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.

• The Best Strangers in the World by Ari Shapiro
• All Things Considered (NPR)
• Sam Sanders
• Susan Stamberg
• “Remembering David Reed Gamboa Brandhorst and His Two Dads on 9/11” (Paulo Murillo, Weho Times)
• Refugees International
• “U.S. envoy John Kerry points to some progress at U.N. climate summit” (Ari Shapiro, NPR)
• Vanessa Nakate
• Vincint
• “VINCINT’s Debut Album Is A Vulnerable Soundtrack For Newly Reopened Dancefloors” (Ari Shapiro, NPR)
• The Window Seat by Aminatta Forna
• “Ep. 232 What Should the Rules Be with Andrea Elliott” (The Stacks)
• Invisible Child By Andrea Elliot
• “Transgender Women Of Indonesia Have A Champion In A 26-Year-Old Doctor” (Ari Shapiro, NPR)
• Joseph Papa
• “Ep. 61 The Publicizing of Books with Joseph Papa” (The Stacks)
• “Ari Shapiro Reads Cookbooks for Comfort and Pleasure” (The New York Times)
• The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
• Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
• Linda Holmes
• Victory City by Salman Rushdie
• Stabbing of Salman Rushdie
• Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell
• The Line Becomes a River by Francisco Cantú
• The Iliad by Homer
• The Odyssey by Homer
• Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare
• Philadelphia (Jonathan Demme, 1994)
• “Undeniably Essential (w/ Ari Shapiro)” (Las Culturistas)
• Shoshana Bean
• New York University (New York, NY)
• Wicked (Stephen Schwartz, 2003)
• Hairspray (Mark O’Donnell & Thomas Meehan, 2002)
• Whitney Houston
• Michael Pollan
• Alex Gibney
• Alan Cumming
• Ari Shapiro and Alan Cumming at Cafe Carlyle
• Cabaret (Joe Masteroff, 1966)
• Here for It by R. Eric Thomas
• “Ep. 112 R. Eric Thomas//Here for It” (The Stacks)
• Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller
• Radiolab (WNYC Studios)
• Invisibilia (NPR)
• David Starr Jordan
• The Best Strangers in the World by Ari Shapiro (audiobook)

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