At Home and Abroad: The Librarian Is In Podcast, Ep. 30

Welcome to The Librarian Is In, The New York Public Library's podcast about books, culture, and what to read next.

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With books on the Syrian refugee crisis and American "hillbilly" culture, Frank and Gwen are looking for a deeper undstanding of the world here at home, and abroad. Also, dinosaurs. And then, the inimitable Nancy Aravecz, NYPL trainee and library-school student, joins us to talk about the core principles of libraries and the equal-opportunity learning at Jefferson Market University.

What We're Reading Now

Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance

The Morning They Came for Us: Dispatches from Syria by Janine di Giovanni

Another Day in the Death of America by Gary Younge

Before the Fall by Noah Hawley

The Ultimate Dinopedia from National Geographic, by Don Lessem ; illustrated by Franco Tempesta

From Jaya the Trust Coach:

I've had a few delicious client encounters of late that reminded me of an important truth. If you lose track of the fact that what you love matters, you're in danger of losing track of yourself, of joy & purpose & all manner of soul-nourishing things. Please know that what sparks joy & awe in you; what stirs your curiosity & makes you want to know more or even master it; what opens your eyes wide in wonder & makes you want to dance or burst out laughing—these things matter. They grab you for a reason. They're part of your guidance system. They tell you what you're doing here. Shove them down in favor of expectations, obligations, ideas of responsibility or respectability or religiosity or whatever you're vulnerable to being (letting yourself be) squashed by—and you're lost. Wanna find yourself? Get back to what stirs up magic for you.

Guest Star: Nancy Aravacz

Great events coming up at Jefferson Market Library

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino

The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

Non-Book Recommendations

Nancy: 2 Dope Queens

Gwen:  Black Girls Create and Hogwarts BSU

Frank: John Hurt in Harry Potter, Alien, and other films

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