Bennett Cerf co-founded Random House in the 1920s; by the 1960s, it was the greatest literary publisher in the U.S. There was nothing random about this American original who changed our culture by straddling books, Broadway, Hollywood, and TV.

Mark Clifford’s new book is “a sympathetic and inspiring biography” (The Wall Street Journal) of billionaire businessman Jimmy Lai, a leading Hong Kong democracy activist who became China’s most famous political prisoner. Lai escaped China at 12 and worked in Hong Kong factories, eventually owning one and becoming a global leader in “fast fashion.” After Tiananmen Square, he entered the media industry with Next and Apple Daily, publications critical of the Chinese Communist Party, eventually meeting with American officials about human rights and free speech; since 2020 he has been in solitary confinement in China. Clifford, a writer who is president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, speaks about Lai’s extraordinary story with Evan Osnos, a staff writer at The New Yorker.

Daniel Pollack-Pelzner’s new book is an intimate and captivating exploration of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s artistic journey, revealing how the creator of the Broadway musicals Hamilton and In the Heights found his unique voice and redefined musical theater. How did Lin-Manuel Miranda, the son of Puerto Rican parents from an immigrant neighborhood in Manhattan, rise to become the preeminent musical storyteller of the 21st century? Lin-Manuel Miranda: The Education of an Artist traces Miranda’s path to becoming the winner of multiple Tonys and Grammys; a global chart-topper; and the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize and a MacArthur “Genius” Grant. Pollack-Pelzner — who has written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and The New York Times — speaks about the book with Jennifer Schuessler, culture reporter for The New York Times.

At the time of her premature death Alice Baber had already entered the permanent collections of several prominent museums. How could such an accomplished and visionary artist then fall into near obscurity?

In 1959, though just twenty-six years old and a graduate student, George B. Schaller shrugged off warnings of mortal danger and set off for the Belgian Congo to do what no other scientist had dared: study mountain gorillas, the real King Kong, by living alongside them. Boldly refusing arms and retinue, Schaller and his wife, Kay, established a home in the jungle and came to share the apes’ rhythms and rules. After more than two years of immersive research—a groundbreaking methodology he would spend his life honing—Schaller transformed how the world viewed gorillas; they were not murderous brutes but tender creatures, and more like humans than any twentieth-century scientist had recognized. His mission to revolutionize our perceptions of wild animals would propel him across four continents and inspire generations of scientists.

Ru Marshall discusses his gripping exposé of deception, cult power, and the long shadow of Carlos Castaneda, the man behind the biggest literary hoax of the twentieth century. Twenty years in the making, American Trickster: The Hidden Lives of Carlos Castaneda unravels the story of the secretive faux-anthropologist who pulled off one of the greatest literary hoaxes in modern history. Both an investigation of the techniques employed by charismatic narcissists and a study of the cult dynamics that still shape American life, American Trickster defies conventional biography. It emerges as a chilling allegory for the Trump era, a trenchant critique of academia’s complicity in distorting and erasing Indigenous culture, and a deep dive into the mechanics of New Age spiritual abuse.