Tagged: book

If you don’t know the story of a Kentucky-bred colt that upset the racing world in 1954, then you are going to want to hear about Never Say Die at the famed Epsom Derby in England. Author James Nicholson weaves a fascinating story of this international upset and how it impacted the thoroughbred racing industry in the Bluegrass State. James Nicholson is on the phone with our Stuart Holman to discuss Never Say Die: A Kentucky Colt, the Epsom Derby, and the Rise of the Modern Thoroughbred Industry.

Scientists have determined that at least 27 different species of humans have evolved on planet Earth, yet only one still survives. Why are we still here and our 26 predecessors aren’t? In his fascinating new book, Last Ape Standing: The Seven-Million-Year Story of How and Why We Survived, acclaimed science writer Chip Walter attempts to answer that question as he discusses with Thane Maynard in this week’s Field Notes.

Just off I-40, west of Knoxville, Tennessee, drivers note the exit signs for Oak Ridge and, probably, think very little of it. But this one-time secret city, a Manhattan Project site, employed thousands of small-town southern women during World War II to work on the atomic bomb. A new book, The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II, shares interviews and personal stories of some of these women in a fascinating tale of secrecy, first-time independence, even romance. Author Denise Kiernan joins Mark Perzel to talk about these extraordinary women from an extraordinary time.