It’s summer, and whether you’re lying in a hammock, soaking up the sun at the beach, taking a road trip, or — and we hope this isn’t the case — taking SEPTA to work, it’s the perfect time of year to listen to fun/interesting/uplifting podcasts... like beach reads, but for your ears!

In that spirit, we present 11 podcasts from the archive. Here’s one of the world’s funniest human beings with bad stories from the beach, a paean to birdwatching and the joy of Black expression, a memoir about the power of laughing and crying from one of the Black Arts Movements’ central figures, a history of the garden gnome that stretches all the way back to the Roman Empire, a memoir about life on the road and Summerteeth from one of indie rock’s most acclaimed artists, a get-on-up biography of James Brown, a look at life and stoner comedy from Cheech Marin, a riff the life of the enigmatic Marquis de Lafayette from a hilarious This American Life contributor, crassly comical poems from a truly unique voice, a guide to fermentation from the proprietor of the world’s most acclaimed restaurant and his protégé, and insider stories from one of Hollywood’s most popular actors!

John Hodgman | Vacationland: True Stories from Painful Beaches

In conversation with Mary Richardson Graham

Recorded October 27, 2017

John Hodgman played the role of “PC” in the Apple vs. PC commercials, served alternately as the “Resident Expert” and “Deranged Millionaire” on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, adjudicates vital disputes such as “Is a hotdog a sandwich?” on the appropriately named Judge John Hodgman podcast, and writes a weekly column for New York Times Magazine. He is also the author of three bestselling books, The Areas of My Expertise, More Information Than You Require, and That Is All. Vacationland is a collection of his real-life New England coastal wanderings, the horrors he’s found there, and the awful truths he’s encountered as a human facing his forties.

Christian Cooper | Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6abc Action News morning edition

Recorded June 27, 2023

Central Park birder Christian Cooper is the host and consulting producer on the National Geographic channel’s Extraordinary Birder and is on the board of directors of the New York City Audubon Society. Also a groundbreaking comics writer, he introduced the first openly lesbian character for Marvel, conceived the first gay male character in the Star Trek universe via the Starfleet Academy comics series, and created Queer Nation: The Online Gay Comic. In Better Living Through Birding, Cooper tells the story of his life leading up to the morning in May 2020 when he was engaged in the birdwatching ritual that had been a part of his life since he was a child — and what might have been a routine encounter with a dog walker exploded age-old racial tensions. Cooper’s viral video of the incident would shock the nation. Also part travelogue and primer on the art of birding, the book follows his worldwide avian adventures, explores his unique career, and offers insights into the ways his long history of looking up prepared him to be a gay, Black man in contemporary America.

Nikki Giovanni | A Good Cry: What We Learn from Tears and Laughter

Recorded November 6, 2017

“One of the finest poets of our time” (Ebony), Nikki Giovanni is the author of nearly 30 books, including the collections Acolytes, Black Feeling, Black Talk, Black Judgment; Those Who Ride the Night Winds, and Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea. A renowned activist and educator whose art emerged during the turmoil of the Civil Rights and Black Arts movements of the 1960s, she is a winner of the Langston Hughes Medal for Outstanding Poetry, a seven-time winner of the NAACP Image Award, and one of Oprah Winfrey’s 25 “Living Legends.” In A Good Cry, Giovanni ruminates on a life spent in the vanguard of social change and the people who have transformed her the most.

Gordon Campbell | The Hermit in the Garden: From Imperial Rome to Ornamental Gnome

Recorded June 6, 2013

Distinguished historian Gordon Campbell is the author of numerous books on literature, art, history, and biography, including the bestseller Bible: The Story of the King James Bible. Professor of Renaissance Studies at the University of Leicester, he is a fellow of the British Academy and a former chair of the Society for Renaissance Studies. In 2012 he was awarded the Longman-History Today Trustees Award for a lifetime contribution to History. In The Hermit in the Garden, his interests in cultural history, architectural history, and designed landscapes converge in a study of the 18th-century craze for ornamental hermits in the grand gardens of Georgian England. Campbell traces the story of garden hermits from their distant ancestors in imperial Rome to their humble descendant, the garden gnome.

Jeff Tweedy | Let's Go (So We Can Get Back): A Memoir of Recording and Discording with Wilco, Etc.

In conversation with Talia Schlanger, host of World Cafe on WXPN

Recorded November 15, 2018

Jeff Tweedy is the lead vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist for the Grammy Award-winning rock band Wilco, declared “one of the most respected bands on the planet” and lauded as “paragons of good taste, masters of genre-bridging craftsmanship and chill independence” (Rolling Stone). Their studio albums include Summerteeth, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and Sky Blue Sky. Tweedy was also one of the founders of the trailblazing alt-country group Uncle Tupelo, and has recorded a solo album, a record with his son Spencer, and has collaborated with a score of other musicians. In Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back), Tweedy tells the story of his Midwestern upbringing and current life as a husband and father, the early Chicago indie-rock scene that launched his career, and his musical process and perspective.

James McBride | Kill 'Em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul

Recorded April 5, 2016

James McBride is the author of the National Book Award winner The Good Lord Bird, in which a young boy born into slavery joins abolitionist John Brown’s crusade, concealing his identity and gender to survive. His other books include the New York Times bestselling memoir and 2004 One Book, One Philadelphia selection The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother, in which “race and religion are transcended by family love” (New York Times Book Review). His other novels include Miracle at St. Anna, which he adapted for Spike Lee’s film and Song Yet Sung. McBride is also an award-winning composer, screenwriter, and saxophonist. His new book traces the roots of James Brown and includes interviews with sources who have never before spoken on the record.

Cheech Marin | Cheech Is Not My Real Name: ...But Don't Call Me Chong

In conversation with Andy Kahan, director of Author Events

Recorded March 16, 2017

In addition to the reams of Cheech and Chong comedy albums and films he and his partner wrote and starred in, Cheech Marin, half of the eponymous Grammy-winning stoner comedy duo, has dozens of other film and television roles under his belt, including a starring role on the show Nash Bridges and voice credits in a slew of Disney animated films. His long-awaited memoir delves into his legendary entertainment career and how he dodged the draft, acquired an expansive collection of Chicano art, and became a self-made icon.

Sarah Vowell | Lafayette in the Somewhat United States

Recorded October 21, 2015

Praised for her “learned, engagingly discursive, funny, sometimes even jolly” (New York Times Book Review) romps through American history, cultural critic Sarah Vowell is a contributing editor for National Public Radio’s This American Life. She is the author of The Partly Cloudy Patriot, Take the Cannoli, Assassination Vacation, and Unfamiliar Fishes, and she has been published in The Village Voice, Esquire, and the Los Angeles Times, among many other periodicals. Her new book offers a frank and funny portrait of the French hero of the American Revolution and his insightful 1824 return to a young country.

Patricia Lockwood | Motherland, Fatherland, Homelandsexuals

Recorded November 10, 2014

In 2013, Patricia Lockwood’s poem “Rape Joke,” first printed on the website The Awl, went viral. A “satirical work that nonetheless brings your heart up under your ears” (New York Times), the poem “reawakened a generation’s interest in poetry” (The Guardian). “The Poet Laureate of Twitter” (unofficial), Lockwood “dispenses mischievous ‘sexts’ as if from an eyedropper” (New York Times). Her debut collection Balloon Outlaw Black Patricia was trumpeted as one of the year’s best by The New Yorker. Her new collection “is unforgettable, literally: once read, it cannot be forgotten” (NPR).
 

René Redzepi and David Zilber | The Noma Guide to Fermentation

Recorded October 24, 2018

René Redzepi is chef and co-owner of Copenhagen’s Michelin two-star restaurant Noma, recognized an astounding four times as the best in the world. He is one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World and the subject of two full-length documentaries. His book Noma: Time and Place in Nordic Cuisine — “an international sensation” (New York Times) — won the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) and James Beard awards. Former sous-chef at Vancouver’s Hawksworth Restaurant, David Zilber has worked at Noma since 2014 and has overseen its famous fermentation lab since 2016. In their new how-to guide, Redzepi and Zilber reveal the techniques used at Noma to bring fermented ingredients to every dish served.

Gabrielle Union | We're Going to Need More Wine: Stories That Are Funny, Complicated, and True

In conversation with longtime broadcaster and journalist, Tracey Matisak

Recorded October 19, 2017

Best known for leading roles in a variety of comedies, dramas, and action films such as The Brothers, Deliver Us from Eva, Bad Boys II, and 2016’s The Birth of a Nation, Gabrielle Union began her acting career in the 1990s in a string of successful television and film roles. An advocate for Susan G. Komen, Planned Parenthood, and survivors of violence, Union has been nominated for 11 BET Awards and eight NAACP Image Awards and has won one of each. We’re Going to Need More Wine is an intimate, urgent collection of essays about race, bullying, competition between women in Hollywood, and her own trauma as a victim of sexual assault.

Browse the Free Library Author Events page for more upcoming author discussions.