Politics and Prose Presents

About Politics and Prose Presents

Calling all book lovers: experience our renowned author talks in podcast form. Politics and Prose Presents allows you to visit our legendary independent bookstore from anywhere in the world. Listen to top authors and journalists discuss their latest books- ranging from topics like biography, politics, science, poetry, fiction, and everything in between. Make sure to like and Subscribe and visit us at www.politics-prose.com

Publisher

Politics and Prose

Category

arts

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

19 Jan 2025

Latest episode

19 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

820 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   19 Oct 2026

   Jennifer Welch — Not Today, Fascists: The Lies That Got Us Here, and the Truths That Will Reunite Us - with Jim Acosta

   From Jennifer Welch, the host of the wildly popular “I’ve Had It” podcast and a trusted voice in new media, comes a piercing, incisive, no-holds-barred take on the rising threat of theocracy in America and a fresh vision for how we can take back our country. As a progressive atheist from a Bible Belt red state, Jennifer Welch has a unique perspective on the intersection of religion and politics in America. She has seen how the far right has used religion across denominations to coalesce power, and how their messaging, particularly the Evangelical prosperity gospel, reinforces economic inequality. In Not Today, Fascists, Welch explores: how America is moving not only toward fascism, but also theocracy; the current administration’s harmful platform and how it’s hurting everyday Americans; why the separation of church and state remains a fundamental principle of our country and the ways in which rogue actors are seeking to dismantle it; the role of Big Church and its economic and political sway over our government; how politicians on the left can create an effective platform and messaging on human decency, structural equality and a populist economics perspective to win elections Not Today, Fascists will arm readers with the language and facts they need to discuss crucial politics issues, to win elections and to take back our country. Jennifer Welch has spent the last twenty-five years designing dynamic, highly specialized commercial and residential interiors across the country in a broad range of styles. In addition to her design firm, Jennifer is the star of Bravo’s Sweet Home, which gives all-access insight into her multifaceted, fast-paced design business, and the cohost of the I’ve Had It podcast. A mother of two boys, Dylan and Roman, and partner to attorney and photographer Josh Welch, Jennifer understands the balance of family and career and is a vocal advocate for women empowerment in business. Welch is in conversation with journalist Jim Acosta (https://jimacosta.substack.com/), host of “The Jim Acosta Show” and former Anchor and Chief White House Correspondent at CNN. PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9781335003430?ic_referral=FpAq_nywZ2HeBgFe2LnqpvxZDHqSMs1EJNg_cPbbIUYwM9F2OosSzrOOiydM9qdh5992lvHAU-uIC4V3Jvm55_GnxBJYVkJsjMNkg-Zl_Zn6hXDkJF7zopaC0CfpLEquvY5pDy0

2. 

   19 Oct 2026

   Clifford Thompson — Let Us Go Then, You and I - with David Nicholson

   At the funeral of Charles Maddox, Theo Brown hears testimonies about his dead best friend’ s full, rich, glamor-filled life— stories that make Theo wonder if he really knew Charles, and if Theo himself has really lived. Trying to make up for his thirty-seven humdrum years, eager to help Charles’ s grieving sister, and wanting to find out what happened to his friend, Theo leaves his native Washington, DC on a journey of discovery, and self-discovery, among Charles’ s circle in New York. Part psychological realism, part detective story, Let Us Go Then, You and I explores the question behind the question: What is the best way to live in this world? Clifford Thompson’s previous books include What It Is: Race, Family, and One Thinking Black Man’s Blues and Jazz June: A Self-Portrait in Essays. His work has appeared in Best American Essays and the Pushcart Prize Anthology. He is the recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award for nonfiction. Thompson lives in Brooklyn. Thompson is in conversation with David Nicholson, a former editor and book reviewer for the Washington Post Book World and author of Flying Home: Seven Stories of the Secret City. The New York Times praised its “sensitivity and grace,” and the Los Angeles Times included it on a list of books that “show us where to find the real America.” It was also featured in Publisher’s Weekly as one of “7 Essential Washington, D.C., Books (That Aren’t About Politics).” Nicholson attended Haverford College before graduating from the University of the District of Columbia. He studied creative writing at the University of Iowa Writers Workshop. Nicholson has worked as a reporter in San Francisco, Milwaukee, and Dayton, Ohio. He lives in Vienna, Virginia, with his wife and son. PURCHASE: https://politics-prose.com/book/9781963869910?ic_referral=DAJQdd197_ohEPz91DFW2qagv9uelpXW6tFdKOkguPwwMxqFhBZ9V3k3EULfmKR7A6UMtp-FfXsKfCg1WKPZgjVZ1PLvEF3dc1oUqgENx3UU9H-4dOSJV4l9B3gH-Z-B5mP4_Ms

3. 

   18 Oct 2026

   Robert Kolker — The Vanishing Family: Love, Fate, and the Quest to End Dementia

   From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Valley Road comes the heart-wrenching journey of a family facing an unthinkable destiny, whose flawed genetic code might hold the long-sought key to a cure for dementia. In the idyllic American town of Pleasant Hills, Pennsylvania, there lived a family with nine siblings, the youngest a girl named Barb. As the older children headed off to college and started their lives, only Barb was home to see their beautiful, still-young mother fall under a gothic spell, changing into someone she didn’t recognize: withdrawn, neglectful, uncaring. Thus begins The Vanishing Family (https://politics-prose.com/book/9780385551038), journalist Robert Kolker’s superb follow-up to Hidden Valley Road (“Deeply compassionate and chilling,” wrote The Washington Post). This family, we learn, has a genetic mutation that causes dementia, but with an especially cruel twist. As early as their forties, formerly loving parents and hard-driving executives will lose their jobs, have affairs, take up drinking—shed all inhibitions and sense of responsibility—and become people their families hardly know. Their former personalities seem to vanish—and there is a fifty-fifty chance that it will happen to their children, too. The Vanishing Family unfolds like a heartbreaking thriller as the siblings begin to realize that what happened to their mother is happening to them: first one, then two, three, four, and more begin to change. Sue, in search of a calling, finds her place in caring for the others. Barb sets out to find a cure. Alongside their story, Kolker weaves in the dramatic scientific fight against dementia; after decades of blind alleys, this this family’s rare form of FTD (frontotemporal dementia) might lead to a breakthrough in the prevention and treatment of all dementia—including the scourge of Alzheimer’s disease. Moving, intimate, unexpectedly hopeful and redemptive, The Vanishing Family is an enthralling narrative about one family’s fate, and a medical detective story that speaks to all of us who fear losing ourselves at the end. Robert Kolker is a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Hidden Valley Road, named an Oprah’s Book Club Pick, a New York Times Book Review Top 10 book of the year, a GQ Best Book of Literary Journalism of the 21st Century, and a Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Century. His first book was Lost Girls, named a New York Times Notable Book and a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2013. PURCHASE: https://politics-prose.com/book/9780385551038?ic_referral=nccgjOSL3MbVXHskXfdI_QoudBdGNQm5S5hl9jrPIyowM_JTM6Ph162-rq5RDQ8CWMo-9EuRh6jRfYb70gVtoOIHz8ZVMDnJx36j4KJ7s56QPWB2BucbTie4QqXfdYqKWPdvS4Y

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

8 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

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Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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