Mpr News With Kerri Miller

After “An American Marriage,” her wildly successful 2018 novel, Tayari Jones signed a contract for her next book to be about a woman grappling with gentrification in modern Atlanta. She tried to write that story. But it wasn’t doing that “magical thing that lets you know you have art,” she says on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas. “It was a good idea. But the book wasn’t booking, as my students say.”And then 2020 happened. A million Americans died from COVID, including some of Jones’ friends. Then George Floyd was murdered. Protests rocked the country. Jones started to wonder if writing a novel even mattered. And then she got sick with an autoimmune disorder. She started to write again just to soothe herself.The new story “kept me company the same way reading a book may keep someone company,” she tells host Kerri Miller. “I loved [main characters] Annie and Niecy. I was eager to see what would become of them. I was delighted with the minor characters. I enjoyed visiting with them — asking them the questi

Kerri Miller hosted a community conversation with presidential historian and author Jeffrey Engel in Red Wing on Wednesday night, April 8. Engel was brought in by the Duff Endowment, as part of their free lecture series, designed to increase civic engagement in the Red Wing area.During their discussion, Engel talked about the expansion of executive power in the United States and how that threatens democracy. He also addressed the current military operation in Iran. His forthcoming book, “Seeking Monsters to Destroy: How America Goes to War, From Washington to Biden and Beyond,” is a history of how American leaders have identified enemies, and how their description alters the way Americans fight.

This week, the Supreme Court heard arguments on the constitutionality of President Donald Trump’s executive order that would undo birthright citizenship. That long-established legal principle was enshrined in the 14th Amendment. In part, it says: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens."In her new book, professor and writer Daisy Hernandez says that legal definition is just one layer of a complicated idea. Citizenship is really about who gets to belong. “We are citizens of the stories we tell,” she writes. “We belong to the stories we scribe about democracy and authoritarianism, about borders and neighbors, about love and grief and one another.” Hernandez joins host Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas for a remarkably relevant discussion about her book, “Citizenship: Notes on an American Myth.” She uses her own family’s immigration story as a starting point to examine how class, race, sexism and nationalism all impact who ge

A new book by Minnesota author Louise Erdrich is always reason to celebrate. The acclaimed writer, already graced with a Pulitzer and a National Book Award, returns this month with a collection of short stories, taken from the past 20 years of her work. “Python’s Kiss” includes both previously published and brand new tales. Each is distinct. They include the aunt with four wedding dresses, a young girl who consoles a lovesick dog, immigrant farmers with a tenuous grip on sanity. There are also two speculative stories set in a corporately owned afterlife, stories that Erdrich says make more sense in today’s A.I. environment than they did when she wrote them. 'Python's Kiss' artwork Each chapter is accompanied by specially commissioned artwork by Erdrich’s daughter, Aza Erdrich Abe. Both women join Kerri Miller in the studio for this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas, to talk about the writing, the collaboration and the surpr

What does it mean to live richly, even radiantly, while facing the impending darkness of climate change? How do we stand in awe at the planet we see around us even as we doubt that humanity will intervene in time to save much of what we love about it? Terry Tempest Williams’ new book, “The Glorians,” wrestles with that unraveling — the pull of one strand could undo the pattern that weaves us all together. And yet, as host Kerri Miller says, this book is unexpectedly consoling too. William writes this from her home in the Utah desert: “I can bear witness with awe and gratitude, translating what I see and feel, and then share it as an offering of joy or bewilderment or love.”Williams joins Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas to talk about glorians — those small moments of awe that anchor our attention — and how to live wide open, holding nothing back, even in the face of despair.Guest: Terry Tempest Williams is an award-winning author of seventeen books of creative nonfiction, including the environme

When it comes to megaliths — massive stones set in place by prehistoric people — Americans are probably most familiar with Stonehenge. But the U.K.’s landscape is punctuated with thousands of these majestic stones. Some are set in circles, others in rows. A few even form doorways that align with the sun at solstice. Long revered for their mythical presence, megaliths woo both curiosity seekers and die-hard enthusiasts. Fiona Robertson falls into that second camp. She was captivated by Britain’s ancient stones from an early age. When she met her husband, Stephen, a shared love of megaliths drew them together. And it was the megaliths who comforted her and gave her room to grieve when Stephen was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Robertson’s new book, “Stone Lands,” is part homage to the grandeur and mystery of megaliths and part memoir of a wrenching loss. This week, on Big Books and Bold Ideas, Robertson shares her love and her consolation with Kerri Miller, as they verbally explore Britain’s megaliths together

Daniyal Mueenuddin grew up in two vastly different worlds. As a child, he lived with his paternal relatives in Lahore, Pakistan. As a teenager, he spent summers on his maternal family’s farm in Elroy, Wis. A product of both of those worlds, Mueenuddin sees himself as a translator of sorts. He intimately knows both U.S. and Pakistani culture — particularly the more rural, faintly feudal villages in southern Pakistan, where he now farms. He knows the distinctives and the overlaps between East and West, between rich and poor, between scarcity and comfort. He’s channeled all of his knowledge into his new novel. Set largely in rural Pakistan, “This is Where the Serpent Lives” tells four interwoven stories that contrast the lives of servants desperate to escape their class, and the wealthy, Westernized elites who employ them. This week on Big Books and Bold Ideas, Kerri Miller talks with Mueenuddin about how his disparate childhood environments shaped his writing, what it’s like to constantly code-switch as he trav

Rock climbing is risky. But so is life. And friendship. And following your dreams. Nothing is promised. Success is not assured. In Gabriel Tallent’s new novel, “Crux,” two 17-year-old best friends are facing down those fears as they climb self-described death rocks. Climbing is both their passion and their escape from futures that feel predestined. They both come from dysfunctional families. They both feel called to climbing and the vulnerability, grit and trust it demands. But risk doesn’t disappear once they get off the rocks.Tallent is, himself, a climber — but as he tells Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas, “Crux” isn’t really a climbing book. Instead, it was a chance for him to explore friendship, vulnerability and the risk inherent in wanting more.Guest:Gabriel Tallent is the author of the New York Times-bestselling novel “My Absolute Darling.” His new novel is “Crux.” Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.Subscribe to Big

When Tracy K. Smith was named U.S. Poet Laureate in 2017, the country was in a fragile place. In her new book, Smith writes that, by then, “we’d come to find ourselves in a climate of language — I’d call it a national vocabulary — grounded in fear, derision, and the notion of an intractably divided nation.”But Smith believes that poetry rises above the grim jargon. In “Fear Less: Poetry in Perilous Times,” she describes poetry as a vehicle equipped to transport us beyond facts and figures to places where we may not even know we want or need to go. Smith joins Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas to explore how poetry is uniquely positioned to transform our understanding of each other. Along the way, they trade favorite poems, talk about why it’s crucial that poetry be read out loud and discuss ways to make poetry more approachable — especially for those who only learned to diagram it in school. Guest: Tracy K. Smith is the Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard University. She

Change is inevitable. But that doesn’t stop us from fearing it. We fear the uncertainty. We fear the pain. We fear who we might become. But cognitive scientist Maya Shankar says — while understandable — that’s the wrong posture. In her new book, “The Other Side of Change,” Shankar invites us to shift how we view life’s curve balls. What if curiosity was stronger than fear? What if we saw upheaval as an opportunity to reimagine ourselves? On this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas, Shankar joins host Keri Miller to talk about how to harness brain science to build resiliency in the face of change and come out on the other side a kinder, stronger and more open-hearted person. Guest: Maya Shankar is a cognitive scientist and host of the podcast “A Slight Change of Plans.” Her new book is “The Other Side of Change: Who We Become When Life Makes Other Plans.”Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on A

It takes courage to reimagine a classic. Xiaolu Guo was drawn to Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick,” from the first time she read it in her native Chinese. The writing was lyrical — hard to translate — and the descriptions of sailing were dense. But the symbolism of the great white whale and the sea-faring captain obsessed with revenge captivated her. Her new novel is a retelling of this classic with a young girl at its center. Protagonist Ishmaelle goes to sea, disguised as a boy, in a desperate grasp for freedom. She wants to leave poverty, gender norms and religious traditions behind. When she ends up on a whaling ship, captained by a free Black man named Seneca, she meets a swash-buckling crew of people who broaden her world — and ours. Guo joins host Kerri Miller this week to talk about her reimagined “Moby-Dick” which probes gender, race, humanity’s connection to animals and the nature of belonging.Guest: Xiaolu Guo is the author of “Radical” and “Nine Continents.” Her new novel is “Call Me Ishmaelle.”Subscr

“You have a good life,” her aunt said. “You don’t want to ruin it with the past.”Those words were deeply unsettling to journalist Christine Kuehn. She always suspected there was more to her paternal family history. Her father was kind but evasive, and her aunt flat out refused to discuss it. But no one would talk. Then she got a letter from a screenwriter who asked if her family could be the same Kuehns who spied on Pearl Harbor for the Nazis and shared intel with the Japanese. When she confronted her father, he denied everything. But within an hour, he called back, sobbing, and confessed.So began Kuehn’s quest to uncover the truth. It took her and her husband Mark decades to sort through FBI files, letters, historical records and family journals — and even longer for her to absorb and process the fact that her grandparents and aunt were accomplished Nazi spies, largely responsible for the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Her new book, “Family of Spies,” tells her family’s shocking history. Turns out, at age 19, Kueh

When an aspiring novelist moves into an apartment above a famous author, the younger writer thinks it’s a sign that literary stardom is right around the corner.He’s partly right. But his luck is about to turn in ways he can’t expect.Matthew Pearl, himself an award-winning author, writes what he knows in his new novel, “The Award” — which is why the book swerves into some wildly dark places. He returns to Big Books and Bold Ideas this week to talk with Kerri Miller about the absurdity of the publishing industry today (without naming names, of course) and the inspiration behind “The Award.”

When MPR News host Kerri Miller travels to small towns around Minnesota for her Rural Voice series, she hears over and over again about the crisis of loneliness and social isolation. People say that even in communities where they know everyone, it’s easy to feel adrift.It’s no surprise to neuroscientist Ben Rein, who studies the inner workings of the human brain. He writes in his new book that our brains have been shaped for social contact, both inside and out. When we don’t get enough social interaction, our bodies are stressed. And in our post-COVID, screen-obsessed world, a good chunk of the population is suffering from too much alone time.Rein joins Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas to talk about why friendships are as important to health as how often you exercise and how much you sleep, and why online relationships aren’t enough for a brain that’s evolved to expect face-to-face.

Only one day after Jen Hatmaker discovered her husband of 26 years was having an affair, her intuition lead her to dissolution, not restoration. In an early chapter of hew new memoir, Hatmaker writes: “What instinct drove me to an attorney instead of back to a marriage therapist? I was acting purely on intuition — which I only figured out later is the most trustworthy character in the play.” Learning to listen to and trust her “inner knowing” is just one powerful lesson Hatmaker learned in the crucible. In “Awake,” she also talks about her split from the evangelical Christian church that first gave her a platform, her realigned views on sexuality and gender norms and how she was forced to learn to grieve. At it’s core, “Awake” is a midlife memoir about how to reinvent and reconnect to yourself when the world burns down around you.

Big Books and Bold Ideas host Kerri Miller interviews a lot of authors over the course of a year. But some conversations stand out for being especially fascinating, delightfully fun or unexpectedly candid.Last week, we unveiled three of Miller’s top five favorites from 2025. This week, the final two — plus one surprise. 2025 Best Book Roundups MPR News staff picks The 43 best books MPR News staff read in 2025 From NPR Hunker down with these 13 mysteries and thrillers from 2025 From U.S. libraries Genre fiction and female authors top most-borrowed lists in 2025 If you want to hear the full episodes, you can find them here: Misty Copeland at Talking VolumesCatherine NewmanKate DiCamillo Big Books and Bold Ideas is produced by Kelly Gordon and engineered by Cliff Bentley. Here’s to more great books and more fascinating interviews in 2026.

Big Books and Bold Ideas host Kerri Miller interviews a lot of authors over the course of a year. But some conversations stand out for being especially fascinating, delightfully fun or unexpectedly candid. So this week and next, Miller and producer Kelly Gordon share their favorite, most surprising shows from the last 12 months. This week’s conversations include authors: Sarah HooverCharles BockFabienne Josaphat Stay tuned for the final two favorites of 2025 — and a bonus surprise — next week.

Dictionary.com’s word of the year isn’t really a word — it’s a number that went viral on TikTok. The selection caused a ruckus among lexicographers. But editors argued that social media is a major force in creating new words these days, and the whole point of choosing a word of the year is to “reveal the stories we tell about ourselves and how we've changed.”It’s no surprise to author Stefan Fatsis, who chronicles the rise of the modern dictionary in his new book, “Unabridged: The Thrill of and Threat to the Modern Dictionary.” He joined Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas to nerd out over words and to talk about the power the humble dictionary has to shape our lives. “Language bubbles up from below,” Fatsis says. “For at least the last 60 years, the dictionary’s function is to be descriptive, to reflect back on culture the way we humans use language — as opposed to prescriptive, the belief for many generations, which was that dictionaries should tell people how to use language.”Fatsis also

Bad omens abound. But it’s not enough to dissuade 13 tourists on a luxury cruise to Antarctica — including protagonist Striker, a Black film scout on the ship to search for a location to shoot a movie about Ernest Shackleton — from a kayak excursion on a chilly Christmas Eve. As the group paddles past towering icebergs and desolate landscapes, a sense of unease gives way to full on dread. And then it all goes terribly awry. “Antarctica is the land of illusion,” writes author Quan Barry. “All of this endless white tricks the eye.” What is hidden and what is revealed is the true terror of her new novel, “The Unveiling.” Quan labels it literary horror — equal parts “Lord of the Flies” and “Get Out.” She discusses her wildly original and downright scary new book with host Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas. Guest:Quan Barry is an English professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and the author of many books, including “When I’m Gone, Look for Me in the East” (featured on Big Books and B

In Catherine Newman’s bestselling novel, “Sandwich,” main character Rachel (nicknamed Rocky), her unflappable husband and newly adult kids decamp to a ramshackle cottage in Cape Cod for a week of sprawling on the sand, late night swims and lazy mornings. Rocky’s aging parents join them halfway through. It sounds perfect — and in many ways, it is. But as anyone who’s ever take a family vacation knows, complicated feelings get stirred up when you spend 24 hours a day with the people you love the most. Rocky is devoted to her family, almost compulsively. She’s also super annoyed with them, thanks to the dark cloud of perimenopause that hangs over her every day. But that doesn’t stop her from gushing over them, from worrying about them, or from making countless hysterical observations about the achingly beautiful gift of life. We get to revisit Rocky in Newman’s new novel, “Wreck,” along with the rest of the crew (minus one). Like “Sandwich,” the title does double duty. “Wreck” is set two years after “Sandwich.”