Geraldine Brooks On the Art of Grieving and Spanning the Political Divide

On with Kara Swisher

New York Magazine

News Commentary, News, Society & Culture

4.2 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 March 2025

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On May 27, 2019, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, best-selling author (and Kara’s friend) Tony Horwitz was on book tour for his latest work, Spying on the South: An Odyssey Across the American Divide, when he died suddenly. He left behind two sons and his wife, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Geraldine Brooks, whose books include March and Horse. Dealing with Tony’s death, taking time to grieve his passing and remembering their life together are at the center of Brooks’ latest memoir, Memorial Days. Brooks and Kara reminisce about Tony’s life, reflect on the challenge of grieving in a culture that is “averse to sad,” and ponder how Tony would have continued his “barstool democracy” — an attempt to span the political divide already shaking the nation — under Trump 2.0. They also discuss her latest project, a chapter in Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service, edited by acclaimed author Michael Lewis, which will be released on March 18th. This interview was recorded live at Sixth & I, a center for arts, entertainment, ideas, and Jewish life in Washington, D.C., and hosted in partnership with Politics and Prose Bookstore, Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Instagram, TikTok, and Bluesky @onwithkaraswisher. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	We're not going to talk about Elon Musk.
0:02.0	He's such a moving target.
0:04.0	It must be hard to finish the afterward.
0:06.0	Yes, it is.
0:07.0	You can abuse him about him, too.
0:08.0	You can abuse him about a new thing every day.
0:11.0	It's true.
0:12.0	Just don't say I didn't warn you all.
0:13.0	It's all. Hi, everyone from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network.
0:27.9	This is on with Caroushisher, and I'm Caroswisher.
0:30.9	My guest today is Pulitzer Prize winning author Geraldine Brooks.
0:34.5	She's written six novels, including the bestsellers, March and Horse,
0:38.1	and she's just come out with a memoir about her late husband and my friend, Tony Horowitz.
0:43.0	It's called Memorial Days. I've known Geraldine and Tony since forever. I don't even remember,
0:47.9	but my son was just born when I recall first hanging out at their farm in rural Virginia.
0:54.5	I don't know where we first met, but I do remember when he died here in Washington,
0:59.3	when he was on a book tour of his latest book, and it was devastating to everybody.
1:04.5	Tony was a bright light, not just as an author and a reporter and journalist,
1:09.8	but he also was a person.
1:11.7	He was always smiling,
1:18.0	always happy to see you, always just a real, a real inspiration to a lot of us. I think this memoir is absolutely beautiful, as difficult as it was, obviously for Geraldine to write. And together,
1:23.9	they were quite a pair, and that's the critical thing. I spoke with Geraldine at an event at Six and I,
	...

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