Long time listeners of the podcast know that we never missed an episode, in fact until

now, we hadn't missed a single episode in 15 years.

So it was not an easy decision for us to suspend new recordings of the podcast during the

COVID-19 crisis.

On the bright side, this is an opportunity for us to revisit some of our favorite episodes

from the archives.

Some of my personal favorites are with authors whose work I've been enjoying as a reader

for years.

This episode, which dropped on August 12, 2016, features two such writers, Colson Whitehead

talking about the Underground Railroad and Jeffrey Tuben talking about American Eras,

his book about Patty Hearst.

Both authors I'd interviewed before, in fact that year I interviewed Colson on three separate

occasions about the Underground Railroad, once memorably at the Sydney Book Festival.

But this episode was recorded in our studio at the Times Headquarters in Manhattan.

Colson Whitehead's new novel, The Underground Railroad, is already making a mark as a work

of fiction that combines history and metaphor, telling a story about slavery in America in

new and surprising ways.

Whitehead is the author of many books, including Zone One and Sag Harbor, and he's also received

a MacArthur Genius Grant and many other awards.

Colson, thanks so much for being here.

Sure, my pleasure.

So this is not your first novel, obviously, but how many novels have you written?

...