Great Podversations

This conversation features New York Times bestselling author Hampton Sides, interviewed by former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke. They discuss Sides’ book “The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook,” before a live audience at the Kentucky Author Forum. This conversation was recorded on May 7th, 2026, at the Kentucky Center in Louisville.

Hampton Sides is the author of many acclaimed and bestselling narrative histories. His most recent work, “The Wide Wide Sea,” is an adventure on the high seas and an examination of the complexities of the Age of Exploration. It was a New York Times Ten Best Books of the Year and Barack Obama featured it on his coveted Summer Reading List. Hampton Sides has contributed to many publications, such as The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. He has won the PEN USA Award for nonfiction, and his journalistic work has been twice nominated for National Magazine Awards for feature writing.

Beto O'Rourke is a former Texas congressman who was a member of both the Veterans' Affairs and Armed Services Committees. In 2019, O’Rourke founded Powered by the People, a voting rights organization that focuses on voter registration and education, particularly targeting young voters in Texas. He is the author of “We’ve Got to Try,” a book that tells the stories of previously unknown civil and voting rights champions to inspire us to do our part to save our democracy for generations to come.

This conversation features Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times Opinion Columnist Maureen Dowd, interviewed by author and journalist Todd Purdum. They discuss Dowd’s book “Notorious: Portraits of Stars from Hollywood, Culture, Fashion and Tech” before a live audience at the Kentucky Author Forum. This conversation was recorded on December 1st, 2025, at the Kentucky Center in Louisville.

Maureen Dowd is a columnist for The New York Times Opinion pages and a feature writer for The Times’s Styles and Arts & Leisure sections. Ms. Dowd won the Pulitzer Prize in 1999, has covered ten presidential campaigns, and served as White House correspondent during the first Bush administration and the Clinton administration. Her latest book, “Notorious: Portraits of Stars from Hollywood, Culture, Fashion and Tech,” is a captivating collection of her most compelling celebrity profiles.

Todd Purdum is a veteran journalist and author who spent twenty-three years at The New York Times, covering politics from city hall to the White House, and served as the Los Angeles bureau chief. He was a senior writer at Politico and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. His most recent book, “Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Invented Television,” focuses on the trailblazer whose legacy continues to influence American culture.

This conversation features United States Congressman Jim Clyburn, interviewed by former U.S. Congressman John Yarmuth. They discuss Clyburn’s book “The First Eight: A Personal History of the Pioneering Black Congressmen Who Shaped a Nation” before a live audience at the Kentucky Author Forum. This conversation was recorded on November 24th, 2025, at the Kentucky Center in Louisville. James E. Clyburn is the Congressman representing South Carolina’s 6th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2024, he was bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States. Clyburn’s book, “The First Eight” explores the powerful, untold story of the pioneering Black politicians from South Carolina who were elected to Congress in the aftermath of the Civil War, and a revealing explanation of why it took nearly a century before the ninth, James Clyburn, was elected. John Yarmuth is a retired United States Congressman who served eight terms as the representative of Kentucky’s 3rd Congressional District and was chairman of the House Budget Committee from 2019-2023. He was the primary sponsor of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Prior to his congressional career, he founded and edited the Louisville Eccentric Observer (LEO), a weekly alternative newspaper. During his 15 years with LEO, Yarmuth won nearly 20 awards for column and editorial writing.

This conversation features best-selling author Colm Tóibín, interviewed by Silas House, former Kentucky Poet Laureate (2023-2025). They discuss Tóibín’s book “Long Island” before a live audience at the University of Louisville, Kentucky Author Forum. This conversation was recorded on April 14th, 2025, at the Kentucky Center in Louisville.

Irish novelist, playwright, and essayist Colm Tóibín has written eleven novels, including the most recent, Long Island, which is the quietly heartbreaking sequel to his novel Brooklyn. Tóibín is a Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University and was named the Laureate for Irish Fiction for 2022–2024 by the Arts Council of Ireland. Tóibín has been shortlisted three times for the Booker Prize. Silas House is a bestselling author of seven novels, one book of creative nonfiction, and four plays. His most recent novel, “Lark Ascending”, was a Booklist Editors' Choice and is the winner of the Southern Book Prize, and other honors. His writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Time, The New York Times, and many others.

This conversation features best-selling author Sebastian Junger, interviewed by NPR Podcast Host Rachel Martin. They discuss Junger’s book “In My Time of Dying: How I Came Face-to-Face with the Idea of an Afterlife” before a live audience at the Kentucky Author Forum. This conversation was recorded on February 3rd, 2025, at the Kentucky Center in Louisville.

Sebastian Junger is a bestselling author of many books, award-winning journalist, and documentary filmmaker. Junger’s bestselling book “The Perfect Storm” was made into a major motion picture. His latest book “In My Time of Dying” is part medical drama, part searing autobiography, and part rational inquiry into the mystery of death. Rachel Martin is the co-creator and host of the NPR podcast Wild Card, an interview game show about life’s biggest questions. Martin spent six years as a host of NPR’s Morning Edition and was the founding host of NPR’s award-winning morning news podcast Up First.