From Cafe and the Vox Media Podcast Network, welcome to Stay Tuned.

I'm Pete Barara.

I think each of us when we wake up in the morning, we kind of tell ourselves a story about the life we're living.

And you look at yourself in the mirror and you try to count for the decisions that you've made.

And I think we all lie to ourselves to greater and lesser degrees.

That's Patrick Radden-Kief.

He's a staff writer at the New Yorker who has become known for his works of narrative nonfiction,

which are often about criminals and con-artists.

In recent years, he's written multiple New York Times bestsellers, say nothing about the troubles in Ireland,

an empire of pain, about the Sackler family, whose company created OxyContin.

Kief has just published an essay collection that features some of his most acclaimed New Yorker pieces.

It's called Roaks, true stories of grifters, killers, rebels, and crooks.

I spoke with Kief about the moral questions that guide his work,

what causes people to do bad things, and what are the limits of empathy?

That's coming up. Stay tuned.

Hey folks, this Thursday, July 7th, at 6.30pm, the brilliant hosts of now and then, Heather Cox-Witcherson and Joanne Freeman,

will be joined by Emory African American Studies professor Carol Anderson for a live taping.

Last year, Professor Anderson published the second, Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America,

a book that is all too relevant, especially after the latest terrible news at a Pylon Park, Illinois.

Heather, Joanne, and Carol will discuss the scourge of mass shootings that have plagued the nation,

the Supreme Court's ruling in the New York City concealed carry case, and the future of the second amendment.

You can tune in on Cafe's social platforms or Heather's Facebook page.

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