Terry Gross

Decades before Google or Facebook existed, a Madison Avenue advertising man started a company called Simulmatics based on a then-revolutionary method of using computers to forecast how people would behave. Historian Jill Lepore tells the story in her new book.

Pollock worked in a paper mill and meatpacking plant for 32 years before becoming a writer. Netflix's film version of his novel, The Devil All the Time, drops Sept. 16. Originally broadcast in 2011.

Race and belonging are the central themes of Yaa Gyasi's work. Her 2016 debut novel, Homegoing, about slavery, won a National Book critic's circle award, and the National Book Foundation's 5 under 35 honor.
Gyasi's new novel, Transcendent Kingdom, draws on Gyasi's life as the daughter of immigrants from Ghana.