Originally aired August 30, 2022. At the top of the episode, Dave is joined by Gordon Henry to discuss Spirit Matters: White Clay, Red Exits, Distant Others, Henry’s new poetry collection.  After the break, Liz welcomes former WO!R host Kristin F Johnson on-air to discuss Johnson’s new middle-grade book, Fearless.

Originally aired April 19, 2022.  Dave opens the show with Chris Stark and her new book, Carnival Lights. Set in a summer of hippie Vietnam War protests and the moon landing, Carnival Lights also spans settler arrival in the 1800s, the creation of the reservation system, and decades of cultural suppression, connecting everything from lumber barons’ mansions to Nazi V-2 rockets to smuggler’s tunnels in creating a narrative history of Minnesota. After the break, Liz welcomes Carole Lawrence and her new novel, Cleopatra’s Dagger. Elizabeth van den Broek is the only female reporter at the Herald, 1800s NYC’s most popular newspaper. Then she and her bohemian friend Carlotta Ackerman find a woman’s body wrapped like a mummy in a freshly dug hole in Central Park—the intended site of an obelisk called Cleopatra’s Needle. The macabre discovery takes Elizabeth away from the society pages to follow an investigation into New York City’s darkest shadows.

Originally aired April 12, 2022. Dave opens the show with a return appearance by Kim Dower, to discuss her new poems on motherhood in I Wore This Dress for You Today, Mom. After the break, Liz welcomes thriller all-star Lynn Hightower and her latest book, The Enlightenment Project.