Books with Betsy is a podcast that celebrates the reading life of all readers. Each week, Betsy interviews a different person about their reading life. Listen for book recommendations, reading tips, and to join in the joy that reading brings. And remember, anyone who reads is a reader.
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Episode 43 - Insatiable Curiosity with Rebecca Schinsky and Jeff O'Neal
Episode 43
Monday, March 3, 2025 • Duration 01:05:20
On this episode, Rebecca Schinsky and Jeff O’Neal of Book Riot sit down and talk to me about their reading lives. We talk about their professional work in the world of books, how Oliver Burkeman would feel about my bad bookish habit, and how any book can be interesting if you’re curious enough.
Ingrained: The Making of a Craftsman by Callum Robinson
Cabin: Off the Grid Adventures with a Clueless Craftsman by Patrick Hutchinson
Life in Three Dimensions: How Curiosity, Exploration, and Experience Make a Fuller, Better Life by Shigehiro Oishi
Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts by Oliver Burkeman
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
The Hobbit: Or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Shining by Stephen King
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover
All Fours by Miranda July
Passing by Nella Larsen
Episode 42 - Working on Your Brain with Betsy Kipnis
Episode 42
Monday, February 24, 2025 • Duration 56:01
On this episode, Betsy Kipnis, a multi-hyphenate who loves a wide variety of authors, and I discuss some shared favorites, great Chicago bookstores, and she has some great stories. She discusses books that are multi-sensory and we get spicy about a beloved author.
Episode 33 - I'll Crack it Open with Stephanie Majercik
Episode 33
Monday, December 23, 2024 • Duration 56:38
On this episode, Stephanie Majercik, a reader who reads widely, and I discuss our shared tricks for Book of the Month, why passing around books is great, and how her reading chair revolutionized her reading life. We also discuss her book club and the bookish names she has for her collection of house plants.
Episode 32 - Where Literature is at this Moment with Bernie Lombardi
Episode 32
Monday, December 16, 2024 • Duration 50:03
On this episode, Bernie Lombardi, a professor and researcher, discusses how his popular bookstagram and award lists are intertwined, along with his experiences reading the lists and even getting to go to the final ceremonies of a few awards! We also hear about his new author obsession and a very cool way that he tracks his reading each year.
Episode 31 - These are my Trophies with Jenn Moland-Kovash
Episode 31
Monday, December 9, 2024 • Duration 01:01:18
On this episode, Jenn Moland-Kovash and I discuss our shared interest in thrift-store book sections, the joy of walking around a bookstore and pointing out the books we have read, and her theories about why romantasy is popular. Jenn also gets me on a roll about the difference between book collecting and reading and why sprayed edges mean nothing to me.
Episode 30 - On the Edge of Heartbreak with Cynthia Okechukwu
Episode 30
Monday, December 2, 2024 • Duration 01:04:43
On this episode, Cynthia Okechukwu, the founder of Black Girls Read Chicago, and I discuss books that make you cry, her love of hardcover books, and what kinds of audiobooks work for both of us. She also gets to share an incredible story of getting a critical book put into her hands at a young age.
Episode 29 - Never Earned a Personal Pan Pizza with Susanna Chapman
Episode 29
Monday, November 25, 2024 • Duration 01:01:04
On this episode, Susanna Chapman, an illustrator who loves picture books, discusses her career in books, her love for an audiobook mausoleum, and why she loves the beginning of a book. We also destigmatize her concern around her main reading format and she tricks me into answering one of my own questions.
Episode 28 - Intellectually Affectionate with Annette LaPlaca
Episode 28
Monday, November 18, 2024 • Duration 01:00:29
On this episode, Annette LaPlaca, a self-proclaimed church lady who loves mysteries and thrillers, discusses her career in editing, how she developed a love of reading in her children, and why it’s ok to have a lot of books. We also discuss the moral and empathetic benefits of a murder book and why people shouldn’t shy away from them.
Episode 27 - Nobel Prize in Reading with Amie Medley
Episode 27
Monday, November 11, 2024 • Duration 01:01:37
On this episode, Amie Medley, who loves a long book, discusses her big reading project, which is reading every author who has won a Nobel Prize in Literature, and what she has discovered through that endeavor. We also discuss the ups and downs of book clubs, the benefits she finds from ereaders, and her love for a book that I can’t help but roll my eyes at.
Episode 26 - Challenging for Some, Liberating for Me With Cat Shieh
Episode 26
Monday, November 4, 2024 • Duration 01:02:50
On this episode, Cat Shieh, a Caliornian transplant to Chicago and former ethnic studies professor, discusses her hesitancy when people ask for recommendations and recommend books to her. She’s not afraid to drink the haterade, give a hot take, and make me guess what her answer is going to be to my questions. We talk about sad books (about reality) and some of our shared pet peeves about the reading world.
Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant: A Memoir by Curtis Chan
Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
I Was Their American Dream: A Graphic Memoir by Malaka Gharib
Authentic Mexican: Regional Cooking from the Heart of Mexico by Rick Bayless
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism by Robin Diangelo
Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago’s South Side by Eve L. Ewing
Strange Planet by Nathan W. Pyle
How to Be An Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi
We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom by Bettina Love
Serve the People; Making Asian America in the Long Sixties by Karen L. Ishizuka & Jeff Chang
Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen by Jose Antonio Vargas
The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race by Anthony Christian Ocampo
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