Tayari Jones: “Kin” | Oprah’s Book Club

The Oprah Podcast

Harpo

Society & Culture

4.2 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 24 February 2026

⏱️ 48 minutes

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Summary

We are celebrating the 30th anniversary of Oprah’s Book Club and Oprah’s first pick of 2026 which is her 121st Book Club selection. The novel KIN by international bestselling author Tayari Jones explores the life-long friendship of two motherless daughters in the segregated South. The story explores how their decisions lead them to live vastly different lives causing them to grow apart. From page one to the stunning conclusion Tayari’s emotionally rich and witty novel inspires a soul-searching, introspective conversation about chosen family. Oprah and Tayari Jones talk with an audience of readers in New York City. BUY THE BOOK! https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/635411/kin-by-tayari-jones/ 00:00:00 - Celebrating 30 years of Oprah Book Club 00:03:20 - Oprah introduces ‘Kin’ by Tayari Jones 00:04:13 - Welcome Tayari Jones 00:06:42 - Thando on ‘Kin’ 00:08:30 - Letters as storytelling 00:10:30 - The professor that inspired Tayari 00:12:35 - Tayari on the 8 years between books 00:17:38 - The plot of ‘Kin’ 00:20:40 - Being a girl without a mom 00:22:00 - Belonging and sacrifice 00:23:57 - Tayari’s understanding of her mother 00:28:30 - What can save friendship? 00:30:15 - Honor your friendships 00:37:20 - The feeling of completing a novel 00:42:20 - Tayari on ‘Kin’ 00:43:48 - How Tayari sees the world SUPPORT THE SHOW https://www.tayarijones.com/books/an-american-marriage/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	We're surprising an author, Tyari,
0:05.0	whose book club I picked once before for American Marriage.
0:11.0	She doesn't know I'm going in.
0:15.0	Tara, you have a guest.
0:18.0	Hello!
0:20.0	Hello! How are you? How are you? It's great to see you. It's great to see you. I've come to bring good news to you. Okay. I'm choosing Ken as a book club. Oh, my. Oh, my. We're a tofer. Tufer. You're a tofer. This is this thing about it. I just felt like I had taken a trip back home and I knew these women, like, as well as
0:43.3	I know myself and my own kin.
0:45.3	Our literature has to reflect not only who we are, but who we were.
0:49.3	Yeah.
0:50.3	And so it means a lot to me.
0:51.3	Oh, thank you.
0:52.3	It means so much to me that you wrote it.
0:55.0	Wow.
0:55.9	Thank you.
0:56.7	Thank you.
0:57.4	Thank you.
0:58.3	Here we go.
0:58.9	Here we go.
1:01.9	Hi, everybody.
1:03.2	I am so delighted to be here with you on the Oprah podcast.
1:06.5	We're in New York City.
1:20.6	With an audience of my kind of people, book lovers in New York City. Give yourselves a round of applause for that.
	...

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