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.
Episodes
281 episodes
America’s Downtowns—A conversation with Erik Reader
If you have passed through small-town America in recent years, you may have noticed that, for the vast majority of towns, to use the phrase, “they ain’t what they used to be.” The downtown buildings may still be in place, but are no...
“Stealing America” by Linford Fisher
With the story of the American Revolution being retold as we approach this country’s 250th anniversary, we hear a lot about George Washington, Paul Revere, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Paine, among the many individuals who pl...
"Born Sick in the USA" by Stephen Bezruchka
Stephen Bezruchka has worked in the healthcare field for over 50 years. A graduate of Stanford Medical School, with a public health degree from Johns Hopkins University, Bezruchka began his career by setting up a community health project in the...
“America’s Hometown Movie Houses: Please Remain Standing” by Benita VanWinkle
Benita VanWinkle likes going to the movies. She’s gone to theaters in every state of the union. But she doesn’t always stay for the main feature.Instead, VanWinkle, an art professor at High Point University in North Carolina, pursues a p...
"A High Price for Freedom" by Clyde W. Ford
Don’t expect a big celebration on Juneteenth (June 19) from author Clyde W. Ford, who explains in A High Price for Freedom.“What a wonderful day that first Juneteenth must have been. Fetters gone. Shackles removed. Whips silence...
“Disposing of Modernity” by Rebecca Graff
If time travel ever becomes a thing, the Chicago World’s Fair held in 1893 might be one of the leading attractions for time travelers. Here was an exposition, spread across almost 700 acres in Jackson Park, some seven miles from Chicago’s Loop,...
“The Courtyard” by Alexa Morris and Benjamin Parket
The Nazi occupation of Paris during World War II brought hardship to many, especially if they were Jewish. As German rule tightened, Jewish families were at risk of being rounded up and sent to concentration camps like Auschwitz.The ...
“The Devil’s Castle” by Susanne Paola Antonetta
The horrors of the Holocaust were preceded in Nazi Germany by the conversion of five asylums and an abandoned jail, which were transformed into gas chambers, killing tens of thousands of patients. That’s a story that Susanne Paola A...
“Why Q Needs U” by Danny Bate
So where did we get all these letters that children learn as their ABC’s? Danny Bate has the answer in his book, “Why Q Needs U.”Born and raised in England and now living in Prague, Bate is a linguist, writer, broadcaster, and podcaster ...
“A Little Piece of Cuba” by Barbara Caver
At a time when U.S.-Cuban relations have probably never been worse, there’s Barbara Caver’s “A Little Piece of Cuba,” a book that explores her own journey “to become Cubana-Americana.”Caver’s mother was born in Cuba before leaving for th...
"Heartland" by Keith O'Brien
The saga of basketball star Larry Bird invariably culminates in the Bird-Magic Johnson story, two players who met in the most-watched basketball game of all time, the 1979 NCAA championship game between Indiana State and Michigan State, and the...
“The Navigator’s Letter” by Jan Cress Dondi
A true story, The Navigator’s Letter is a tale of uncanny coincidences: two friends from the same small town in Illinois join the Army Air Corps in World War II. Both become navigators. Both were assigned to B-24 Liberators...
"Tigers Between Empires" by Jonathan Slaght
It’s a familiar story: the animals we’ve all known since we were children, the lions, tigers, and elephants, all disappearing from the wilds due to loss of habitat, hunters, or a changing environment.So how gratifying is it to learn that...
"Boss Lincoln" by Matthew Pinsker
Abraham Lincoln has been characterized in many ways: as a father, statesman, lawyer, writer, speechmaker, and military leader. He served as U.S. President during this country’s Civil War, grappling under the intense pressure that could have spl...
“Ms. Mebel Goes Back to the Chopping Block” by Jesse Sutanto
Jesse Sutanto has found a unique writing formula. The author of over a dozen books including the Aunties and Vera Wong (the previous interview with Sutanto came after the publication of Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (on a ...
“The 100 Greatest Literary Characters” by James Plath, Gail Sinclair, and Kirk Curnutt
The first thing that makes a reader read a book is the characters. That was John Gardner. If the characters come alive, the novel comes alive. That’s Gabriel Garcia Marquez.Given the importance of characters, James Plath, an English prof...
“Last of the Titans” by Richard Vinen
The date of June 18, 1940 proved to be the most important day in the lives of two of the best-known world leaders of the 20th century: Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle.World War II had taken an ugly turn in Europe with the fall of...
"CrimeReads" articles by Keith Roysdon
An upcoming story on the CrimeReads website (https://crimereads.com/) will look at the performances of movie/TV good guys who later took on bad-guy roles and vice versa. It can only be another story by Keith Roysdon, whose previous sto...
"Making Democracy Count" by Ismar Volic
"Making Democracy Count" by Ismar VolicIsmar Volic is one math professor who wants to use mathematics to improve our democratic process. His book,
“Winning the Earthquake” by Lorissa Rinehart
The first woman to serve in the U.S. congress didn’t come from New York or Boston but from Montana. Jeannette Rankin served two terms in Congress—not in succession but terms separated by more than 20 years.Among her many distinctions is ...
"Show Trial" by Thomas Doherty
Groundhog Day, Ed Wood, The Big Lebowski, Dark City, and 12 Monkeys. What do these movies have in common?They were all made in the 1990s and represented a middle-level film—neither franchise nor family fare. “That’s wha...
"Road to Nowhere" by Emily Lieb
In the mid-1950s, Baltimore’s Rosemont neighborhood was alive and vibrant with smart rowhouses, a sprawling park, corner grocery stores, and doctors’ offices. By 1957, a proposed expressway threatened to gut this Black, middle-class community f...
"Vote with Your Phone" by Bradley Tusk
We think nothing of ordering dinner, shopping for clothes, or banking on our phones anymore. So why not vote?That’s what Bradley Tusk has been working on. In his book, Vote with Your Phone: Why Mobile Voting Is Our Final Shot at Savi...
"Everybody Loses: The Tumultuous Rise of American Sports Gambling" by Danny Funt
An exploration into the perilous world of American sports gambling, journalist Danny Funt interviews the power players of the betting boom at FanDuel, DraftKings, and beyond. He relates the story of ESPN Bet, a failed attempt by the...
"Radical Cartography: How Changing Our Maps Can Change Our World" by William Rankin
Where are you with maps? Still digging in the glove compartment for that dog-eared map of Iowa? Gazing contentedly at a map of the world with Greenland as the dominant feature? Maybe you’ve got a pocket map of attractions in Downtown Chicago?
