'Dear Memory' and 'Cokie' both look toward the future while remembering the dead

NPR's Book of the Day

NPR

Arts, Books

4.2 • 670 Ratings

🗓️ 12 November 2021

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In today's double episode, both books center people who have died. And they aren't just tributes to those who've passed, but to the people who remember them. First, Steven Roberts remembers his late wife, journalist Cokie Roberts, with NPR's Steve Inskeep. His book Cokie is full of interviews with her friends, family, and colleagues. Then, poet Victoria Chang talks about past and future generations of her family and what she wants to pass on to her own daughters in her book Dear Memory: Letters on Writing, Silence, and Grief with NPR's Rachel Martin.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's NPR's book at the day. I'm Andrew Limbong. Let's talk about memory and all the different
0:08.0	feelings it can conjure. In a bit, we're going to talk to a poet who found a bunch of her late
0:12.4	parents' old letters and papers and documents while she was cleaning out a storage facility,
0:17.3	and it left her with all of these questions, but nobody to ask them to.
0:22.3	But first, Stephen Roberts did have people to ask questions, too.
0:26.4	He's the widower of groundbreaking NPR journalist Koki Roberts.
0:30.6	And he wrote a book about her by way of interviewing her friends and colleagues and loved ones.
0:36.0	NPR Steve Inskeep spoke with Roberts and their daughter, Rebecca,
0:39.7	well, actually visiting Koki's grave in Washington, D.C.
0:43.6	And as Koki would have wanted it, it's a lot funnier of an interview than that setup might imply.
0:49.5	Here it is.
0:50.7	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
0:55.4	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.
1:00.0	On our new show, Sources and Methods.
1:02.0	NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people
1:05.3	helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
1:09.3	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:14.9	We paid a visit to the grave of Koki Roberts.
1:18.7	The longtime NPR journalist died two years ago.
1:21.5	She's buried here in Washington, D.C., and we visited with her husband Steve Roberts
1:25.5	and her daughter, Rebecca Roberts.
1:27.7	Where are we?
	...

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