In this episode of Library Talks, Ray D. Madoff, a professor at Boston College Law School, talks about her new book The Second Estate which lifts the veil on the 7,000-page tax code that has created two Americas. In one America, "millions of working Americans pay substantial portions of their resources to support the expenses of the country." In another, the wealthiest one percent have been "given the tools to abdicate their responsibilities and, in a sense, to relocate to a tax-free version of American life." Â Madoff talks to stand-up comedian Gary Gulman about how these mechanisms were enshrined in law and created a sovereign state of wealth and who bears the costs of a tax system that consolidates wealth at the top.
-------- Â
55:34
--------
55:34
Cheryl McKissack Daniel with Charlamagne Tha God: The Black Family Who Built America
In this episode of Library Talks, Cheryl McKissack Daniel—fifth-generation leader of the nation's oldest Black-owned design and construction services firm, sits down with multimedia mogul Charlamagne Tha God to discuss her family's extraordinary 200-year history, as captured in her new book The Black Family Who Built America.  From the National Civil Rights Museum in Tennessee, to the Atlantic Yards (Pacific Park) LIRR Yard relocation, the Barclays Center Arena construction in Brooklyn, the Oculus in Manhattan, the New Terminal One at JFK International Airport, and the cherished Lincoln Financial Field of the Philadelphia Eagles, Cheryl McKissack Daniel's family-run construction business, McKissack & McKissack, has contributed to the creation of some of the nation's most significant landmarks. Over the course of the 200-year history of the McKissack family The Black Family Who Built America: The McKissacks, Two Centuries of Daring Pioneers by Cheryl McKissack Daniel with Nick Chiles, showcases a compelling narrative of Black achievement, resilience, and a legacy that endures.
-------- Â
51:42
--------
51:42
Gish Jen with Weike Wang: Bad Bad Girl
In this episode of Library Talks, acclaimed novelist Gish Jen joins Library Talks to discuss her latest book Bad Bad Girl. She is joined by fellow novelist Weike Wang. Â Bad Bad Girl began as a memoir of her late mother, Loo Shu-hsin, before evolving into a fictionalized portrait of their turbulent mother-daughter relationship. As a child Shu-hsin learns how little her life is valued as a woman in 1930s Shanghai and is constantly reprimanded, "Bad bad girl! You don't know how to talk!" Years later, struggling to keep her own family together as an expat in America, she finds herself incanting the same refrain to her own strong-willed, outspoken daughter. Spanning continents, generations, and cultures, Bad Bad Girl weaves fragments of memory with careful invention to create an intimate portrait of the complex bonds between mothers and daughters.
-------- Â
58:58
--------
58:58
David Szalay with Dua Lipa: Flesh
In this episode of Library Talks, join Dua Lipa for a live discussion of Flesh by David Szalay, a book club pick for Service95—the global lifestyle platform and weekly newsletter she founded.  Longlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize, Flesh tells the rags-to-riches story of Istvan, a lonely young man raised on a Hungarian housing estate, whose rise from obscurity to success is ultimately derailed by events beyond his control.
-------- Â
40:31
--------
40:31
Brian Jones with Bettina L. Love and Jesse Hagopian: Black History Is for Everyone
In this episode of Library Talks, Educator NYPL staff member and author Brian Jones joins Library Talks to discuss his new book Black History Is for Everyone. He is joined by Dr. Bettina L. Love and Jesse Hagopian.  In Black History Is for Everyone, Brian Jones offers a meditation on the power of Black history, using his own experiences as a lifelong learner and classroom teacher to question everything—from the radicalism of the American Revolution to the meaning of "race" and "nation."
Join The New York Public Library and your favorite writers, artists, and thinkers for smart talks and provocative conversations from the nation's cultural capital.
South Africa