Brian Lehrer leads the conversation about what matters most now in local and national politics, our own communities and our lives.
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New Year's Eve 'Best-Of': Robert Caro; Buzz Aldrin; Bishop Michael Curry; Local Geniuses
Say good-bye to 2020 with some favorite interviews, including:
Robert Caro, the author, most recently, of Working (Knopf, 2019), shares stories and insights from his work writing Pulitzer Prize-winning biographies of Robert Moses and Lyndon Johnson.
Astronaut and rocket scientist Buzz Aldrin is an advocate for the exploration of Mars -- in fact, he hopes people will live on Mars one day. He talks about his vision for a new generation of space explorers and his new children's book, Welcome to Mars: Making a Home on the Red Planet (National Geographic Children's Books, 2015).
Michael Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, talks about his new book, Love is the Way: Holding on to Hope in Troubling Times (Avery, 2020).
Plus, six New York- and New Jersey-based 2020 MacArthur Fellows:
- Brooklyn's N. K. Jemisin, science fiction writer and the author of The City We Became: A Novel (Orbit, 2020);
- Brooklyn's Cécile McLorin Salvant, singer, composer and visual artist;
- Montclair's Nanfu Wang, documentary filmmaker whose most recent film is "One Child Nation";
- Brooklyn's Jacqueline Woodson, the author of the National Book Award-winning Brown Girl Dreaming (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2014) and her latest, Before the Ever After (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2020);
- Scientist Mohammad R. Seyedsayamdost, associate professor in Princeton University’s department of chemistry;
- New York's Fred Moten, cultural theorist, poet and professor in the department of performance studies at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.
These interviews were edited slightly for time, the original versions are available here:
How Robert Caro Does It (Apr 9, 2019)
Buzz Aldrin Wants Us Living on Mars (Sep 10, 2015)
Bishop Michael Curry: Love in Troubled Times (Oct 20, 2020)
Meet the 'Geniuses': N. K. Jemisin (Oct 19, 2020)
Cécile McLorin Salvant (Oct 20, 2020)
Nanfu Wang (Oct 21, 2020)
Jacqueline Woodson (Oct 22, 2020)
Mohammad R. Seyedsayamdost (Oct 23, 2020)
Fred Moten (Oct 29, 2020)