May 11, 2024 - What happens when a celebrated author — Muhammad Ali’s official biographer, no less — turns his talents to putting his mother's century-long life down on paper? In this episode, our time machine welcomes aboard Thomas Hauser, author of “My Mother and Me: A Memoir.”
Eleanor Nordlinger Hauser, who passed away last year at 96, experienced a life of success and failures, meeting the march of years with resilience and grace until she made her peace with the fact that — as we all do someday— she had run out of tomorrows.
Thomas Hauser is the author of fiction and non-fiction books that are best-sellers the world over. They include “Final Warning: The Legacy of Chernobyl” and “Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times.” As you might expect for the official biographer of The Greatest, he has been inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame.
For more on Ali and boxing, check out these previous interviews:
Todd D. Snyder – Bundini: Don’t Believe the Hype
Todd D. Snyder – Beatboxing: How Hip-Hop Changed the Fight Game
Jerry Izenberg — Baseball, Nazis & Nedick’s Hot Dogs: Growing up Jewish in the 1930s in Newark
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Rob Hilliard — In Freedom’s Shadow
April 1, 2024 - Where would an enslaved man who escaped the South find the courage to return to the Confederacy as a Union Spy? In this episode, we meet such a man thanks to Robert Hilliard, author of “In Freedom’s Shadow.” The novel is based on the heroic true story of John Scobell, an enslaved African American who escaped early in the Civil War.
Recruited by the Union to return south and gather intelligence, Scobell found new purpose as a spy. These was no ritzy James Bond missions, but daring border crossings, nerve-wracking dead drops, and a man at risk every moment of exposure, which would mean torture and death.
Rob has written about sports, history, and the outdoors for over two decades. He last joined us to discuss his book, “A Season on the Allegheny.” You can listen to that interview in our archives wherever you enjoy the show and find Rob on Twitter and Facebook.
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Brent Butt – Huge: A Novel
October 11, 2023 - In this episode, our time machine welcomes aboard Brent Butt, who those of you in the Great White North know as the creator and star of the sitcom "Corner Gas," so beloved by Canadians that it has spawned an animated version and a movie. He's also host of the Butt Pod, which — since you probably have your phone out right now — I suggest you swipe over and subscribe to for some really insightful interviews.
Brent Butt puts his talents to work on the thriller genre in "Huge: A Novel." The story hits the circuit of nameless clubs in Western Canda where two comedians — one, a veteran in the business from America; the other, a lady newcomer from Ireland — meet the aspiring headliner who'll change their lives, and perhaps end them.
You can read more at HugeTheNovel.com and — speaking of our guest always growing, refusing to be pigeonholed by one genre — these days, Brent Butt is transitioning to publishing more content on Substack as he transitions away from @BrentButt on Twitter.
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S.C. Gwynne – His Majesty’s Airship: The Life and Tragic Death of the World’s Largest Flying Machine
September 4, 2023 - How did airship R101 — embodying the British Empire’s global ambitions — die in fireball of dreams, romance, and hubris and turn to ashes in the pages of history? S.C. Gwynne brings us this story of reaching for the sky in “His Majesty's Airship: The Life and Tragic Death of the World's Largest Flying Machine.”
S.C. Gwynne previously joined us to discuss his books, “Hymns of the Republic: The Story of the Final Year of the American Civil War,” and “The Perfect Pass: American Genius and the Reinvention of Football.” His 2010 book, “Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History,” was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
Visit our guest at SCGwynne.com or @SCGwynne on Twitter and @S.C.Gwynne on Facebook.
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Jenni L. Walsh – The Call of the Wrens
July 30, 2023 - What did service in the World Wars mean to women who found new opportunities to enter the workforce and join the fight as never before? We’ll go on a fictional ride with one of those service members with today’s novelist, Jenni Walsh.
Her novel is “The Call of the Wrens,” the third she joined us to discuss after her debut, “Becoming Bonnie,” and its sequel, “Side By Side,” about “the crash of the century,” when Bonnie Parker met Clyde Barrow. You can find those conversations in our archives wherever you enjoy the show or via the links above.
In “The Call of the Wrens,” Jenni introduces us to the women of Britain's Women's Royal Naval Service who are shaped by service in the Great War and twenty years later in World War Two, when they're confronted by a life-changing moment that they meet head on at 70 miles an hour.
It's a vivid, emotional saga of love, secrets, resilience—and the knowledge that the future will always belong to the brave souls who fight for it.
Visit our guest at JenniLWalsh.com, follow her @JenniLWalsh on Twitter and Instagram, and like her page on Facebook. Special thanks to Shannon Hargreaves of @the_reel_bookery on Instagram for submitting a video question for this interview.
We’ve all been transported into the past by a special book, place or person. On the History Author Show, host Dean Karayanis and a team of correspondents bring you the people who build the time machines.
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