Books

The musician, writer, and actor on revision, truth, and liking books more than people. 

Talking to the author of Wagnerism about uncovering counter-narratives, keeping a healthy skepticism of your relationship with art, and totalitarian intolerance of eccentric creativity.

Talking to the author of The Kidnapping Club about narrativizing a history many tried to keep quiet and why New York was such a potent pro-slavery city.

Why, a decade ago, did my father give me the heavy gift of a controversial 100-year-old Oswald Spengler tome? It took a pandemic for me to find out.

The author of Bestiary on mythmaking, how grossness co-exists with beauty, and changing your destiny.

The author of Happy Hour on charm as currency, the resilience of feminity, and getting away with things. 

Talking to the author of Two Trees Make a Forest about changing ideas of home, our bodies as maps, and how the natural landscape influences human connection.

The author of Having and Being Had on the place where sensibility meets ideology, mid-life retrospective reckoning, and writing yourself into realizations. 

Talking to the author of Transcendent Kingdom about the effect of perspective on readerly sympathies, the politicization of addiction, and the superficiality of "listening and learning."