Friday Night Book Club

This week we are chatting with Australian author, tech entrepreneur, and Dad, Mick Liubinskas about his debut YA novel She's Building A Robot. Mick was inspired to write She's Building A Robot as a way for his daughters to see more female leads in YA books, as well as part of a larger effort to engage his daughters and other young women and girls in science, robotics, and engineering. She's Building A Robot follows ...

Author Rob Nelson calls in to chat about the great outdoors and his new book Mother Nature is Not Trying to Kill You: A Wildlife & Bushcraft Survival Guide, which was written with Haley Chamberlain Nelson.

The book does a terrific jobs of discussing everything you might be scared of coming across in the wild, with a great balance between reminding readers that most of these animals really do not want to kill you, and advice...

Humanity is on an astronomical trajectory and according to aerospace professional and popular science communicator Kellie Gerardi, that future doesn’t rest solely on the shoulders of rocket scientists. Gerardi’s non-traditional path in the space industry shows us that humanity’s next giant leap will require the contributions of artists, engineers, and everyone in between.

Kellie Gerardi calls in to talk about her new book Not Nece...

Rebecca Simon calls in to chat about her very exciting upcoming book, Why We Love Pirates: The Hunt for Captain Kidd and How He Changed Piracy Forever. If you have any interest in pirates, and why wouldn't you, this is a fascinating conversation. We talk about some of the myths and even more interesting truths about pirates in general as well as some of the more famous names including Captain Kidd, Jack Rackham, Anne Bonny an...

Rosalie Gilbert calls in from Australia to chat about her new book, The Very Secret Sex Lives of Medieval Women. The intimate lives of medieval women were complex, to say the least. They loved and lost, hoped and schemed, were lifted up and cast down. They were hopeful and lovelorn. Some had it forced upon them, others made aphrodisiacs and dressed for success. Some were chaste and some were lusty. Rosalie chats with us about t...

Andrew Maynard is our first ever return guest, as he calls in to chat about his upcoming book Future Rising: A Journey from the Past to the Edge of Tomorrow.

Dr. Maynard, who is a professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at ASU, provides a highly original perspective on our relationship with the future. Humanity has gained the ability not only to imagine the future, but to design and engineer it. And ye...

Dr. Frank Faranda talks about his new book The Fear Paradox: How Our Obsession with Feeling Secure Imprisons Our Minds and Shapes Our Lives.

For years, Dr. Frank Faranda studied a state of fearfulness in his patients―an evolutionary state that relentlessly drove them toward avoidance, alienation, hypercriticism, hyper-control, and eventually, depression and anxiety. He began to wonder what they were afraid of, and how embedded th...

Dr Craig April, founder of The April Center for Anxiety Attack Management, sits down with us to chat about his new book The Anxiety Getaway: How to Outsmart Your Brain's False Fear Messages and Claim Your Calm Using CBT Techniques.

With anxiety ramping up as we all deal with the current crisis, Dr. April's book couldn't come at a better time. He discusses the scientific approach he uses to help people stop feeling like...

Steve Silverman creator and host of the long running podcast/blog Useless Information, called in from quarantine to chat about his upcoming book: The Flip Side of History: Fascinating True Stories that Time Has Long Forgotten. Steve is a collector of amazing true stories and shares three of his longtime favourites. Including one about an actual WWII plan to attach bombs to bats, and one about a man who took more than 30 attempts ...

Eric Martin calls in from quarantine to talk about his upcoming book Your Leadership Moment: Democratizing Leadership in an Age of Authoritarianism. Eric has brought leadership development to hundreds of thousands of people in 146 countries. We talk about leadership in everything from business meetings to stand-up comedy. Eric walks us through adaptive leadership, and identifying your moments, and provides some very interesting s...

MK Mueller sits down for a timely chat about her book 8 To Great: How to Take Charge of Your Life and Make Positive Changes Using an 8-Step Breakthrough Process. Since her book first published MK's practical message has spread across the US and the world, including being adapted for high-school curricula. MK's message is all about letting go of the past and building hope for the future. She walks readers though a series o...

J.J. Johnson calls in to chat about Dino Dana: Dino Field Guide, which is the upcoming book from the team that brought you the Dino Dana TV series, and the soon to be released Dino Dana movie. It's a a very cool compendium of dinosaur info. There are not many topics more interesting than Dinosaurs, and J.J. shares some behind the scenes info about the book, the show, and some of the things he's learned about the largest a...

Podcaster and enormous Back To the Future fan Brad Gilmore stops by to chat about his new book: Back From the Future: A Celebration of the Greatest Time Travel Story Ever Told.

We get into all things Back To The Future: why we love it, where we were on Future Day, could the movie be made today. It's a small taste of what is in Brad's very cool new book, which provides a deep dive into what might be the greatest pure trilog...

Animal Educator, former Zoo Keeper, and creator/host of the hugely popular YouTube channel Emzotic, Emma Lock, stops in to talk about her book - Animal Kind: Lessons on Love, Fear and Friendship from the Animals in our Lives.

Emma shares where her love of animals began, her journey to YouTube and beyond, and the importance of our relationships with the animals we share our lives with. It is funny and educational and touching in al...

Mary Kay McBrayer calls in to chat about her true crime book: America's First Female Serial Killer: Jane Toppan and the Making of a Monster.

The book is a fascinating look at a serial killer who has largely gone unnoticed by history, with a focus both on Toppan's crimes and the mid 1800's society that helped make her the monster she was. We also chat a bit about McBrayer's horror movie podcast, and the ties between...

Jeremy Bhandari sits down to chat about his new book - Trust the Grind: How World-Class Athletes Got To The Top. Trust the Grind features conversations with 16 world class athletes, who give insights into some of the habits that got them to the top of their various sports.

Jeremy shares a few fun stories about meeting sports greats like Terrell Owens and Jason Kidd as well as some of the insights they gave that are useful no matte...

Tanya and Danny stop by to talk about their new book: For All Humankind: The Untold Stories of How the Moon Landing Inspired the World. Dr. Tanya Harrison calls herself a “professional martian.” She has spent over a decade working as a scientist and in mission operations on multiple NASA Mars missions, including the Curiosity and Opportunity rovers. Dr. Danny Bednar is a geographer of space, with an interest in how satellites are...

Cartoonist, artist, author and generally cool person, Prudence Geerts, pops in to chat about her book - Bad at Adulting, Good at Feminism: Comics on Relationships, Life and Food. Prudence is the mastermind behind the hilarious, clever, and autobiographical Instagram comic strip Planet Prudence. We talk about purple hair, going from call centre to comic creator, and sharing quirky thoughts online.

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Author Jenny Block stops in to discuss her upcoming book - Be That Unicorn: Find Your Magic, Live Your Truth, and Share Your Shine.

Jenny talks about the importance of being your most unafraid, unashamed self and helping others feel comfortable doing the same. She also shares some stories of times that wasn't so easy. It's inspiring and funny and touches on everything from summer camp, to tap dancing, to the music of Capta...