Ep. 262 Joy, Surprise, and Uplift with Ari Shapiro

Today, award-winning host of NPR’s All Things Considered, and now New York Times bestselling author, Ari Shapiro joins us to discuss his new book The Best Strangers in the World: Stories from a Life Spent Listening. We discuss how Ari brings his identity to his storytelling, the difference between illuminating and influencing in journalism, and how he approaches writing interview questions.

The Stacks Book Club selection for April is Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay. We will discuss the book on April 26th with Clint Smith.

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Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Overcast | Stitcher | Transcript

Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes and on Bookshop.org and Amazon.

To support The Stacks and find out more from this week’s sponsors, click here.

Connect with Ari: Instagram | Twitter
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To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page. If you prefer to support the show with a one time contribution go to paypal.me/thestackspod.


The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. This in no way effects opinions on books and products reviewed here. For more information click here.

Ep. 261 All at Once with Clint Smith

Today we welcome author Clint Smith to The Stacks to talk about his new poetry collection Above Ground, a tribute to being a parent amidst the chaos of life. We discuss how he handled the pressure to follow up the bestselling and award-winning How the Word is Passed. We also get into how parenting has animated all facets of life, and how competition has facilitated Clint’s relationship to literature.

The Stacks Book Club selection for April is Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay. We will discuss the book on April 26th with Clint Smith.

LISTEN NOW

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Overcast | Stitcher | Transcript

Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes and on Bookshop.org and Amazon.

To support The Stacks and find out more from this week’s sponsors, click here.

Connect with Clint: Instagram | Twitter | Website
Connect with The Stacks: Instagram | Twitter | Shop | Patreon | Goodreads | Subscribe

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page. If you prefer to support the show with a one time contribution go to paypal.me/thestackspod.


The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. This in no way effects opinions on books and products reviewed here. For more information click here.

The Stacks Book Club – April 2023

It’s National Poetry Month! Our April selection for The Stacks Book Club is Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay. It was released in 2015 and won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Prize, and was a finalist for the National Book Award and NAACP Image Award in poetry. It’s a meditation on the ephemeral nature of love, life and nature itself, using imagery from gardens and orchards to cultivate wisdom and patience around themes of grief and loss. According to the Paris Review, “Almost no one has the faith Gay seems to have in poetry’s ability to tap grace from the happenings of his life. . . He looks to the act of writing as real alchemy, and death, disappointment, and inequity become honey in his hands.” Ross Gay serves on the board of the Bloomington Community Orchard and is an associate professor of poetry at Indiana University. This is his third collection of poems.

We will discuss Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay on Wednesday, April 26th. You can find out who our guest will be by listening to our April 5th episode. If you’d like even more discussion around the book, consider joining The Stacks Pack on Patreon and participating in The Stacks’ monthly virtual book club.

Order your copy of our April book on Bookshop.org and Amazon.


To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/thestacks). We are beyond grateful for anything you’re able to give to support the production of The Stacks.

The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. This in no way effects opinions on books and products reviewed. For more information click here.

Unabridged: One for the Books with Rachel Lindsay and Chelsea Devantez

Here is a little abridged version of Traci’s live show “One for the Books” with LAist. This time around, it’s a conversation with friends of the show Chelsea Devantez and Rachel Lindsay. We talk about Rachel’s book, why we should care about celebrity memoirs, the Bachelor franchise and so much more.

*This episode is exclusive to members of The Stacks Pack on patreon. To join this community, get inside access to the show, and listen now, click the link below.

JOIN THE STACKS PACK TO LISTEN

Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes. You can also find what we talked about on Amazon.

Connect with Rachel: Instagram | Twitter | Website |  Higher Learning
Connect with Chelsea: Instagram | Twitter | Website | Celebrity Book Club
Connect with The Stacks: Instagram | Twitter | Shop | Patreon | Goodreads | Subscribe

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page. If you prefer to support the show with a one time contribution go to paypal.me/thestackspod.


The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. This in no way effects opinions on books and products reviewed here. For more information click here.

Ep. 260 Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay — The Stacks Book Club (Shanita Hubbard)

Professor and Ride or Die author Shanita Hubbard returns to discuss the 2014 book of essays Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay for The Stacks Book Club. We look back at the collection and ask, how did the book hold up? Its mix of personal memoir, political commentary and pop culture references have us examining our relationship to the text from a new perspective in this spoiler-free episode.

Be sure to listen to the end of today’s episode to find out what our book club pick will be for April 2023.

LISTEN NOW

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Overcast | Stitcher | Transcript

Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes and on Bookshop.org and Amazon.

To support The Stacks and find out more from this week’s sponsors, click here.

Connect with Shanita: Instagram | Twitter | Website
Connect with The Stacks: Instagram | Twitter | Shop | Patreon | Goodreads | Subscribe

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page. If you prefer to support the show with a one time contribution go to paypal.me/thestackspod.


The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. This in no way effects opinions on books and products reviewed here. For more information click here.

Ep. 259 How Innocent Are They with Joseph Earl Thomas

Writer and Philadelphia native Joseph Earl Thomas joins the show to discuss his new book Sink: A Memoir, about coming of age amid chaos and finding a way through. He talks about why he wanted to write a memoir that centers childhood without growing into adulthood, the challenge of writing his story in the face of respectability politics and the push to write about “Black joy.”

The Stacks Book Club selection for March is Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay. We will discuss the book on March 29th with Shanita Hubbard..

LISTEN NOW

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Overcast | Stitcher | Transcript

Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes and on Bookshop.org and Amazon.

To support The Stacks and find out more from this week’s sponsors, click here.

Connect with Joseph: Instagram | Twitter | Website
Connect with The Stacks: Instagram | Twitter | Shop | Patreon | Goodreads | Subscribe

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page. If you prefer to support the show with a one time contribution go to paypal.me/thestackspod.


The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. This in no way effects opinions on books and products reviewed here. For more information click here.

Ep. 258 Long-Suffering Basketball Fans with José Olivarez

Today we’re joined by poet, writer and educator José Olivarez to discuss his new book Promises of Gold, a collection of poems exploring all forms of love, including friendship, romantic and cultural. We find out why José had someone else translate his collection into Spanish when Spanish is his first language. We also discuss how he thinks about organizing his poems on the page and in the book, and why balance in a collection is so important.

The Stacks Book Club selection for March is Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay. We will discuss the book on March 29th with Shanita Hubbard.

LISTEN NOW

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Overcast | Stitcher | Transcript

Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes and on Bookshop.org and Amazon.

To support The Stacks and find out more from this week’s sponsors, click here.

Connect with José: Instagram | Twitter | Website
Connect with The Stacks: Instagram | Twitter | Shop | Patreon | Goodreads | Subscribe

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page. If you prefer to support the show with a one time contribution go to paypal.me/thestackspod.


The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. This in no way effects opinions on books and products reviewed here. For more information click here.

Ep. 257 The Hardest Book I Had to Write with Carol Anderson

Prolific author, historian and educator Dr. Carol Anderson joins us to discuss her book The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America. We talk about what sparked her interest in writing it, and dissect the role of anti-blackness in the formation and upholding of the second amendment. Carol reveals how she thinks of her writing in terms of persuasion versus education, and why this is the hardest book she has ever written.

The Stacks Book Club selection for March is Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay. We will discuss the book on March 29th with Shanita Hubbard.

LISTEN NOW

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Overcast | Stitcher | Transcript

Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes and on Bookshop.org and Amazon.

To support The Stacks and find out more from this week’s sponsors, click here.

Connect with Carol: Website
Connect with The Stacks: Instagram | Twitter | Shop | Patreon | Goodreads | Subscribe

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page. If you prefer to support the show with a one time contribution go to paypal.me/thestackspod.


The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. This in no way effects opinions on books and products reviewed here. For more information click here.

The Stacks Book Club – March 2023

Our March selection for The Stacks Book Club is Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay. Released in 2014, it’s a New York Times bestselling essay collection offering sharp cultural critique, insight and humor in every piece. Gay explores what it means to be a feminist while also loving things that are decidedly at odds with that ideology. She uses a variety of pop culture references to help tent-post her stories and reflections on being an evolving Black woman in America, countering all of the associated societal strongholds and offering a call-to-arms to readers. An instant classic, Bad Feminist was named Best Book of the Year by NPR, Newsweek, the Boston Globe, Oprah.com, Time Out New York and Book Riot, among others.

We will discuss Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay on Wednesday, March 29th with our guest Shanita Hubbard. If you’d like even more discussion around the book, consider joining The Stacks Pack on Patreon and participating in The Stacks’ monthly virtual book club.

Order your copy of our March book on Bookshop.org and Amazon, or listen to the audiobook.


To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/thestacks). We are beyond grateful for anything you’re able to give to support the production of The Stacks.

The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. This in no way effects opinions on books and products reviewed. For more information click here.

Ep. 256 Centering Us with Shanita Hubbard

Today professor and author Shanita Hubbard speaks with The Stacks about her book Ride or Die: A Feminist Manifesto for the Well-Being of Black Women. We discuss the cultural erasure of Black women and why the idea that they will “save the world” is manipulative. We also note how Black female essayists have been weaving together scholarly and pop cultural commentary in the most complex and delightful ways.

The Stacks Book Club selection for March is Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay. We will discuss the book on March 29th with Shanita Hubbard.

LISTEN NOW

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Overcast | Stitcher | Transcript

Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes and on Bookshop.org and Amazon.

To support The Stacks and find out more from this week’s sponsors, click here.

Connect with Shanita: Instagram | Twitter | Website
Connect with The Stacks: Instagram | Twitter | Shop | Patreon | Goodreads | Subscribe

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page. If you prefer to support the show with a one time contribution go to paypal.me/thestackspod.


The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. This in no way effects opinions on books and products reviewed here. For more information click here.