In this episode, meet clinician, speaker, and trauma specialist Britt Frank, leadership coach and host of the Big Asian Energy podcast John Wang, and Professor of Psychology and Language Sciences Maryellen MacDonald. Hear what made the audiobook recording experience fun for John Wang, and what inspired Britt Frank and Maryellen MacDonald to write their books.

Align Your Mind by Britt Frank
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/761142/align-your-mind-by-britt-frank-lscsw/9798217073054/

Big Asian Energy by John Wang
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/742831/big-asian-energy-by-john-wang/9798217076819/

More Than Words by Maryellen MacDonald
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/724046/more-than-words-by-maryellen-macdonald-phd/9798217077007/

S10 E23: Britt Frank, John Wang, and Maryellen MacDonald

In this episode, meet journalist and Fast Politics podcast host Molly Jong-Fast, writer Anelise Chen, and writer and editor Jonathan Gluck. Hear Molly Jong-Fast on surviving a year in which everything went wrong, Anelise Chen on finding profound meaning in an auspicious typo, and Jonathan Gluck on the “unique universe” of those living with cancer.

How to Lose Your Mother by Molly Jong-Fast: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/738849/how-to-lose-your-mother-by-molly-jong-fast/audio

Clam Down by Anelise Chen: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/599888/clam-down-by-anelise-chen/audio

An Exercise in Uncertainty by Jonathan Gluck: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/760582/an-exercise-in-uncertainty-by-jonathan-gluck/audio

S10 E24: Molly Jong-Fast, Anelise Chen, and Jonathan Gluck

In this episode, meet critic and editor-in-chief of Bookslut Jessa Crispin, ESPN boxing analyst Mark Kriegel, and culture writer and Every Single Album podcast host Nora Princiotti. Hear Jessa on what it was like to record the Basic Instinct chapter of her book, Mark Kriegel on covering the life and career of Mike Tyson for over 30 years, and Nora Princiotti on what she’s most excited for listeners of her audiobook to hear.

What Is Wrong with Men by Jessa Crispin
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/717467/what-is-wrong-with-men-by-jessa-crispin/9798217076383/

Baddest Man by Mark Kriegel
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/552034/baddest-man-by-mark-kriegel/9798217072392/

Hit Girls by Nora Princiotti 
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/738884/hit-girls-by-nora-princiotti/9798217020379/

S10 E25: Jessa Crispin, Mark Kriegel, and Nora Princiotti

In this episode, meet author of the bestselling Magic Tree House children’s book series Mary Pope Osborne, and clinical social worker and founder of Fathers’ UpLift, Charles C. Daniels Jr. Hear Mary Pope Osborne on adding an element of surprise to the process of narration, and Charles C. Daniels Jr. on how he prepared for recording and what he’s most excited for listeners to hear.

Sea Otter Sunrise by Mary Pope Osborne: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/729719/sea-otter-sunrise-by-mary-pope-osborne-illustrated-by-ag-ford/audio

Present by Charles C. Daniels Jr., Ph.D.: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/767629/present-by-charles-c-daniels-jr-phd/audio/

S10 E26: Mary Pope Osborne and Charles C. Daniels Jr., Ph.D.

In this episode, meet Wall Street Journal reporter-turned-professional bodybuilder Anne Marie Chaker, linguist and “Etymology Nerd” creator Adam Aleksic, and host of the Money with Katie podcast Katie Gatti Tassin. Hear Anne Marie Chaker on the power of weightlifting and exploding the myth of the  “skinny ideal,” Adam Aleksic on how recording his audiobook was a “vocal marathon,” and Katie Gatti Tassin on how she prepared for recording her audiobook, and what she’s most excited for listeners to hear.

Lift by Anne Marie Chaker
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/709922/lift-by-anne-marie-chaker/9798217077014/

Algospeak by Adam Aleksic
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/776856/algospeak-by-adam-aleksic/9798217078066/

Rich Girl Nation by Katie Gatti Tassin
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/749103/rich-girl-nation-by-katie-gatti-tassin/9798217016174/

S10 E27: Anne Marie Chaker, Adam Aleksic, and Katie Gatti Tassin

In this episode, meet actress and comedian Jo Firestone, writer and speaker Talia Pollock, and historian Scott Ellsworth. Hear how Jo Firestone’s book was born from the “unstoppable urge to combine” two of her most-loved interests, Talia Pollock on appreciating the power of word choice and language in the recording booth, and Scott Ellsworth on the personal and cultural importance of libraries.

Murder on Sex Island by Jo Firestone: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/789705/murder-on-sex-island-by-jo-firestone/audio

The Problem with Being a Person by Talia Pollock: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/690816/the-problem-with-being-a-person-by-talia-pollock/audio/

Midnight on the Potomac by Scott Ellsworth: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/743267/midnight-on-the-potomac-by-scott-ellsworth/audio

S10 E28: Jo Firestone, Talia Pollock, and Scott Ellsworth

In this episode, meet poet David Gate, author and public speaker Jennifer Pastiloff, and poet Whitney Hanson. Hear David Gate on why he’s excited for listeners to hear poems on audio, Jennifer Pastiloff on why now was the time to write Proof of Life, and Whitney Hanson on what made recording her audiobook a reflective experience. Plus, find out which author prepared for their day in the studio by binge watching Severance.

A Rebellion of Care by David Gate
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/768719/a-rebellion-of-care-by-david-gate/9798217075997/

Proof of Life by Jennifer Pastiloff
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/734285/proof-of-life-by-jennifer-pastiloff/9798217012015/

Climate by Whitney Hanson
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/776365/climate-by-whitney-hanson/9798217071678/

S10 E29: David Gate, Jennifer Pastiloff, and Whitney Hanson

In this episode, meet comedian and content creator Sarah Hartshorne, Slate staff writer and president of AMEJA Aymann Ismail, and writer Tre Johnson. Hear Sarah Hartshorne on being her own dream narrator, Aymann Ismail on the cinematic scene he’s most excited for listeners to hear, and Tre Johnson on the difference between recording an audiobook and reading one’s work in person.

You Wanna Be on Top? by Sarah Hartshorne: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/750064/you-wanna-be-on-top-by-sarah-hartshorne/audio

Becoming Baba by Aymann Ismail: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/719995/becoming-baba-by-aymann-ismail/audio

Black Genius by Tre Johnson: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/690733/black-genius-by-tre-johnson/audio

S10 E30: Sarah Hartshorne, Aymann Ismail, and Tre Johnson

 In this episode, meet authors Zadie Smith and Nick Laird, Anne Waldman, and Fannie Flagg. Hear Zadie Smith and Nick Laird on writing a book for their children and working together in the studio, discover why poet Anne Waldman describes recording her audiobook as a “sonic investigation,” and learn what Fannie Flagg is most excited for listeners to hear.

In the Wild by Zadie Smith and Nick Laird
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/777195/in-the-wild-by-zadie-smith-and-nick-laird-illustrated-by-magenta-fox/audio/

Mesopotopia by Anne Waldman
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/690646/mesopotopia-by-anne-waldman/audio/

Something to Look Forward To by Fannie Flagg
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/767921/something-to-look-forward-to-by-fannie-flagg/9798217159581/

S10 E31: Zadie Smith and Nick Laird, Anne Waldman, and Fannie Flagg

In this episode, meet Thomas Chatterton Williams, author of Summer of Our Discontent, Robert B. Reich, author of Coming Up Short, and Kaila Yu, author of Fetishized. Hear Thomas Chatterton Williams on the pivotal and complex meaning of the summer of 2020, Robert Reich on what he would most like listeners to understand, and Kaila Yu both on what inspired her to write her memoir, and how she would describe her recording experience.

Summer of Our Discontent by Thomas Chatterton Williams: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/704632/summer-of-our-discontent-by-thomas-chatterton-williams/audio

Coming Up Short by Robert B. Reich: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/763803/coming-up-short-by-robert-b-reich/audio

Fetishized by Kaila Yu: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/738645/fetishized-by-kaila-yu/audio

S10 E32: Thomas Chatterton Williams, Robert B. Reich, and Kaila Yu

In this episode, meet authors Johnathan Walton, Angus Fletcher, and Dr. Vonda Wright. Discover how Johnathan Walton went from being the victim of a con artist to teaching others how to defend against scammers, hear Angus Fletcher on surprise pronunciation lessons in the studio, and listen to Dr. Vonda Wright on confronting the realities of aging for women, and the audiobook that changed her life.

Anatomy of a Con Artist by Jonathan Walton
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/745592/anatomy-of-a-con-artist-by-johnathan-walton/9798217075898/

Primal Intelligence by Angus Fletcher
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/740110/primal-intelligence-by-angus-fletcher/9798217076987/

Unbreakable by Dr. Vonda Wright
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/777365/unbreakable-by-vonda-wright-md/9780593736586/

S10 E33: Johnathan Walton, Angus Fletcher, and Dr. Vonda Wright, MD

In this episode, meet author and speaker Austin Channing Brown, author of Full of Myself, and historian James Delbourgo, author of A Noble Madness. Learn what inspired each of these authors to write their books, and what it was like for them to record their audiobooks. 

Full of Myself by Austin Channing Brown
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/742511/full-of-myself-by-austin-channing-brown/audio/

A Noble Madness by James Delbourgo
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/798395/a-noble-madness-by-james-delbourgo/

S10 E34: Austin Channing Brown and James Delbourgo

In this episode, meet primatologist Christine Webb, writer and poet Jim Reese, and writer and Emmy-nominated producer, Reza Aslan. Hear Christine Webb on the dangers of human exceptionalism and what we can do about them, Jim Reese on the intensity of the audiobook studio, and Reza Aslan on what he’s most excited for listeners to hear in this 20th anniversary edition of his book.

The Arrogant Ape by Christine Webb: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/717436/the-arrogant-ape-by-christine-webb/audio/

Coming to a Neighborhood Near You by Jim Reese: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/796877/coming-to-a-neighborhood-near-you-by-jim-reese/audio

No god but God by Reza Aslan: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/5837/no-god-but-god-by-reza-aslan/audio/

S10 E35: Christine Webb, Jim Reese, and Reza Aslan

"My book is about one night in 1862, Lincoln was president and his 11-year-old son Willy passed away."

S2 E09: George Saunders, Author of Lincoln in the Bardo

The idea for my book came to me after moving back to Pakistan, where I was born, having lived many years in America and London.

S2 E13: Mohsin Hamid, Author of Exit West

"My little book is called Is It Evil Not to be Sure and it is a collection of remembrances, creative ideas and teensy diary entries from a year of my life in college. I didn’t know I was writing a book when it happened, it was just my way of staying connected to myself through a really challenging period in my life and when I went back and looked at it later, I felt like there was a collection there that was at least maybe make people laugh and possibly inspire women, other people to record their lives because I found it to be such a soothing and important exercise and rereading it has been powerful to me."

S1 E22: Lena Dunham, Author of Is It Evil Not To Be Sure

"My book, You Are a Badass at Making Money: Master the Mindset of Wealth, is about figuring out what’s holding you back from making money, how to get over it and start changing things in your life so that you can start making money."

S2 E28: Jen Sincero, Author of You Are a Badass at Making Money

"My book is called There is No F*cking Secret, Lessons from a Badass Bitch, and what inspired me to write this book is that so many people have decided who they think I am, and tell me who they think I am, and come to me all the time and ask me what my secret is. And, I want the world to see who I really am, and the only way I could do that is by writing this book."

S2 E35: Kelly Osbourne, Author of There Is No F*cking Secret

"Over the years, narrating Magic Tree House has become more and more fun. In the beginning I was kind of nervous and I wanted to make sure I did all the voices right. I practiced a lot ahead of time, and now, after what, 55 books, it’s just a way of life. I know the characters so well and I know the stories and I enjoy so much making them come alive for myself again."

S2 E40: Mary Pope Osborne, Author of Magic Tree House

"I wrote a book called Girling Up, which is a map of the process of becoming a young woman from being a girl, and the book literally covers everything from puberty to how we grow, how our brains work, how and why we socialize, how we cope with hard things in life and how we matter in the world."

S2 E43: Mayim Bialik, Author of Girling Up

"When I was a young actor in New York, I premiered in a show called Sly Fox, which starred the great George C. Scott. I had three lines in the show. Actually, I had one line and I said it three times. It was, 'You look wonderful, sir,' which I added 'oh' to. 'Oh, you look wonderful, sir.' That was free of charge. I remember walking out the stage door one day and there was this legendary autograph hound that went from theater to theater, and he was standing right in front of me as I walked out, and he looked at me and he went, 'Are you anybody?'"

S2 E47: Jeffrey Tambor, Author of Are You Anybody?

"As a writer for Fortune magazine, I look for the biggest, most important, most interesting, most colorful business stories, period. I also have lived in Silicon Valley for almost 20 years now. And so, as Uber was exploding on the scene, it fairly quickly became obvious to me that that was the story that had all the qualities I was looking for…”

S2 E49: Adam Lashinsky, Author of Wild Ride

"My book is about eating snacks and being mad. I wrote my book because I’d already written one and that was pretty fun. I was inspired by revenge; I want everyone who ever doubted me or was ever mean to me to see that I have a book in bookstores and feel really bad about their own lives."

S2 E52: Samantha Irby, Author of We Are Never Meeting in Real Life

"The book is about communicating and relating to other people, and it’s called IF I UNDERSTOOD YOU, WOULD I HAVE THIS LOOK ON MY FACE? And that’s really what it’s about, it's about the value of relating. I think the basis of communicating is when you understand what’s going on in the head of the person you’re talking to or communicating with, whether you’re talking to them in person or in a written piece of material. You’ve got to know what they’re going through—otherwise, you’re just spraying information at them."

S2 E54: Alan Alda, Author of If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face?

"Somebody asked me ‘Do you want to do an autobiography?’ I wasn’t going to do it now—I say this in my introduction. I thought it’s what you do at the end...I did not know the rules. But they said, 'Do it!' I thought, okay, I’ll do one. It’s a halfway point. This is my first half of life."

S2 E57: Eddie Izzard, Author of Believe Me

"I found myself writing about a lot of these women in my day job, which is a culture writer at BuzzFeed. And it seemed clear to me that there was something that was changing. I used to be a professor, and I focused on media studies but also gender studies. And so I was very familiar with the ways that attitude towards women, an embrace of feminism, and unruliness generally, kind of ebb and flow over decades."

S2 E59: Anne Helen Petersen, Author of Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud

"It took me 10 years to write DRAW YOUR WEAPONS. I wrote it after seeing two photographs. The first photograph I saw was a picture of a man and he was holding a violin, and I read the newspaper story about him. It turned out he was a conscientious objector during World War II who’d protested the internment of Japanese Americans, and was put in prison. While he was there, he built a violin. And the newspaper story I read about him was about his grandson completing that violin and giving it to him on his birthday. And everything in my body said, 'you have to write about this person.'"

S2 E60: Sarah Sentilles, Author of Draw Your Weapons

"My book, READING WITH PATRICK, is about a student of mine named Patrick, and this remarkable literary and intellectual awakening we experienced together in a county jail in Arkansas. He was a student in my class who was incredibly bright, really quiet, and just had trouble coming to school. I really encouraged him to come to school to write and to read and we had this incredible year together where he improved incredibly. Three years after this, I’ve left Arkansas—it’s a place where a lot of people leave—I agonize about it, I decide to go to law school. My parents are like, “what the heck are you doing in Arkansas?” Three years later, I’m in law school and I find out from a friend that Patrick had gotten into a fight and killed someone. I was totally devastated. I was shocked. I went back to Arkansas to visit him in county jail and I discovered that his reading skills had regressed. They were worse when I first met him in the eighth grade, and it’s because he had dropped out of school the year after I left the Delta. The heart of the book is really about us reading together in jail for seven months while we’re waiting for his trial, and about the incredible agility and the power of reading together and writing together. And it’s also about me grappling with my own failures and trying to think about the legacy of racism and poverty in the Mississippi Delta."

S2 E62: Michelle Kuo, Author of Reading with Patrick

"What inspired me to write MEDITATE WITH ME: A Step-by-Step Mindfulness Journey was I wanted kids to have a way to slow down. I wanted to give kids a beloved book that they could connect to, that they could interact with, practices that were easy for them, a way to feel their breath in their body, a way to slow down when they need it, and a way to really calm themselves…a way to sort of start practicing self-soothing techniques that they’ll really need throughout their entire lives."

S2 E63: Mariam Gates, Author of Meditate With Me

"I was inspired to write this book, UNLEASHING THE INNOVATORS, because I love big companies, I worked in one for 25 years, and in my consulting practice, company after company I meet is struggling with culture change, and revitalization, and growth, and energy, and risk and dealing with fear of failure. And many of them were using startups to try to kind of put new energy into the company. And yet, I didn’t think there was a playbook for that."

S2 E65: Jim Stengel, Author of Unleashing the Innovators

"My book THE FOUR TENDENCIES is about a personality framework that I’ve identified called the Four Tendencies that divides all of humanity into four types: Upholder, Questioner, Obliger, and Rebel. I got my first insight into this framework when I had lunch with a friend and she said something that got me obsessed with this question of personality types. She said, 'I know I would be happier if I would go running, and when I was in high school I was on the track team and I never missed track practice, so why can’t I go running now?' And I thought, 'Well, why? It’s the same person, the same behavior, at that time it was effortless but now she can’t do it. What’s going on?' My determination to figure out the answer to that question, in the end, led me to write a whole book, called THE FOUR TENDENCIES."

S2 E66: Gretchen Rubin, Author of The Four Tendencies

"I think that I realized there were a lot of stories and ideas that didn’t really make sense to talk about on stage in a stand-up context because they were just too embarrassing, or not funny enough, or just too personal, and I couldn’t figure out a way to perform them live. And so I started writing them down and they just sat in this document, and I just hoped one day I’d get brave enough to do it or smart enough to figure out how to do them on stage, and I just couldn’t. People kept suggesting I write a book and I always just felt like, 'Oh God, that’s something you do when you have a long life.' I just didn’t feel like I had enough to offer, and then I thought, “Oh, maybe I should do all those stories that I've never figured out how to tell on stage. Maybe they’re a book.' And I started looking at them and I was like, “Wow this stuff’s embarrassing, I’m never gonna be able to say this in front of people.' So I just gave up on that ever happening and I started turning it into a book.  And then to get through it I had to get an intention together, I had to get a mantra together and I was like, 'Okay, I’m gonna write the book that I wish had been available to me when I was 18. I wanna write a bible for people who want to grow and feel better about their awful choices.'"

S2 E70: Whitney Cummings, Author of I'm Fine...and Other Lies

"My book, SO MUCH I WANT TO TELL YOU: Letters to My Little Sister, is a collection of essays and lessons that I’ve learned over the past decade since her suicide in 2007."

S2 E72: Anna Akana, Author of So Much I Want to Tell You

"I had been working in the single-mom space through my blog and podcast, and speaking and media engagements, for more than five years. I was raised by a single mom, I became a single mom, and I had a lot of initial shame around being a single mom. And, you know what? It happens to suit me really well. And I found myself relaxing into this time that I’m in and finding all these women—there’s ten million single moms in our country, millions worldwide, and these women have nothing to be ashamed about. I’m meeting incredible women every day that are doing incredible things—in business, in their communities, with their families—and I wanted to reach out to them. And I wanted to inspire the women that aren’t quite there yet."

S2 E75: Emma Johnson, Author of The Kickass Single Mom

"I wrote this book, AN AMERICAN FAMILY, to tell the story of my family’s immigration to the United States. But behind all this, the American values that inspired me to decide to come to the United States and then make it a home."

S2 E76: Khizr Khan, Author of American Family

"PLAYING WITH FIRE is set in the 1968 presidential campaign, but the book is about nothing less than life and death, because that's what was at stake in the 1968 presidential campaign."

S2 E78: Lawrence O'Donnell, Author of Playing With Fire

"Our book is about...well the short answer is our book is about meditation. The slightly longer answer is our book is for people who think meditation is not for them or that they could never do it. I had written a previous book called 10% HAPPIER which was all about how I, as a skeptical news man, stumbled upon meditation and how it made a significant difference in my life. I assumed, kind of naively, that when I wrote my book and explained all of my reasons for meditating, including the fact that there's science that suggests it's really good for you, I kind of assumed that everyone would start meditating."

S2 E79: Dan Harris, Author of Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics

"In this New Year, you might want to try meditation. Some of you may have wondered about the benefits, stress reduction, lowering of anxiety, helping you cope more efficiently, be less frustrated, less addicted in your behavior. The most important thing from the beginning is not to turn it into another self-improvement project. Meditation can be useful if you don’t expect too much from it. So let me guide you a little bit into the way I think about it."

S3 E01: Mark Epstein, Author of Advice Not Given

A podcast about authors reading their audiobooks from Penguin Random House Audio.

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