C-SPAN Bookshelf

The C-SPAN Bookshelf podcast feed makes it easy for you to listen to all of the C-SPAN podcast episodes about nonfiction books. Each week we gather episodes from the different C-SPAN podcasts that feature authors talking about history, biography, current events, and culture to make it easier to discover the episodes and listen. If you like nonfiction books, follow this podcast feed so you never miss an episode!

C-SPAN Bookshelf is a arts podcast hosted by C-SPAN, with 547 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

C-SPAN hosts C-SPAN Bookshelf, a arts show with 547 episodes published.

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  C-SPAN Bookshelf

  BN+: JD Vance, "Hillbilly Elegy"

  Aug 18, 20261h 3m

  In the political history of the United States, books have had a big impact on who the public follows in elections. In 1956, John F. Kennedy published "Profiles in Courage," which sold 2.8 million copies by his death in 1963. Jimmy Carter released his title "Why Not the Best?" in 1975, the year before he was elected president. When Barack Obama first released his life story in 1995, he only sold approximately 9,000 copies. When it was re-released in 2004, he sold 4.7 million copies. President Trump's "Art of the Deal," published in 1987, sold at least 1.5 million. JD Vance was unknown in 2016 when he appeared on C-SPAN's Q&A. His book "Hillbilly Elegy" has sold over 3 million copies. Ten years later he's 42 and has been a U.S. Senator for two years and Vice President of the United States since January of 2025. Here he is from 2016. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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  C-SPAN Bookshelf

  Q&A: Historian & Biographer Robert Caro

  Aug 16, 20261h 3m

  This week on Q&A, it's a rare interview with one of America's leading historians. We tour the New York City office and home library of Pulitzer Prize-winning bestselling biographer Robert Caro, who is currently working on the final volume of his 5-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson. During the tour, Mr. Caro talks about his research and writing process on the LBJ series, and the impact of "The Power Broker," his bestselling 1974 biography of NYC Parks Commissioner Robert Moses. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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  C-SPAN Bookshelf

  BN+: John Jenkins, "Summer of '71" – Part 2

  Aug 11, 20261h 10m

  This is the second of a two-part interview with journalist John A. Jenkins. His book is "Summer of '71: Five Months That Changed America." Jenkins writes in the introduction: "[I]t is hard to overstate the importance of the events that defined the American experience during the fateful five months of May through September 1971." A good portion of the first part of the interview with John Jenkins focused on Daniel Ellsberg and the publishing of the Pentagon Papers. This discussion opens with the history of Angela Davis and the Soledad Brothers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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  C-SPAN Bookshelf

  Jennifer Levasseur, Space History Curator

  Aug 9, 202659 min

  The Smithsonian Institution National Air & Space Museum's Jennifer Levasseur discusses the history of the 135-mission Space Shuttle program (1981-2011), its accomplishments, and two tragic failures that led to the deaths of 14 shuttle astronauts. Ms. Levasseur, the curator in charge of the Space Shuttle Discovery at the Air & Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia, where this interview took place, also takes us on a tour of the shuttle orbiter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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  C-SPAN Bookshelf

  BN+: John Jenkins, "Summer of '71" – Part 1

  Aug 4, 202657 min

  John A. Jenkins has been a journalist most of his life in the city of his birth, Washington, DC. He says he's never known another summer like the one 55 years ago. His book, "Summer of '71: Five Months That Changed America," focuses on well-known names from that era: Daniel Ellsberg, Neil Sheehan, Henry Kissinger, Sarah Weddington, and Angela Davis. John Jenkins writes that "each main character has an important back story that sets them up for the summer of '71 to come." He also writes: "My purpose here is to show the drama, the pain, and the hope of a summer when America faced some of its greatest challenges at home and abroad." This is part one of a two-part interview with Mr. Jenkins. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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