The Great Work Begins
The Librarian Is In
The New York Public Library
4.7 • 595 Ratings
🗓️ 12 April 2018
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Dan Kois is a writer and editor for Slate. His recent book is called "The World Only Spins Forward: The Ascent of Angels in America." It's a collection of oral histories, beautifully arranged by Kois and his co-author, Isaac Butler. Together they interviewed nearly 250 people about the iconic Pulitzer Prize-winning play—directors, producers, and actors from Broadway to small town theatre productions. Kois talks to Gwen and Frank about creating the book, the enduring impact of Angles in America, and getting the inside scoop from Tony Kushner himself.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, everyone. Welcome to the librarian is in the New York Public Library's podcast about books, culture, and what to read next. I'm Gwen. I'm Frank. And we are super excited today to be joined by Dan Coise, who is one of the authors of The World Only Sp spins forward, The Ascent of Angels in America. |
| 0:22.9 | Thanks so much for coming, Dan. |
| 0:24.6 | Thanks so much for having me. |
| 0:25.6 | I will be speaking on behalf of Isaac Butler today, my co-author, who could not be here, |
| 0:30.6 | but in whose mouth I will put all kinds of extremely objectionable statements. |
| 0:34.6 | Perfect. |
| 0:35.6 | Oh, yes, I can't wait. |
| 0:37.5 | So before we start, I need one moment to talk about the fact that you co-hosted probably |
| 0:43.7 | one of my favorite podcast in the world, Slate's mom and daughter fighting. |
| 0:47.9 | Aw. |
| 0:49.1 | You left how long ago, like a year ago? |
| 0:52.0 | A year ago, yeah, almost exactly a year ago, because my family |
| 0:56.2 | went away for a year and I could not co-host from the road. Blah, blah, blah reasons, whatever. |
| 1:03.0 | But I was super excited not only to be able to talk to you, but also way back in 2016 when you |
| 1:10.8 | and Isaac Butler co-wrote that piece for Slate. |
| 1:13.7 | You are a Slate staff writer, is that right? |
| 1:16.9 | I'm an editor at Slate. |
| 1:18.2 | Editor and writer for the magazine, yeah. |
| 1:19.8 | Oh, I'm sorry to demote you. |
| 1:21.6 | So can you just talk a little bit first about how you and Isaac came to write that first piece in Slate |
| 1:29.8 | that was the kind of original oral history that became the jumping off point for the book? |
| 1:34.3 | Sure. So at the time, I was the culture editor at Slade, which meant that I could sort of write |
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