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  • Patrick Ryan's 'Buckeye' is a sweeping drama set in a small town in Ohio

    Patrick Ryan's 'Buckeye' is a sweeping drama set in a small town in Ohio
    2025/09/26

    The fictional Bonhomie, Ohio, where Patrick Ryan’s new novel, “Buckeye,” is set, will be familiar to anyone who grew up in a small town.


    Children ride their bikes freely. Mom-and-pop stores thrive. And sooner or later, everyone crosses paths with each other.


    That sense of closeness is charming — until you have a secret to hide. Such is the case with the two couples at the center of Ryan’s sweeping saga. Cal Jenkins is born with one leg two inches shorter than the other and, thus, is unable to fight in the war. His wife, Becky, is a seer who can bridge the human and spirit worlds for those mourning their lost loved ones. Across town, Margaret is married to Felix Salt. But he doesn’t know she grew up an orphan. She doesn’t know he’s a closeted gay man.


    As the years pass and the secrets deepen and unspool, Ryan takes readers on a journey to another era, where nostalgia can’t hide the pain of unrequited love and the devastating effects of war.


    Guest:


    • Patrick Ryan is the editor in chief of the monthly literary journal, One Story. His new novel is “Buckeye.”


    Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.


    Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.
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    56 分
  • Kerri Miller talks with David French about politics, democracy and 'the exhausted majority'

    Kerri Miller talks with David French about politics, democracy and 'the exhausted majority'
    2025/09/25

    The final ballots were still being counted in the presidential election last fall when David French recorded a podcast with fellow opinion writer Patrick Healy. The theme? “It’s time to admit America has changed.”


    Kerri Miller welcomed the chance to ask French to expound on what he meant then and what he’s learned since when he came to Red Wing last Thursday night as part of the Philip S. Duff Jr. Civic Lecture Series.


    French is a conservative commentator, a constitutional lawyer, former senior editor at The Dispatch and an regular opinion columnist for the New York Times. His most recent book is “Divided We Fall: America’s Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation.” He also is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, where he was awarded the Bronze Star.
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    1 時間 36 分
  • Journalist Brian Goldstone talks about America's homeless problem in his new book

    Journalist Brian Goldstone talks about America's homeless problem in his new book
    2025/09/19
    When the Wilder Foundation set out on a cool night in October of 2023 to count how many people in Minnesota were without shelter, the number came in at more than 10,000. Even more sobering, if national statistics apply: Many of those unhoused people have jobs. Some even work 40 or more hours a week. But they still can’t afford to rent an apartment, buy a house or even pay the fees for a long-term motel room. In his new book, journalist Brian Goldstone writes that there is “something scandalous” about the very concept of the working homeless in a country where hard work and determination are supposed to lead to success. He joins Kerri Miller on Big Books and Bold Ideas this week to talk about what he learned as he followed five working homeless families in Georgia over many years. His book, “There is No Place for Us” is a sobering, heart-breaking and urgent call for action to solve this national crisis. Guest: Brian Goldstone has written for a number of national publications, including The New York Times, Harper’s and The New Republic. His new book is “There is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America.” Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.
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    51 分
  • Talking Volumes: Stacey Abrams talks about democracy, the power of of reading and her new novel, 'Coded Justice'

    Talking Volumes: Stacey Abrams talks about democracy, the power of of reading and her new novel, 'Coded Justice'
    2025/09/12
    The Fitzgerald Theater was filled to the rafters Wednesday night for the season launch of Talking Volumes. Activist and novelist Stacey Abrams joined Kerri Miller on stage and began the evening with a moment of silence to mark the political assassination of Charlie Kirk, who had been shot and killed only hours earlier. Abrams, herself a national political figure, said dark moments such as these need to be met with determined unity — to stand for and with one another. She got those values from her parents, she said, who always emphasized the need to be in church, in school and in service to others. She also reflected on how failure has worked in her life as a catalyst for growth and how books have led her to develop a deep moral consciousness. It’s no surprise to readers who love her novels — including “Coded Justice,” the latest thriller in the Avery Keene series, which finds Avery relying on her friends to investigate the morally murky world of AI-powered medicine. Abram’s books are filled with memorable characters who exhibit the same kind of determination and hope that Abram’s embodies. Don’t miss Abram’s warm and inspiring conversation with Kerri Miller, rounded out by the musical styles of Minneapolis’ own Lady Midnight, as the 2025 Talking Volumes season begins. Video of Talking Volumes with Stacey AbramsAnd get your tickets for future shows, which include Patricia Lockwood on Sept. 25, Misty Copeland on Sept. 28, John Grisham on Oct. 23 and Kate Baer on Nov. 17. Guest: Stacey Abrams is an activist, an entrepreneur, a political leader and a bestselling author. Her new novel, the third in the Avery Keene series, is “Coded Justice.” Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.
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    1 時間 4 分
  • Mike Osterholm reflects on lessons from the pandemic in 'The Big One'

    Mike Osterholm reflects on lessons from the pandemic in 'The Big One'
    2025/09/06
    When the next pandemic hits, will we be ready?That’s the question at the center of University of Minnesota epidemiologist Mike Osterholm’s new book, “The Big One.” And his answer is sobering.Osterholm joined Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas for a blunt and personal assessment of what went right and what went wrong during the COVID-19 pandemic. He’s insistent that if we don’t learn the lessons of the last pandemic, we will be even less prepared for the next one.Here are five key takeaways from their conversation.1. Public health communication can’t just be factual.Osterholm is the founding director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota and has decades of experience tracking and researching outbreaks. He said the big lesson for public health leaders is that kindness and humility have to be forefront as they communicate.Humility is important, he told Miller, because “people mistakenly think that science is truth. It’s not. Science is the pursuit of truth.” He said the scientific community needs to do a better job explaining what we know now and how that might change as research continues.But the bigger lesson, for him, was that a “just the facts, ma’am” approach isn’t effective. Public health messages need to resonate with people on a personal level.Early in the pandemic, he broke down crying on his own podcast after a close colleague’s death. That human moment ended up being a connection point for people.“It wasn’t about the factual stuff I talked about,” Osterholm said. “It was about relating to people on that emotional level of what we were experiencing and how we reach out to each other. So the podcast became more and more of a blending of the science — what’s in the head — with concern for what’s in the heart.”2. When we know what stops transmission, go all-in on that. Once we knew that COVID-19 was an aerosol, Osterholm said, it should have shifted how we thought about transmission.“We spent millions of dollars on useless things like Plexiglass shields. I kept telling people: If you can put a cigarette on this side of it and smell it, you’re getting hit.”The only thing that really stops COVID-19 is a well-fitting N95 mask, said Osterholm. Instead of wasting time and money on hygiene theater and cloth masks, we should have “initiated a Manhattan Project-like activity to find the same kind of respiratory protection in something that’s wearable, something that could be washed and reused over and over again, something that people could communicate in and not feel claustrophobic.”“And do you know how much we’ve invested in that?” he asked. “Zero.”3. Mandates aren’t a magic solution.While he absolutely believes the COVID vaccines saved lives and are safe, Osterholm isn’t sold on the efficacy of mandates.“In some cases, I think we set ourselves back with a mandate,” he told Miller. “If you want to turn someone off so you never have a chance to reach them, tell them they have to do it.”A better way, he believes, is to give people agency.“What you find is, that if you actually work with people and say, ‘OK, you’re not going to get it now, but let me give you more information,’ you actually get more people vaccinated. And the whole point for me is: I want the most number of people vaccinated.”4. The lack of a nonpartisan reports to examine the errors made during COVID-19 is glaring.Osterholm strongly believes there should be a federal, 9/11 Commission-style report that looks back at COVID-19. He and his coauthor, Mark Olshaker, wrote “The Big One” because there isn’t one.“We wanted to make certain there was a record somewhere of what happened or didn't happen and what … could have made a difference,” he told Miller.One example: Osterholm contends widespread lockdowns were ineffective and crude.“The most important thing was having good medical care, and how are you going to get good medical care if your hospital is at 140 percent capacity? You can’t.”Instead, he said, we should have used strategic “snow days” with the goal to keep hospital beds under 90 to 95 percent occupancy.“If we could do that, we could get good medical care that would make a difference” in saving lives, he said, without stalling the economy or forcing kids to do school at home.5. We are going backward on preparedness for the next pandemic.But as sobering as the past is, Osterholm was most dire about what comes next.“We are living in the most dangerous time that public health has experienced,” he told Miller. “[The current administration] has taken the public health system as we know it and gutted it in this country. [Look at] what's happened at the CDC this past week, with the firing of the new director who has been there a month, the loss of the senior people there, the fact that the one redeeming, hopeful lesson we learned during the ...
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    1 時間 4 分
  • What being a mailman taught Stephen Grant about work, belonging and going the extra mile

    What being a mailman taught Stephen Grant about work, belonging and going the extra mile
    2025/08/29

    Stephen Grant was laid off from his job at a boutique marketing agency in March 2020, right when COVID took the world hostage.


    Newly diagnosed with cancer, he needed health insurance, fast — plus, he was the primary financial supporter of his wife and daughters. Which is how he found himself becoming a mail carrier, back in his hometown in rural Appalachia.


    It was a tough transition. Grant was bad at his job — “deeply incompetent,” he writes in his new memoir, “Mailman.” He is shaken by his lack of real-life skills, by his inability to feel at home in the mountains where he grew up, by his uncertainty in what it means to be in community during a time of isolation.


    But “Mailman” rarely lingers on the malcontent. Instead, what Grant learned about himself, his fellow Appalachians and our country as a whole propel his new book. He joins host Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas to share stories about working as a rural mail carrier, about blue collar versus white collar work, and about the overlooked importance of public service in a fractured nation.


    Guest:


    • Stephen Starring Grant is a writer and brand strategist. His new memoir is “Mailman: My Wild Ride Delivering the Mail in Appalachia and Finally Finding Home.”


    Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.


    Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.
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    1 時間 2 分
  • Be there pirates? The true story of Capt. Kidd

    Be there pirates? The true story of Capt. Kidd
    2025/08/22

    In the seas off Madagascar, Nova Scotia and even Connecticut, the siren call of buried riches has lured treasure hunters and adventurers over many a century.


    Many seek the wealth Capt. Kidd accrued during years of pirating and then had to hide when his arrest was imminent.


    In popular lore, Capt. Kidd’s name is synonymous with the fearsome, ruthless privateers of the pirate age. But the truth about William Kidd is more nuanced — and interesting.


    Historian Samuel Marquis, who is also William Kidd’s ninth great-grandson, writes in his new biography of Kidd:



    Though the real Capt. Kidd would have loathed being labeled as one of the most notorious villains of all time, he would have delighted at being a continuing hot topic of conversation for over 300 years and counting.




    Marquis’ previous books include “Blackbeard: The Birth of America.” His new book is “Captain Kidd: A True Story of Treasure and Betrayal,” and he joins Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas to sort reality from the scuttlebutt when it comes to the age of pirates.


    Guest:


    • Samuel Marquis is a historian and author. His new book is “Captain Kidd: A True Story of Treasure and Betrayal.”


    Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.


    Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.
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    53 分
  • ‘A Marriage at Sea’ by Sophie Elmhirst

    ‘A Marriage at Sea’ by Sophie Elmhirst
    2025/08/15
    Maralyn and Maurice Bailey were always a little unconventional. Maurice was a loner, precise. Maralyn was extroverted and energetic. But when they married in the 1960s, they both felt they had found their person. Together, they dreamed of running away from their ordinary lives — of selling everything and sailing the world. And in 1972, they made it happen. They set course for a fresh start in New Zealand and left England in a 31-foot yacht. All went well until they reached the Pacific, where a chance encounter with a whale sank their boat. They managed to get a few supplies onto their life raft, where they waited for help to come. And waited.And waited. Exhausted, starving, struggling to survive and get along, their marriage was put to the ultimate test. But when they were finally rescued after more than 100 days adrift at sea, they were a stronger couple than before. Author Sophie Elmhirst discovered the Bailey’s true story on a message board and knew she had to bring it to a new generation — with the added twist that this isn’t just a personal survival story. It’s a marital survival story. She joins host Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas to talk all about “A Marriage at Sea.” Guest: Sophie Elmhirst writes regularly for the Guardian Long Read. In 2020, she won the British Press Award for Feature Writer of the Year. Her book, “A Marriage at Sea,” was published in the U.S. in July 2025. Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.
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    55 分