Author, essayist, and radio commentator Sarah Vowell, is loved for her unique perspective on American history and for her distinctive voice as a contributing editor on This American Life. She is a New York Times’ bestselling author of five nonfiction books on American history and culture. Her books, which include Take the Cannoli, The Partly Cloudy Patriot, Unfamiliar Fishes, The Wordy Shipmates, and Assassination Vacation, examine the connections between America’s past and present, and offer Vowell’s personal, always surprising and humorous accounts of everything from presidents and their assassins to colonial religious fanatics, utopian dreamers, pop music and the odd cranky cartographer. Vowell was a contributing editor for This American Life from 1996-2008, where she produced numerous commentaries and documentaries. She was also one of the original contributors to McSweeney’s and has been a columnist for Salon.com, Time, SF Weekly, and continues to write occasional essays for the opinion page of The New York Times. She is the president of the board of 826NYC. Her forthcoming book is titled Lafayette in the Somewhat United States.
Daniel Handler is the author of the novels The Basic Eight, Watch Your Mouth, Adverbs, and Why We Broke Up (a collaboration with illustrator Maira Kalman). Under the pen name Lemony Snicket, he is the author of the young adult series All The Wrong Questions and A Series of Unfortunate Events. His newest novel is We Are Pirates. Handler’s past interviews include Paul Auster, Stephen Merritt, and Karl Ove Knausgaard.