photoA Conversation with Dr. Sanjay Gupta

A rare opportunity to watch Dr. Sanjay Gupta unplugged – removed from the rush of breaking news – in conversation about an unusually wide range of subjects.

photoFriends & Fiction

The five authors of "Friends & Fiction" make a virtual appearance at the 2021 Nantucket Book Festival. Much merriment ensues.

photoA Juneteenth Like No Other

Our discussion with a powerhouse panel of authors happened just hours after Juneteenth was signed into law as a national holiday.

photoIsabel Wilkerson & Diane Rehm: Caste

On April 21, 2021, WAMU's Diane Rehm interviewed Isabel Wilkerson, author of "Caste: The Origins of our Discontents" in a special edition of Diane Rehm's Book Club.

photoThe Cocuzzos Of San Donato (No, They're Not Brothers)

A grueling bike trip to their ancestral village in southeast Italy strengthens the bond between this father and son; helps prepare the son to be a father; and reveals a profile in courage from World War Two. A conversation with Rob Cocuzzo, author of "The Road To San Donato."

photoWhat is Will Schwalbe Reading?

The author of "The End of Your Life Book Club" and "Books for Living" tells us, “I'm shut in, locked down, separated from humanity. Now is the perfect time to go back and finish …

photoBen Fountain: Thinking in the Time of Covid

Find out which writers on Ben Fountain's bookshelves can help us answer our most burning questions. Plus the backstory of Ben's latest "short fiction torn from today's headlines" on The Chronicles of Now.

photoRuth Reichl and The Sanctuary

Ruth Reichl has been writing about food for 50 years. So what's new after half a century? The pandemic. Here's what she has learned since March from her sanctuary in the kitchen...

photoEvan Osnos on Joe Biden

The New Yorker's Evan Osnos discusses his new book about the President-elect. He thought his previous book, on China, would help us sleep better. Will this?

photoThe Steward of Muskeget

You could say that Crocker Snow Jr. has been writing his latest book, about the tiny island off the coast of Nantucket called Muskeget, ever since his father flew him there some 70 years ago.

photoA Thousand Leagues of Blue

Susan Veeder got married at 17, had her first child at 18. At 32 -- in 1848 -- she did something no Nantucket woman had ever done before. Betsy Tyler has traced the thrilling and tragic story of the Veeder family -- from Nantucket to Tahiti and back.

photoThe Vote

Elaine Weiss, author of The Woman's Hour: The Great Fight To Win The Vote, says her book "is about how change is made in a democracy....what it takes to make change, and how hard it is." One hundred years after American women won the right to vote ...

photoEmpathy on "The Uninhabitable Earth"

“It is worse, much worse, than you think,” writes David Wallace-Wells. Still, there are reasons for hope in this conversation with the author and Nantucket's Linda Loring Nature Foundation team.

photoJudging A Book By Its Cover

When Christopher Castellani was growing up, “there were no books in our house. Zero.” And then, one day, in fifth grade…

photoFour Friends: Promising Lives Cut Short

One of those four faces is instantly recognizable. All were friends and classmates of William Cohan at Andover. In his latest book, Cohan has taken a break from exposing the inner workings of Wall Street, to explore the fragility of life.

photoNancy Thayer: What Is A Normal Family?

During 30 minutes, with the author of more than 30 novels over 30 years, we arrive at Nancy Thayer's definition of romance, and a redefinition of the normal family. Keep watching for the surprise, unplanned appearance from the author's daughter, novelist Samantha Wilde.

photoAzar & Will: Intimate Strangers

Nantucket Book Festival alums Azar Nafisi and Will Schwalbe meet here for the first time. They began as strangers. Watch them become something more, through the power of books.

photoAzar Nafisi: Books for Turbulent Times

The indomitable author of "Reading Lolita in Tehran" on the parallels between America and Iran; and the literature that empowers her to navigate the tumult, stay sane, and retain her humor.

photoGabriella Burnham's Debut Novel

"It Is Wood, It Is Stone" is about "a woman's reckoning with what it is that she desires from her life." Gabriella Burnham's own desire, to be a writer, was fueled by Nantucket High School lit teacher Anne Phaneuf. Here they are, together, in joy.

photoSkip Finley on Whaling Captains of Color: America's First Meritocracy

Oak Bluffs’ Skip Finley has the kind of obsessiveness you read about in whaling stories. He needed it to uncover this chapter in American history, which sheds new light on the meaning of merit.

photoAlice Hoffman: Remaining Humane in a Dark World

In 1992, a NY Times book reviewer wrote that Alice Hoffman makes us aware of the darkness, and helps us seek the light. That was 20 novels ago. We have a lot to talk about.

photoMuskeget's Man

A new book release during a pandemic is a colorful affair when the author is Crocker Snow Jr. We caught up with Crocker at Mitchell's Book Corner to talk about Muskeget: Raw, Restless, Relentless Island.

photoHistorians on Speed Dial

Nathaniel Philbrick explores terrifying moments in American history to shed light on 2020.

photoChanneling Frederick Douglass on July 4th

"What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" is acclaimed as the greatest speech by one of the greatest orators in America's history.

photoTear it Down?

What's a better monument to freedom: that statue of Lincoln in Washington, DC, or the Frederick Douglass speech about Lincoln at the statue's unveiling? Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Blight offers us a third way in this 18 minute journey to 1876.

photoIntroducing Michael O'Donnell

Daniel Weiss, CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, finds the poetry in one soldier's life and captures a portrait of the Vietnam era with his new book, In That Time.

photoWord of the Week

Join us to explore a word that captures the zeitgeist, or is just plain interesting. For this week’s word, we turn to Harvard Law Professor Cass Sunstein.

photoHope On A Shelf

We have been asking our 2020 authors, at this moment in our history, what gives you hope? Watch until the end of this first 13-minute installment, and you'll see what we mean by hope on a shelf.

photoDisturber of Tradition

Barbara White's deep dive into 19th century Nantucket and Black history brings racial justice advocate Anna Gardner to life -- at just the right time.

photoMitchell Jackson on Survival

The winner of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Feature Writing, in conversation with Nantucket Book Foundation President Mary Haft.