Big Books & Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller

There’s more to Daniel Boone than the stereotype of an explorer wearing deerskin and a raccoon hat.

On her Friday book show, MPR News host Kerri Miller sorted fact from fiction with the help of Matthew Pearl. “The Taking of Jemima Boone: Colonial Settlers, Tribal Nations, and the Kidnap That Shaped America” is Pearl’s latest book and his first nonfiction work. In it, he describes how Boone thought he could live peacefully in Kentucky with the Native Americans whose land he’s stolen — until his daughter, Jemima, was kidnapped by them.

But despite that, Boone’s relationship with the region’s tribes was always as admiring as it was adversarial.

Guest:

• Matthew Pearl, author of “The Taking of Jemima Boone: Colonial Settlers, Tribal Nations, and the Kidnap That Shaped America”

Use the audio player above to listen to their conversation.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcastonApple Podcasts,Google Podcasts, orRSS.

Host Kerri Miller’s third Talking Volumes event of the season took place on Wednesday, Oct. 13, with Amor Towles, whose latest book is “The Lincoln Highway.”

Host Kerri Miller’s third Talking Volumes event of the season took place on Wednesday, Oct. 13, with Amor Towles, whose latest book is “The Lincoln Highway.”

Dealing with climate change can feel overwhelming. Efforts to address it can feel futile.

But climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe insists all is not lost. In this week’s conversation about big books and bold ideas, MPR News host Kerri Miller talks with Hayhoe about her new book, “Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World.”

Hayhoe argues that collective action is still possible when it comes to climate change, and she offers practical and thoughtful ideas on how to pull the debate from the quagmire of politics and division.

Guest:

• Katharine Hayhoe is a climate scientist and the chief scientist for The Nature Conservancy.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcastonApple Podcasts,Google Podcasts, orRSS.

Dealing with climate change can feel overwhelming. Efforts to address it can feel futile.

But climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe insists all is not lost. In this week’s conversation about big books and bold ideas, MPR News host Kerri Miller talks with Hayhoe about her new book, “Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World.”

Hayhoe argues that collective action is still possible when it comes to climate change, and she offers practical and thoughtful ideas on how to pull the debate from the quagmire of politics and division.

Guest:

• Katharine Hayhoe is a climate scientist and the chief scientist for The Nature Conservancy.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcastonApple Podcasts,Google Podcasts, orRSS.

Host Kerri Miller’s second Talking Volumes event of the season took place on Thursday, Sept. 30, with Kate DiCamillo, whose latest book is “The Beatryce Prophecy.”

Host Kerri Miller’s second Talking Volumes event of the season took place on Thursday, Sept. 30, with Kate DiCamillo, whose latest book is “The Beatryce Prophecy.”

In his new novel, award-winning author Richard Powers probes an essential question: How can we tell our children the truth about this beautiful, imperiled planet?

Called an “ecological parable,” Powers’ latest book, “Bewilderment,” tells the story of a widowed astrobiologist as he struggles to raise his precocious son alone, in the midst of our all-too-real climate crisis.

“We really are in need of a change in cultural consciousness,” Powers told MPR News host Kerri Miller. “Or we need a new way of thinking about ourselves, on the Earth. Not as something separate from the nonhuman, but as an integrated neighbor, situated in a real place, not one that we're trying to master and dominate.”

Guest:

• Richard Powers is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist. His latest book is “Bewilderment.”

Use the audio player above to listen to their conversation.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcastonApple Podcasts,Google Podcasts, orRSS.

In his new novel, award-winning author Richard Powers probes an essential question: How can we tell our children the truth about this beautiful, imperiled planet?

Called an “ecological parable,” Powers’ latest book, “Bewilderment,” tells the story of a widowed astrobiologist as he struggles to raise his precocious son alone, in the midst of our all-too-real climate crisis.

“We really are in need of a change in cultural consciousness,” Powers told MPR News host Kerri Miller. “Or we need a new way of thinking about ourselves, on the Earth. Not as something separate from the nonhuman, but as an integrated neighbor, situated in a real place, not one that we're trying to master and dominate.”

Guest:

• Richard Powers is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist. His latest book is “Bewilderment.”

Use the audio player above to listen to their conversation.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcastonApple Podcasts,Google Podcasts, orRSS.

Losing a parent at a young age shapes a person. In her debut memoir, “Seeing Ghosts,” Kat Chow pours her grief onto the page and examines how the loss of her mother when she was only 13 both marked her and made her into who she is today.

She also looks back at past generations of her family to examine how their journey from China and Hong Kong to Cuba and America both marked and made them.

Her book asks what it means to reclaim and tell your family story. Is it a form of exorcism? Or is it a way to hold on to those we loved and lost?

Listen to Kerri Miller’s fascinating conversation about big books and bold ideas, as she talks with Chow about her new book and family identity.