Best of AOT: Roger Stone on the “Underbelly of American Politics”

Unless you live under a rock, you know the name Roger Stone. But before his name was synonymous with Robert Mueller, WikiLeaks and Donald Trump, Stone was best known as a Washington, D.C. insider and political “dirty trickster.”

When Stone visited the Tattered Cover back in 2014, there was no mention of hacked emails or Hillary Clinton. On that day, his targets were John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and John Dean, the former White House Counsel for President Richard Nixon.

Best of AOT: Madeleine Albright Offers Advice for the Last President Elect

After months and months and months of campaigning, political commercials, and robocalls, we have arrived at Election Day 2012. With any luck, when we go to sleep tonight we’ll all know the outcome of this election.

Four years ago, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had some words of wisdom for our 44th President, detailed in her book Memo to the President Elect. But when she visited the Tattered Cover book store in LoDo, the race between Barack Obama and John McCain was far from settled.

Listen in as Albright details her advice for a successful presidency.

Best of AOT: Deepak Chopra Tells the Story of Buddha

Next week we will podcast Deepak Chopra & Gotham Chopra, who recently visited the Tattered Cover book store’s LoDo location to speak about their new book The Seven Spiritual Laws of Superheroes: Harnessing Our Power to Change the World.

Deepak Chopra first visited the Tattered Cover in 1988, but in this Best of AOT podcast, we take you back to 2007, when he came to discuss his novel Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment. In Buddha, Chopra tells the story of Prince Siddhartha, who becomes the Buddha. This re-imagining of the Buddha’s life presents a new form of teaching which shows how the iconic journey of the prince who became the Buddha has changed the world forever.

Listen in as Chopra talks about the early life of this legendary character. If you enjoyed this Best of Authors On Tour podcast, please listen to the entire Deepak Chopra podcast.

This podcast was originally recorded on May 21, 2007.

Best of AOT: Les Claypool Reels in “The Big One”

Your local bookstore’s shelves are littered with books penned by rock stars, oozing with tales of groupies and explicit drug use. A rock ‘n’ roll memoir might, in fact, be a rite of passage for those who left their mark on society by breaking the rules.

Les Claypool, art-rock pioneer, bassist, and front man for the band Primus, has never subscribed to the rock playbook. Claypool’s debut novel, South of the Pumphouse, is not a book of tales from the road, but rather a dark, clever tale of two brothers, a fishing tip, misconceptions, drugs and murder (OK, he did have to put drugs in there, right?).

In this Best of Authors on Tour podcast, Claypool reads from “The Big One” a chapter from South of the Pumphouse.

If you enjoyed this Best of Authors On Tour podcast, please listen to the entire Les Claypool podcast.

This podcast was originally recorded on November 21, 2006.

Best of AOT: Anne Waldman and Alaina Ferris Weave Poetic Bliss

Talented authors visit the Tattered Cover book store in Denver nearly every day, but when a world-class poet like Anne Waldman take the microphone, it’s more like seeing Dylan than Thoreau.

Waldman, who used to hang out with such literary giants as Allen Ginsberg (with whom she founded the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at what is now Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado), is known for her fiery and thought-provoking performances. When she came to the Tattered Cover on Colfax Ave. in 2009, she upped the ante by bringing along singer/songwriter Alaina Ferris to help her recite one of her poems.

Listen in as Waldman and Ferris blend their voices in what must be called performance art on top of poetry.

If you enjoyed this Best of Authors On Tour podcast, please listen to the entire Anne Waldman podcast.

Best of AOT: Barack Obama Brings Message of Hope to Denver

Two years ago today, Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States, the first African American to hold this office. Two years from today, either Obama will begin his second term in office, or we will welcome someone new to the Oval Office.

Much can be said about the first half of Obama’s first term, but this is not the venue! Instead, we turn the clocks all the way back to October of 2006, when Senator Obama visited the Tattered Cover’s LoDo store to speak about his book The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream.

Even those of us in the room that day, impressed by Obama’s presence and vision, could not have guessed that in a mere four months he would announce his candidacy for President. Even less fathomable is that two years later Obama would move a few miles down the road to Invesco Field at Mile High to accept his party’s nomination in front of 84,000 onlookers.

Listen in as a Obama discusses his vision for the future of our country, and even gives props to a certain Reverend who would cause him a touch of trouble in the future.

If you enjoyed this Best of Authors On Tour podcast, please listen to the entire Barack Obama podcast.

This podcast was originally recorded on October 24, 2006.

Best of AOT: Michael Chabon Waxes Poetic About Legos

As we polish off the final Thanksgiving leftovers and skate into the heart of the holiday season, we must acknowledge this is a time of year for the children. Thinking back to our own childhood, oftentimes our favorite toys take center stage.

For many, including Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon, that meant Legos. As he explains in this Best of AOT podcast, he was in for a rude awakening when Legos returned to his life when his oldest daughter began playing with them.

This story, taken from Chabon’s memoir Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son, details his internal battle with the evolution of the world’s favorite Scandinavian plastic building blocks.

Happy Holidays from everyone at Authors on Tour!

If you enjoyed this Best of Authors On Tour podcast, please listen to the entire Michael Chabon podcast.

This podcast was originally recorded on October 19, 2009.

Best of AOT: Nando Parrado Tells His Amazing Tale of Survival

The world watched this past week as 33 Chilean miners were brought to the earth’s surface in what many are calling a miracle. Although the disastrous circumstances could not have more different, parallels were inevitably drawn to the “Miracle in the Andes” of nearly 40 years ago, when a plane carrying a Uruguayan rugby team crashed in the treacherous mountains. Of the 45 people on board that plane, twelve died in the crash, and only 16 survived 72 days of isolation, hunger, and 30 degree-below-zero temperatures during the night.

One of the survivors was Nando Parrado who, years later, recounted the events in his book Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home. Back in 2006, Parrado visited the Tattered Cover book store in Denver to share his story with us.

If you enjoyed this Best of Authors On Tour podcast, please listen to the entire Nando Parrado podcast.

This podcast was originally recorded on May 12, 2006.

Best of AOT: Mark Bowden Recounts 1958 NFL Championship Game

Orange and yellow leaves, grandma’s pumpkin pie, hay rides, going back to school, and the return of NFL football are all autumn traditions in the United States. Not so many years ago, though, pro football was not the all-encompassing, church-skipping, prime time activity that it is today.

As Mark Bowden details in his book The Best Game Ever: Giants vs. Colts, 1958, and the Birth of the Modern NFL, the 1958 NFL Championship Game was a definitive turning point in this country’s love affair with the game of pro football. In this Best of AOT podcast, Bowden explains that on this late December day in 1958 the stands at Yankee Stadium were not even full (can you image that at a Super Bowl today?). Due to the game’s sudden death overtime (the first in NFL history), however, the end of the game bumped NBC’s prime time programming, and an estimate 45-50 million viewers saw Johnny Unitas’ Baltimore Colts defeat the New York Giants 23-17.

Listen in as Bowden delivers a brilliant narrative on the game itself, the story behind the key players in that game, and the effect the contest had on the modern game of football and today’s NFL.

If you enjoyed this Best of Authors On Tour podcast, please listen to the entire Mark Bowden podcast.

This podcast was originally recorded on June 3, 2008.

Best of AOT: Before Hitting Hollywood, Carleen Brice Reads from Orange Mint and Honey

In Denver we get excited when a Tattered Cover employee graduates to “author,” when they go from dreaming of their words on the printed page to walking into one of the best independent book stores in the country to see their book displayed with pride at the store entrance.

We feel an extra bit of pride when one of these books becomes a Hollywood film, a trip Carleen Brice‘s Orange Mint and Honey will complete this Sunday, February 21 (8 PM ET/5 PM PT) as Sins of the Mother, based on Orange Mint and Honey, premiers on Lifetime Movie Network.

Boasting an all-start cast, Sins of the Mother stars Jill Scott (singer and star of the HBO original film The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency) as Nona. Nicole Beharie (American Violet) portrays Shay, and Mimi Rogers plays Nona’s sponsor Lois.

Let’s rewind nearly two years to February 2008, when Carleen Brice returned to her old haunts to find a packed house waiting for her to read from her debut novel. In this Best of Authors On Tour podcast, Carleen reads two passages from Orange Mint and Honey. If you’d like to hear more, you can also listen to Carleen podcast her second novel, Children of the Waters

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