Gayle Feldman is a journalist who has covered the book publishing industry for decades for Publishers Weekly and The Bookseller, among many other publications. Her new book is Nothing Random: Bennett Cerf and the Publishing House He Built, published by Random House with legendary editor Bob Loomis. In this episode, Gayle traces Bennett Cerf’s improbable arc from Jewish Harlem to Columbia University to Wall Street and finally to the founding of Random House.

She tells the stories behind some of the most consequential moments in American publishing history: the legal battle to publish James Joyce’s Ulysses, the creation of The Cat in the Hat and Beginner Books, the publication of Portnoy’s Complaint, and more from the early days of Random House.

Photo credit: Michael Lionstar

Paul Yamazaki has been the head buyer at the iconic City Lights bookstore in San Francisco since 1982. In this episode, Paul traces a singular life: from the music clubs of LA and the cultural ferment of late-1960s San Francisco, to more than four decades of deciding which books to shelve at one of the world’s most beloved bookstores. A longtime champion of independent presses and underrepresented voices, Paul Yamazaki shares his perspective on why books matter.

Perminder Mann is CEO of UK & International for Simon & Schuster, a role she stepped into in May 2024 after eight years as Group CEO of Bonnier Books UK. In this episode, Perminder traces an unlikely path to the top of publishing—from a working-class immigrant family outside West London, where she didn’t own a book until she was 22, to special sales, a tour through the toy industry, and ultimately the corner office. She talks about elocution lessons, flexibility as a philosophy, and what she is doing at Simon & Schuster to build a culture where difference is celebrated rather than managed around.