Samantha Barbas, a professor of law at the University of Iowa, discusses her book Actual Malice: Civil Rights and Freedom of the Press in New York Times v. Sullivan. The book explores the landmark 1964 Supreme Court case, which arose...

Samantha Barbas's favorite teacher wasn’t someone from her early schooling, but a colleague she met while beginning her career as a professor at Chapman University: historian Robert “Bob” Slayton. Bob profoundly influenced her approach...

Dava Sobel, a longtime science writer, came to the subject of women in science relatively late in her career. While researching her book The Glass Universe, about women astronomers at Harvard, she was struck by how much she had...

David Greenberg, a historian and professor at Rutgers University, recently authored John Lewis: Life, the first comprehensive biography of civil rights icon and longtime Georgia congressman John Lewis. Greenberg chose to write this book...

H.W. Brands shares that the teacher who had the most influence on his career was his ninth-grade history teacher, Joe DeJardin. Though he didn’t realize it at the time, DeJardin's radical experiment deeply shaped his path. He split the...

Agustina Paglayan is a political science professor at the University of California, San Diego, specializing in the intersection of politics and education policy. She is the author of Raised to Obey: The Rise and Spread of Mass Education...

Richard Evans, a Welsh-born historian and Professor Emeritus of History at Cambridge University, developed an early interest in German history after witnessing post-WWII bomb damage in London. His academic journey led him to study the...

Joanna Sliwa's journey into Holocaust studies began in the early 2000s as an undergraduate student at Kean University, where she took the only Holocaust course available, focusing on literature and film. Drawn to the experiences of...

Thomas Weber, a professor of history and international affairs at the University of Aberdeen and a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, is the author of Becoming Hitler: The Making of a Nazi. His research challenges the...

Annette Gordon-Reed, the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard, is a historian and author of On Juneteenth, a blend of memoir and history. In the book, she explores her family's deep roots in Texas, dating back to the 1820s and...

Bob Dilenschneider's book explores the concept of character—an essential quality built on courage, integrity, and leadership. Through profiles of influential figures such as Mother Teresa, Jimmy Stewart, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Father...

Bradley W. Hart is a World War II historian at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans. A former professor at CSU Fresno, he earned his PhD from Cambridge and studied the international eugenics movement and its influence on Nazi Germany....

One of the most formative professional experiences for David Greenberg was working with legendary journalist Bob Woodward just a year out of college. Although Greenberg didn’t see himself as a natural newspaper reporter like Woodward, he...

Clay Risen, a reporter at The New York Times, explores the era from 1946 to 1957 in his book Red Scare, detailing how anti-communist hysteria shaped American society. During this time, fear of communism infiltrated every level of...

Joanna Sliwa is a historian, educator, and author working at the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, where she administers academic programs on Holocaust studies. She co-authored The Counterfeit Countess: The Jewish...

Annette Gordon-Reed, a professor at Harvard University, wrote a groundbreaking book in the 1990s examining the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman at Monticello. Initially interested in how...

Kara Alaimo is a professor of communication at Fairleigh Dickinson University and the author of Over the Influence: Why Social Media is Toxic for Women and Girls and How We Can Take It Back. She has written opinion and analysis pieces...

Kara Alaimo reminisces about their early education with Ms.Knight, her Montessori kindergarten teacher, where she first developed a love for reading and curiosity. She emphasizes how Montessori education, which allows children to explore...

Travis Thrasher fondly recalls his third-grade teacher, Mrs. Miller, at Munich International School as the person who ignited his passion for writing. Struggling as a student, he found encouragement when she praised his pirate story with...

Travis Thrasher is a versatile writer and storyteller who has been passionate about writing since childhood. After college, he worked in publishing for 13 years, gaining industry experience while pursuing his dream of becoming a...

Jack Meyers' The Tao of Leadership explores the intersection of leadership, technology, and human creativity in the age of artificial intelligence. Drawing on the ancient principles of Taoism—harmony, flexibility, balance, and...

Ron Rice reflects on his 40-year publishing career, celebrating independent bookstores as vital community hubs. Through personal stories, including a post-9/11 moment in Connecticut, he highlights how bookstores foster healing,...

Dive into the life of Alan Dean Foster, from ghostwriting Star Wars to his passion for global exploration and fitness.

Explore the enigmatic world of the Codex Seraphinianus, a bizarre and cryptic book full of strange symbols and illustrations that have baffled readers for decades.