The Ninja’s Oath. Before writing, Tori performed as an actress, singer, dancer on Broadway, television, and film. Connect with her on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.Follow Diverse Voices Book Review on Social Media: Facebook - @diversevoicesbookreview Instagram - @diverse_voices_book_review  Bluesky - @diversevoicesbooks.bsky.social

    44 min
  5. How the Indigenous and Other Non-Elites Challenged the Spanish Empire

    May 18

    How the Indigenous and Other Non-Elites Challenged the Spanish Empire

    In this episode of Diverse Voices Book Review, host Hopeton Hay speaks with historians Jorge Cañizares‑Esguerra and Adrian Masters, co‑authors of THE RADICAL SPANISH EMPIRE: How Paperwork Politics Remade the New World. Their groundbreaking research overturns the familiar narrative of Spanish conquest and reveals a hidden history of Indigenous agency, political strategy, and bottom‑up power.Drawing on hundreds of thousands of archival documents, the authors show how Indigenous people, commoners, Afro‑descendants, and even women used petitions, lawsuits, denunciations, and paperwork to challenge conquistadors, confront corrupt officials, and reshape colonial society. As Masters explains, “this paperwork… very strangely, is really what conquers the New World, but in the process, it allows hundreds of thousands of Indigenous people to participate in shaping society.”Jorge Cañizares‑Esguerra is a professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin and the author of How to Write the History of the New World, Puritan Conquistadors, and Nature, Empire, and Nation.Adrian Masters is a project leader in the Department of History at Trier University in Germany and the author of We, The King: Creating Royal Legislation in the 16th‑Century Spanish New World.Follow Diverse Voices Book Review on Social Media: Facebook - @diversevoicesbookreview Instagram - @diverse_voices_book_review  Bluesky - @diversevoicesbooks.bsky.social

    43 min
  6. The Anti-Western: An Indigenous Point of View

    May 10

    The Anti-Western: An Indigenous Point of View

    In this episode of Diverse Voices Book Review, contributor Kimberly Lau interviews Blair Palmer Yoxall, author of the debut novel TREAT THEM AS BUFFALO. In the conversation, Yoxall describes the novel as a feminist anti‑Western set in Canada during the 1885 Northwest Resistance. The interview explores how the novel challenges colonial frontier myths by centering the Métis community, a distinct Indigenous people of Canada. They also discuss the novel’s historical backdrop during the Northwest Resistance, its focus on community rather than lone heroes, and its centering of women, family, and collective survival.Blair Palmer Yoxall (he/him/his) is a writer and poet. His fiction won the 2015 Striking Prose Competition (sponsored by Terry Whitehead) and the 2019 James Patrick Folinsbee Prize in English and has been shortlisted for a 2017 Norma Epstein Foundation Award and a 2019 Indigenous Voices Award. He is a citizen of the Métis Nation of Alberta and of Métis and settler parentage. Yoxall holds an M.A. in English in Indigenous Literatures and Westerns. Follow him on Instagram @atayookee.Kimberly J. Lau is Professor of Literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the author of SPECTERS OF THE MARVELOUS: Race and the Development of the European Fairy Tale.Follow Diverse Voices Book Review on Social Media: Facebook - @diversevoicesbookreview Instagram - @diverse_voices_book_review  Bluesky - @diversevoicesbooks.bsky.social

    40 min
  7. THE GRAY NEW DEAL Explores Grief, Love, Memory, and Friendship

    May 3

    THE GRAY NEW DEAL Explores Grief, Love, Memory, and Friendship

    Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Miriam Kuznets, author of the novel THE GRAY NEW DEAL. In praise of THE GRAY NEW DEAL, author Chaitali Sen writes, "In this deeply original novel of communal living, a group of seniors move back into the college co-op where they once came of age. What starts as a nostalgic experiment becomes a moving exploration of grief, love, friendship, memory, and the unfinished work of growing older, reminding us what it means to be alive at any age."Miriam Kuznets has lived in Austin since 1990 and has worked as a psychotherapist since 1995. She has an MFA in fiction writing from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Narrative, Austin Noir, The Southern Review, The Antioch Review, Ascent, and other publications. THE GRAY NEW DEAL is her first novel.Follow Diverse Voices Book Review on Social Media: Facebook - @diversevoicesbookreview Instagram - @diverse_voices_book_review  Bluesky - @diversevoicesbooks.bsky.social

    27 min
  8. Gathering of Water Revisits the Emmett Till Murder

    Apr 19

    Gathering of Water Revisits the Emmett Till Murder

    Back in 2012, Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay conducted a short interview with Bernice L. McFadden on KAZI Book Review (the name of this show before it changed in 2021) shortly after Akashic Books published her novel GATHERING OF WATERS. It is a tale narrated by the town of Money, Mississippi—the site of the brutal murder of Emmett Till in 1955. This haunting story, according to Akashic Books, "mines the truth about Money, Mississippi, as well as the town’s families and threads their history over decades. The bare-bones realism—both disturbing and riveting—combined with a magical realm in which ghosts have the final say, is reminiscent of Toni Morrison’s BELOVED." I hope you enjoy it.Follow Diverse Voices Book Review on Social Media: Facebook - @diversevoicesbookreview Instagram - @diverse_voices_book_review  Bluesky - @diversevoicesbooks.bsky.social

    11 min
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5
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About

Hopeton Hay Podcasts is the founder, producer, and host of Diverse Voices Book Review (formerly known as KAZI Book Review) which features interviews with a wide range of culturally diverse authors of recently published fiction and nonfiction, and Economic Perspectives, an audio interview show featuring discussions on finance, economic,  and small businesses and policies.

Information

  • Creator
    Hopeton Hay
  • Years Active
    2012 - 2026
  • Episodes
    100
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Hopeton Hay
  • Show Website
    Hopeton Hay Podcasts