Ruth Dickey is the Executive Director of the National Book Foundation—the organization behind the National Book Awards, now in its 77th year. In this episode, Ruth shares the foundation’s new five-year strategic plan, which will expand programming at a moment when many arts organizations are retrenching, including providing millions of free books in public housing communities, awarding teacher fellowships in book-banning hotspots, and streaming the National Book Awards.

Michael Carlisle is a co-founder of Inkwell Management, one of the most respected literary agencies in the business. Born of publishing parents, he became a human rights lawyer first, before he found his way to the William Morris Agency, then built his own agency before forming Inkwell Management. From William Styron to Elin Hilderbrand, Michael has been in at the beginning on an amazing set of authors and books. This episode gives you a look inside the life and career of a fascinating literary agent.

Brendan Curry has spent 24 years at W.W. Norton—the largest and oldest employee-owned publishing company. Norton is renowned for nonfiction and higher education publishing. In this episode, we discuss the rise and recent challenges of serious nonfiction, exploring how political upheaval, cultural fatigue, and fragmented digital media environments have reshaped readers’ engagement with big-idea books.