Book of the Day

In 'The Great Wherever' and 'Country People,' city dwellers try out rural life

There's no singular truest version of any family story. Every version comes with misremembering and projections and savory flourishes.

Fresh Air

Harriet Clark spent 37 years visiting her mom in prison

for most of my life, you know, my mother had to make prison a place I wanted to come to. You know, our visits had to be enjoyable. And so in that sense, too, it was very rare that we were sitting there getting into the nitty gritty of her crime, especially when I was young. You know, fundamentally, she was trying to play with me and have fun with me and let me feel close to her.

Fresh Air

Harriet Clark spent 37 years visiting her mom in prison

I think fundamentally the prison looked to me like a hill. It's hard for me to remember what the prison looked like to me as a child because I went there for almost 40 years and it changed a lot in that 40 years. It became much more prison-like.

Book of the Day

Tom Perrotta’s novel 'Ghost Town' revisits a New Jersey childhood from a bygone era

My mother was like, no, my kids are going to college. And and you know, uh my brother went to Williams College, my sister went to Villanova, I went to Yale. So, you know, her vision of the family was the vision that determined our lives.

Fresh Air

Best Of: A family split by race / Eddie Glaude Jr. on America at 250

My grandfather kept Edward's secret right from the very beginning out of a sense of protectiveness for him. He knew that this was a very dangerous and risky thing that Edward was doing. Black men who were found to be posing as white could face all sorts of violence, even death in the Jim Crow era.

Fresh Air

Comic Ali Siddiq on fatherhood, prison, and his biggest regret

I didn't want my kids to think that anything else was more important than them, not being in the streets, not women, not gambling, not hustling, not anything. I didn't want them to ever think that anything that I was doing was more important than them. And my father made me at times feel unimportant to him.

Book of the Day

In 'View From the East Wing,' Jill Biden reflects on the debate that changed history

It was a dark period in our lives that people we considered to be friends or supporters said such hurtful things. And so to look back, it wasn't just me and Joe. Look at our grandkids, you know, seeing them go through that and how hurt they were.