Beyond the Page: The Best of the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference https://svwc.com/ en Sun Valley Writers' Conference Welcome to Beyond the Page: The Best of the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference. Over the past 25 years, SVWC has become the gold standard of American literary festivals, bringing together contemporary writing's brightest stars for their view of the world through a literary lens. Every month, Beyond the Page will curate and distill the best talks from the past quarter century at the Writers’ Conference, giving you a front row seat on the kind of knowledge, inspiration, laughter, and meaning that Sun Valley has come to be known for. https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/2b5664b0-a88a-11e9-95f0-9f34d55fff56/image/uploads_2F1563392940779-j80zq3zuvp-fd72fad6a85d2cd37d60be16fdd4600f_2FSVWC-Cover+_281_29.jpg?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress Beyond the Page: The Best of the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference https://svwc.com/ no episodic Sun Valley Writers’ Conference Welcome to Beyond the Page: The Best of the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference. Over the past 25 years, SVWC has become the gold standard of American literary festivals, bringing together contemporary writing's brightest stars for their view of the world through a literary lens. Every month, Beyond the Page will curate and distill the best talks from the past quarter century at the Writers’ Conference, giving you a front row seat on the kind of knowledge, inspiration, laughter, and meaning that Sun Valley has come to be known for. Welcome to Beyond the Page: The Best of the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference. Over the past 25 years, SVWC has become the gold standard of American literary festivals, bringing together contemporary writing's brightest stars for their view of the world through a literary lens. Every month, Beyond the Page will curate and distill the best talks from the past quarter century at the Writers’ Conference, giving you a front row seat on the kind of knowledge, inspiration, laughter, and meaning that Sun Valley has come to be known for.

]]> Sun Valley Writers' Conference dbroussard@lithub.com Dan Jones - WHAT THE MIDDLE AGES HAS DONE FOR THE MODERN WORLD Did you know that Edward III’s last parliament invented impeachment? That cancel culture in universities actually began at Oxford and in Paris in the 14th Century? That Edward II’s parties would have made Diddy’s freak-offs look like kindergarten parties by comparison? And then there’s the Magna Carta, which supposedly limited the power of the monarchy and established the principle that everyone, including the king, is subject to the law. In this episode – recorded live at the 2025 conference – bestselling British historian Dan Jones, author of such books as The Plantagenets, The Templars, and Henry V, and host of the podcast This Is History, brings us in riveting fashion into the weirdly prescient now of the Middle Ages. Photo credit: Ray J. Gadd Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Fri, 06 Mar 2026 02:00:00 -0000 full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference Did you know that Edward III’s last parliament invented impeachment? That cancel culture in universities actually began at Oxford and in Paris in the 14th Century? That Edward II’s parties would have made Diddy’s freak-offs look like kindergarten parties by comparison? And then there’s the Magna Carta, which supposedly limited the power of the monarchy and established the principle that everyone, including the king, is subject to the law. In this episode – recorded live at the 2025 conference – bestselling British historian Dan Jones, author of such books as The Plantagenets, The Templars, and Henry V, and host of the podcast This Is History, brings us in riveting fashion into the weirdly prescient now of the Middle Ages. Photo credit: Ray J. Gadd Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Did you know that Edward III’s last parliament invented impeachment? That cancel culture in universities actually began at Oxford and in Paris in the 14th Century? That Edward II’s parties would have made Diddy’s freak-offs look like kindergarten parties by comparison? And then there’s the Magna Carta, which supposedly limited the power of the monarchy and established the principle that everyone, including the king, is subject to the law. In this episode – recorded live at the 2025 conference – bestselling British historian Dan Jones, author of such books as The Plantagenets, The Templars, and Henry V, and host of the podcast This Is History, brings us in riveting fashion into the weirdly prescient now of the Middle Ages.

Photo credit: Ray J. Gadd

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]]> 2006 SALMAN RUSHDIE: WRITER IN THE WORLD In this episode, recorded live at the 2025 Conference, Salman Rushdie, having received the Sun Valley Writers' Conference Writer in the World Prize, talks with his fellow novelist and great friend Colum McCann. Rushdie is a writer who needs no introduction: his name has long been recognized around the world for his brilliant writing and his unfailing courage in defending freedom of speech. He was honored for his extraordinary body of work, both fiction and non-fiction – including his memoir Knife:Meditations after an Attempted Murder, his account of the attempt on his life in August of 2022 and how the love of his wife, the writer Rachel Eliza Griffiths, helped him to survive – and for continuing to write in the face of immeasurable opposition and danger. Salman Rushdie is many remarkable things, but above all, and always, he is a writer and a teller of stories, and a master at that.        *Photo Credit: Rachel Eliza Griffiths Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Thu, 12 Feb 2026 19:01:00 -0000 full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference In this episode, recorded live at the 2025 Conference, Salman Rushdie, having received the Sun Valley Writers' Conference Writer in the World Prize, talks with his fellow novelist and great friend Colum McCann. Rushdie is a writer who needs no introduction: his name has long been recognized around the world for his brilliant writing and his unfailing courage in defending freedom of speech. He was honored for his extraordinary body of work, both fiction and non-fiction – including his memoir Knife:Meditations after an Attempted Murder, his account of the attempt on his life in August of 2022 and how the love of his wife, the writer Rachel Eliza Griffiths, helped him to survive – and for continuing to write in the face of immeasurable opposition and danger. Salman Rushdie is many remarkable things, but above all, and always, he is a writer and a teller of stories, and a master at that.        *Photo Credit: Rachel Eliza Griffiths Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices In this episode, recorded live at the 2025 Conference, Salman Rushdie, having received the Sun Valley Writers' Conference Writer in the World Prize, talks with his fellow novelist and great friend Colum McCann.


Rushdie is a writer who needs no introduction: his name has long been recognized around the world for his brilliant writing and his unfailing courage in defending freedom of speech. He was honored for his extraordinary body of work, both fiction and non-fiction – including his memoir Knife:Meditations after an Attempted Murder, his account of the attempt on his life in August of 2022 and how the love of his wife, the writer Rachel Eliza Griffiths, helped him to survive – and for continuing to write in the face of immeasurable opposition and danger.


Salman Rushdie is many remarkable things, but above all, and always, he is a writer and a teller of stories, and a master at that.       


*Photo Credit: Rachel Eliza Griffiths

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]]> 1942 EVAN OSNOS: “The Haves and Have-Yachts” In this episode of Beyond the Page, recorded live at the 2025 Writers Conference, New Yorker staff writer and National Book Award-winning author Evan Osnos dives into the bold-faced, always entertaining, and all too timely topic of how much is too much in our society—or rather, how much is never enough? Such is the question for the billionaires who now make up America’s ultrarich. Their giant yachts, luxury compounds—and, oh yes, tax schemes—are a source of endless, if alarming, fascination. Osnos talks about his bestselling book The Haves and Have-Yachts and the acquisitive appetites and habits of our new “oligarchs” and how their outsized fortunes are allowing them to hold sway over the elections and the economy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Sat, 17 Jan 2026 16:00:00 -0000 full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference In this episode of Beyond the Page, recorded live at the 2025 Writers Conference, New Yorker staff writer and National Book Award-winning author Evan Osnos dives into the bold-faced, always entertaining, and all too timely topic of how much is too much in our society—or rather, how much is never enough? Such is the question for the billionaires who now make up America’s ultrarich. Their giant yachts, luxury compounds—and, oh yes, tax schemes—are a source of endless, if alarming, fascination. Osnos talks about his bestselling book The Haves and Have-Yachts and the acquisitive appetites and habits of our new “oligarchs” and how their outsized fortunes are allowing them to hold sway over the elections and the economy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices In this episode of Beyond the Page, recorded live at the 2025 Writers Conference, New Yorker staff writer and National Book Award-winning author Evan Osnos dives into the bold-faced, always entertaining, and all too timely topic of how much is too much in our society—or rather, how much is never enough? Such is the question for the billionaires who now make up America’s ultrarich. Their giant yachts, luxury compounds—and, oh yes, tax schemes—are a source of endless, if alarming, fascination. Osnos talks about his bestselling book The Haves and Have-Yachts and the acquisitive appetites and habits of our new “oligarchs” and how their outsized fortunes are allowing them to hold sway over the elections and the economy.


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]]> 1877 no Doris Kearns Goodwin: “An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s” BEYOND THE PAGE Doris Kearns Goodwin: “An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s” In this episode – recorded live at the 2025 Writers Conference – Doris Kearns Goodwin, one of America’s most acclaimed and beloved historians, chronicles her and her late husband Richard's experiences working with Presidents Kennedy and Johnson during the tumultuous 1960s, using personal archives to explore pivotal moments and their own relationship. Her bestselling book, “An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s,” offers an intimate, up-close look at figures like JFK, LBJ, and RFK, weaving together their personal lives with major events like the Civil Rights Movement. But the heart of this wonderful, deeply moving memoir is unquestionably the enduring bond of mutual love and respect between husband and wife across the decades, a bond that embraces their differences as much as their similarities. “Dick was more interested in shaping history,” Doris has said, “and I in figuring out how history was shaped.” Photo credit – © 2024 AE Television Networks LLC Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Mon, 15 Dec 2025 21:12:00 -0000 full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference BEYOND THE PAGE Doris Kearns Goodwin: “An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s” In this episode – recorded live at the 2025 Writers Conference – Doris Kearns Goodwin, one of America’s most acclaimed and beloved historians, chronicles her and her late husband Richard's experiences working with Presidents Kennedy and Johnson during the tumultuous 1960s, using personal archives to explore pivotal moments and their own relationship. Her bestselling book, “An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s,” offers an intimate, up-close look at figures like JFK, LBJ, and RFK, weaving together their personal lives with major events like the Civil Rights Movement. But the heart of this wonderful, deeply moving memoir is unquestionably the enduring bond of mutual love and respect between husband and wife across the decades, a bond that embraces their differences as much as their similarities. “Dick was more interested in shaping history,” Doris has said, “and I in figuring out how history was shaped.” Photo credit – © 2024 AE Television Networks LLC Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices BEYOND THE PAGE

Doris Kearns Goodwin: “An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s”

In this episode – recorded live at the 2025 Writers Conference – Doris Kearns Goodwin, one of America’s most acclaimed and beloved historians, chronicles her and her late husband Richard's experiences working with Presidents Kennedy and Johnson during the tumultuous 1960s, using personal archives to explore pivotal moments and their own relationship. Her bestselling book, “An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s,” offers an intimate, up-close look at figures like JFK, LBJ, and RFK, weaving together their personal lives with major events like the Civil Rights Movement. But the heart of this wonderful, deeply moving memoir is unquestionably the enduring bond of mutual love and respect between husband and wife across the decades, a bond that embraces their differences as much as their similarities. “Dick was more interested in shaping history,” Doris has said, “and I in figuring out how history was shaped.”

Photo credit – © 2024 AE Television Networks LLC

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]]> 1767 Ocean Vuong "The Emperor of Gladness" In this episode – recorded live at the 2025 Writers Conference – I have an intimate conversation, in front of 1500 people, with the novelist and poet Ocean Vuong. When he was two years old, in 1990, Ocean immigrated with his family from Vietnam. They settled in East Hartford, CT, seven relatives sharing a one-bedroom apartment. His mother worked at a nail salon. When Ocean learned to read at 11, he became the first literate member of his family. Then he became the first to attend college, eventually earning an MFA in writing from NYU. In 2016, he published his debut poetry collection, “Night Sky with Exit Wounds,” which drew immediate attention and acclaim. In 2019, his first autobiographical novel, “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous,” written in the form of letters from a Vietnamese American son to his mother, became a bestseller and led to his being awarded a MacArthur Genius grant. By every outward sign, he had seemingly achieved the American Dream as a writer. Then his mother, who’d never been able to read his books, died of cancer. Another celebrated poetry collection, “Time is a Mother,” followed. And now we have Ocean’s magnificent second novel, “The Emperor of Gladness.” Photo credit – Tom Hines Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Tue, 11 Nov 2025 20:48:00 -0000 Ocean Vuong "The Emperor of Gladness" full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference Presented on stage at the 2025 Sun Valley Writers' Conference In this episode – recorded live at the 2025 Writers Conference – I have an intimate conversation, in front of 1500 people, with the novelist and poet Ocean Vuong. When he was two years old, in 1990, Ocean immigrated with his family from Vietnam. They settled in East Hartford, CT, seven relatives sharing a one-bedroom apartment. His mother worked at a nail salon. When Ocean learned to read at 11, he became the first literate member of his family. Then he became the first to attend college, eventually earning an MFA in writing from NYU. In 2016, he published his debut poetry collection, “Night Sky with Exit Wounds,” which drew immediate attention and acclaim. In 2019, his first autobiographical novel, “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous,” written in the form of letters from a Vietnamese American son to his mother, became a bestseller and led to his being awarded a MacArthur Genius grant. By every outward sign, he had seemingly achieved the American Dream as a writer. Then his mother, who’d never been able to read his books, died of cancer. Another celebrated poetry collection, “Time is a Mother,” followed. And now we have Ocean’s magnificent second novel, “The Emperor of Gladness.” Photo credit – Tom Hines Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices In this episode – recorded live at the 2025 Writers Conference – I have an intimate conversation, in front of 1500 people, with the novelist and poet Ocean Vuong. When he was two years old, in 1990, Ocean immigrated with his family from Vietnam. They settled in East Hartford, CT, seven relatives sharing a one-bedroom apartment. His mother worked at a nail salon. When Ocean learned to read at 11, he became the first literate member of his family. Then he became the first to attend college, eventually earning an MFA in writing from NYU. In 2016, he published his debut poetry collection, “Night Sky with Exit Wounds,” which drew immediate attention and acclaim.

In 2019, his first autobiographical novel, “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous,” written in the form of letters from a Vietnamese American son to his mother, became a bestseller and led to his being awarded a MacArthur Genius grant. By every outward sign, he had seemingly achieved the American Dream as a writer. Then his mother, who’d never been able to read his books, died of cancer. Another celebrated poetry collection, “Time is a Mother,” followed. And now we have Ocean’s magnificent second novel, “The Emperor of Gladness.”


Photo credit – Tom Hines

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]]> 1669 Dr. Vivek Murphy, From the Heart During his tenure as the Surgeon General of the United States, Dr. Vivek Murthy became, in effect, our national healer. In a soft but strong voice, he spoke about the country’s maladies like addiction, depression, and violence, and he made the passionate case that loneliness was the contributor to many of those ills, including our over-dependence on social media. That message is at the heart of his book, Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection. In this episode and in conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Andrea Elliott, Dr. Murthy talks about the book, about his own bouts of loneliness, and how we can each learn to be a healer in our own lives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Tue, 07 Oct 2025 13:48:00 -0000 full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference During his tenure as the Surgeon General of the United States, Dr. Vivek Murthy became, in effect, our national healer. In a soft but strong voice, he spoke about the country’s maladies like addiction, depression, and violence, and he made the passionate case that loneliness was the contributor to many of those ills, including our over-dependence on social media. That message is at the heart of his book, Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection. In this episode and in conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Andrea Elliott, Dr. Murthy talks about the book, about his own bouts of loneliness, and how we can each learn to be a healer in our own lives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices During his tenure as the Surgeon General of the United States, Dr. Vivek Murthy became, in effect, our national healer. In a soft but strong voice, he spoke about the country’s maladies like addiction, depression, and violence, and he made the passionate case that loneliness was the contributor to many of those ills, including our over-dependence on social media. That message is at the heart of his book, Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection. In this episode and in conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Andrea Elliott, Dr. Murthy talks about the book, about his own bouts of loneliness, and how we can each learn to be a healer in our own lives.

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]]> 2623 Margaret Atwood Margaret Atwood—author of more than 60 books in almost every conceivable genre, recipient of more than 100 literary prizes—is a global icon. Like Kafka and Orwell before her, she and her writing have become part of the public discourse, wherever we live and whatever our age. Her intelligence is that vital and exacting, her wit that mischievous, her concerns – feminism, environmentalism, dystopian societies – that urgently relevant. The author is fond of quoting a Polish resistance fighter from the Second World War who once told her: “Pray that you will never have the occasion to be a hero.” As it’s turned out, in her long and singular literary career, Margaret Atwood has indeed had the occasion to be a hero, numerous times, and always risen to the moment. After receiving the 2024 Sun Valley Writers Conference Writer in the World Prize, she spoke to Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Ayad Akhtar about her life, her work, and some of the wonders and terrors of the world we are living in. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Wed, 09 Jul 2025 13:29:00 -0000 full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference Margaret Atwood—author of more than 60 books in almost every conceivable genre, recipient of more than 100 literary prizes—is a global icon. Like Kafka and Orwell before her, she and her writing have become part of the public discourse, wherever we live and whatever our age. Her intelligence is that vital and exacting, her wit that mischievous, her concerns – feminism, environmentalism, dystopian societies – that urgently relevant. The author is fond of quoting a Polish resistance fighter from the Second World War who once told her: “Pray that you will never have the occasion to be a hero.” As it’s turned out, in her long and singular literary career, Margaret Atwood has indeed had the occasion to be a hero, numerous times, and always risen to the moment. After receiving the 2024 Sun Valley Writers Conference Writer in the World Prize, she spoke to Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Ayad Akhtar about her life, her work, and some of the wonders and terrors of the world we are living in. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Margaret Atwood—author of more than 60 books in almost every conceivable genre, recipient of more than 100 literary prizes—is a global icon. Like Kafka and Orwell before her, she and her writing have become part of the public discourse, wherever we live and whatever our age. Her intelligence is that vital and exacting, her wit that mischievous, her concerns – feminism, environmentalism, dystopian societies – that urgently relevant. The author is fond of quoting a Polish resistance fighter from the Second World War who once told her: “Pray that you will never have the occasion to be a hero.” As it’s turned out, in her long and singular literary career, Margaret Atwood has indeed had the occasion to be a hero, numerous times, and always risen to the moment. After receiving the 2024 Sun Valley Writers Conference Writer in the World Prize, she spoke to Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Ayad Akhtar about her life, her work, and some of the wonders and terrors of the world we are living in.


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]]> 2050 Niall Ferguson and Evan Osnos on Kissinger No U.S. secretary of state ever achieved such celebrity while in office as Henry Kissinger; immersed in the philosophy of Kant and the diplomacy of Metternich, he was hailed as one of the most important strategic thinkers America has ever produced. Yet no former secretary of state has been more vehemently criticized, most notably for sins of omission and commission in countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, Chile and East Timor. In this episode – recorded live at the 2024 Writers Conference – renowned historian NIALL FERGUSON, now completing the second of his two-volume biography of Kissinger, talks to New Yorker staff writer and National Book Award-winning author EVAN OSNOS about his subject’s complicated legacy and considers what he might have made of our current foreign policy landscape. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Wed, 18 Jun 2025 14:37:00 -0000 full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference No U.S. secretary of state ever achieved such celebrity while in office as Henry Kissinger; immersed in the philosophy of Kant and the diplomacy of Metternich, he was hailed as one of the most important strategic thinkers America has ever produced. Yet no former secretary of state has been more vehemently criticized, most notably for sins of omission and commission in countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, Chile and East Timor. In this episode – recorded live at the 2024 Writers Conference – renowned historian NIALL FERGUSON, now completing the second of his two-volume biography of Kissinger, talks to New Yorker staff writer and National Book Award-winning author EVAN OSNOS about his subject’s complicated legacy and considers what he might have made of our current foreign policy landscape. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices No U.S. secretary of state ever achieved such celebrity while in office as Henry Kissinger; immersed in the philosophy of Kant and the diplomacy of Metternich, he was hailed as one of the most important strategic thinkers America has ever produced. Yet no former secretary of state has been more vehemently criticized, most notably for sins of omission and commission in countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, Chile and East Timor. In this episode – recorded live at the 2024 Writers Conference – renowned historian NIALL FERGUSON, now completing the second of his two-volume biography of Kissinger, talks to New Yorker staff writer and National Book Award-winning author EVAN OSNOS about his subject’s complicated legacy and considers what he might have made of our current foreign policy landscape.

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]]> 2155 Jonathan Eig on Martin Luther King, Jr. In this episode, recorded live at the 2024 conference, biographer Jonathan Eig talks about his book on Martin Luther King, Jr., the first major biography of the civil rights leader in decades. Eig resurrects King from myth and history and brings him to vivid life, with all of his emotional complexity and unwavering courage, drawing a fresh and indelible portrait of a man whom he justifiably calls one of America’s founding fathers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Sat, 03 May 2025 04:00:00 -0000 full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference In this episode, recorded live at the 2024 conference, biographer Jonathan Eig talks about his book on Martin Luther King, Jr., the first major biography of the civil rights leader in decades. Eig resurrects King from myth and history and brings him to vivid life, with all of his emotional complexity and unwavering courage, drawing a fresh and indelible portrait of a man whom he justifiably calls one of America’s founding fathers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices In this episode, recorded live at the 2024 conference, biographer Jonathan Eig talks about his book on Martin Luther King, Jr., the first major biography of the civil rights leader in decades. Eig resurrects King from myth and history and brings him to vivid life, with all of his emotional complexity and unwavering courage, drawing a fresh and indelible portrait of a man whom he justifiably calls one of America’s founding fathers.

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]]> 1847 The Radical Honesty of Judy Blume In this episode of Beyond the Page, lucky listener, you get to hear the great Judy Blume, the author of twenty-five books for young readers and four novels for adults that all-told have sold more than 90 million copies in forty languages. Blume’s cherished, ground-breaking 1970 young adult novel, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, has captivated and enlightened girls (and boys, and their parents) for 55 years and counting. I, for one, read it when I was 10, and it – along with about half a dozen other classic Blume titles – basically taught me everything I know, to this day, about girls and growing up. So consider me yet one more reader for whom Judy Blume was, and remains, a true literary rock star. Here she is, recorded live at the 2024 Writers Conference, in conversation with her friend JEFFREY BROWN of the PBS NewsHour. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Fri, 11 Apr 2025 06:00:00 -0000 full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference In this episode of Beyond the Page, lucky listener, you get to hear the great Judy Blume, the author of twenty-five books for young readers and four novels for adults that all-told have sold more than 90 million copies in forty languages. Blume’s cherished, ground-breaking 1970 young adult novel, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, has captivated and enlightened girls (and boys, and their parents) for 55 years and counting. I, for one, read it when I was 10, and it – along with about half a dozen other classic Blume titles – basically taught me everything I know, to this day, about girls and growing up. So consider me yet one more reader for whom Judy Blume was, and remains, a true literary rock star. Here she is, recorded live at the 2024 Writers Conference, in conversation with her friend JEFFREY BROWN of the PBS NewsHour. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices In this episode of Beyond the Page, lucky listener, you get to hear the great Judy Blume, the author of twenty-five books for young readers and four novels for adults that all-told have sold more than 90 million copies in forty languages. Blume’s cherished, ground-breaking 1970 young adult novel, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, has captivated and enlightened girls (and boys, and their parents) for 55 years and counting. I, for one, read it when I was 10, and it – along with about half a dozen other classic Blume titles – basically taught me everything I know, to this day, about girls and growing up. So consider me yet one more reader for whom Judy Blume was, and remains, a true literary rock star. Here she is, recorded live at the 2024 Writers Conference, in conversation with her friend JEFFREY BROWN of the PBS NewsHour.

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]]> 1847 Dennis Lehane: Confessions of a Novelist Turned TV Showrunner In this episode, recorded live at the 2024 Writers Conference, I sit down with bestselling crime novelist and TV writer/producer DENNIS LEHANE for a lively, wide-ranging conversation about how he approaches writing books vs. television scripts, his advice for writing true crime stories, as well as his journey developing his two latest AppleTV limited series, Black Bird and the upcoming Firebug, both starring Taron Egerton. Lehane is that rare novelist who has found acclaim and a large audience both in fiction and on the screen. A handful of his novels have been made into excellent films – Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone, and Shutter Island, to name a few – and in recent years he has become a much in-demand television creator and showrunner, a role that first began for him two decades ago, when he joined the now-famous Season 4 writers room on David Simon’s iconic show The Wire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Thu, 06 Mar 2025 05:00:00 -0000 full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference In this episode, recorded live at the 2024 Writers Conference, I sit down with bestselling crime novelist and TV writer/producer DENNIS LEHANE for a lively, wide-ranging conversation about how he approaches writing books vs. television scripts, his advice for writing true crime stories, as well as his journey developing his two latest AppleTV limited series, Black Bird and the upcoming Firebug, both starring Taron Egerton. Lehane is that rare novelist who has found acclaim and a large audience both in fiction and on the screen. A handful of his novels have been made into excellent films – Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone, and Shutter Island, to name a few – and in recent years he has become a much in-demand television creator and showrunner, a role that first began for him two decades ago, when he joined the now-famous Season 4 writers room on David Simon’s iconic show The Wire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices In this episode, recorded live at the 2024 Writers Conference, I sit down with bestselling crime novelist and TV writer/producer DENNIS LEHANE for a lively, wide-ranging conversation about how he approaches writing books vs. television scripts, his advice for writing true crime stories, as well as his journey developing his two latest AppleTV limited series, Black Bird and the upcoming Firebug, both starring Taron Egerton. Lehane is that rare novelist who has found acclaim and a large audience both in fiction and on the screen. A handful of his novels have been made into excellent films – Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone, and Shutter Island, to name a few – and in recent years he has become a much in-demand television creator and showrunner, a role that first began for him two decades ago, when he joined the now-famous Season 4 writers room on David Simon’s iconic show The Wire.

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]]> 1853 John Vaillant: Fire Weather We were already editing this episode when the L.A. fires broke out on January 7, 2025. In fact, our editor Dean Grinsfelder had to evacuate as the flames moved in. So did my 91-year-old dad, and so did my co-producer James Tooley’s parents and brothers and their families; one of those brothers saw his house burn to the ground. All of which is to say, I guess, that podcasts, though they live in the ether, don’t exist in a vacuum, and neither do we. We’re all connected. And so, while those impacted by the LA fires regroup and recover, we want to share an important story – recorded live at the 2024 Conference – about another, eerily similar and catastrophic fire that was the centerpiece of journalist John Vaillant’s award-winning book Fire Weather. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Wed, 22 Jan 2025 05:00:00 -0000 full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference live at the 2024 Sun Valley Writers' Conference We were already editing this episode when the L.A. fires broke out on January 7, 2025. In fact, our editor Dean Grinsfelder had to evacuate as the flames moved in. So did my 91-year-old dad, and so did my co-producer James Tooley’s parents and brothers and their families; one of those brothers saw his house burn to the ground. All of which is to say, I guess, that podcasts, though they live in the ether, don’t exist in a vacuum, and neither do we. We’re all connected. And so, while those impacted by the LA fires regroup and recover, we want to share an important story – recorded live at the 2024 Conference – about another, eerily similar and catastrophic fire that was the centerpiece of journalist John Vaillant’s award-winning book Fire Weather. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices We were already editing this episode when the L.A. fires broke out on January 7, 2025. In fact, our editor Dean Grinsfelder had to evacuate as the flames moved in. So did my 91-year-old dad, and so did my co-producer James Tooley’s parents and brothers and their families; one of those brothers saw his house burn to the ground.

All of which is to say, I guess, that podcasts, though they live in the ether, don’t exist in a vacuum, and neither do we. We’re all connected.

And so, while those impacted by the LA fires regroup and recover, we want to share an important story – recorded live at the 2024 Conference – about another, eerily similar and catastrophic fire that was the centerpiece of journalist John Vaillant’s award-winning book Fire Weather.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

]]> 2016 Kristin Hannah in conversation with Jenny Emery Davidson In this episode, recorded live at the 2024 Sun Valley Writers' Conference, novelist Kristin Hannah talks to Jenny Emery Davidson, the executive director of The Community Library in Ketchum, Idaho, about her #1 New York Times bestselling novel The Women. In The Women, Hannah (known for previous bestselling historical novels such as The Nightingale, The Great Alone, and The Four Winds) takes up the Vietnam epic and re- centers the story on the experience of the military nurses who worked under fire, on bases and in field hospitals throughout the war, but whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has all too often been forgotten. Like so many male soldiers of the time, Frankie McGrath, the novel’s heroine, finds herself overwhelmed by the chaos and destruction of war, as well as the unexpected trauma of coming home to a changed and politically divided America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Fri, 13 Dec 2024 05:00:00 -0000 full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference recorded at the 2024 Sun Valley Writers' Conference In this episode, recorded live at the 2024 Sun Valley Writers' Conference, novelist Kristin Hannah talks to Jenny Emery Davidson, the executive director of The Community Library in Ketchum, Idaho, about her #1 New York Times bestselling novel The Women. In The Women, Hannah (known for previous bestselling historical novels such as The Nightingale, The Great Alone, and The Four Winds) takes up the Vietnam epic and re- centers the story on the experience of the military nurses who worked under fire, on bases and in field hospitals throughout the war, but whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has all too often been forgotten. Like so many male soldiers of the time, Frankie McGrath, the novel’s heroine, finds herself overwhelmed by the chaos and destruction of war, as well as the unexpected trauma of coming home to a changed and politically divided America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices In this episode, recorded live at the 2024 Sun Valley Writers' Conference, novelist Kristin Hannah talks to Jenny Emery Davidson, the executive director of The Community Library in Ketchum, Idaho, about her #1 New York Times bestselling novel The Women. In The Women, Hannah (known for previous bestselling historical novels such as The Nightingale, The Great Alone, and The Four Winds) takes up the Vietnam epic and re- centers the story on the experience of the military nurses who worked under fire, on bases and in field hospitals throughout the war, but whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has all too often been forgotten. Like so many male soldiers of the time, Frankie McGrath, the novel’s heroine, finds herself overwhelmed by the chaos and destruction of war, as well as the unexpected trauma of coming home to a changed and politically divided America.

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]]> 1750 Ancient Wisdom and the Enduring Power of Community In a time of loneliness and isolation, social rupture and alienation, what will it take to mend our broken hearts and rebuild our society? In this episode, one of Ameriica’s leading rabbis, and the author of the book The Amen Effect, Sharon Brous makes the case that it is through honoring our most basic human instinct – the yearning for real connection – that we reawaken our shared humanity and begin to heal. In a conversation with legendary bookseller Mitchell Kaplan recorded live at the 2024 Writers Conference, Brous pairs heart-driven anecdotes from her experience building and pastoring to a leading-edge faith community over the past two decades with ancient Jewish wisdom and contemporary science. Hers is a clarion call: the sense of belonging engendered by our genuine presence is not only a social and biological need, but a moral and spiritual necessity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Mon, 02 Dec 2024 12:59:28 -0000 full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference Sharon Brous in conversation with Mitchell Kaplan In a time of loneliness and isolation, social rupture and alienation, what will it take to mend our broken hearts and rebuild our society? In this episode, one of Ameriica’s leading rabbis, and the author of the book The Amen Effect, Sharon Brous makes the case that it is through honoring our most basic human instinct – the yearning for real connection – that we reawaken our shared humanity and begin to heal. In a conversation with legendary bookseller Mitchell Kaplan recorded live at the 2024 Writers Conference, Brous pairs heart-driven anecdotes from her experience building and pastoring to a leading-edge faith community over the past two decades with ancient Jewish wisdom and contemporary science. Hers is a clarion call: the sense of belonging engendered by our genuine presence is not only a social and biological need, but a moral and spiritual necessity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices In a time of loneliness and isolation, social rupture and alienation, what will it take to mend our broken hearts and rebuild our society? In this episode, one of Ameriica’s leading rabbis, and the author of the book The Amen Effect, Sharon Brous makes the case that it is through honoring our most basic human instinct – the yearning for real connection – that we reawaken our shared humanity and begin to heal. In a conversation with legendary bookseller Mitchell Kaplan recorded live at the 2024 Writers Conference, Brous pairs heart-driven anecdotes from her experience building and pastoring to a leading-edge faith community over the past two decades with ancient Jewish wisdom and contemporary science. Hers is a clarion call: the sense of belonging engendered by our genuine presence is not only a social and biological need, but a moral and spiritual necessity.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

]]> 2523 Putin, Ukraine, and the Future of Russia The author of a seminal book on Putin, All The Kremlin’s Men, and the founding editor-in-chief of what was Russia’s most truth-telling opposition news channel TV Rain, Mikhail Zygar is a journalistic hero to many in Russia. Now living and writing in the U.S. after fleeing persecution by Putin, Zygar continues to cover the most troubling stories of his homeland with unmitigated courage and a razor-sharp intelligence. In this episode, recorded live at the 2024 conference, he sits down with The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to discuss his most recent book, War and Punishment: Putin, Zelensky, and the Path to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine, and the state of all things Putin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Mon, 07 Oct 2024 04:00:00 -0000 full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference The author of a seminal book on Putin, All The Kremlin’s Men, and the founding editor-in-chief of what was Russia’s most truth-telling opposition news channel TV Rain, Mikhail Zygar is a journalistic hero to many in Russia. Now living and writing in the U.S. after fleeing persecution by Putin, Zygar continues to cover the most troubling stories of his homeland with unmitigated courage and a razor-sharp intelligence. In this episode, recorded live at the 2024 conference, he sits down with The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to discuss his most recent book, War and Punishment: Putin, Zelensky, and the Path to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine, and the state of all things Putin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices The author of a seminal book on Putin, All The Kremlin’s Men, and the founding editor-in-chief of what was Russia’s most truth-telling opposition news channel TV Rain, Mikhail Zygar is a journalistic hero to many in Russia. Now living and writing in the U.S. after fleeing persecution by Putin, Zygar continues to cover the most troubling stories of his homeland with unmitigated courage and a razor-sharp intelligence. In this episode, recorded live at the 2024 conference, he sits down with The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to discuss his most recent book, War and Punishment: Putin, Zelensky, and the Path to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine, and the state of all things Putin.

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]]> 2010 Patrick Radden Keefe In this episode, recorded live at the 2023 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference, New Yorker Staff Writer Patrick Radden Keefe, who has garnered prizes ranging from the National Magazine Award to the Orwell Prize to the National Book Critics Circle Award for his meticulously reported, hypnotically engaging work on the many ways people behave badly, tells a few stories and lifts the hood on what he calls his “abiding preoccupations: crime and corruption, secrets and lies, the permeable membrane separating licit and illicit worlds, the bonds of family, the power of denial.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Tue, 16 Jul 2024 11:50:38 -0000 Patrick Radden Keefe full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference In this episode, recorded live at the 2023 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference, New Yorker Staff Writer Patrick Radden Keefe, who has garnered prizes ranging from the National Magazine Award to the Orwell Prize to the National Book Critics Circle Award for his meticulously reported, hypnotically engaging work on the many ways people behave badly, tells a few stories and lifts the hood on what he calls his “abiding preoccupations: crime and corruption, secrets and lies, the permeable membrane separating licit and illicit worlds, the bonds of family, the power of denial.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices In this episode, recorded live at the 2023 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference, New Yorker Staff Writer Patrick Radden Keefe, who has garnered prizes ranging from the National Magazine Award to the Orwell Prize to the National Book Critics Circle Award for his meticulously reported, hypnotically engaging work on the many ways people behave badly, tells a few stories and lifts the hood on what he calls his “abiding preoccupations: crime and corruption, secrets and lies, the permeable membrane separating licit and illicit worlds, the bonds of family, the power of denial.”


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]]> 1449 Curtis Sittenfeld In bestselling author Curtis Sittenfeld’s much-loved new novel, she explores—with her typically keen observations and trademark ability to bring complex women to life on the page—the neurosis-inducing and heart-fluttering wonder of love,while slyly dissecting the social rituals of romance and gender relations in the modern age. Sittenfeld sits down with SVWC Literary Director John Burnham Schwartz—a former professor of hers at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop—to discuss what makes Romantic Comedy a romantic comedy, her approach to genre and craft in previous novels such as American Wife, Rodham, and Eligible, and other stories from her literary journey. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Fri, 17 May 2024 04:00:00 -0000 full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference In bestselling author Curtis Sittenfeld’s much-loved new novel, she explores—with her typically keen observations and trademark ability to bring complex women to life on the page—the neurosis-inducing and heart-fluttering wonder of love,while slyly dissecting the social rituals of romance and gender relations in the modern age. Sittenfeld sits down with SVWC Literary Director John Burnham Schwartz—a former professor of hers at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop—to discuss what makes Romantic Comedy a romantic comedy, her approach to genre and craft in previous novels such as American Wife, Rodham, and Eligible, and other stories from her literary journey. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices In bestselling author Curtis Sittenfeld’s much-loved new novel, she explores—with her typically keen observations and trademark ability to bring complex women to life on the page—the neurosis-inducing and heart-fluttering wonder of love,while slyly dissecting the social rituals of romance and gender relations in the modern age. Sittenfeld sits down with SVWC Literary Director John Burnham Schwartz—a former professor of hers at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop—to discuss what makes Romantic Comedy a romantic comedy, her approach to genre and craft in previous novels such as American Wife, Rodham, and Eligible, and other stories from her literary journey.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

]]> 1221 Javier Zamora in conversation with Mitchell Kaplan In this episode of Beyond the Page, recorded live at the 2023 conference, poet and memoirist Javier Zamora talks to legendary bookseller Mitchell Kaplan about his memoir Solito, which chronicles his experiences traveling from El Salvador to the United States, by himself, when he was 9 years old. Javier Zamora writes, and speaks, like someone who believes he can never afford to forget that journey, or the experience on the other side, in America, of growing up undocumented. You won’t be able to forget, either. And that is the power of great literature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Sat, 24 Feb 2024 00:27:00 -0000 full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference In this episode of Beyond the Page, recorded live at the 2023 conference, poet and memoirist Javier Zamora talks to legendary bookseller Mitchell Kaplan about his memoir Solito, which chronicles his experiences traveling from El Salvador to the United States, by himself, when he was 9 years old. Javier Zamora writes, and speaks, like someone who believes he can never afford to forget that journey, or the experience on the other side, in America, of growing up undocumented. You won’t be able to forget, either. And that is the power of great literature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices In this episode of Beyond the Page, recorded live at the 2023 conference, poet and memoirist Javier Zamora talks to legendary bookseller Mitchell Kaplan about his memoir Solito, which chronicles his experiences traveling from El Salvador to the United States, by himself, when he was 9 years old.

Javier Zamora writes, and speaks, like someone who believes he can never afford to forget that journey, or the experience on the other side, in America, of growing up undocumented. You won’t be able to forget, either. And that is the power of great literature.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

]]> 1330 Swamp Story: Dave Barry's Florida Recorded at the closing of the 2023 Sun Valley Writers' Conference, Pulitzer Prize-winning humor writer (and one of the funniest people alive) Dave Barry talks about his latest novel Swamp Story, using it mainly as a springboard to talk about his crazy home state of Florida, and from there, about some of the problems facing our nation in general, and what he would do to fix them if by chance he ever gets the authority to do so – which, Dave says, we should all pray he never does. And finally, Dave assures us that the one promise he can make is that nobody will come away from this talk with any useful information whatsoever. Here’s Dave Barry, closing the 2023 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Thu, 18 Jan 2024 16:44:00 -0000 full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference Recorded at the closing of the 2023 Sun Valley Writers' Conference, Pulitzer Prize-winning humor writer (and one of the funniest people alive) Dave Barry talks about his latest novel Swamp Story, using it mainly as a springboard to talk about his crazy home state of Florida, and from there, about some of the problems facing our nation in general, and what he would do to fix them if by chance he ever gets the authority to do so – which, Dave says, we should all pray he never does. And finally, Dave assures us that the one promise he can make is that nobody will come away from this talk with any useful information whatsoever. Here’s Dave Barry, closing the 2023 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Recorded at the closing of the 2023 Sun Valley Writers' Conference, Pulitzer Prize-winning humor writer (and one of the funniest people alive) Dave Barry talks about his latest novel Swamp Story, using it mainly as a springboard to talk about his crazy home state of Florida, and from there, about some of the problems facing our nation in general, and what he would do to fix them if by chance he ever gets the authority to do so – which, Dave says, we should all pray he never does. And finally, Dave assures us that the one promise he can make is that nobody will come away from this talk with any useful information whatsoever.

Here’s Dave Barry, closing the 2023 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference.

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]]> 2099 Andrea Elliott in conversation with Ayad Akhtar Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist Andrea Elliot sits down with another Pulitzer winner, novelist and playwright Ayad Akhtar, at the 2023 Writers’ Conference to talk about Elliot’s book, Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival, and Hope in an American City. The subject of the book is a Black girl in New York City named Dasani, whose story – told through the lens of almost a decade of Elliot’s deep reporting – brings to vivid and devastating life the realities of how poverty and race and the moral failings of our institutions impact the most marginal among us.  Elliott tells us about Dasani's life and how it is both singular and emblematic, and she talks about her own passions for the deeply immersive journalism that is the hallmark of her professional life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Fri, 15 Dec 2023 20:03:00 -0000 Andrea Elliott in conversation with Ayad Akhtar full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist Andrea Elliot sits down with another Pulitzer winner, novelist and playwright Ayad Akhtar, at the 2023 Writers’ Conference to talk about Elliot’s book, Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival, and Hope in an American City. The subject of the book is a Black girl in New York City named Dasani, whose story – told through the lens of almost a decade of Elliot’s deep reporting – brings to vivid and devastating life the realities of how poverty and race and the moral failings of our institutions impact the most marginal among us.  Elliott tells us about Dasani's life and how it is both singular and emblematic, and she talks about her own passions for the deeply immersive journalism that is the hallmark of her professional life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist Andrea Elliot sits down with another Pulitzer winner, novelist and playwright Ayad Akhtar, at the 2023 Writers’ Conference to talk about Elliot’s book, Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival, and Hope in an American City. The subject of the book is a Black girl in New York City named Dasani, whose story – told through the lens of almost a decade of Elliot’s deep reporting – brings to vivid and devastating life the realities of how poverty and race and the moral failings of our institutions impact the most marginal among us.  Elliott tells us about Dasani's life and how it is both singular and emblematic, and she talks about her own passions for the deeply immersive journalism that is the hallmark of her professional life.

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]]> 2540 Abraham Verghese: Writer in the World On this episode, author and physician Abraham Verghese – who received the 2023 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference WRITER IN THE WORLD prize – brings us intimately and poetically into the heart of his remarkable, inspiring journey from his childhood in Ethiopia to his experiences as a young doctor in America during the AIDS epidemic, to his beginnings as a writer. Verghese would go on to become a professor of medicine at Stanford, as well as the author of the classic memoir My Own Country and the beloved, bestselling novels Cutting for Stone and The Covenant of Water. Here, he describes the meaning and arc of his personal journey with heartfelt tenderness and appreciation, offering new insights into his vision and practice of his joint vocations, and of the profound link between healing and storytelling. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Thu, 09 Nov 2023 05:00:00 -0000 full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference On this episode, author and physician Abraham Verghese – who received the 2023 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference WRITER IN THE WORLD prize – brings us intimately and poetically into the heart of his remarkable, inspiring journey from his childhood in Ethiopia to his experiences as a young doctor in America during the AIDS epidemic, to his beginnings as a writer. Verghese would go on to become a professor of medicine at Stanford, as well as the author of the classic memoir My Own Country and the beloved, bestselling novels Cutting for Stone and The Covenant of Water. Here, he describes the meaning and arc of his personal journey with heartfelt tenderness and appreciation, offering new insights into his vision and practice of his joint vocations, and of the profound link between healing and storytelling. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices On this episode, author and physician Abraham Verghese – who received the 2023 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference WRITER IN THE WORLD prize – brings us intimately and poetically into the heart of his remarkable, inspiring journey from his childhood in Ethiopia to his experiences as a young doctor in America during the AIDS epidemic, to his beginnings as a writer. Verghese would go on to become a professor of medicine at Stanford, as well as the author of the classic memoir My Own Country and the beloved, bestselling novels Cutting for Stone and The Covenant of Water. Here, he describes the meaning and arc of his personal journey with heartfelt tenderness and appreciation, offering new insights into his vision and practice of his joint vocations, and of the profound link between healing and storytelling.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

]]> 1686 Will Democracy Survive? In this episode, three of our most cogent and influential writers on global affairs and history – Anne Applebaum, Robert Kagan, and Evan Osnos – discuss the geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the ongoing battle between democracy and authoritarianism, Vladimir Putin’s endgame, China’s power plays, and the future of the Western alliance, among other urgent questions. Anne Applebaum is a staff writer for The Atlantic and a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, the author of such books as RED FAMINE: STALIN’S WAR ON UKRAINE; GULAG: A HISTORY; and, most recently, TWILIGHT OF DEMOCRACY: THE SEDUCTIVE LURE OF AUTHORITARIANSIM. Robert Kagan is a senior fellow at Brookings, a contributing columnist at the Washington Post, and the author, most recently, of THE GHOST AT THE FEAST: AMERICA AND THE COLLAPSE OF WORLD ORDER, 1900-1941. Evan Osnos is a New Yorker staff writer, and the author of WILDLAND: THE MAKING OF AMERICA’S FURY as well as the National Book Award-winning AGE OF AMBITION: CHASING FORTUNE, TRUTH AND FAITH IN THE NEW CHINA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Wed, 27 Sep 2023 21:37:22 -0000 Will Democracy Survive? full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference In this episode, three of our most cogent and influential writers on global affairs and history – Anne Applebaum, Robert Kagan, and Evan Osnos – discuss the geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the ongoing battle between democracy and authoritarianism, Vladimir Putin’s endgame, China’s power plays, and the future of the Western alliance, among other urgent questions. Anne Applebaum is a staff writer for The Atlantic and a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, the author of such books as RED FAMINE: STALIN’S WAR ON UKRAINE; GULAG: A HISTORY; and, most recently, TWILIGHT OF DEMOCRACY: THE SEDUCTIVE LURE OF AUTHORITARIANSIM. Robert Kagan is a senior fellow at Brookings, a contributing columnist at the Washington Post, and the author, most recently, of THE GHOST AT THE FEAST: AMERICA AND THE COLLAPSE OF WORLD ORDER, 1900-1941. Evan Osnos is a New Yorker staff writer, and the author of WILDLAND: THE MAKING OF AMERICA’S FURY as well as the National Book Award-winning AGE OF AMBITION: CHASING FORTUNE, TRUTH AND FAITH IN THE NEW CHINA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices In this episode, three of our most cogent and influential writers on global affairs and history – Anne Applebaum, Robert Kagan, and Evan Osnos – discuss the geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the ongoing battle between democracy and authoritarianism, Vladimir Putin’s endgame, China’s power plays, and the future of the Western alliance, among other urgent questions.


Anne Applebaum is a staff writer for The Atlantic and a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, the author of such books as RED FAMINE: STALIN’S WAR ON UKRAINE; GULAG: A HISTORY; and, most recently, TWILIGHT OF DEMOCRACY: THE SEDUCTIVE LURE OF AUTHORITARIANSIM.

Robert Kagan is a senior fellow at Brookings, a contributing columnist at the Washington Post, and the author, most recently, of THE GHOST AT THE FEAST: AMERICA AND THE COLLAPSE OF WORLD ORDER, 1900-1941.

Evan Osnos is a New Yorker staff writer, and the author of WILDLAND: THE MAKING OF AMERICA’S FURY as well as the National Book Award-winning AGE OF AMBITION: CHASING FORTUNE, TRUTH AND FAITH IN THE NEW CHINA.

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]]> 2470 Endangered Species: Tad Friend and the Art of Long-Form Journalism Beyond the Page host John Burnham Schwartz talks with New Yorker staff writer Tad Friend, a longtime contributor to the magazine’s Letter from California and the author of two funny, poignant family memoirs, Cheerful Money and In the Early Times. In a notable testament to Friend’s curiosity, range, and talent, over the years his work has been chosen for “The Best American Travel Writing,” “The Best American Sports Writing,” “The Best American Crime Reporting,” and “The Best Technology Writing” – not to mention the James Beard award for feature writing he won in 2020. In this episode, a recent piece of Friend’s in the magazine about “a conservation N.G.O. that infiltrates wildlife-trafficking rings to bring them down” becomes a conversational prism for a larger discussion about the writer’s methodology and philosophy of long-form journalism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Fri, 01 Sep 2023 10:08:49 -0000 Endangered Species: Tad Friend and the Art of Long-Form Journalism full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference in conversation with John Burnham Schwartz Beyond the Page host John Burnham Schwartz talks with New Yorker staff writer Tad Friend, a longtime contributor to the magazine’s Letter from California and the author of two funny, poignant family memoirs, Cheerful Money and In the Early Times. In a notable testament to Friend’s curiosity, range, and talent, over the years his work has been chosen for “The Best American Travel Writing,” “The Best American Sports Writing,” “The Best American Crime Reporting,” and “The Best Technology Writing” – not to mention the James Beard award for feature writing he won in 2020. In this episode, a recent piece of Friend’s in the magazine about “a conservation N.G.O. that infiltrates wildlife-trafficking rings to bring them down” becomes a conversational prism for a larger discussion about the writer’s methodology and philosophy of long-form journalism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Beyond the Page host John Burnham Schwartz talks with New Yorker staff writer Tad Friend, a longtime contributor to the magazine’s Letter from California and the author of two funny, poignant family memoirs, Cheerful Money and In the Early Times. In a notable testament to Friend’s curiosity, range, and talent, over the years his work has been chosen for “The Best American Travel Writing,” “The Best American Sports Writing,” “The Best American Crime Reporting,” and “The Best Technology Writing” – not to mention the James Beard award for feature writing he won in 2020. In this episode, a recent piece of Friend’s in the magazine about “a conservation N.G.O. that infiltrates wildlife-trafficking rings to bring them down” becomes a conversational prism for a larger discussion about the writer’s methodology and philosophy of long-form journalism.

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]]> 1817 From Streaming Wars to Star Wars with Erich Schwartzel In this episode of Beyond the Page, SVWC Literary Director John Burnham Schwartz and writer Eric Schwartzel go Hollywood. Schwartzel covers the film industry in The Wall Street Journal's Los Angeles bureau and his first book “Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy,” detailed the growing influence of China on the American entertainment industry. John and Eric discuss Hollywood’s exestensial crisis, the China problem, and some important wars: culture wars, streaming wars, and Star Wars.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Fri, 26 May 2023 11:07:50 -0000 From Streaming Wars to Star Wars with Erich Schwartzel full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference In conversation with John Burnham Schwartz In this episode of Beyond the Page, SVWC Literary Director John Burnham Schwartz and writer Eric Schwartzel go Hollywood. Schwartzel covers the film industry in The Wall Street Journal's Los Angeles bureau and his first book “Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy,” detailed the growing influence of China on the American entertainment industry. John and Eric discuss Hollywood’s exestensial crisis, the China problem, and some important wars: culture wars, streaming wars, and Star Wars.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices In this episode of Beyond the Page, SVWC Literary Director John Burnham Schwartz and writer Eric Schwartzel go Hollywood. Schwartzel covers the film industry in The Wall Street Journal's Los Angeles bureau and his first book “Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy,” detailed the growing influence of China on the American entertainment industry. John and Eric discuss Hollywood’s exestensial crisis, the China problem, and some important wars: culture wars, streaming wars, and Star Wars. 

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]]> 2057 no Louise Dennys: Stories from a Publishing Legend In this episode of Beyond the Page, host John Burnham Schwartz talks with editor and Canadian publishing titan Louise Dennys about her extraordinary career working side by side with writers including Salman Rushdie, Michael Ondaatje, Kazuo Ishiguro, Margaret Atwood, Ian McEwan… to name just a few. Dennys talks about how she got started, what it’s like to nurture and promote some of the strongest literary voices of a generation, and the importance of freedom of expression, now more than ever. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Sun, 19 Feb 2023 23:57:00 -0000 Louise Dennys: Stories from a Publishing Legend full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference In conversation with John Burnham Schwartz In this episode of Beyond the Page, host John Burnham Schwartz talks with editor and Canadian publishing titan Louise Dennys about her extraordinary career working side by side with writers including Salman Rushdie, Michael Ondaatje, Kazuo Ishiguro, Margaret Atwood, Ian McEwan… to name just a few. Dennys talks about how she got started, what it’s like to nurture and promote some of the strongest literary voices of a generation, and the importance of freedom of expression, now more than ever. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices In this episode of Beyond the Page, host John Burnham Schwartz talks with editor and Canadian publishing titan Louise Dennys about her extraordinary career working side by side with writers including Salman Rushdie, Michael Ondaatje, Kazuo Ishiguro, Margaret Atwood, Ian McEwan… to name just a few. Dennys talks about how she got started, what it’s like to nurture and promote some of the strongest literary voices of a generation, and the importance of freedom of expression, now more than ever.

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]]> 2362 no Aleksandra Crapanzano on Her Dual Passions For Cooking and Writing In this episode of Beyond the Page, Anne Taylor Fleming talks with award-winning food writer Aleksandra Crapanzano about her delightful and accessible new cookbook GATEAU: The Surprising Simplicity of French Cakes. The author shares her memories of being a child in Paris and talks about her dual passions for cooking and writing.   Aleksandra Crapanzano is a James Beard-winning writer and dessert columnist for The Wall Street Journal. She is the author of The London Cookbook and Eat. Cook. LA., and her work has been widely anthologized, most notably in Best American Food Writing. She has been a frequent contributor to Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, Food52, Saveur, Town & Country, Elle, The Daily Beast, Departures, Travel + Leisure, and The New York Times Magazine. She has years of experience in the film world, consults in the food space, and serves on several boards with a focus on sustainability. Aleksandra grew up in New York and Paris, received her BA from Harvard and her MFA from NYU, where she has also taught writing. She is married to the writer John Burnham Schwartz, and they live in New York with their son, Garrick, and Bouvier des Flandres, Griffin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Tue, 20 Dec 2022 04:10:16 -0000 Aleksandra Crapanzano on Her Dual Passions For Cooking and Writing full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference In conversation with Anne Taylor Fleming In this episode of Beyond the Page, Anne Taylor Fleming talks with award-winning food writer Aleksandra Crapanzano about her delightful and accessible new cookbook GATEAU: The Surprising Simplicity of French Cakes. The author shares her memories of being a child in Paris and talks about her dual passions for cooking and writing.   Aleksandra Crapanzano is a James Beard-winning writer and dessert columnist for The Wall Street Journal. She is the author of The London Cookbook and Eat. Cook. LA., and her work has been widely anthologized, most notably in Best American Food Writing. She has been a frequent contributor to Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, Food52, Saveur, Town & Country, Elle, The Daily Beast, Departures, Travel + Leisure, and The New York Times Magazine. She has years of experience in the film world, consults in the food space, and serves on several boards with a focus on sustainability. Aleksandra grew up in New York and Paris, received her BA from Harvard and her MFA from NYU, where she has also taught writing. She is married to the writer John Burnham Schwartz, and they live in New York with their son, Garrick, and Bouvier des Flandres, Griffin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices In this episode of Beyond the Page, Anne Taylor Fleming talks with award-winning food writer Aleksandra Crapanzano about her delightful and accessible new cookbook GATEAU: The Surprising Simplicity of French Cakes. The author shares her memories of being a child in Paris and talks about her dual passions for cooking and writing.  

Aleksandra Crapanzano is a James Beard-winning writer and dessert columnist for The Wall Street Journal. She is the author of The London Cookbook and Eat. Cook. LA., and her work has been widely anthologized, most notably in Best American Food Writing. She has been a frequent contributor to Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, Food52, Saveur, Town & Country, Elle, The Daily Beast, Departures, Travel + Leisure, and The New York Times Magazine. She has years of experience in the film world, consults in the food space, and serves on several boards with a focus on sustainability. Aleksandra grew up in New York and Paris, received her BA from Harvard and her MFA from NYU, where she has also taught writing. She is married to the writer John Burnham Schwartz, and they live in New York with their son, Garrick, and Bouvier des Flandres, Griffin.


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]]> 2055 no Jennifer Egan: There's No Way Out From the Collective Consciousness Welcome to Beyond the Page: The Best of the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference. Over the past 25 years, SVWC has become the gold standard of American literary festivals, bringing together contemporary writing’s brightest stars for their view of the world through a literary lens. Every month, Beyond the Page curates and distills the best talks from the past quarter century at the Writers’ Conference, giving you a front row seat on the kind of knowledge, inspiration, laughter, and meaning that Sun Valley is known for. In this episode of Beyond teh Page, John Burnham Schwartz talks with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jennifer Egan about her novel The Candy House—a sequel, of sorts, to 2010’s A Visit From the Goon Squad—which riffs brilliantly on memory, authenticity and the allure of new technology, and about what she learned about fiction writing from her son’s love of baseball statistics. Jennifer Egan is the author of six previous books of fiction: Manhattan Beach, winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction; A Visit from the Goon Squad, which won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; The Keep; the story collection Emerald City; Look at Me, a National Book Award Finalist; and The Invisible Circus. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, Granta, McSweeney’s, and The New York Times Magazine. Her website is JenniferEgan.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Mon, 21 Nov 2022 02:30:55 -0000 Jennifer Egan: There's No Way Out From the Collective Consciousness full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference In conversation with John Burnham Schwartz Welcome to Beyond the Page: The Best of the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference. Over the past 25 years, SVWC has become the gold standard of American literary festivals, bringing together contemporary writing’s brightest stars for their view of the world through a literary lens. Every month, Beyond the Page curates and distills the best talks from the past quarter century at the Writers’ Conference, giving you a front row seat on the kind of knowledge, inspiration, laughter, and meaning that Sun Valley is known for. In this episode of Beyond teh Page, John Burnham Schwartz talks with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jennifer Egan about her novel The Candy House—a sequel, of sorts, to 2010’s A Visit From the Goon Squad—which riffs brilliantly on memory, authenticity and the allure of new technology, and about what she learned about fiction writing from her son’s love of baseball statistics. Jennifer Egan is the author of six previous books of fiction: Manhattan Beach, winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction; A Visit from the Goon Squad, which won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; The Keep; the story collection Emerald City; Look at Me, a National Book Award Finalist; and The Invisible Circus. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, Granta, McSweeney’s, and The New York Times Magazine. Her website is JenniferEgan.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Welcome to Beyond the Page: The Best of the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference. Over the past 25 years, SVWC has become the gold standard of American literary festivals, bringing together contemporary writing’s brightest stars for their view of the world through a literary lens. Every month, Beyond the Page curates and distills the best talks from the past quarter century at the Writers’ Conference, giving you a front row seat on the kind of knowledge, inspiration, laughter, and meaning that Sun Valley is known for.

In this episode of Beyond teh Page, John Burnham Schwartz talks with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jennifer Egan about her novel The Candy House—a sequel, of sorts, to 2010’s A Visit From the Goon Squad—which riffs brilliantly on memory, authenticity and the allure of new technology, and about what she learned about fiction writing from her son’s love of baseball statistics.

Jennifer Egan is the author of six previous books of fiction: Manhattan Beach, winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction; A Visit from the Goon Squad, which won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; The Keep; the story collection Emerald City; Look at Me, a National Book Award Finalist; and The Invisible Circus. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, Granta, McSweeney’s, and The New York Times Magazine. Her website is JenniferEgan.com.

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]]> 2105 no Being American in the World We've Made: Ben Rhodes in Conversation with Ayad Akhtar https://lithub.com/being-american-in-the-world-weve-made-ben-rhodes-in-conversation-with-ayad-akhtar/ In this episode of Beyond the Page, BEN RHODES, Barack Obama’s former Deputy National Security Advisor, sits down at the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference with Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and playwright AYAD AKHTAR for a deeply informed conversation about the state of the world we are living in today, with the rise of authoritarian leaders and ethno-nationalism and the flood of disinformation enabling them — and what responsibility America must take for these threats to freedom across the globe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Fri, 21 Oct 2022 13:18:00 -0000 Being American in the World We've Made: Ben Rhodes in Conversation with Ayad Akhtar full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference Beyond the Page has returned! In this episode of Beyond the Page, BEN RHODES, Barack Obama’s former Deputy National Security Advisor, sits down at the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference with Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and playwright AYAD AKHTAR for a deeply informed conversation about the state of the world we are living in today, with the rise of authoritarian leaders and ethno-nationalism and the flood of disinformation enabling them — and what responsibility America must take for these threats to freedom across the globe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices In this episode of Beyond the Page, BEN RHODES, Barack Obama’s former Deputy National Security Advisor, sits down at the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference with Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and playwright AYAD AKHTAR for a deeply informed conversation about the state of the world we are living in today, with the rise of authoritarian leaders and ethno-nationalism and the flood of disinformation enabling them — and what responsibility America must take for these threats to freedom across the globe.

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]]> 1799 no Rebecca Donner on “All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days” In this episode of Beyond the Page, host John Burnham Schwartz talks with Rebecca Donner, winner of the 2022 National Book Critics Circle Award for biography for “All the Frequent Troubles of our Days.” The story of Donner's great-great aunt, Mildred Harnack, who as a young midwestern grad student moved to Berlin and became one of the leaders of the largest underground resistance group to Hitler in the 1930s and 40s, All the Frequent Troubles is both an intimate portrait of a courageous young woman and also the story of how a charismatic demagogue captured a country. Donner shares Mildred's story and also talks about the dogged scholarly research that helped her piece together her aunt's amazing life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Sat, 02 Jul 2022 14:16:00 -0000 Rebecca Donner on “All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days” full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference In conversation with John Burnham Schwartz In this episode of Beyond the Page, host John Burnham Schwartz talks with Rebecca Donner, winner of the 2022 National Book Critics Circle Award for biography for “All the Frequent Troubles of our Days.” The story of Donner's great-great aunt, Mildred Harnack, who as a young midwestern grad student moved to Berlin and became one of the leaders of the largest underground resistance group to Hitler in the 1930s and 40s, All the Frequent Troubles is both an intimate portrait of a courageous young woman and also the story of how a charismatic demagogue captured a country. Donner shares Mildred's story and also talks about the dogged scholarly research that helped her piece together her aunt's amazing life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices In this episode of Beyond the Page, host John Burnham Schwartz talks with Rebecca Donner, winner of the 2022 National Book Critics Circle Award for biography for “All the Frequent Troubles of our Days.” The story of Donner's great-great aunt, Mildred Harnack, who as a young midwestern grad student moved to Berlin and became one of the leaders of the largest underground resistance group to Hitler in the 1930s and 40s, All the Frequent Troubles is both an intimate portrait of a courageous young woman and also the story of how a charismatic demagogue captured a country. Donner shares Mildred's story and also talks about the dogged scholarly research that helped her piece together her aunt's amazing life.

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]]> 2183 no The Last Days of Roger Federer – And Other Endings When artists and athletes age, what happens to their work? Does it ripen or rot? As our bodies decay, how – and why – do we keep going? In this episode, John Burnham Schwartz sits down with the ever-original and wittily ironic GEOFF DYER to discuss the author's own encounter with late middle age against the backdrop of the last days and last works of writers, painters, footballers, musicians, and tennis stars who’ve mattered to him throughout his life.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Tue, 17 May 2022 22:55:20 -0000 The Last Days of Roger Federer – And Other Endings full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference In conversation with John Burnham Schwartz When artists and athletes age, what happens to their work? Does it ripen or rot? As our bodies decay, how – and why – do we keep going? In this episode, John Burnham Schwartz sits down with the ever-original and wittily ironic GEOFF DYER to discuss the author's own encounter with late middle age against the backdrop of the last days and last works of writers, painters, footballers, musicians, and tennis stars who’ve mattered to him throughout his life.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices When artists and athletes age, what happens to their work? Does it ripen or rot? As our bodies decay, how – and why – do we keep going? In this episode, John Burnham Schwartz sits down with the ever-original and wittily ironic GEOFF DYER to discuss the author's own encounter with late middle age against the backdrop of the last days and last works of writers, painters, footballers, musicians, and tennis stars who’ve mattered to him throughout his life.  

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]]> 2247 no Behind the Scenes: Programming the 2022 Sun Valley Writers' Conference https://lithub.com/behind-the-scenes-of-the-programming-of-the-2022-sun-valley-writers-conference/ In this episode of Beyond the Page, we offer something fun and different, a lively conversation between SVWC Literary Director John Burnham Schwartz and Associate Director Anne Taylor Fleming about the upcoming 2022 conference.  As the chief programmers, the longtime colleagues and friends will talk about some of the magical writers who are coming, from Evan Osnos and Heather McGhee to Ocean Vuong and Arthur Brooks, and chat about their selection process, including adding the wonderful PBS anchor Judy Woodruff to moderate some deep dives into the threats to democracy, here and around the globe.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Thu, 05 May 2022 11:04:00 -0000 Behind the Scenes: Programming the 2022 Sun Valley Writers' Conference full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference Anne Taylor Fleming in conversation with John Burnham Schwartz In this episode of Beyond the Page, we offer something fun and different, a lively conversation between SVWC Literary Director John Burnham Schwartz and Associate Director Anne Taylor Fleming about the upcoming 2022 conference.  As the chief programmers, the longtime colleagues and friends will talk about some of the magical writers who are coming, from Evan Osnos and Heather McGhee to Ocean Vuong and Arthur Brooks, and chat about their selection process, including adding the wonderful PBS anchor Judy Woodruff to moderate some deep dives into the threats to democracy, here and around the globe.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices In this episode of Beyond the Page, we offer something fun and different, a lively conversation between SVWC Literary Director John Burnham Schwartz and Associate Director Anne Taylor Fleming about the upcoming 2022 conference.  As the chief programmers, the longtime colleagues and friends will talk about some of the magical writers who are coming, from Evan Osnos and Heather McGhee to Ocean Vuong and Arthur Brooks, and chat about their selection process, including adding the wonderful PBS anchor Judy Woodruff to moderate some deep dives into the threats to democracy, here and around the globe.  

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]]> 2536 no Susan Orlean Is a Really Serious Chicken Lady https://lithub.com/susan-orlean-is-a-really-serious-chicken-lady/ On this episode, John Burnham Schwartz talks with SUSAN ORLEAN, whose New Yorker articles across the last 30 years, along with books such as The Orchard Thief, The Library Book, her biography of the movie star dog Rin Tin Tin, and her latest collection of pieces, On Animals, have made her one of our most beloved and distinctive writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Wed, 16 Mar 2022 11:46:00 -0000 Susan Orlean Is a Really Serious Chicken Lady full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference In conversation with John Burnham Schwartz On this episode, John Burnham Schwartz talks with SUSAN ORLEAN, whose New Yorker articles across the last 30 years, along with books such as The Orchard Thief, The Library Book, her biography of the movie star dog Rin Tin Tin, and her latest collection of pieces, On Animals, have made her one of our most beloved and distinctive writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices On this episode, John Burnham Schwartz talks with SUSAN ORLEAN, whose New Yorker articles across the last 30 years, along with books such as The Orchard Thief, The Library Book, her biography of the movie star dog Rin Tin Tin, and her latest collection of pieces, On Animals, have made her one of our most beloved and distinctive writers.

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]]> 2602 no Annette Gordon-Reed: Getting History Right https://lithub.com/annette-gordon-reed-getting-history-right/ Is Thomas Jefferson to be deplored as a slave-owner who had a family with a young woman he owned or is he to be celebrated as one of the country's most essential and gifted founders? Or, should he be both--condemned and revered? That is the question Annette Gordon-Reed, the brilliant Harvard law professor, historian, and author of the Pulitzer prize-winning The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, has long wrestled with. In conversation with SVWC associate director Anne Taylor Fleming, Gordon-Reed reflects on her evolving feelings about Jefferson and on the moral responsibility of the historian, and talks about her recent memoir, On Juneteenth, a stirring remembrance of growing up black in Texas. Hers is the rare wise and nuanced voice we need in today's overheated culture.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Tue, 22 Feb 2022 18:34:00 -0000 Annette Gordon-Reed: Getting History Right full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference In conversation with Anne Taylor Fleming Is Thomas Jefferson to be deplored as a slave-owner who had a family with a young woman he owned or is he to be celebrated as one of the country's most essential and gifted founders? Or, should he be both--condemned and revered? That is the question Annette Gordon-Reed, the brilliant Harvard law professor, historian, and author of the Pulitzer prize-winning The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, has long wrestled with. In conversation with SVWC associate director Anne Taylor Fleming, Gordon-Reed reflects on her evolving feelings about Jefferson and on the moral responsibility of the historian, and talks about her recent memoir, On Juneteenth, a stirring remembrance of growing up black in Texas. Hers is the rare wise and nuanced voice we need in today's overheated culture.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Is Thomas Jefferson to be deplored as a slave-owner who had a family with a young woman he owned or is he to be celebrated as one of the country's most essential and gifted founders? Or, should he be both--condemned and revered? That is the question Annette Gordon-Reed, the brilliant Harvard law professor, historian, and author of the Pulitzer prize-winning The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, has long wrestled with. In conversation with SVWC associate director Anne Taylor Fleming, Gordon-Reed reflects on her evolving feelings about Jefferson and on the moral responsibility of the historian, and talks about her recent memoir, On Juneteenth, a stirring remembrance of growing up black in Texas. Hers is the rare wise and nuanced voice we need in today's overheated culture.   

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]]> 2205 no Tobias Wolff: The Art of the Story In this episode of Beyond the Page, John Burnham Schwartz speaks with author TOBIAS WOLFF, renowned for his classic memoirs and short stories, for an intimate, wide-ranging conversation about life, literature, craft, and the never- ending mysteries and revelations that come from spending one’s time inhabiting the minds of others. Tobias Wolff was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and grew up in Washington State. He attended Oxford University and Stanford University, where he now teaches English and creative writing. He has received the Story Prize, both the Rea Award and PEN/Malamud Award for excellence in the short story, the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and the PEN/Faulkner Award. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Tue, 28 Dec 2021 17:33:00 -0000 Tobias Wolff: The Art of the Story full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference In conversation with John Burnham Schwartz In this episode of Beyond the Page, John Burnham Schwartz speaks with author TOBIAS WOLFF, renowned for his classic memoirs and short stories, for an intimate, wide-ranging conversation about life, literature, craft, and the never- ending mysteries and revelations that come from spending one’s time inhabiting the minds of others. Tobias Wolff was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and grew up in Washington State. He attended Oxford University and Stanford University, where he now teaches English and creative writing. He has received the Story Prize, both the Rea Award and PEN/Malamud Award for excellence in the short story, the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and the PEN/Faulkner Award. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices In this episode of Beyond the Page, John Burnham Schwartz speaks with author TOBIAS WOLFF, renowned for his classic memoirs and short stories, for an intimate, wide-ranging conversation about life, literature, craft, and the never- ending mysteries and revelations that come from spending one’s time inhabiting the minds of others.

Tobias Wolff was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and grew up in Washington State. He attended Oxford University and Stanford University, where he now teaches English and creative writing. He has received the Story Prize, both the Rea Award and PEN/Malamud Award for excellence in the short story, the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and the PEN/Faulkner Award.

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]]> 1989 no How Lincoln Broke the Constitution https://lithub.com/how-lincoln-broke-the-constitution In this episode, John Burnham Schwartz speaks with Noah Feldman, Harvard Law professor and renowned Constitutional scholar, whose groundbreaking new book, The Broken Constitution: Lincoln, Slavery, and the Refounding of America, takes us inside one of the more surprising realities of American History: in abolishing slavery and preserving our union, Abraham Lincoln was not adhering to the original Constitution of 1787, but rather tearing it up in order to save it through transformation. Feldman calls not only for a reassessment of Lincoln himself but also for a new look at America's founding document and its place in our law, our politics, and ourselves. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Mon, 15 Nov 2021 16:55:00 -0000 How Lincoln Broke the Constitution full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference Noah Feldman in conversation with John Burnham Schwartz In this episode, John Burnham Schwartz speaks with Noah Feldman, Harvard Law professor and renowned Constitutional scholar, whose groundbreaking new book, The Broken Constitution: Lincoln, Slavery, and the Refounding of America, takes us inside one of the more surprising realities of American History: in abolishing slavery and preserving our union, Abraham Lincoln was not adhering to the original Constitution of 1787, but rather tearing it up in order to save it through transformation. Feldman calls not only for a reassessment of Lincoln himself but also for a new look at America's founding document and its place in our law, our politics, and ourselves. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices In this episode, John Burnham Schwartz speaks with Noah Feldman, Harvard Law professor and renowned Constitutional scholar, whose groundbreaking new book, The Broken Constitution: Lincoln, Slavery, and the Refounding of America, takes us inside one of the more surprising realities of American History: in abolishing slavery and preserving our union, Abraham Lincoln was not adhering to the original Constitution of 1787, but rather tearing it up in order to save it through transformation. Feldman calls not only for a reassessment of Lincoln himself but also for a new look at America's founding document and its place in our law, our politics, and ourselves.

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]]> 2877 no Elliot Ackerman on the End of the Forever War In this episode of Beyond the Page, acclaimed novelist, journalist, and Marine Corps veteran ELLIOT ACKERMAN talks to former CBS News Vice President and Washington Bureau Chief Christopher Isham about the United States military’s calamitous withdrawal from Afghanistan and what comes after. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Wed, 20 Oct 2021 13:27:40 -0000 Elliot Ackerman on the End of the Forever War full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference In conversation with John Burnham Schwartz In this episode of Beyond the Page, acclaimed novelist, journalist, and Marine Corps veteran ELLIOT ACKERMAN talks to former CBS News Vice President and Washington Bureau Chief Christopher Isham about the United States military’s calamitous withdrawal from Afghanistan and what comes after. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices In this episode of Beyond the Page, acclaimed novelist, journalist, and Marine Corps veteran ELLIOT ACKERMAN talks to former CBS News Vice President and Washington Bureau Chief Christopher Isham about the United States military’s calamitous withdrawal from Afghanistan and what comes after.



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]]> 2265 no Patrick Radden Keefe on the Relationship Between Reporting and Storytelling https://lithub.com/patrick-radden-keefe-on-the-fine-line-between-reporting-and-storytelling Welcome to Beyond the Page: The Best of the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference. Over the past 25 years, SVWC has become the gold standard of American literary festivals, bringing together contemporary writing's brightest stars for their view of the world through a literary lens. Every month, Beyond the Page curates and distills the best talks from the past quarter century at the Writers’ Conference, giving you a front row seat on the kind of knowledge, inspiration, laughter, and meaning that Sun Valley is known for. In this episode of Beyond the Page, host John Burnham Schwartz talks with Patrick Radden Keefe about his new book, Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Fri, 17 Sep 2021 12:34:00 -0000 Patrick Radden Keefe on the Relationship Between Reporting and Storytelling full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference In conversation with John Burnham Schwartz Welcome to Beyond the Page: The Best of the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference. Over the past 25 years, SVWC has become the gold standard of American literary festivals, bringing together contemporary writing's brightest stars for their view of the world through a literary lens. Every month, Beyond the Page curates and distills the best talks from the past quarter century at the Writers’ Conference, giving you a front row seat on the kind of knowledge, inspiration, laughter, and meaning that Sun Valley is known for. In this episode of Beyond the Page, host John Burnham Schwartz talks with Patrick Radden Keefe about his new book, Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Welcome to Beyond the Page: The Best of the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference. Over the past 25 years, SVWC has become the gold standard of American literary festivals, bringing together contemporary writing's brightest stars for their view of the world through a literary lens. Every month, Beyond the Page curates and distills the best talks from the past quarter century at the Writers’ Conference, giving you a front row seat on the kind of knowledge, inspiration, laughter, and meaning that Sun Valley is known for.


In this episode of Beyond the Page, host John Burnham Schwartz talks with Patrick Radden Keefe about his new book, Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty.

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]]> 2701 no Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan on the Private Life of Francis Bacon https://lithub.com/the-problem-with-writing-biographies-of-imaginative-figures/ In this episode of BEYOND THE PAGE, host John Burnham Schwartz talks with Pulitzer Prize-winning authors MARK STEVENS and ANNALYN SWAN about their landmark biography Francis Bacon: Revelations. MARK STEVENS is the former art critic of New York magazine. He has been the art critic for The New Republic and Newsweek and has also written for The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and The New York Times. ANNALYN SWAN is the former arts editor of Newsweek and an award-winning music critic. She teaches biography at the Graduate Center of CUNY as well as at the Middlebury Bread Loaf School of English. Stevens and Swan won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for their biography, de Kooning: An American Master. They live in New York. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Sun, 15 Aug 2021 18:03:00 -0000 Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan on the Private Life of Francis Bacon full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference In conversation with John Burnham Schwartz In this episode of BEYOND THE PAGE, host John Burnham Schwartz talks with Pulitzer Prize-winning authors MARK STEVENS and ANNALYN SWAN about their landmark biography Francis Bacon: Revelations. MARK STEVENS is the former art critic of New York magazine. He has been the art critic for The New Republic and Newsweek and has also written for The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and The New York Times. ANNALYN SWAN is the former arts editor of Newsweek and an award-winning music critic. She teaches biography at the Graduate Center of CUNY as well as at the Middlebury Bread Loaf School of English. Stevens and Swan won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for their biography, de Kooning: An American Master. They live in New York. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices In this episode of BEYOND THE PAGE, host John Burnham Schwartz talks with Pulitzer Prize-winning authors MARK STEVENS and ANNALYN SWAN about their landmark biography Francis Bacon: Revelations.

MARK STEVENS is the former art critic of New York magazine. He has been the art critic for The New Republic and Newsweek and has also written for The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and The New York Times.

ANNALYN SWAN is the former arts editor of Newsweek and an award-winning music critic. She teaches biography at the Graduate Center of CUNY as well as at the Middlebury Bread Loaf School of English. Stevens and Swan won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for their biography, de Kooning: An American Master. They live in New York.

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]]> 2461 no The Education of an Idealist: U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power on Soft Power and Hard Lessons In this episode of BEYOND THE PAGE, former United States Ambassador to the United Nations, human rights activist, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author SAMANTHA POWER – interviewed in the lead-up to her pending US Senate confirmation vote to be President Biden’s new administrator of USAID – discusses her distinctly American journey from immigrant to war correspondent to one of America’s leading foreign policy voices. Power transports us from her childhood in Dublin to the streets of war-torn Bosnia to the White House Situation Room and the world of high-stakes diplomacy, offering a compelling and deeply honest look at navigating the halls of power while trying to put one’s ideals into practice. Along the way, she lays bare the searing battles and defining moments of her life, shows how she juggled the demands of a 24/7 national security job with raising two young children, and makes the case for how we each can advance the cause of human dignity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Tue, 27 Apr 2021 12:42:58 -0000 The Education of an Idealist: U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power on Soft Power and Hard Lessons full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference In conversation with John Burnham Schwartz In this episode of BEYOND THE PAGE, former United States Ambassador to the United Nations, human rights activist, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author SAMANTHA POWER – interviewed in the lead-up to her pending US Senate confirmation vote to be President Biden’s new administrator of USAID – discusses her distinctly American journey from immigrant to war correspondent to one of America’s leading foreign policy voices. Power transports us from her childhood in Dublin to the streets of war-torn Bosnia to the White House Situation Room and the world of high-stakes diplomacy, offering a compelling and deeply honest look at navigating the halls of power while trying to put one’s ideals into practice. Along the way, she lays bare the searing battles and defining moments of her life, shows how she juggled the demands of a 24/7 national security job with raising two young children, and makes the case for how we each can advance the cause of human dignity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices In this episode of BEYOND THE PAGE, former United States Ambassador to the United Nations, human rights activist, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author SAMANTHA POWER – interviewed in the lead-up to her pending US Senate confirmation vote to be President Biden’s new administrator of USAID – discusses her distinctly American journey from immigrant to war correspondent to one of America’s leading foreign policy voices. Power transports us from her childhood in Dublin to the streets of war-torn Bosnia to the White House Situation Room and the world of high-stakes diplomacy, offering a compelling and deeply honest look at navigating the halls of power while trying to put one’s ideals into practice. Along the way, she lays bare the searing battles and defining moments of her life, shows how she juggled the demands of a 24/7 national security job with raising two young children, and makes the case for how we each can advance the cause of human dignity.


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]]> 3261 no Francis Lam's Food For Thought https://lithub.com/francis-lams-food-for-thought In this episode, the host of American Public Media’s award-winning radio show The Splendid Table shares with us a few unforgettable food stories from his childhood, along with some of his current thoughts about the social experience of food during these pandemic times, the struggles and future of restaurants, and how certain tastes become identity markers for life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Sun, 18 Apr 2021 19:46:00 -0000 Francis Lam's Food For Thought full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference In conversation with John Burnham Schwartz In this episode, the host of American Public Media’s award-winning radio show The Splendid Table shares with us a few unforgettable food stories from his childhood, along with some of his current thoughts about the social experience of food during these pandemic times, the struggles and future of restaurants, and how certain tastes become identity markers for life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices In this episode, the host of American Public Media’s award-winning radio show The Splendid Table shares with us a few unforgettable food stories from his childhood, along with some of his current thoughts about the social experience of food during these pandemic times, the struggles and future of restaurants, and how certain tastes become identity markers for life.

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]]> 2299 no David Eagleman Gets In Your Head On today's episode of Beyond the Page, John Burnham Schwartz speaks with David Eagleman, who not only teaches neuroscience at Stanford University, but is also CEO and co-founder of New Century, a company that develops devices for sensory substitution. Eagleman is the author most recently of Live Wired: The Inside Story of the Ever Changing Brain, as well as The Brain, The Story of You, and many other books. He's the host of the new Netflix documentary, The Creative Brain. And not only all that, but his short story collection, Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives, inspired producer Brian Eno to write 12 new pieces of music, which they performed together at the Sydney Opera House. In the conversation, we explore how Eagleman is a spirited and enlightening guide to so many important biological and moral issues underpinning our lives and behaviors from QAnon and cults to the wiring of Trump's brain, to the relationship between identity, personality, biology, empathy, legal culpability and much, much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Wed, 10 Mar 2021 23:10:00 -0000 David Eagleman Gets In Your Head full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference In conversation with John Burnham Schwartz On today's episode of Beyond the Page, John Burnham Schwartz speaks with David Eagleman, who not only teaches neuroscience at Stanford University, but is also CEO and co-founder of New Century, a company that develops devices for sensory substitution. Eagleman is the author most recently of Live Wired: The Inside Story of the Ever Changing Brain, as well as The Brain, The Story of You, and many other books. He's the host of the new Netflix documentary, The Creative Brain. And not only all that, but his short story collection, Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives, inspired producer Brian Eno to write 12 new pieces of music, which they performed together at the Sydney Opera House. In the conversation, we explore how Eagleman is a spirited and enlightening guide to so many important biological and moral issues underpinning our lives and behaviors from QAnon and cults to the wiring of Trump's brain, to the relationship between identity, personality, biology, empathy, legal culpability and much, much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices On today's episode of Beyond the Page, John Burnham Schwartz speaks with David Eagleman, who not only teaches neuroscience at Stanford University, but is also CEO and co-founder of New Century, a company that develops devices for sensory substitution.

Eagleman is the author most recently of Live Wired: The Inside Story of the Ever Changing Brain, as well as The Brain, The Story of You, and many other books. He's the host of the new Netflix documentary, The Creative Brain. And not only all that, but his short story collection, Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives, inspired producer Brian Eno to write 12 new pieces of music, which they performed together at the Sydney Opera House.

In the conversation, we explore how Eagleman is a spirited and enlightening guide to so many important biological and moral issues underpinning our lives and behaviors from QAnon and cults to the wiring of Trump's brain, to the relationship between identity, personality, biology, empathy, legal culpability and much, much more.

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]]> 1991 no Barry Lopez: "Leaning Into the Light" https://lithub.com/barry-lopez-we-dont-need-the-writer-what-we-need-is-the-story-because-this-keeps-us-alive/ On Christmas morning, 2020, the writer BARRY LOPEZ died in Eugene, Oregon, surrounded by his family, after a long battle with prostate cancer. Widely honored as one of our greatest writers about the natural world – in non-fiction classics such as “Of Wolves and Men,” “Arctic Dreams,” and “Horizon” – for half a century Barry traveled the globe – High Arctic to Antarctica, Oregon to Kenya – bringing back stories etched in luminous prose that explored our profound connections to the diverse, fragile planet we inhabit.  Two weeks before his death, Barry received the first Sun Valley Writers’ Conference WRITER IN THE WORLD PRIZE, given to a writer whose work expresses that rare combination of literary talent and moral imagination, helping us to better understand the world and our place in it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Tue, 26 Jan 2021 15:23:00 -0000 Barry Lopez: "Leaning Into the Light" full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference From the Sun Valley Writers' Conference On Christmas morning, 2020, the writer BARRY LOPEZ died in Eugene, Oregon, surrounded by his family, after a long battle with prostate cancer. Widely honored as one of our greatest writers about the natural world – in non-fiction classics such as “Of Wolves and Men,” “Arctic Dreams,” and “Horizon” – for half a century Barry traveled the globe – High Arctic to Antarctica, Oregon to Kenya – bringing back stories etched in luminous prose that explored our profound connections to the diverse, fragile planet we inhabit.  Two weeks before his death, Barry received the first Sun Valley Writers’ Conference WRITER IN THE WORLD PRIZE, given to a writer whose work expresses that rare combination of literary talent and moral imagination, helping us to better understand the world and our place in it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices On Christmas morning, 2020, the writer BARRY LOPEZ died in Eugene, Oregon, surrounded by his family, after a long battle with prostate cancer.

Widely honored as one of our greatest writers about the natural world – in non-fiction classics such as “Of Wolves and Men,” “Arctic Dreams,” and “Horizon” – for half a century Barry traveled the globe – High Arctic to Antarctica, Oregon to Kenya – bringing back stories etched in luminous prose that explored our profound connections to the diverse, fragile planet we inhabit. 

Two weeks before his death, Barry received the first Sun Valley Writers’ Conference WRITER IN THE WORLD PRIZE, given to a writer whose work expresses that rare combination of literary talent and moral imagination, helping us to better understand the world and our place in it.

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]]> 1510 no Madeline Miller on Why Homer’s Wisdom Has Never Been More Relevant In this episode of BEYOND THE PAGE, host John Burnham Schwartz talks with novelist and classicist MADELINE MILLER, author of THE SONG OF ACHILLES and CIRCE, about why Homer’s wisdom has never been more relevant, and why she decided to finally give a witch who changes men into pigs the starring role in her own drama. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Fri, 04 Dec 2020 20:00:00 -0000 Madeline Miller on Why Homer’s Wisdom Has Never Been More Relevant full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference In conversation with John Burnham Schwartz In this episode of BEYOND THE PAGE, host John Burnham Schwartz talks with novelist and classicist MADELINE MILLER, author of THE SONG OF ACHILLES and CIRCE, about why Homer’s wisdom has never been more relevant, and why she decided to finally give a witch who changes men into pigs the starring role in her own drama. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices In this episode of BEYOND THE PAGE, host John Burnham Schwartz talks with novelist and classicist MADELINE MILLER, author of THE SONG OF ACHILLES and CIRCE, about why Homer’s wisdom has never been more relevant, and why she decided to finally give a witch who changes men into pigs the starring role in her own drama.

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]]> 2742 no Roger McNamee on the Incompatibility of Social Media and Democracy Join us for a conversation with ROGER MCNAMEE, the noted tech venture capitalist, early mentor to Mark Zuckerberg, and Facebook investor, who went from being a founding supporter of the world’s biggest and most profitable social media company to becoming one of its most influential critics. There is nothing the charismatic McNamee won’t discuss about Facebook's business model and practices, including his own adventures at the birth of Big Tech.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Wed, 04 Nov 2020 23:48:03 -0000 Roger McNamee on the Incompatibility of Social Media and Democracy full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference From the Sun Valley Writers' Conference Join us for a conversation with ROGER MCNAMEE, the noted tech venture capitalist, early mentor to Mark Zuckerberg, and Facebook investor, who went from being a founding supporter of the world’s biggest and most profitable social media company to becoming one of its most influential critics. There is nothing the charismatic McNamee won’t discuss about Facebook's business model and practices, including his own adventures at the birth of Big Tech.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Join us for a conversation with ROGER MCNAMEE, the noted tech venture capitalist, early mentor to Mark Zuckerberg, and Facebook investor, who went from being a founding supporter of the world’s biggest and most profitable social media company to becoming one of its most influential critics. There is nothing the charismatic McNamee won’t discuss about Facebook's business model and practices, including his own adventures at the birth of Big Tech. 

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]]> 2734 no Isabel Allende on the Stories of Refugees Known and Imagined In this episode, internationally beloved author ISABEL ALLENDE, sits down virtually with her good friend, PBS/NewsHour’s Jeffrey Brown, to discuss her latest novel “A LONG PETAL OF THE SEA.” Along the way, she brings us closer to the upheavals of the Spanish Civil War; Chile during Pinochet’s military dictatorship; the stories of refugees known and imagined; and, of course, the art of fiction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Wed, 07 Oct 2020 09:00:00 -0000 Isabel Allende on the Stories of Refugees Known and Imagined full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference From the Sun Valley Writers' Conference In this episode, internationally beloved author ISABEL ALLENDE, sits down virtually with her good friend, PBS/NewsHour’s Jeffrey Brown, to discuss her latest novel “A LONG PETAL OF THE SEA.” Along the way, she brings us closer to the upheavals of the Spanish Civil War; Chile during Pinochet’s military dictatorship; the stories of refugees known and imagined; and, of course, the art of fiction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices In this episode, internationally beloved author ISABEL ALLENDE, sits down virtually with her good friend, PBS/NewsHour’s Jeffrey Brown, to discuss her latest novel “A LONG PETAL OF THE SEA.” Along the way, she brings us closer to the upheavals of the Spanish Civil War; Chile during Pinochet’s military dictatorship; the stories of refugees known and imagined; and, of course, the art of fiction.

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]]> 2124 no Ayad Akhtar: Finding a Voice to Address the American 'Us' In this episode of Beyond the Page, host John Burnham Schwartz talks with Ayad Akhtar, the new president of PEN America and author of Homeland Elegies, about the uncanny experience of writing his latest novel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Mon, 14 Sep 2020 12:20:12 -0000 Ayad Akhtar: Finding a Voice to Address the American 'Us' full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference In conversation with John Burnham Schwartz In this episode of Beyond the Page, host John Burnham Schwartz talks with Ayad Akhtar, the new president of PEN America and author of Homeland Elegies, about the uncanny experience of writing his latest novel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices In this episode of Beyond the Page, host John Burnham Schwartz talks with Ayad Akhtar, the new president of PEN America and author of Homeland Elegies, about the uncanny experience of writing his latest novel.

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]]> 2890 Susan Orlean: On the Eccentric Nature of Curiosity In this episode of BEYOND THE PAGE, host John Burnham Schwartz talks with SUSAN ORLEAN, longtime New Yorker staff writer and bestselling author of The Library Book and The Orchid Thief, about libraries and memory, about the eccentric nature of curiosity, and about the journalistic surprises and personal satisfactions of finally writing her own story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Thu, 20 Aug 2020 21:29:53 -0000 Susan Orlean: On the Eccentric Nature of Curiosity full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference In conversation with John Burnham Schwartz In this episode of BEYOND THE PAGE, host John Burnham Schwartz talks with SUSAN ORLEAN, longtime New Yorker staff writer and bestselling author of The Library Book and The Orchid Thief, about libraries and memory, about the eccentric nature of curiosity, and about the journalistic surprises and personal satisfactions of finally writing her own story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices In this episode of BEYOND THE PAGE, host John Burnham Schwartz talks with SUSAN ORLEAN, longtime New Yorker staff writer and bestselling author of The Library Book and The Orchid Thief, about libraries and memory, about the eccentric nature of curiosity, and about the journalistic surprises and personal satisfactions of finally writing her own story.

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]]> 1833 no The Red Daughter: The Remarkable Life of Stalin’s Daughter In his sixth novel, The Red Daughter, novelist (and regular Beyond the Page host, JOHN BURNHAM SCHWARTZ imaginatively inhabits the life of Svetlana Alliluyeva (1926 – 2011), the only daughter of Joseph Stalin, who in his three decades as the tyrannical ruler of the Soviet Union was responsible for the deaths of far more than twenty million people. At the height of the Cold War, Svetlana became the most important Soviet citizen ever to defect to the West, arriving in New York to throngs of reporters and a nation hungry to hear her story. By her side was a young lawyer sent by the CIA to smuggle her into America. That lawyer was John Burnham Schwartz’s father. In this episode of Beyond the Page, moving between excerpts from his talk at the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference and a conversation with New Yorker Staff Writer Larissa MaFarqhuhar, Schwartz recreates for us the story of an extraordinary, troubled woman’s search for a new life and a place to belong. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Thu, 30 Jul 2020 10:35:21 -0000 The Red Daughter: The Remarkable Life of Stalin’s Daughter full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference In conversation with Larissa MaFarqhuhar In his sixth novel, The Red Daughter, novelist (and regular Beyond the Page host, JOHN BURNHAM SCHWARTZ imaginatively inhabits the life of Svetlana Alliluyeva (1926 – 2011), the only daughter of Joseph Stalin, who in his three decades as the tyrannical ruler of the Soviet Union was responsible for the deaths of far more than twenty million people. At the height of the Cold War, Svetlana became the most important Soviet citizen ever to defect to the West, arriving in New York to throngs of reporters and a nation hungry to hear her story. By her side was a young lawyer sent by the CIA to smuggle her into America. That lawyer was John Burnham Schwartz’s father. In this episode of Beyond the Page, moving between excerpts from his talk at the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference and a conversation with New Yorker Staff Writer Larissa MaFarqhuhar, Schwartz recreates for us the story of an extraordinary, troubled woman’s search for a new life and a place to belong. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices In his sixth novel, The Red Daughter, novelist (and regular Beyond the Page host, JOHN BURNHAM SCHWARTZ imaginatively inhabits the life of Svetlana Alliluyeva (1926 – 2011), the only daughter of Joseph Stalin, who in his three decades as the tyrannical ruler of the Soviet Union was responsible for the deaths of far more than twenty million people. At the height of the Cold War, Svetlana became the most important Soviet citizen ever to defect to the West, arriving in New York to throngs of reporters and a nation hungry to hear her story. By her side was a young lawyer sent by the CIA to smuggle her into America. That lawyer was John Burnham Schwartz’s father. In this episode of Beyond the Page, moving between excerpts from his talk at the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference and a conversation with New Yorker Staff Writer Larissa MaFarqhuhar, Schwartz recreates for us the story of an extraordinary, troubled woman’s search for a new life and a place to belong.


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]]> 2464 no Roger Wilkins: “Bearing Witness” In 2002, the late civil rights champion Roger Wilkins gave one of the most memorable talks ever given at the Writers’ Conference. Roger’s great grandfather was a slave. Two generations later, Roger’s uncle, Roy Wilkins, became the legendary leader of the NAACP for over two decades. Three generations removed from the Mississippi slave fields, Roger Wilkins played pivotal roles in the civil rights advancements of both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and later, as author, columnist, and professor, became a powerful voice of advocacy and hope for Black people in America. In the wake of the police killing of George Floyd and other black Americans, and in the midst of the Black Lives Matter movement, the words of Roger Wilkins, who died in 2017 at the age of 85, have never sounded more relevant, or vital, to the conversation about what kind of great nation America was meant to be, and must still become.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Mon, 20 Jul 2020 04:00:00 -0000 Roger Wilkins: “Bearing Witness” full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference From the 2002 Sun Valley Writers' Conference In 2002, the late civil rights champion Roger Wilkins gave one of the most memorable talks ever given at the Writers’ Conference. Roger’s great grandfather was a slave. Two generations later, Roger’s uncle, Roy Wilkins, became the legendary leader of the NAACP for over two decades. Three generations removed from the Mississippi slave fields, Roger Wilkins played pivotal roles in the civil rights advancements of both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and later, as author, columnist, and professor, became a powerful voice of advocacy and hope for Black people in America. In the wake of the police killing of George Floyd and other black Americans, and in the midst of the Black Lives Matter movement, the words of Roger Wilkins, who died in 2017 at the age of 85, have never sounded more relevant, or vital, to the conversation about what kind of great nation America was meant to be, and must still become.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices In 2002, the late civil rights champion Roger Wilkins gave one of the most memorable talks ever given at the Writers’ Conference.

Roger’s great grandfather was a slave. Two generations later, Roger’s uncle, Roy Wilkins, became the legendary leader of the NAACP for over two decades. Three generations removed from the Mississippi slave fields, Roger Wilkins played pivotal roles in the civil rights advancements of both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and later, as author, columnist, and professor, became a powerful voice of advocacy and hope for Black people in America.

In the wake of the police killing of George Floyd and other black Americans, and in the midst of the Black Lives Matter movement, the words of Roger Wilkins, who died in 2017 at the age of 85, have never sounded more relevant, or vital, to the conversation about what kind of great nation America was meant to be, and must still become.

 

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]]> 1675 no George Packer: How Do We Wrap Our Arms Around America? As the country reeled under the weight of one shock after another—first the pandemic, then levels of mass unemployment not seen since the Great Depression, and most recently an unprecedented wave of protests against racism and police brutality—the June issue of The Atlantic magazine ran a cover story with the provocative title, “We Are Living in a Failed State.” The author was George Packer, one of the preeminent long-form journalists writing in the US today. His last three books—The Assassins Gate about the invasion of Iraq, The Unwinding about the economic and social transformation of America since the 1970s and Our Man, a biography of the larger than life American diplomat, Richard Holbrooke—each in its own unique way, tried to provide a window into the big challenges America has faced, both abroad and at home, over the last twenty-five years. In this episode, George talks with Liaquat Ahamed, a board member of the Sun Valley Writers Conference about where we are as a country, how we got here, and how a writer of non-fiction like him is able, using techniques drawn from the great novelists, “to wrap his arms around America.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Mon, 15 Jun 2020 13:38:09 -0000 George Packer: How Do We Wrap Our Arms Around America? full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference In conversation with Liaquat Ahamed As the country reeled under the weight of one shock after another—first the pandemic, then levels of mass unemployment not seen since the Great Depression, and most recently an unprecedented wave of protests against racism and police brutality—the June issue of The Atlantic magazine ran a cover story with the provocative title, “We Are Living in a Failed State.” The author was George Packer, one of the preeminent long-form journalists writing in the US today. His last three books—The Assassins Gate about the invasion of Iraq, The Unwinding about the economic and social transformation of America since the 1970s and Our Man, a biography of the larger than life American diplomat, Richard Holbrooke—each in its own unique way, tried to provide a window into the big challenges America has faced, both abroad and at home, over the last twenty-five years. In this episode, George talks with Liaquat Ahamed, a board member of the Sun Valley Writers Conference about where we are as a country, how we got here, and how a writer of non-fiction like him is able, using techniques drawn from the great novelists, “to wrap his arms around America.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices As the country reeled under the weight of one shock after another—first the pandemic, then levels of mass unemployment not seen since the Great Depression, and most recently an unprecedented wave of protests against racism and police brutality—the June issue of The Atlantic magazine ran a cover story with the provocative title, “We Are Living in a Failed State.” The author was George Packer, one of the preeminent long-form journalists writing in the US today. His last three books—The Assassins Gate about the invasion of Iraq, The Unwinding about the economic and social transformation of America since the 1970s and Our Man, a biography of the larger than life American diplomat, Richard Holbrooke—each in its own unique way, tried to provide a window into the big challenges America has faced, both abroad and at home, over the last twenty-five years. In this episode, George talks with Liaquat Ahamed, a board member of the Sun Valley Writers Conference about where we are as a country, how we got here, and how a writer of non-fiction like him is able, using techniques drawn from the great novelists, “to wrap his arms around America.”


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]]> 2135 no Alexander Maksik on Caring For an Ill and Aging Parent From a Distance What happens, what emotional threads get pulled when halfway around the globe a father gets sick from Covid? In an evocative personal essay for The New Yorker, My Father's Voice from Paris, novelist Alexander Maksik faces those questions and all the attendant thoughts and feelings provoked by them. Living in Maui with his wife, the novelist Madhuri Vijay, and his 6-month-old daughter Ela, Maksik's only contact with his father was through the phone. He listened as his father grew weaker knowing he could not go to him. It is both a story for our time and a timeless one about a son's love for a father. In this episode of Beyond the Page, Xander talks with Anne Taylor Fleming, associate director of the Sun Valley Writers' Conference, about the essay, about fatherhood and about Paris, the city both father and son know intimately.            Alexander Maksik is the author of the novels You Deserve Nothing, A Marker to Measure Drift, which was a 2013 New York Times Book Review Notable Book, and Shelter in Place. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Sat, 30 May 2020 15:49:20 -0000 Alexander Maksik on Caring For an Ill and Aging Parent From a Distance full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference In conversation with Anne Taylor Fleming What happens, what emotional threads get pulled when halfway around the globe a father gets sick from Covid? In an evocative personal essay for The New Yorker, My Father's Voice from Paris, novelist Alexander Maksik faces those questions and all the attendant thoughts and feelings provoked by them. Living in Maui with his wife, the novelist Madhuri Vijay, and his 6-month-old daughter Ela, Maksik's only contact with his father was through the phone. He listened as his father grew weaker knowing he could not go to him. It is both a story for our time and a timeless one about a son's love for a father. In this episode of Beyond the Page, Xander talks with Anne Taylor Fleming, associate director of the Sun Valley Writers' Conference, about the essay, about fatherhood and about Paris, the city both father and son know intimately.            Alexander Maksik is the author of the novels You Deserve Nothing, A Marker to Measure Drift, which was a 2013 New York Times Book Review Notable Book, and Shelter in Place. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices What happens, what emotional threads get pulled when halfway around the globe a father gets sick from Covid? In an evocative personal essay for The New Yorker, My Father's Voice from Paris, novelist Alexander Maksik faces those questions and all the attendant thoughts and feelings provoked by them. Living in Maui with his wife, the novelist Madhuri Vijay, and his 6-month-old daughter Ela, Maksik's only contact with his father was through the phone. He listened as his father grew weaker knowing he could not go to him. It is both a story for our time and a timeless one about a son's love for a father. In this episode of Beyond the Page, Xander talks with Anne Taylor Fleming, associate director of the Sun Valley Writers' Conference, about the essay, about fatherhood and about Paris, the city both father and son know intimately.           

Alexander Maksik is the author of the novels You Deserve Nothing, A Marker to Measure Drift, which was a 2013 New York Times Book Review Notable Book, and Shelter in Place.


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]]> 1928 no The End of Secrets: Family History in the Age of Bio-Ethics In the spring of 2016, author DANI SHAPIRO received the stunning news through a genealogy website that her father was not her biological father.  Her memoir, Inheritance, captures her urgent quest to unlock the story of her own identity, a story that had been scrupulously hidden from her for more than fifty years. It caused her to rethink everything she knew about herself, her roots, her family, the ground underneath her. In this episode of Beyond the Page, she talks with physician and author Abraham Verghese about living in a time in which science and technology are uncovering long-held secrets and about the capacities of the human heart to contend with the consequences of what we discover. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Thu, 23 Apr 2020 10:37:58 -0000 The End of Secrets: Family History in the Age of Bio-Ethics full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference Dani Shapiro at the Sun Valley Writers' Conference In the spring of 2016, author DANI SHAPIRO received the stunning news through a genealogy website that her father was not her biological father.  Her memoir, Inheritance, captures her urgent quest to unlock the story of her own identity, a story that had been scrupulously hidden from her for more than fifty years. It caused her to rethink everything she knew about herself, her roots, her family, the ground underneath her. In this episode of Beyond the Page, she talks with physician and author Abraham Verghese about living in a time in which science and technology are uncovering long-held secrets and about the capacities of the human heart to contend with the consequences of what we discover. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices In the spring of 2016, author DANI SHAPIRO received the stunning news through a genealogy website that her father was not her biological father.  Her memoir, Inheritance, captures her urgent quest to unlock the story of her own identity, a story that had been scrupulously hidden from her for more than fifty years. It caused her to rethink everything she knew about herself, her roots, her family, the ground underneath her. In this episode of Beyond the Page, she talks with physician and author Abraham Verghese about living in a time in which science and technology are uncovering long-held secrets and about the capacities of the human heart to contend with the consequences of what we discover.

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]]> 2539 no Frank McCourt: The Underlying Story In 1996, (a 66-year-old) retired New York City public school teacher named Frank McCourt published his first book, a memoir about his brutally impoverished Irish Catholic childhood in the slums of Limerick. If ever there was a “rags-to-riches” story in publishing, Angela’s Ashes was it: The book would go on to receive the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, sell more than four million copies in hardcover alone, and become a film directed by Alan Parker. At the age of 66, Frank emerged almost overnight as one of the most celebrated authors in America. But if you knew Frank, you knew two things, at least: First, he never took anything at face value, including, and perhaps especially, his own extraordinary, late-blooming success. And second, for all the joy and gratitude he took from his unexpected good fortune, he refused to ever completely shed his (the) core of (coal-dark) anger that remained from (his childhood of poverty) growing up in terrible poverty. That he was able to so often turn that anger into unforgettable humor was just one of the many reasons why he was such a gifted writer. As he himself tells us, however, before becoming that writer, he somehow had to learn what he still needed to know. And in order to do that, he first had to become teacher. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Tue, 17 Mar 2020 11:58:15 -0000 Frank McCourt: The Underlying Story full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference From the Sun Valley Writers' Conference In 1996, (a 66-year-old) retired New York City public school teacher named Frank McCourt published his first book, a memoir about his brutally impoverished Irish Catholic childhood in the slums of Limerick. If ever there was a “rags-to-riches” story in publishing, Angela’s Ashes was it: The book would go on to receive the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, sell more than four million copies in hardcover alone, and become a film directed by Alan Parker. At the age of 66, Frank emerged almost overnight as one of the most celebrated authors in America. But if you knew Frank, you knew two things, at least: First, he never took anything at face value, including, and perhaps especially, his own extraordinary, late-blooming success. And second, for all the joy and gratitude he took from his unexpected good fortune, he refused to ever completely shed his (the) core of (coal-dark) anger that remained from (his childhood of poverty) growing up in terrible poverty. That he was able to so often turn that anger into unforgettable humor was just one of the many reasons why he was such a gifted writer. As he himself tells us, however, before becoming that writer, he somehow had to learn what he still needed to know. And in order to do that, he first had to become teacher. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices In 1996, (a 66-year-old) retired New York City public school teacher named Frank McCourt published his first book, a memoir about his brutally impoverished Irish Catholic childhood in the slums of Limerick. If ever there was a “rags-to-riches” story in publishing, Angela’s Ashes was it: The book would go on to receive the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, sell more than four million copies in hardcover alone, and become a film directed by Alan Parker. At the age of 66, Frank emerged almost overnight as one of the most celebrated authors in America. But if you knew Frank, you knew two things, at least: First, he never took anything at face value, including, and perhaps especially, his own extraordinary, late-blooming success. And second, for all the joy and gratitude he took from his unexpected good fortune, he refused to ever completely shed his (the) core of (coal-dark) anger that remained from (his childhood of poverty) growing up in terrible poverty. That he was able to so often turn that anger into unforgettable humor was just one of the many reasons why he was such a gifted writer. As he himself tells us, however, before becoming that writer, he somehow had to learn what he still needed to know. And in order to do that, he first had to become teacher.

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]]> 1466 no 2018: Literary Immigration: A Conversation with Edwidge Danticat In one way or another, from the moment she left Haiti to settle in Brooklyn, New York, at age 12, Edwidge Danticat has been writing stories (prize-winning novels, memoirs, and essays) about the experience and effects of immigration. In conversation with Jeffrey Brown of the PBS NewsHour, she will talk about the ways that first seismic journey in her life has shaped all the journeys she has lived and written since. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Sat, 15 Feb 2020 23:59:08 -0000 2018: Literary Immigration: A Conversation with Edwidge Danticat full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference In conversation with Jeffrey Brown of the PBS NewsHour In one way or another, from the moment she left Haiti to settle in Brooklyn, New York, at age 12, Edwidge Danticat has been writing stories (prize-winning novels, memoirs, and essays) about the experience and effects of immigration. In conversation with Jeffrey Brown of the PBS NewsHour, she will talk about the ways that first seismic journey in her life has shaped all the journeys she has lived and written since. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices In one way or another, from the moment she left Haiti to settle in Brooklyn, New York, at age 12, Edwidge Danticat has been writing stories (prize-winning novels, memoirs, and essays) about the experience and effects of immigration. In conversation with Jeffrey Brown of the PBS NewsHour, she will talk about the ways that first seismic journey in her life has shaped all the journeys she has lived and written since.

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]]> 1692 no Mitch Landrieu: A White Southerner Confronts History When New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu addressed the people of his city in May, 2017 about his decision to take down four Confederate monuments, including the statue of Robert E. Lee, he struck a nerve throughout the nation – his brave and inspirational speech has now been heard by millions.  As he described that experience in his powerful memoir In the Shadow of Statues – and as he tells it here – Mayor Landrieu’s relationship to the question of race in America is deeply personal and complicated, and begins for him with his own family’s history, and the history of the city of his birth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Thu, 16 Jan 2020 14:11:04 -0000 Mitch Landrieu: A White Southerner Confronts History full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference From the Sun Valley Writers' Conference When New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu addressed the people of his city in May, 2017 about his decision to take down four Confederate monuments, including the statue of Robert E. Lee, he struck a nerve throughout the nation – his brave and inspirational speech has now been heard by millions.  As he described that experience in his powerful memoir In the Shadow of Statues – and as he tells it here – Mayor Landrieu’s relationship to the question of race in America is deeply personal and complicated, and begins for him with his own family’s history, and the history of the city of his birth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices When New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu addressed the people of his city in May, 2017 about his decision to take down four Confederate monuments, including the statue of Robert E. Lee, he struck a nerve throughout the nation – his brave and inspirational speech has now been heard by millions. 

As he described that experience in his powerful memoir In the Shadow of Statues – and as he tells it here – Mayor Landrieu’s relationship to the question of race in America is deeply personal and complicated, and begins for him with his own family’s history, and the history of the city of his birth.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

]]> 1428 no Alexandra Fuller: Memories of an African Childhood Welcome to Beyond the Page: The Best of the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference. Over the past 25 years, SVWC has become the gold standard of American literary festivals, bringing together contemporary writing's brightest stars for their view of the world through a literary lens. Every month, <i>Beyond the Page</i> curates and distills the best talks from the past quarter century at the Writers’ Conference, giving you a front row seat on the kind of knowledge, inspiration, laughter, and meaning that Sun Valley is known for. Below is an edited recording of writer Alexandra Fuller at the 2012 Sun Valley Writers' Conference. Fuller, whose two best-selling, award-winning memoirs about her parents and her childhood in southern Africa, Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight and Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, indelibly evoking a landscape of love, loss, longing and reconciliation, will discuss both what she has found in the process of writing those books, and what she has lost. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Sun, 15 Dec 2019 14:13:00 -0000 Alexandra Fuller: Memories of an African Childhood full Sun Valley Writers’ Conference The author of <em>Travel Light, Move Fast</em> at the Sun Valley Writers' Conference Welcome to Beyond the Page: The Best of the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference. Over the past 25 years, SVWC has become the gold standard of American literary festivals, bringing together contemporary writing's brightest stars for their view of the world through a literary lens. Every month, <i>Beyond the Page</i> curates and distills the best talks from the past quarter century at the Writers’ Conference, giving you a front row seat on the kind of knowledge, inspiration, laughter, and meaning that Sun Valley is known for. Below is an edited recording of writer Alexandra Fuller at the 2012 Sun Valley Writers' Conference. Fuller, whose two best-selling, award-winning memoirs about her parents and her childhood in southern Africa, Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight and Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, indelibly evoking a landscape of love, loss, longing and reconciliation, will discuss both what she has found in the process of writing those books, and what she has lost. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Welcome to Beyond the Page: The Best of the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference. Over the past 25 years, SVWC has become the gold standard of American literary festivals, bringing together contemporary writing's brightest stars for their view of the world through a literary lens. Every month, <i>Beyond the Page</i> curates and distills the best talks from the past quarter century at the Writers’ Conference, giving you a front row seat on the kind of knowledge, inspiration, laughter, and meaning that Sun Valley is known for.


Below is an edited recording of writer Alexandra Fuller at the 2012 Sun Valley Writers' Conference. Fuller, whose two best-selling, award-winning memoirs about her parents and her childhood in southern Africa, Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight and Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, indelibly evoking a landscape of love, loss, longing and reconciliation, will discuss both what she has found in the process of writing those books, and what she has lost.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

]]> 1531 no Ayad Akhtar: Muslims in America: A Playwright’s Compendium of Characters No playwright has challenged our perceptions of Muslims in America as boldly, and with such dramatic vigor, as has AYAD AKHTAR, who won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Disgraced, the most produced play of the 2015-2016 season.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Fri, 15 Nov 2019 11:37:24 -0000 Ayad Akhtar: Muslims in America: A Playwright’s Compendium of Characters full 1 4 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference The Pakistani-American playwright at the Sun Valley Writers' Conference No playwright has challenged our perceptions of Muslims in America as boldly, and with such dramatic vigor, as has AYAD AKHTAR, who won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Disgraced, the most produced play of the 2015-2016 season.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices No playwright has challenged our perceptions of Muslims in America as boldly, and with such dramatic vigor, as has AYAD AKHTAR, who won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Disgraced, the most produced play of the 2015-2016 season. 

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]]> 2030 no Min Jin Lee: On Speaking and Power Welcome to Beyond the Page: The Best of the Sun Valley Writers' Conference. In this episode, we hear from the award-winning novelist Min Jin Lee. Speech, memory, and the power to tell one's story -- for Lee, these are not abstract, philosophical ideas. They are doorways leading her back to the process by which after great struggle she was able to find her own voice, first as a profoundly shy Korean girl growing up in America and eventually as the exceptional novelist she became. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Tue, 01 Oct 2019 21:32:31 -0000 Min Jin Lee: On Speaking and Power full 1 3 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference The Korean-American writer at the Sun Valley Writers' Conference Welcome to Beyond the Page: The Best of the Sun Valley Writers' Conference. In this episode, we hear from the award-winning novelist Min Jin Lee. Speech, memory, and the power to tell one's story -- for Lee, these are not abstract, philosophical ideas. They are doorways leading her back to the process by which after great struggle she was able to find her own voice, first as a profoundly shy Korean girl growing up in America and eventually as the exceptional novelist she became. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Welcome to Beyond the Page: The Best of the Sun Valley Writers' Conference. In this episode, we hear from the award-winning novelist Min Jin Lee. Speech, memory, and the power to tell one's story -- for Lee, these are not abstract, philosophical ideas. They are doorways leading her back to the process by which after great struggle she was able to find her own voice, first as a profoundly shy Korean girl growing up in America and eventually as the exceptional novelist she became.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

]]> 1176 no David Grossman: Creating a Dialogue in Israel Welcome to Beyond the Page: The Best of the Sun Valley Writers' Conference. In this episode, we hear from the great Israeli novelist David Grossman, widely regarded as part of the collective liberal conscience of Israel, about his masterpiece To the End of the Land.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Sun, 01 Sep 2019 04:00:00 -0000 David Grossman: Creating a Dialogue in Israel full 1 2 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference The Israeli novelist at the Sun Valley Writers' Conference Welcome to Beyond the Page: The Best of the Sun Valley Writers' Conference. In this episode, we hear from the great Israeli novelist David Grossman, widely regarded as part of the collective liberal conscience of Israel, about his masterpiece To the End of the Land.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Welcome to Beyond the Page: The Best of the Sun Valley Writers' Conference. In this episode, we hear from the great Israeli novelist David Grossman, widely regarded as part of the collective liberal conscience of Israel, about his masterpiece To the End of the Land. 

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]]> 1477 no Anthony Doerr: The Beautiful Art of Failure Welcome to Beyond the Page: The Best of the Sun Valley Writers' Conference. In a world obsessed with success, Pulitzer-Prize winning novelist ANTHONY DOERR has maintained an abiding belief in, and a creative need for, the bracing tonic of failure. In a talk filled with humor and hard-won wisdom, he discusses how being willing to risk failing at stuff to realize one’s original vision is the writer’s most essential job. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Wed, 17 Jul 2019 15:18:00 -0000 Anthony Doerr: The Beautiful Art of Failure full 1 1 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference A talk from the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning All the Light We Cannot See Welcome to Beyond the Page: The Best of the Sun Valley Writers' Conference. In a world obsessed with success, Pulitzer-Prize winning novelist ANTHONY DOERR has maintained an abiding belief in, and a creative need for, the bracing tonic of failure. In a talk filled with humor and hard-won wisdom, he discusses how being willing to risk failing at stuff to realize one’s original vision is the writer’s most essential job. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Welcome to Beyond the Page: The Best of the Sun Valley Writers' Conference. In a world obsessed with success, Pulitzer-Prize winning novelist ANTHONY DOERR has maintained an abiding belief in, and a creative need for, the bracing tonic of failure. In a talk filled with humor and hard-won wisdom, he discusses how being willing to risk failing at stuff to realize one’s original vision is the writer’s most essential job.

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