Mpr News With Kerri Miller

Fifty-seven years ago this week, on Aug. 6, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the landmark Voting Rights Act, with Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders looking on. It was a turning point in American history. At the time, Pres. Johnson called it “a victory of freedom for the nation.” Thursday morning, in a special edition of Big Books and Bold Ideas, host Kerri Miller examined whether the commitment of that milestone legislation still holds all these years later, particularly as the Supreme Court takes on one case that could upend state election laws and another that challenges a key section of the Voting Rights Act. Her guide was Professor Carol Anderson, one of the nation’s foremost scholars on equity and voting and the author of “One Person, No Vote.” Guest: Carol Anderson is a professor of African-American studies at Emory University and an accomplished author. To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above. Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcast 

Even though Americans are living longer — the share of the U.S. population 65 and older has more than tripled over the last century — we are still profoundly uncomfortable with dying. In fact, the end of life is so medicalized, death is often viewed as a failure, rather than accepted as a fundamental stage of life. Sunita Puri wants to change that. Her book, "That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour," is a masterful memoir of helping people to die — and live — well. It chronicles her journey of becoming a palliative care doctor near the end of her medical school training after she realized medicine had little to say about patients' suffering and mortality. It mirrors thoughts shared by author and sixth-generation funeral director Caleb Wilde in his new book, “All the Ways Our Dead Still Speak.” Wilde’s tender and personal reflections on what it’s like to grieve loved ones and grapple with death will be the conversation on this Friday’s installment of Big Books and Bold Ideas. Unti

Twins Mun and Chuluun are 23 years old when Quan Barry’s new novel opens, but in almost every other way, their lives are the opposite. Chuluun lives and studies at a Buddhist monastery in the countryside of Mongolia. Mun wears Western clothes and lives in the capital city, where he enjoys technology, tattoos and women. But the brothers share a constant connection — a sort of mental telepathy that means they share thoughts with the other in a running stream. And each twin wants the other out of his head. They come together when they are tasked with traveling the country to find a tulku, the reincarnation of a great spiritual leader. So they set off on a road trip, a quest that will take them to vistas both inner and outer, on a journey to find the elusive real. Barry was inspired to write the book after her own travels to Mongolia, she tells MPR News host Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas. Listen to the conversation for more about this road novel with a supernatural twist. Guest: Quan B

Quan Barry is a poet, a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a published author. But she finds that travel is just as important as writing when it comes to her work. Courtesy of Random House 'She Weeps Each Time You're Born' by Quan Berry Her 2014 novel, “She Weeps Each Time You’re Born,” was inspired by time spent in Vietnam, the land of her birth. Similarly, her new novel, “When I’m Gone, Look for Me in the East,” explores Mongolia, as telepathic twin brothers travel the country, seeking the reincarnation of a Buddhist master. MPR News host Kerri Miller talks with Barry about her latest book on this Friday’s Big Books and Bold Ideas. While you wait, enjoy their 2015 conversation about “She Weeps Each Time You’re Born.” Guest: Quan Barry is a writer and professor of English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her latest book is “When I’m Gone, Look for Me in the East.” To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio p

When Ann Hood was a flight attendant in the late 1970s, airlines were only a few years past using blatant sex appeal to sell tickets. But the recent college graduate didn’t see that at the time. She just saw the glamour and freedom that could be hers, if she could complete the training, follow the rules and maintain her original weight. In her new memoir, “Fly Girl,” the novelist writes, “I worked in one of the most demanding, sexist, exciting, glorious jobs a person can have. I was a flight attendant.” This week, Hood joined MPR News host Kerri Miller on Big Books and Bold Ideas for a conversation about her years traveling the world in a small silver tube, and why she didn’t recognize the sexism of the industry when she was in it. Guest: Ann Hood is the New York Times best-selling author of several novels. Her newest book, “Fly Girl,” is a memoir about her years as a flight attendant. To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above. Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller

You can't flip through a magazine or scroll social media today without being confronted with a list: "10 places to see before you die!", "15 secret vacation destinations," "5 beaches that will blow your mind." But what's in a list? In 2015. Christine Sarkis, a Smarter Travel staff writer, said she’d rather ditch the bucket list. "A travel list isn't like a grocery list, it's not a 'sit down and get it done' thing," Sarkis told MPR News host Kerri Miller. "It's a constant, evolving process." Seth Kugel, travel columnist for The New York Times, agreed. "The idea of having a list is great, but what goes on that list, maybe we should change that: It should be experiences instead of places," Kugel said. This is a encouraging and fun deep track from our archives, which will hopefully put you in the mood for this Friday’s Big Books and Bold Ideas show. It’s a conversation with novelist Ann Hood about her new memoir, “Fly Girl,”

From a young age, Frederick Joseph recognized that violence is often demanded of men. “We collectively teach our boys that winning, surviving, things of that nature, always demands beating someone,” he told host Kerri Miller, “whether that means beating them in competition, beating them mentally, beating them emotionally, beating them physically.” But an exchange he had at a young friend’s funeral pointed to a different path. As he stood in his grief, his friend’s mother hugged him and said: “A bunch of angry boys who don’t know how to cry are the reason my son is dead. Cry for my son. You both deserve it.” Joseph realized he didn’t know how to cry, how to be tender, how to allow himself to be fully alive in a world built by patriarchy and white supremacy. So he began a journey. He shares that journey with the world in his new book, “Patriarchy Blues.” On this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas, Miller and Joseph talk about this his reflections on the culture of modern masculinity through the lens of a Black m

This Friday, MPR News host Kerri Miller will talk with activist and author Frederick Joseph about his new book, “Patriarchy Blues.” It examines the culture of masculinity through the lens of a Black man. Ashley C. Ford’s debut memoir, “Somebody’s Daughter,” also looks at the racial divides in America, by telling her own story of growing up as a Black girl in Indiana with a single mother, an absent father and a heavy family secret. Ford joined Miller in July 2021 to talk about her book and the complexities of childhood, forgiveness and healing. Enjoy this interview from the archive as an appetizer for the upcoming conversation with Joseph. Guest:  Ashley C. Ford is a writer, host and educator who lives in Indianapolis with her husband and their chocolate lab Astro Renegade Ford-Stacy. “Somebody’s Daughter” is her debut memoir.  To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above. Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or RSS. Subscribe to t

Seventeen-year-old Kiara shoulders too much responsibility. Her father recently died after being released from prison. Her mother is in a halfway house. Her brother avoids obligation, preferring to seek fame as a star rapper. And then there’s Trevor, the nine-year-old boy who lives next door, who’s been abandoned by his crack-addicted mother — but not Kiara. Leila Mottley’s debut novel, “Nightcrawling,” deftly portrays the swirl of poverty and trauma Kiara faces in her Oakland apartment, which has a pool filled with putrid water and dog excrement at its center. Written when Mottley herself was only 17, it’s a story that riffs off real-life events of police corruption and sexual abuse. Oprah chose “Nightcrawling” as her latest Book Club pick, catapulting Mottley’s novel to the top of the best-seller charts. On Friday, MPR host Kerri Miller talked with Mottley about what she learned while writing “Nightcrawling” in her spare time between high school classes and the heavy and often unseen burdens young Black gi

Reginald Dwayne Betts animates the ideals of justice, integrity and equity in his work as both an attorney and a poet. Betts is also the founding director of Freedom Reads, which aims to establish freedom libraries in prisons across the country. He said it exposes people to the various ways that poetry, fiction, memoir and other literature operate. “Prison is a brutal place, but I don't want to act like prison is just a brutal place. A man I didn't know heard me ask for a book and slid me ‘The Black Poets’ because he thought it might matter to me. It profoundly changed my life,” Betts said. Their conversation was the first of four included in MPR and the Star Tribune’s Talking Volumes series in 2021 centered around race in America. Guest: Reginald Dwayne Betts is the founder and director of Freedom Reads, a first-of-its-kind organization that empowers people through literature to confront what prison does to the spirit. To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above. Subscr

Statistics about income inequality are stark. For example, two-thirds of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. But numbers are inadequate when trying to convey the desperation of living on the sharpest edge of poverty. New author Jakob Guanzon aims to paint a more gritty and throbbing story with his debut novel, “Abundance.” With lessons partly gleaned from working on a landscaping crew when he was a Minnesota college student, Guanzon writes about a single father, Henry, and his son, Junior, who have less than $100 to their name. It is Junior’s birthday, and Henry decides to splurge on a meal at McDonald’s. While the boy plays on the indoor playground, Henry stuffs ketchup packets in his pockets for later. That first chapter is titled, $89.34 — which is all the money Henry has. Each subsequent chapter begins with the updated amount of money Henry has left, which is both a striking literary tool and a heartbreaking reality check. On this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas, host Kerri Miller talks with Guanzo

Now that the right to an abortion has been overturned, America enters a new phase. Some states, like Minnesota, will continue to offer abortion care. Many others will prevent all access. Some will even criminalize anyone who helps a pregnant person get an abortion in a state that makes it legal. Writer and activist Robin Marty saw this day coming — but she admits she didn’t think it would happen so quickly. In 2019, she wrote “Handbook for a Post-Roe America,” as she watched laws severely restricting abortion sweep many regions of the country. This spring, she released an updated version. And now, with the Supreme Court overturning Roe, it’s become a handbook for women reeling from the decision and wondering what to do next. Wednesday, on a special edition of Big Books and Bold Ideas, host Kerri Miller spoke with Marty, who recently moved from Minnesota to Alabama to become the operations director for the West Alabama’s Women’s Center. They discussed her book, what she thinks will happen next, and how the h

Shocking fact: The average American home has more than 300,000 items in it. And that was before the pandemic, when many of us used Amazon as retail therapy. While Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus certainly understand the impulse, they encourage a different path. When they were kids growing up in poverty in Ohio, they equated stuff with success. But as they got older and were able to acquire more, they discovered that material goods didn’t grow their happiness. That’s when The Minimalists was born. Both Millburn and Nicodemus embarked on a journey to get rid of clutter. To their surprise, they found that decluttering their space led to a decluttering of their minds — and that gave them the mental and emotional space to reorder their relationships. Since that time, they’ve launched a website, a podcast, two Netflix documentaries (“Minimalism” and “Less is Now”) and now a book that details their passion for finding more in less. In July of 2021, they talked with host Kerri Miller about their written blu

Writer and journalist Kathryn Schulz met the woman she would marry just 18 months before her cherished father died. Both events were seismic shifts in her life, and as she writes in her new memoir, “Lost and Found,” the loss made the joy somehow sweeter. “In quick succession, I found one foundational love and lost another,” she writes. “Ever since, both the wonder and the fragility of life have been exceptionally present to me.” This Friday on Big Books and Bold Ideas, host Kerri Miller talks with Schulz about the way death and life intertwine and how love inevitably brings with it the prospect of pain. But ultimately, it’s worth the risk. Guest: Kathryn Schulz is an award-winning author and journalist. Her new memoir is “Lost and Found.” To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above. Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or RSS. Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations. 

Families are intricate, made up of interwoven and multilayered relationships. Sue Miller’s “Monogamy” examines these complex ties amidst a family who loses their beloved and gregarious father, Graham. After his death, his second wife Annie, discovers Graham wasn’t always faithful during their 30-year marriage. The resulting grief, anger, reassessing and, ultimately, acceptance is the work of being human. Sue Miller’s own life informed her novel, as she tells host Kerri Miller. But her book also taught her how to embrace the broken and beautiful bits of her own life. Enjoy this conversation from the 2020 archives as we anticipate Friday’s Big Books and Bold Ideas show with Kathryn Schulz about her new memoir, “Lost and Found.” Guest: Sue Miller, author of many novels including the new book “Monogamy” To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above. Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or RSS. Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the

Are you ready to dive into some summer reading? MPR News host Kerri Miller has nine titles you should put on your list. On this week’s show, a “Take it to the Lake” special, she asked three people who spend a lot of time recommending books to devoted readers what titles they would put in your hands this season. She also talked to them about what makes a good summer read. Here’s what she heard. Glory Edim is the founder of Well-Read Black Girl , a podcast and digital literacy platform that celebrates the uniqueness of Black literature and sisterhood. Courtesy of Tiffany A. Bloomfield Glory Edim. “In the summer, I pick a book that lets me follow the plot. I’m in love with the voice; I’m a very voice-driven writer and editor. So if I can find a story that has a really sensational and powerful voice, I tend to save those reads for the summer, because that’s my fun time. That’s my let’s-get-lost-in-a-story time.” Summer book picks: “Post-Traumatic” by Chantel V. Johnson “The Mem

Why do we sweat? The science behind this primal bodily function is complicated, fascinating  and often just plain weird.  In her delightful book, “The Joy of Sweat,” science journalist Sarah Everts makes the case that it’s time our species finds “serenity instead of shame” in perspiration.  She traveled the world in pursuit of sweat’s history and sociological value — from saunas in Scandinavia to dating events in Russia where potential partners sniff each other’s sweat to determine attraction.  What she found is that sweat is more than our body trying to stay cool. Trace amounts of drugs and disease can appear in our sweat. Perspiration can reveal what we eat. Even something as basic as our fingerprints are really just “sweat prints.”  Enjoy this conversation from the sweltering July of 2021 when host Kerri Miller talked to Everts about the fascinating world of sweat. And let it build your anticipation for summer reading, with “Take it to the Lake” book recommendations coming on this Friday’s Big Books and Bo

It began as a challenge: Could columnist Tamar Haspel and her husband eat one meal a day using food they grew or gathered themselves for an entire year? Haspel was intrigued by the experiment. Her husband — normally a “why not” guy — was less enthused. It was winter in Cape Cod, after all. But they embarked on the journey anyway, just a few months after exchanging their condo in Manhattan for a shack on a two-acre lot in Massachusetts. They learned to clam. They built hoop houses. They grew tomatoes — in raised beds, after futile attempts to cultivate their own sandy soil. They took on chickens. And they learned. They discovered new ways to eat, a new appreciation for food. They found it’s not as hard as the experts often make it out to be. This Friday, MPR News host Kerri Miller talked with Haspel about the grand adventure documented in her new book, “To Boldly Grow.” Filled with humor, practical advice and hard-won wisdom, both the book and the conversation will inspire a new respect for what we eat and

Rebecca Winn became a landscape designer by instinct. She knew that something about the flowers, the soil, the cycle and the discovery fed her soul. When her life fell apart, it was her garden that taught her how to heal. In her book, “One Hundred Daffodils,” she shares those lessons with us. MPR News host Kerri Miller spoke with Winn in March 2020, just as the pandemic was shutting the country down. The timing made for an especially beautiful conversation, and it remains poignant as we continue to process grief. Let it also serve as an appetizer for this Friday’s conversation between Miller and author Tamar Haspel when they talk about Haspel’s quest to grow her own food for a year. Guest: Rebecca Winn, landscape designer, creator of Whimsical Gardens and author of the book “One Hundred Daffodils: Finding Beauty, Grace and Meaning When Things Fall Apart.” To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above. Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Pod

It took years for Marie Myung-Ok Lee to collect the pieces and do the research necessary to accurately write her new novel, “The Evening Hero.” It tells the story of a Korean-born obstetrician who is shocked to discover that the northern Minnesota hospital where he’s delivered babies for decades is being closed, with only a week’s notice. It disrupts his previously quiet and dutiful life and forces him to contend with his past, which he would rather keep buried. As Lee tells MPR News host Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas, “The Evening Hero” isn’t biographical, but it does mirror her own story. Lee grew up in Hibbing, watching her anesthetist father be both a community leader and an outsider. Her parents wanted to be distinctly American, but they couldn’t deny their histories and immigration journey. “The Evening Hero” combines scathing commentary on the state of health care in America with a portrait of a restrained marriage and the trauma of war. Listen to Miller and Lee’s wide-ranging c