Episodes

  • Andrew Burstein-BEING THOMAS JEFFERSON: An Intimate History
    Feb 15 2026

    BEING THOMAS JEFFERSON: An Intimate History (Bloomsbury), is the deepest dive yet into the heart and soul, secret affairs, unexplored alliances, and bitter feuds of a generally worshipped, intermittently reviled American icon from accomplished Jefferson scholar and biographer Andrew Burstein. A prolific historian of early American politics and culture long specializing in the life of the mind in bygone times, Burstein peels back the curtain on Jefferson. He shows the most articulate of the founding generation to have been a seductive, quietly ambitious theoretician who privately wavered “between involvement and retreat, between conviction and irresolution,” he writes.About the author: ANDREW BURSTEIN recently retired from Louisiana State University where he was the Charles P. Manship Professor of History. He is the author of The Passions of Andrew Jackson, Jefferson’s Secrets, and numerous other books on early American politics and culture. He is co-author (with Nancy Isenberg) of Madison and Jefferson and The Problem of Democracy. He is on the Advisory Committee of the Papers of Thomas Jefferson. Burstein’s writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and on Salon. He advised Ken Burns’s production Thomas Jefferson, and was featured on C-SPAN’s American Presidents series and Booknotes, as well as numerous NPR programs. He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia. #andrewburstein#charlottesville#monticello #authorpodcast #speakingofwriterspodcast #books

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    29 mins
  • Rich Podolsky-Madden & Summerall How They Revolutionized NFL Broadcasting
    Feb 4 2026

    Madden & Summerall tells the inside story of how two unlikely partners became the greatest broadcast duoin NFL history.

    Rich Podolsky has been an established writer and reporter since the1970s, covering the Miami Dolphins and writing for The NFL Today. He has been a staff writer for CBS Sports and has written for The Philadelphia Daily News, The Palm Beach Post, The Wilmington News Journal, and ESPN. He is also the recipient of the prestigious Keystone Press Award for writing excellence from the Pennsylvania Publishers Association.

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    23 mins
  • Wayne Lynch- Blood Stained Papers
    Jan 30 2026

    On this episode, Wayne A. Lynch, retired journalist and author of Blood Stained Papers. Blending vampire lore with newsroom realism, Wayne explores guilt, redemption, and the emotional toll of immortality in a story where love may be the only path to salvation.

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    17 mins
  • John Schachnovsky- Beyond the Badge -Crime, Justice, and the FBI in Thailand
    Jan 24 2026

    Former FBI Agent John Schachnovsky talks international crime, global justice & real-life cases. He also reveals what it takes to catch criminals across continents.#speakingofwriterspodcast #authorpodcast #books #truecrimepodcast

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    21 mins
  • William Kent Krueger- Apostle's Cove
    Jan 17 2026

    A few nights before Halloween, as Cork O’Connor gloomily ruminates on his upcoming birthday, he receives a call from his son, Stephen, who is working for a nonprofit dedicated to securing freedom for unjustly incarcerated inmates. Stephen tells his father that decades ago, as the newly elected sheriff of Tamarack County, Cork was responsible for sending an Ojibwe man named Axel Boshey to prison for a brutal murder that Stephen is certain he did not commit.
    Cork feels compelled to reinvestigate the crime, but that is easier said than done. Not only is it a closed case but Axel Boshey is, inexplicably, refusing to help. The deeper Cork digs, the clearer it becomes that there are those in Tamarack County who are willing once again to commit murder to keep him from finding the truth.
    At the same time, Cork’s seven-year-old grandson has his own theory about the investigation: the Windigo, that mythic cannibal ogre, has come to Tamarack County…and it won’t leave until it has sated its hunger for human blood.


    William Kent Krueger is the New York Times bestselling author of The River We Remember, This Tender Land, Ordinary Grace (winner of the Edgar Award for best novel), and the original audio novella The Levee, as well as twenty acclaimed books in the Cork O’Connor mystery series, including Spirit Crossing, Fox Creek, and Lightning Strike. He lives in the Twin Cities with his family. Learn more at WilliamKentKrueger.com.#speakingofwriterspodcast #williamkentkrueger #authorpodcast

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    13 mins
  • Michael Ebifegha-Satan's Shadow in Abrahamic Religions
    Jan 12 2026

    How do faith, science, and secular ideology intersect—and collide?
    Author and physicist Michael Ebifegha joins Speaking of Writers to discuss his book Satan’s Shadow in Abrahamic Religions, examining belief systems, evolution, and religious authority in the modern world.#speakingofwriterspodcast #faithandscience #authorpodcast

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    24 mins
  • Jack Kelly- Tom Paine's War-The Words That Rallied a Nation and the Founder for Our Time
    Jan 10 2026

    On this episode of The Speaking of Writers Podcast, we welcome award-winning historian Jack Kelly, author of Tom Paine's War. A powerful story of how words , not weapons, helped save the American Revolution.

    JACK KELLY is an award-winning author and historian. His books include Band of Giants, which received the DAR History Medal, and God Save Benedict Arnold, a Finalist for the New England Book Awards. He has published five novels, and is a New York Foundation for the Arts fellow in Nonfiction Literature. Kelly has appeared on The History Channel, National Public Radio, and C-Span. He lives in New York's Hudson Valley.#speakingofwriterspodcast #jackkelly #americanhistory #tompaineswar #250years

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    16 mins
  • Brad Meltzer- The Viper
    Jan 6 2026

    Andrew Fechmeier is a master at hiding. He'd better be—he’s spent decades concealing a secret that could get him killed. So when he’s diagnosed with a terminal disease, he heads for the local funeral home carrying the blue suit he eventually wants to be buried in. But what no one knows is that Fechmeier secretly tucked something inside, turning the suit into a final, untraceable hiding spot.

    It's a perfect plan. Until Fetch is brutally murdered by a mysterious killer who will stop at nothing to find the priceless object hidden in the suit.

    Wasting no time, the cunning but unconventional Roddy LaPointe opens an investigation into Fetch’s murder, recruiting help from his friend, the brilliant “Zig” Zigarowski. But it doesn’t take long for Zig to discover the real reason Roddy cares so much about this case: Fetch’s death is tied to Roddy’s mother, who was murdered decades earlier.

    As the relentless killer closes in, Roddy’s twin sister—the enigmatic and volatile Nola Brown—starts investigating for herself, uncovering a sinister plot that reveals their mother’s dark history, the true identity of her killer, and the shocking secret behind her death.

    Don’t turn your back on The Viper.

    Brad Meltzer is the Emmy-nominated, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Lightning Rod and twelve other bestselling thrillers. He also writes nonfiction books like The JFK Conspiracy, and the Ordinary People Change the World kids book series.

    Brad is also the host of Brad Meltzer’s Decoded on the History Channel and is responsible for helping find the missing 9/11 flag with his show, Brad Meltzer’s Lost History.

    #bradmeltzer #theviper #speakingofwriterspodcast #bradmeltzerslosthistory #podcast #authorpodcast

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    17 mins