KAF Guest Authors and Interviewers

 2023-2024


Amor Towles, author of Table for Two: Fictions (Penguin Random House)

Interviewer – Alexandra Jacobs, New York Times Book Critic 

September 30, 2024

***

Singing legend Renée Fleming, author of Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness (Viking)

Interviewer – Richard Powers, author

May 10, 2024

***

Ann Patchett, author of Tom Lake (HarperCollins)

Interviewer – Kevin Wilson, author and professor

February 12, 2024

***

Stephen B. Bright, author of The Fear of Too Much Justice: Race, Poverty, and the Persistence of Inequality in the Criminal Courts (The New Press)

Interviewer – James Forman Jr., Pulitzer Prize-Winner / Yale Professor

November 13, 2023

***

Jill Lepore, author of The Deadline: Essays (Liveright) 

Interviewer – Congressman Jamie Raskin

September 11, 2023 

 2022-2023


Geraldine Brooks, author of Horse: A Novel (Viking Books)

Interviewer – Jacki Lyden, former NPR Host

March 27, 2023

***

Maggie Haberman, New York Times journalist and author of Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America (Penguin Press)

Interviewer – Laura Coates, CNN Legal Analyst and Sirius XM Radio Host

January 9, 2023

***

Josh Chin, author of Surveillance State: Inside China’s Quest to Launch a New Era of Social Control (MacMillan)

and Evan Osnos, author of Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), and Journalist at The New Yorker and CNN Contributor

September 29, 2022

***

Jamie Raskin, author of Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth and the Trials of American Democracy (Harper Books)

and Fiona Hill, author of There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century (Mariner Books)

January 24, 2022

2019-2020


James Stavridis, author of Sailing True North: Ten Admirals and the Voyage of Character (Penguin Press)

Interviewer – Melissa Block, NPR special correspondent

December 16, 2019

***

Dani Shapiro, author of Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love (Knopf)

Interviewer – Robert Siegel, former host of NPR’s All Things Considered

September 25, 2019

2018-2019


David McCraw, author of Truth in Our Times (All Points Books, Macmillan)

Interviewer – Chuck Rosenberg, MSNBC legal analyst, Former Senior DEA official, podcaster of ‘The Oath’

May 14, 2019

***

Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of Leadership in Turbulent Times (Simon & Schuster)

Interviewer – A. Scott Berg, Pulitzer-prize winning author and five time NY Times best seller of biographies

December 6, 2018

***

Charles Graeber, author of The Breakthrough: Immunotherapy and the Race to Cure Cancer (Twelve, Hachette)

Interviewer – Dr. Thomas Gajewski, University of Chicago, Award-winning top Cancer and Immunotherapy Researcher and Scientist

November 15, 2018

***

Casey Gerald, author of There Will Be No Miracles Here (Riverhead, PRH)

Interviewer- Van Jones, CNN Host and Analyst

October 25, 2018

***

John Feinstein, author of The First Major: The Inside Story of the 2016 Ryder Cup (Anchor Books, Knopf)

Interviewer – Mike Tirico, NBC Sports Anchor

September 20, 2018

2017-2018


Malcolm Nance, author of The Plot to Hack America: How Putin’s Cyberspies and WikiLeaks Tried to Steal the 2016 Election (Skyhorse Publishing)

Interviewer – Ned Price, director of policy and communications for National Security Action

April 5, 2018

***

David Frum, author of Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic (HarperCollins)

Interviewer- David Jolly, former U. S. Representative (R-FL)

January 31, 2018

***

Masha Gessen, author of The Future is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia (Riverhead)

Interviewer – Clarissa Ward, senior international correspondent, CNN

December 19, 2017

***

Robert Wright, author of Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment (Simon and Schuster)

Interviewer – Jon Kabat-Zinn, Founding Executive Director of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society at University of Massachusetts Medical School

November 27, 2017

2016-2017


Thomas Friedman, author of Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

Interviewer- U. S. Congressman John Yarmuth (D-KY)

May 8, 2017

***

Joseph Stiglitz, author of The Euro and The Price of Inequality (W. W. Norton)

Interviewer – Rana Foroohar, global business columnist for the Financial Times, author of Makers and Takers (Crown)

April 13, 2017

***

P.J. O’Rourke, author of How the Hell Did This Happen? The Election of 2016 (Grove Atlantic)

Interviewer – Robert Siegel, host of NPR’s All Things Considered

March, 20, 2017

***

Colson Whitehead, author of The Underground Railroad (Doubleday)

Interviewer – Isaac Fitzgerald, Book Editor at Buzzfeed

December 5, 2016

***

Sebastian Junger, author of Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging (Twelve)

Interviewer – Joe Klein, political columnist for TIME, author of Charlie Mike: A True Story of Heroes Who Brought Their Mission Home

September 21, 2016

2015-2016


Joe Nocera, author of Indentured: The Inside Story of the Rebellion Against the NCAA (Portfolio/Penguin)

Interviewer – Buzz Bissinger, journalist and author of Friday Night Lights

April 18, 2016

***

Diane Rehm, author of On My Own (Knopf)

Interviewer- Ann Patchett, author of Bel Canto and This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage

March 23, 2016

***

E.J. Dionne, author of Why the Right Went Wrong: Conservatism – from Goldwater to the Tea Party and Beyond (Simon and Schuster)

Interviewer – James Fallows, national correspondent for The Atlantic

February 24, 2016

***

John Irving, author of Avenue of Mysteries (Simon and Schuster)

Interviewer- Sam Tanenhaus, former editor in chief of The New York Times “Sunday Book Review” and “Week in Review”

November 10, 2015

2014-2015


David Boies, author of Redeeming the Dream: The Case for Marriage Equality (Viking)

Interviewer- Jeffrey Toobin, prominent legal journalist and senior analyst for CNN

March 24, 2015

***

Jessye Norman, author of Stand Up Straight and Sing! (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Interviewer- Gloria Steinem, writer, editor, activist and co-founder of Ms. magazine

November 17, 2014

***

Timothy Geithner, author of Stress Test: Reflections on Financial Crises (Crown)

Interviewer – James Surowiecki, staff writer of “The Financial Page” at The New Yorker

November 3, 2014

***

Philippe de Montebello, author of Rendez-vous with Art (Thames and Hudson)

Interviewer- Michael Kimmelman, architecture critic and longtime chief art critic for The New York Times

October 15, 2014

2013-2014

Alain de Botton, author of The Art of Travel, How Proust Can Change Your Life, and The News: A User’s Manual (Pantheon)

Interviewer – Brian Stelter, senior media correspondent for CNN Worldwide

March 4, 2014

***

Chris Matthews, author of Tip and the Gipper: When Politics Worked (Simon & Schuster)

Interviewer- E. J. Dionne, Jr., Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and syndicated columnist for The Washington Post

December 3, 2013

***

Pat Conroy, author of The Prince of Tides, The Great Santini, South of Broad, and The Death of Santini (Doubleday)

Interviewer- Maureen Corrigan, Book Critic for “Fresh Air” on National Public Radio

October 30, 2013

***

Congressman John Lewis, key Civil Rights figure and author of March (Top Shelf)

Interviewer- Rachel Maddow, Host of MSNBC’s primetime news and information program, The Rachel Maddow Show

October 15, 2013

***

Coach Rick Pitino, author of The One-Day Contract: How to Add Value to Every Minute of Your Life (St. Martin’s Press)

Interviewer- Joe Nocera, Opinion and Business Columnist for The New York Times

October 9, 2013

2012-2013


Elaine Pagels, author of Revelations: Visions, Prophecy & Politics in the Book of Revelation (Penguin)

Interviewer – Gustav Niebuhr, Associate Professor in Religion & the Media, Syracuse University, former New York Times Religion Correspondent

March 19, 2013

***

Jared Diamond, author of The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn From Traditional Societies? (Viking)

Interviewer- Sarah Hardy, Professor Emerita, University of California-Davis, associate in the Peabody Museum of Archeology & Ethnology at Harvard

January 9, 2013

***

Ray Kurzweil, author of How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed (Viking)

Interviewer- Jim Fleming, host of “To the Best of Our Knowledge” on Wisconsin Public Radio/Public Radio International

November 26, 2012

***

Steven Pinker, author of The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined  (Penguin)

Interviewer- Neal Conan, host of “Talk of the Nation” on National Public Radio

October 2, 2012

2011-2012


Ahmed Rashid, author of Pakistan on the Brink: The Future of America, Pakistan and Afghanistan (Viking)

Interviewer– Clarissa Ward, CBS News Foreign Correspondent

May 15, 2012

***

Erik Larson, author of In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin (Crown)

Interviewer- Robert Siegel, Senior Host of All Things Considered on National Public Radio

April 16. 2012

***

Michio Kaku, author of Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100  (Anchor)

Interviewer- James Canton, global futurist, author, CEO and Chairman of the Institute for Global Futures

February 22, 2012

***

Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer (Scribner)

Interviewer – Dr. David Scadden, Professor of Medicine, Harvard University; co-chair of Harvard Stem Cell Institute

October 13, 2011

***

Rosanne Cash, author of Composed: A Memoir (Penguin)

Interviewer- Nick Spitzer, producer and host of public radio’s American Routes

September 26, 2011

2010- 2011


Billy Collins, author of Horoscopes for the Dead: Poems (Random House)

Interviewer – Garrison Keillor

April 21, 2011

***

Dr. Eric Kandel, author of In Search of Memory (W. W. Norton)

Interviewer- Jonah Lehrer, author of Proust Was a Neuroscientist and How We Decide

February 15, 2011

***

Andrew Ross Sorkin, author of Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System- and Themselves (Penguin)

Interviewer- Bethany McLean, author of The Smartest Guys in the Room and All the Devils are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis

November 9, 2010

***

Arianna Huffington, author of Third World America (Crown)

Interviewer – Howard Fineman, Senior Political Editor, The Huffington Post

October 11, 2010

***

David Plouffe, author of The Audacity to Win (Penguin)

Interviewer- Richard Wolffe, author of Renegade: The Making of a President

September 21, 2010

2009-2010


Daniel Okrent, author of Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition (Scribner)

Interviewer- John Huey, Editor-in-Chief of TIME Inc.

May 10, 2010

***

Richard Ellis, author of On Thin Ice: The Changing World of the Polar Bear (Knopf)

Interviewer- Jeff Corwin, biologist and host on Animal Planet and The Travel Channel

April 13, 2010

***

Michael Sandel, author of Justice: What’s The Right Thing To Do? (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

Interviewer – John S. Carroll, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist

December 1, 2009

***

Dr. Harold Varmus, author of The Art and Politics of Science (W. W. Norton)

Interviewer- Governor Howard Dean, author of Howard Dean’s Prescription for Real Healthcare Reform

November 12, 2009

2008-2009


Michael Kinsley, editor of Creative Capitalism: A Conversation with Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Other Economic Leaders (Simon & Schuster)

Interviewer – James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds

March 24, 2009

***

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love and Stern Men  (Penguin)

Interviewer – ZZ Packer, author of Drinking Coffee Elsewhere

February 26, 2009

***

Malcolm Gladwell, author of Blink, The Tipping Point, and Outliers: The Story of Success (Little, Brown)

Interviewer – Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind and The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need

January 22, 2009

***

Senator David Boren, author of A Letter to America (University of Oklahoma Press)

Interviewer – Neal Conan, host of Talk of the Nation on National Public Radio

October 6, 2008

2007-2008


United States Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, author of Active Liberty: Interpreting Our Democratic Constitution (Knopf/Doubleday)

Interviewer – Pete Williams, NBC News Justice Correspondent

May 6, 2008

***

Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time (Penguin)

Interviewer – Jacki Lyden, Correspondent & Host on National Public Radio

April 1, 2008

***

Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food (Penguin)

Interviewer – Michael Shnayerson, Contributing Editor, Vanity Fair

January 11, 2008

***

Tom Brokaw, author of The Greatest Generation and Boom! Voices of the Sixties: Personal Reflections on the ‘60s and Today (Random House)

Interviewer – Rick Atkinson, author of An Army at Dawn

November 27, 2007

2006-2007


James A. Baker, III, author of Work Hard, Study…and Keep Out of Politics! (Putnam)

Interviewer – John King, CNN chief national correspondent

April 24, 2007

***

Bill McKibben, author Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future (Times Books/Henry Holt)

Interviewer – Wendell Berry, writer, cultural and economic critic

February 28, 2007

***

Lawrence Wright, author of The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (Knopf)

Interviewer – Peter Bergen, author of The Osama bin Laden I Know

October 18, 2006

***

George Soros, author The Age of Fallibility: Consequences of the War on Terror (Public Affairs)

Interviewer – John Podesta, President & CEO, Center for American Progress

September 12, 2006

2005-2006


Sue Monk Kidd, author of The Secret Life of Bees and The Mermaid Chair  (Viking)

Interviewer – Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D., author of The Goddesses in Everywoman

April 6, 2006

***

Gene Sperling, author of The Pro-Growth Progressive (Simon & Schuster)

Interviewer – John Ydstie, Correspondent & Host on National Public Radio

March 7, 2006

***

Senator John McCain, author of Character is Destiny (Random House)

Interviewer – Robert Siegel, Senior Host of All Things Considered, National Public Radio

December 19, 2005

***

R.W. “Johnny” Apple Jr., author of Apple’s America (North Point Press)

Interviewer – Tom Brokaw, Special Correspondent, NBC News

November 1, 2005

2004-2005


Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books (Random House)

Interviewer – Karl Fleming, civil rights reporter

April 19, 2005

***

Ari Fleischer, author of Taking Heat: The President, The Press, and My Years in the White House (HarperCollins)

Interviewer – Bill Plante, CBS News White House Correspondent

March 29, 2005

***

Dennis Ross, author of The Missing Peace (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

Interviewer – Jacki Lyden, foreign correspondent for National Public Radio

November 17, 2004

***

Karen Armstrong, author of Buddha (Penguin)

Interviewer – Robert Siegel, Senior Host of All Things Considered, National Public Radio

October 20, 2004

2003-2004


Margaret Atwood, author of Oryx and Crake (Doubleday)

Interviewer – Ira Flatow, Host, Talk of the Nation: Science Friday on National Public Radio

April 12, 2004

***

Robert Kagan, author of Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order (Vintage)

Interviewer – Neal Conan, Host of Talk of the Nation on National Public Radio

February 12, 2004

***

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., author of America Behind the Color Line: Dialogues with African Americans (Warner Books)

Interviewer – Karen Grigsby Bates, Correspondent, National Public Radio

January 20, 2004

***

Madeleine Albright, author of Madam Secretary (Random House)

Interviewer – Richard Roth, CNN, United Nations Correspondent

December 17, 2003

2002-2003


United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, author of The Majesty of the Law: Reflections of a Supreme Court Justice (Random House)

Interviewer – Pete Williams, NBC News Justice Correspondent

May 14, 2003

***

Arthur Levitt, author of Take on the Street (Pantheon)

Interviewer – Jane Bryant Quinn, Financial Columnist, NEWSWEEK

November 21, 2002

***

Garrison Keillor, author of Good Poems and Lake Wobegon Summer 1956 (Viking)

November 13, 2002

***

Strobe Talbott, author of The Russia Hand (Random House)

Interviewer – David Halberstam, author of The Best and the Brightest

September 25, 2002

2001-2002


Wynton Marsalis, author of jazz in the bittersweet blues of life (Da Capo Press)

Interviewer – Robert Siegel, Senior Host of All Things Considered on NPR

May 6, 2002

***

Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., author of Vernon Can Read! (Public Affairs)

Interviewer – Ronald Brownstein, Senior Washington Correspondent, Los Angeles Times

March 26, 2002

***

David Hockney, author of Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters (Penguin)

Interviewer – Michael Kimmelman, Chief Art Critic, The New York Times

December 4, 2001

***

General Wesley K. Clark, author of Waging Modern War: Bosnia, Kosovo, and the Future of Combat (Public Affairs)

Interviewer – Joe Klein, author of Primary Colors

November 6, 2001

2000-2001


James McBride, author of The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother (Penguin)

Interviewer – Christopher Lydon, former host of The Connection, WBUR, Boston

April 25, 2001

***

Dr. David Kessler, author of A Question of Intent (Public Affairs)

Interviewer – Roger Cossack, Co-host of CNN’s Burden of Proof

April 2, 2001

***

L. Doctorow, author of City of God (Random House)

Interviewer – Christopher Lydon, former host of The Connection, WBUR, Boston

February 28, 2001

***

Ted Koppel, author of Off Camera: Private Thoughts Made Public (Knopf)

Interviewer – Robert Siegel, Senior Host of All Things Considered, on NPR

October 23, 2000

1999-2000


Elie Wiesel, author of Night and And the Sea is Never Full, Memoirs 1969 – (Knopf)

Interviewer – Gustav Niebuhr, Religion Correspondent, The New York Times

April 10, 2000

***

John Glenn, author of John Glenn: A Memoir (Bantam)

Interviewer – Lou Dobbs, CEO of space.com

December 13, 1999

***

Dr. Jane Goodall, author of Reason For Hope: A Spiritual Journey (Warner Books)

Interviewer – Dr. Richard Wrangham, Chair, Dept. of Anthropology, Harvard University

October 28, 1999

***

Frances Mayes, author of Under the Tuscan Sun and Bella Tuscany (Crown)

Interviewer – Rebecca Bain, Host, WPLN- Nashville’s NPR Station

October 7, 1999

1998-1999


Ruth Reichl, author of Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table (Random House)

Interviewer – Susan Stamberg, Special Correspondent, National Public Radio

March 9, 1999

***

Pat Schroeder, author of 24 Years of House Work…and the Place is Still a Mess (Andrews McMeel)

Interviewer – Eleanor Clift, Contributing Editor, NEWSWEEK

January 12, 1999

***

A Scott Berg, author of Lindbergh (Putnam)

Interviewer – Jonathan Yardley, Book Critic, The Washington Post

December 2, 1998

1997-1998


David Halberstam, author of The Children: A Novel About the Civil Rights Movement (Random House)

Interviewer – Roger Wilkins, Professor, George Mason University

April 20, 1998

***

Carl Lewis, author of One More Victory Lap (Aum Publications)

Interviewer – Frank Deford, Sports Commentator, National Public Radio

February 11, 1998

***

Jane Bryant Quinn, author of Making the Most of Your Money (Simon & Schuster)

Interviewer – Marshall Loeb, former Managing Editor, Fortune

December 2, 1997

***

Dr. Susan Love, author of Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book (Addison-Wesley) and Dr. Susan Love’s Hormone Book (Random House)

Interviewer – Anne Taylor Fleming, Commentator, PBS

October 6, 1997

1996 – 1997


Hillary Rodham Clinton, author of It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us (Simon & Schuster)

Interviewer – Carl Sferrazza Anthony

April 24, 1997

***

Katharine Graham, author of Personal History (Knopf)

Interviewer – Andrea Mitchell, Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent, NBC News

March 25, 1997

***

John Updike, author of Golf Dreams (Knopf)

Interviewer – Robert Siegel, Senior Host of All Things Considered, on NPR

February 25, 1997

***

Neil Simon, author of Rewrites (Simon & Schuster)

Interviewer – Jon Jory, Producing Director of Actors Theatre of Louisville

November 25, 1996

***

Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking (Knopf)

Interviewer – Stephen Bright, Director, Southern Center for Human Rights

October 12, 1996

***

Senator Bill Bradley, author of Time Present, Time Past: A Memoir (Knopf)

Interviewer – Eleanor Clift, Contributing Editor, NEWSWEEK

May 13, 1996

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