Book Dreams
Book Dreams is a podcast for everyone who loves books and misses English class. In each episode co-hosts Julie Sternberg and Eve Yohalem explore a book-related topic they can’t stop thinking about, everything from the genius of your favorite picture books to books bound in human skin. Julie and Eve are both award-winning authors, which allows them to come at interviews with an insider’s knowledge as well as all the wonder associated with storytelling.
Book Dreams is brought to you by The Podglomerate and is a member of Lit Hub Radio. New episodes run every Thursday.
Find Book Dreams on Twitter (@bookdreamspod) and Instagram (@bookdreamspodcast), or email contact@bookdreamspodcast.com.
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Ep. 119 - “You Want Me to Read WHAT?” with Marc...
Welcome back to another installment of our favorite bibliophilic game, You Want Me to Read WHAT? The rules are simple: Julie, Eve, and a guest assign each other off-the-beaten path books and then gather to talk about them!
36 min
27
Ep. 118 - Civil Rights Queen Constance Baker Mo...
Constance Baker Motley was a groundbreaking civil rights lawyer and the first Black woman to become a federal judge. Her “world-changing accomplishments, which made her a ‘queen’ in her time, should place her in the pantheon of great American leaders,” alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. and Thurgood Marshall.
29 min
28
Ep. 117 - Tell Me Everything, with Erika Krouse
One pivotal afternoon, Erika Krouse met an attorney in a bookstore when they both reached for the same Paul Auster novel. Much to his surprise, he soon found himself confiding in her.
28 min
29
Ep. 116 - The Author Who Terrified Neil Gaiman,...
Tensions are running high at Book Dreams! Why? The fantasy novels of author Susanna Clarke, that's why.
25 min
30
Ep. 115 - How Fiction Helps Us Understand the P...
Fiction can invite the reader into unknown worlds and perspectives, or it can hold up a mirror so that we can see the familiar more clearly.
23 min
31
Ep. 114 - What Neanderthals and Other Ancient H...
What makes us human? It’s a question we keep coming back to, in part because it's got no definitive answer.
33 min
32
Ep. 113 (Re-Release) - The Women Ahead of the W...
(RE-RELEASE) How do you write a trailblazing woman back into history after her iconic colleagues wrote her out?
38 min
33
Ep. 112 - Spook Fish, Star-Nosed Moles, Vampire...
Sometimes finding hope requires shifting our gaze from humanity. In this episode of Book Dreams, we take an up-close and uplifting look at the four-eyed spook fish, the great gray owl, the star-nosed mole, and even the bloodthirsty vampire bat.
28 min
34
Ep. 111 - “A Really Superb Novel and a Film Tha...
Fairy tales. Why have they survived a thousand years of re-telling? How do they adapt to reflect changing times, places, and storytellers? And what is it about them that captivates us from early childhood and continues to intrigue us throughout our lives?
31 min
35
Ep. 110 - That Compelling Unputdownable Quality...
In this week's episode of Book Dreams, beloved mystery writer Sara Gran talks about how suspense writers create that "compelling unputdownable quality" that keeps readers turning pages from the start to finish.
25 min
36
Ep. 109 - Black Food, with Bryant Terry
The best cookbooks are so much more than collections of recipes. They’re windows into a life or a place or a time or a way of thinking.
24 min
37
Ep. 108 - Citizenship and an Age of Invisible W...
How should we, as a country, execute our military power, and what role should we, as citizens, play in military policy?
29 min
38
Ep. 107 - A Deep History of Work, with James Su...
What makes us human?
31 min
39
Ep. 106 - A Murder, a Private Investigator, and...
Ellen McGarrahan was a young reporter at the Miami Herald when she volunteered to witness the execution of Jesse Tafero, who’d been convicted of killing two police officers.
30 min
40
Ep. 105 - A Libertarian Walks into a Bear, with...
What do wild bears and libertarians have in common? Turns out, more than you might think.
30 min
41
Ep. 104 - Feed Drop: History of Literature, Sen...
This week we’re running an episode from the fabulous podcast, History of Literature, about one of our favorite authors, Jane Austen.
85 min
42
Ep. 103 (Re-Release) - Native Americans and Com...
46 min
43
Ep. 102 - How to (and How Not to) Steal Like an...
In 2011, a 27-year-old Austin Kleon gave a talk to college students outlining a simple list: 10 things he wished someone had told him about being creative when he was their age. Austin posted the advice to his blog after the talk, and the list went viral. A year later, his New York Times bestselling book Steal Like an Artist was born.
25 min
44
Ep. 101 - The True Story Behind Dostoevsky’s Cr...
“When Dostoyevsky was 28, he was arrested in the pre-dawn hours by the Czar's political police … . [Nine months later] the men were brought out into a square in the middle of St. Petersburg in December. Three men were tied to stakes; there were hoods pulled over their heads. A firing squad came out to aim their rifles. Dostoyevsky was next in line to be executed.”
38 min
45
Ep. 100 - Have We Got Book Recommendations for ...
We did it! We reached our 100th episode of Book Dreams! In celebration, we went back to our guests and asked them this question: What's one book you love and why do you love it?
40 min
46
Ep. 99 - The Photographer Nanny, Vivian Maier, ...
It was a story that captured the attention of the public and art critics worldwide: A treasure trove of exceptional photographs was discovered after a storage locker auction in 2007.
34 min
47
Ep. 98 - Goliath and Captain America, with Toch...
Is it possible for one person to write both award-winning literary speculative fiction and Marvel's newest “Captain America” series and also be a former civil rights lawyer, a film school graduate, and be less than 35 years old?
32 min
48
Ep. 97 - There’s a Lot of Sex in This Book, wit...
How’s this for fun? Take 27 incredible writers–including winners of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, PEN Awards, Women's Prize for Fiction, Edgar Award, and more–and invite each of them to write an erotic short story.
20 min
49
Ep. 96 - “Go Keep Your Hobbit,” with Marlon James
“Wussy” European vampires. African folklore and mythology, and how they help establish that “homophobia is not African.” How reading Jackie Collins and Leon Uris during childhood fosters a lifelong passion for books. The structuring of an immersive, propulsive fantasy trilogy.
31 min
50
Ep. 95 - Murderers and Mindhunters, with Ann Bu...
How did a forensic and psychiatric nurse transform the way that the FBI studies, profiles, and catches serial killers? In this week’s episode of Book Dreams, Julie and Eve speak with Dr. Ann Wolbert Burgess, the inspiration for the psychological expert, Wendy Carr, on one of Eve and Julie’s favorite Netflix series, “Mindhunter,” as well as her co-author Stephen Matthew Constantine.
31 min