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31 Episodes 2015 - 2016
Episode 1
Fri, Sep 11, 2015
New York Times columnist and author David Brooks discusses his new book Road to Character. Brooks discusses the people who he profiled in the book and how, through internal struggle and a sense of their own limitations, they have built a strong inner character. The discussion centers around the opportunity for us to rethink our priorities, and strive to build rich inner lives marked by humility and moral depth.
Episode 2
Fri, Sep 18, 2015
New York Times columnist and author David Brooks discusses his new book Road to Character. Brooks discusses the people who he profiled in the book and how, through internal struggle and a sense of their own limitations, they have built a strong inner character. The discussion centers around the opportunity for us to rethink our priorities, and strive to build rich inner lives marked by humility and moral depth.
Episode 3
Fri, Sep 25, 2015
In this new installment in his acclaimed series of novels examining the collisions between Native Americans and European colonizers, William T. Vollmann tells the story of the Nez Perce War. He shares with Well READ his unique research style, his unorthodox writing style, and why this story needed 1100 pages to tell. Vollmann reveals that he has taken peculiar risks in his life in an attempt to thoroughly understand human nature and be a better writer.
Episode 4
Sun, Feb 1, 2026
Helen Macdonald shares her love story about a goshawk named Mabel. After her father's death, and seeing that the goshawk's fierce and feral temperament mirrored her own, she decides to train the deadly creature as a means to cope with her loss. At times poignant and at times comical, Macdonald tells Well READ the ups and downs of loving Mabel and how she healed because of it.
Episode 5
Sun, Feb 1, 2026
In a ripped from the headlines novel, Don Winslow continues his tale of the horrendous acts of the Mexican drug cartels. He tells Well READ how he fought writing this continuing story but in the end decided it was a story that needed to told. Winslow talks humorously about how writing is an addiction and he sometimes needs an intervention.
Episode 6
Fri, Oct 16, 2015
Salman Rushdie, author of eleven previous novels, discusses his new novel, a "spellbinding work of fiction that blends history, mythology, and a timeless love story." Inspired by the traditional "wonder tales" of the East, Salman Rushdie's novel is a masterpiece about the age-old conflicts that remain in today's world.
Episode 7
Fri, Oct 23, 2015
1-on-1 interview with author Erica Jong, "Fear of Dying"; book recommendations in Bookmarks.
Episode 8
Fri, Oct 30, 2015
In the first-ever history about the organization, New York Times bestselling author Annie Jacobsen draws on inside sources, exclusive interviews, private documents, and declassified memos to paint a picture of DARPA, or "the Pentagon's brain," from its Cold War inception in 1958 to the present. Jacobsen shares details and insights on Well READ.
Episode 9
Fri, Nov 6, 2015
In August 2010 the world was captivated by the story of 33 miners trapped underground for weeks after a disastrous mining accident. After the disaster, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Héctor Tobar received exclusive access to the miners and their tales, and in Deep Down Dark, he brings them to haunting, visceral life. We learn what it was like to be imprisoned inside a mountain, understand the horror of being slowly consumed by hunger, and experience the awe of working in such a place-one filled with danger and that often felt alive. Our interview airs one week before the world premiere of the movie with the same name.
Episode 10
Fri, Nov 13, 2015
New York Times bestselling author, Jonathan Evison, shares the story of a seemingly ordinary 78 year old woman's surprising life. A book Evison says he wrote as a "tribute to the courageous women in my life." A lively conversation with Evison about his bittersweet portrait of postmodern women everywhere.
Episode 11
Fri, Nov 20, 2015
1-on-1 interview with author Elizabeth Gilbert, "Big Magic, Creative Living Beyond Fear"; book recommendations in Bookmarks.
Episode 12
Fri, Nov 27, 2015
Straight from her busy travel schedule, Gloria Steinem-writer, activist, organizer, and inspiring leader- sits down with Well READ to share a story she has never told before, giving us a candid account of her life as a traveler, a listener, and a catalyst for change.
Episode 13
Fri, Dec 25, 2015
A writer who also acts, Jesse Eisenberg shares his collection of sharp, funny stories from his self-ironic and original voice. From how he found his writing voice, to how he channels his nervous energy, it is a whip-smart interview that will keep viewers on their toes.
Episode 14
Fri, Jan 1, 2016
The beloved teacher of spiritual wisdom and author of the phenomenal New York Times and international bestseller The Four Agreements talks about his mystical Toltec-inspired personal journey. Over ten years in the making, The Toltec Art of Life and Death invites readers into the mind of a master of spiritual seeking, offering an unparalleled and intimate glimpse into the development of a soul.
Episode 15
Fri, Jan 8, 2016
Bestselling author of Assassination Vacation and The Partly Cloudy Patriot and frequent guest on The Daily Show, comes to Well READ with an insightful and unconventional account of George Washington's trusted officer and friend, that swashbuckling teenage French aristocrat the Marquis de Lafayette.
Episode 16
Fri, Jan 15, 2016
Leonard Pitts, Jr., nationally syndicated columnist for the Miami Herald and winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, sits down with Well READ to discuss his new novel Grant Park. Pitts talks about his provocative look at black and white relations in contemporary America, blending the absurd and the poignant in a powerfully well-crafted narrative.
Episode 17
Fri, Jan 22, 2016
Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Cleopatra, the #1 national bestseller Stacy Schiff unravels the mystery of the Salem Witch Trials. As psychologically thrilling as it is historically seminal, Schiff's shares with Well READ the account of this haunting story-the first great American mystery unveiled fully for the first time by one of our most acclaimed historians.
Episode 18
Fri, Jan 29, 2016
Pulitzer Prize winner and #1 New York Times bestselling author Jon Meacham sits down to discuss Destiny and Power. In this sweeping yet intimate biography of George H. W. Bush, Meacham draws on President Bush's personal diaries, on the diaries of his wife, Barbara, and on extraordinary access to the forty-first president and his family.
Episode 19
Fri, Feb 5, 2016
Well READ goes on the road to one of the biggest book fairs in the world. The fair brings over 300 renowned national and international authors exhibitors to a week-long celebration of all things literary. In Part 1, Well READ talks to humorists giving readers a lighthearted diversion from life's harsh realities.
Episode 20
Fri, Feb 12, 2016
Terry sits down with authors who've found themselves on some of the biggest book awards lists of the year.
Episode 21
Fri, Feb 19, 2016
From the bestselling author of Olive Kitteridge and The Burgess Boys, comes a keenly observant, deeply human and truly unforgettable new book. In My Name Is Lucy Barton, extraordinary writer, Elizabeth Strout, shows how a simple hospital visit becomes a portal to the most tender relationship of all-the one between mother and daughter.
Episode 22
Fri, Feb 26, 2016
National Book Award-winning and best-selling author Timothy Egan comes to Well READ with the epic story of one of the most fascinating and colorful Irishman in nineteenth-century America - Thomas Francis Meagher. The Irish-American story, with all its twists and triumphs, is told through the improbable life of Meagher.
Episode 23
Fri, Mar 25, 2016
A writer who has been hailed as "the most mature and accomplished novelist of his generation," Ethan Canin, the New York Times bestselling author of America America and The Palace Thief, comes to Well READ to discuss his latest novel. A Doubter's Almanac tells the story of a family as it explores the way ambition lives alongside destructiveness, obsession alongside torment, love alongside grief.
Episode 24
Fri, Apr 1, 2016
New York Times bestselling author Eric Weiner of the new book, The Geography of Genius, takes Well READ on an informed romp through history, offering clues into what makes for a creative culture. The acclaimed travel writer and former NPR correspondent examines the connection between our surroundings and innovative ideas.
Episode 25
Fri, Apr 8, 2016
For the first time, Well READ welcomes author Pamela Sakamoto to the show to discuss her meticulously researched and beautifully written, Midnight in Broad Daylight. Sakamoto reveals the true story of a Japanese American family that found itself on opposite sides during World War II-an epic tale of family, separation, divided loyalties, love, reconciliation, loss, and redemption.
Episode 26
Fri, Apr 15, 2016
In this special addition of Well READ, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Héctor Tobar fills in as guest host to interview best selling author and fellow former LA Times reporter, Sam Quinones, about the drug scourge running through our country. They will discuss the rise of pain killer abuse to heroin addictions.
Episode 27
Fri, Apr 22, 2016
Author of five novels, Helen Oyeyemi brings her new collection of short stories - What is Yours is Not Yours - to Well READ. The award-winning author of Boy, Snow, Bird and Mr. Fox brings together a series of stories cleverly built around the idea of keys, literal and metaphorical.
Episode 28
Fri, Apr 29, 2016
Journalist, lecturer and author of seven books, Adam Hochschild discusses Spain in Our Hearts. A sweeping history of the Spanish Civil War, told through nine American and British characters including Hemingway and George Orwell. He unravels the complicated war between fascism, communism, and democracy that preceded World War II.
Episode 29
Fri, May 6, 2016
With more than two million copies of her novels sold, New York Times bestselling author Geraldine Brooks takes on one of literature's richest and most enigmatic figures: King David. Brooks takes Well READ through his journey from obscurity to fame, from shepherd to soldier, from hero to traitor, from beloved king to murderous despot and into his remorseful and diminished dotage.
Episode 30
Fri, May 13, 2016
Author of The Highest Tide, Border Songs and Truth Like the Sun, returns to Well READ with his long-awaited breakthrough - a grand saga of a sailing-obsessed family, "Before the Wind." Set in Seattle, Victoria and Olympia, much of the novel unfolds on the water in this two-decade odyssey of the Johannssen family.
Episode 31
Fri, Jun 17, 2016
Over the past twenty years, journalist Joshua Hammer visited Timbuktu numerous times and is uniquely qualified to tell the story of how a band of librarians in Timbuktu pulls off a brazen heist to save precious centuries-old Arabic texts from Al Qaeda. The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu is an inspiring account of the victory of art and literature over extremism.