How does America's landscape tell a story of slavery?

Clint Smith will be here to talk about his best-selling book, How the Word Is Past.

What does a single crime in Denver tell us about gangs, rehabilitation, policing, and the

transformation of a black neighborhood in an American city?

Julian Rubenstein will be here to talk about his book, The Holly.

Elizabeth Harris joins us with news from the publishing world.

Plus, we'll talk about what we and the wider world are reading.

This is the Book Review Podcast from the New York Times.

It's June 25th.

I'm Pamela Paul.

Clint Smith joins us now.

He is a writer for the Atlantic and the author of a new book, How the Word Is Past, a

reckoning with the history of slavery across America.

Clint, thanks for being here.

Thank you so much for having me.

So let's start with just a happy bit of news.

Your book debuted at number one on the New York Times best-seller list for nonfiction.

Tell us about the moment you found that out.

Oh, man.

This was never something that I could have even imagined.

I mean, it was not on the radar for a book that is exploring the memory and landscape

of historiography, of slavery to end up above Oprah and Bill O'Reilly.

...