Big Books & Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller

Lauren Hough has worn many hats. She’s been an Air Force airman, a bartender, a bouncer, a construction laborer, a driver, a barista and a cable guy.

But through it all, she’s written. In 2021, a collection of essays that together formed a memoir — “Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing” — shot up the New York Times bestseller list.

Her new book, “Monster of a Land,” is a worthy follow-up. Reminiscent of John Steinbeck’s “Travels with Charley,” Hough hits the road in a battered Dodge Ram to see America, her trusty dog Woody Guthrie riding shotgun.

What she finds is more honest, more gritty and less divisive than headlines would have you believe.

“Monster of a Land” is part of our July deep dive into the history and culture of America. Come along with Hough and Kerri Miller on this week’s show as they explore who we are right now and why traveling with a dog is the best decision ever.

Guest:

Lauren Hough is a writer who lives in Austin, Texas with her dog, Woody. Her new road trip memoir is “Monster of a Land: On the Road in Search of a Modern America.”

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When was the last time you read a book or magazine, or listened to an audiobook?

Overall, Americans are reading less. A study last year from the University of Florida and University College London found the portion of people who read daily for pleasure in the U.S. fell from 28 percent in 2004 to 16 percent in 2023.

And, according to the National Endowment for the Arts, fewer than half of all adults said they read a book of any kind in 2022 — even fewer said they read a novel.

MPR News guest host Kerri Miller talks about what’s behind the decline in reading, and why some people are saying that it points to a fundamental shift that has consequences for how we entertain ourselves, learn and think.

Road trips are often marked by spontaneity. They offer side quests, junk food, hotel pools and a chance to see the country with fresh eyes.

But no road trip is quite as spontaneous as the one in “The Road to Tender Hearts.” This darkly funny novel follows 63-year-old lottery winner PJ Halliday, his estranged daughter, two orphaned kids who have just come into his care and a therapy cat named Pancakes — who happens to be a harbinger of death — on a six-day cross-country road trip to win back PJ’s high school girlfriend.

Along the way, the group faces past trauma, the meaning of family and the tender hopes of new beginnings.

This week, to kick off Big Books and Bold Ideas virtual summer road trip series, Kerri Miller talks with author Annie Hartnett about “The Road to Tender Hearts,” which was just published on paperback. Along the way, they discuss what makes a road trip magical (or not), and how being open to adventure can be a balm for grief, restlessness and a cynical outlook.

Guest:

Annie Hartnett is the award-winning author of three novels: “Rabbit Cake,” “Unlikely Animals,” and the national bestseller, “The Road to Tender Hearts.”

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The United States was feeling bleak in 1933.

People were still staggering from the economic fallout of the Great Depression. Drought and extreme heat baked much of the country, eventually leading to the Dust Bowl. Breadlines stretched for blocks in the city, and crime — including a notorious spree of bank robberies and kidnappings — was on the rise. In February, president-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt survived an assassination attempt, which killed Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak. Even baseball, “America’s national pastime,” was suffering. Attendance was dropping, owners slashed budgets, and Babe Ruth’s magic seemed to be fading.

It was against this backdrop that a sports editor in Chicago proposed the idea of a singular sporting event to anchor the World’s Fair — a baseball game featuring the best players, as decided by the fans.

Journalist Randall Sullivan details the whole story in his new book, “The First All-Star Game.” A few days before the current crop of All Stars gather in Philadelphia to play the game this year, he joins Kerri Miller on Big Books and Bold Ideas to talk about the extraordinary history surrounding the first game and how it galvanized the country during a dark time.

Guest:

Randall Sullivan was a contributing editor to Rolling Stone for more than 20 years. He is also the author of many books, including his newest, “The First All-Star Game: Babe Ruth, FDR, and America at the Crossroads.”

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When asked about the Declaration of Independence, most Americans quote memorable phrases from the preamble. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

But historian Robert Parkinson says even Thomas Jefferson, who penned those words, would be puzzled by our preoccupation with the introduction when the grievances that make up the body of the Declaration were the meat of the document.

Parkinson’s new book, “Tyrants and Rogues,” is a deep dive into those grievances — and the villains of the Revolutionary period who spurred them.

“Americans are throwing a temper tantrum here, because they feel like their father has betrayed them,” he tells Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas. It’s a conversation set in 1776 with implications for 2026 — a launch into a month of books that commemorates America’s 250th anniversary.

Guest:

Robert Parkinson is a historian and professor at Binghamton University in New York. His new book is “Tyrants and Rogues: Understanding the Declaration of Independence.”

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