Read Beat (...and repeat)

About Read Beat (...and repeat)

If you're like me, you like to know things but how much time to invest? That's the question. Here's the answer: Read Beat--Interviews with authors of new releases. These aren't book reviews but short (about 25-30 minutes on the average) chats with folks that usually have taken a lot of time to research a topic, enough to write a book about it. Hopefully, there's a topic or two that interests you. I try to come up with subjects that fascinate me or I need to know more about. Hopefully, listeners will agree. I'm Steve Tarter, former reporter for the Peoria Journal Star and a contributor to WCBU-FM, the Peoria public radio outlet, from 20202 to 2024. I post regularly on stevetarter.substack.com.

Publisher

Steve Tarter

Category

arts · business · history

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

5 Mar 2022

Latest episode

19 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

1 of 302 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   19 Oct 2026

   "Two Bottles of Water" by Janet Flaugher

   Two Bottles of Water is Janet Flaugher's account of living in China for two years. When Flaugher accepted the position as superintendent of an international school in the Chinese capital, she didn't realize what it was like to live in a city of 20 million people where you don't know the language and are unable to read the signs. The book's title comes from the weekly routine of ordering two five-gallon bottles of water, she said. "I got pretty good at it," she said, noting that the water was ...

2. 

   19 Oct 2026

   "Nature Spirituality and Environmental Crisis: Embracing a Sacred, Wounded Earth" by Roger Gottlieb

   A professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Roger Gottlieb qualifies as a counselor for those dealing with environmental anxiety. His new book, Nature Spirituality and Environmental Crisis: Embracing a Sacred, Wounded Earth, serves as a guide in troubled times. "We are in the midst of an environmental crisis, a crisis for the entire civilization," he said. Dealing with the problems of rising temperatures and rising seas, rampant fires, and brutal storms requires faith, said Gottlieb. "It'...

3. 

   30 Sept 2026

   "The Last Ride" by Chris Enss

   Your typical cowboy movie features stagecoaches, lots of horses, Indians, and a saloon with swinging doors. The women depicted are either saloon girls or school teachers, noted Chris Enss, who’s worked hard for the past 30 years to dispel that image. Enss has written numerous books detailing the history of the Old West, most of it focusing on women's exploits during that period. Her latest book, The Last Ride, is the 61st book she’s had a hand in producing. Some of the titles that Enss ...

Inside a recent episode

"From Strength to Strength" by Arthur Brooks

Published 9 Mar 2022 · Transcript excerpt

[…] And this is a real tyranny. You know, your goals and your dreams can be really despotic. They can hurt you because the idea that permanent satisfaction will be yours is an illusion. This is something that we call in my business the hedonic treadmill, where you get actual dopamine, which is a neuromodulator in the brain that's stimulated by drugs and alcohol, but also by worldly success. Hit the lever, get a little tiny taste of satisfaction, but as soon as you have it, it's gone again and you're off running into the future. This can become an enormous source of frustration for people and understanding it and defeating it as part of growing old well. […]

Who has been a guest on Read Beat (...and repeat)

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Daniel Jackson
• Joe Bonomo
• Andrew Conte
• Tom Malone
• Douglas Bristol Jr

Reach and audience

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

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.7 / 5

3 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 54 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

80

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

68

Contact Read Beat (...and repeat)

Guest appearances

Books guests

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

Questions about Read Beat (...and repeat)