What to Reid

On this episode of What to Reid, Joy talks with Sophia Chang, a veteran of the hip-hop world as the former manager of RZA, GZA and Ol’ Dirty Bastard of the Wu Tang Clan, Q-Tip and A Tribe Called Quest, soul singers D’Angelo and Raphael Saadiq, and the author of the fascinating biography, The Baddest Bitch in the Room. Her stories of life as an Asian-American woman in the male-dominated music world are fascinating!

Read the Interview Magazine review here: https://www.interviewmagazine.com/music/sophia-chang-baddest-bitch-room-wu-tang-clan-rza

Order your copy here: https://amzn.to/31fa2DQ

On this episode of What to Reid, Joy talks with Carl Hoffman about his fascinating new book: Liar's Circus: A Strange and Terrifying Journey Into the Upside-Down World of Trump's MAGA Rallies. Hoffman takes you into the strange, strange world of MAGA rallies, where you'll meet teachers and nurses devoted to Q-Anon, seemingly everyday people who live and would, in this pandemic, die for Donald Trump. #WhatToReid

Read the New York Journal of Books review here: https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/liars-circus-strange

Buy your copy here: https://amzn.to/3cZ8Glr

On this episode of What to Reid, Joy talks with former congresswoman Katie Hill about her book: "She Will Rise: Becoming a Warrior in the Battle for True Equality." Hill tackles the horrors of "revenge porn," and tells us how she got through the scandal and public humiliation, and emerged as a warrior, not just for her self, but for all women.

Read the NPR review here: https://www.npr.org/2020/08/11/901273154/former-rep-katie-hill-aims-to-encourage-women-to-run-for-office-in-she-will-rise

Buy your copy here: https://amzn.to/300pkvM

On this episode of What to Reid, Joy talks with Jennifer Palmieri, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dear Madam President, about her latest book: She Proclaims: Our Declaration of Independence from a Man's World. In it, the former communications director for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and former White House Communications Director for President Barack Obama talks about what it means to be a powerful, independent, ambitious and fearless woman in today’s America.

Read the review here: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jennifer-palmieri/she-proclaims/

Buy your copy here: https://amzn.to/3bSRhKy

On this episode of What to Reid, Robert P. Jones, author and demographer with the Public Religion Research Institute, talks about his latest book: White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity. In this deeply personal book, he combines his personal story as a white Christian growing up in the Bible belt, with a depth of history and national public polls to warn Christians about the risk of the faith falling under the spell of white nationalism.

Read The Guardian review: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jul/25/white-too-long-review-race-trump-american-christianity

Get your copy here: https://amzn.to/2QOkQmM

On this episode of What To Reid, Joy talks with Mikel Jollett about his fascinating book Hollywood Park: A Memoir. It's a heart-racing story of his life growing up in one of America's most infamous cults, and how he emerged from the cycle of abuse, poverty and want that it inflicted on him, his parents and his brother.

Read the NPR review here: https://www.npr.org/2020/05/28/863460131/hollywood-park-compassionately-depicts-the-suffering-and-struggles-of-addiction

Get your copy here: https://amzn.to/3gip0xD

On this episode of What to Reid, former Georgia State House minority leader and gubernatorial candidate discusses her book: Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America. In it, the New York Times Best-Selling author, voting rights activist and entrepreneur lays out the ways in which our right to vote is being threatened, and how we can fight back. The book is a how-to guide for creating a truly representative democracy, despite all the voter suppression and anti-democratic forces aligning against particularly voters of color, now.

Read The Guardian's review here: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/05/our-time-is-now-review-stacey-abrams-attorney-general-vice-president-joe-biden

Get your copy here: https://amzn.to/3iFDadO

In this episode, AM Joy favorite and MSNBC counter-terrorism analyst Malcolm Nance discusses his best-selling book: The Plot to Betray America: How Team Trump Embraced Our Enemies, Compromised Our Security, and How We Can Fix It, including the new chapters added to the paperback. As Kikus Reviews states: "[Nance] does a good job of showing how the Russian campaign to infiltrate the Trump campaign was staged and was so willingly accepted, with key agents taking roles in the Miss Universe contest, swaying the National Rifle Association, and conning Donald Trump Jr... and the book is timely."

Read the Washington Post review here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/how-russia-saw-trump-a-potential-asset-and-an-exploitable-victim/2020/01/02/7935c9ec-0af4-11ea-8397-a955cd542d00_story.html

Buy your copy here: https://amzn.to/30q2uht

On this week's What to Reid, Masha Gessen discusses her searing, important new book, Surviving Autocracy. In it, the Russian-born journalist and author discusses how Trump has crippled our democracy, subverted the media, embedded corruption and dragged America toward autocracy. It's a must-read!

Read the New York Review of Books review: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2020/07/02/masha-gessen-surviving-autocracy-democracy-red-line/

Buy your copy here: https://amzn.to/2Cq2gxZ

In this What to Reid, Rachel Maddow senior producer Steve Benen sits down with Joy to talk about his new book: The Impostors: How Republicans Quit Governing and Seized American Politics. In it, Benen describes how the Grand Ole' Party became a "post-policy" party, whose only purpose is the accumulation of more and more power.

Read the Publisher's Weekly review here: https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-06-302648-3

Get your own copy here: https://amzn.to/3fHlltC

In this What To Reid episode, NBC/MSNBC journalist Jacob Soboroff talks "Separated: Inside an American Tragedy." This is Jacob's seeing memoir of covering one of the most shameful episodes in U.S. history: the separation of migrant children from their parents under the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" anti-immigration policy.

In this episode of What to Reid, AM Joy and Twitter favorite Sarah Kendzior talks about her book: Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America; which walks the reader through Donald Trump's decades of corruption, and how he has layered that corruption over American politics. We also learn more about Sarah Kendzior PhD., and the source of her expertise.

Read the Vogue feature on the book here: https://www.vogue.com/article/sarah-kendzior-interview-hiding-in-plain-sight-donald-trump

And get your own copy of the book here: https://amzn.to/31PwVyW

On this episode of What to Reid, Justin Frank puts "Trump on the Couch" as he discusses his latest book, which breaks down Trump's family history and psychology and dives into what makes this strangest of American presidents tick.

Read the New York Journal of Books review here: https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/trump-couch

And get your copy of the book here: https://amzn.to/2YU1W2G

In this episode, Joy-Ann interviews Steven Hassan, author of the controversial book: The Cult of Trump, in which Hassan -- one of America's foremost experts on cults, and someone who escaped from a cult himself -- offers his analysis of the indoctrination tactics Donald Trump uses to "build a fanatical devotion in his supporters." Listen and judge for yourself!

Will Donald Trump ever fit into the "president's club?" ---- the unofficially, and unusually close-knit tribe of men (so far only men) who have held the highest political office in the U.S.? Joy talks with New York Times Number One Best-Selling author Kate Andersen Brower, about her new book "Team of Five: The Presidents Club in the Age of Trump," about those relationships between the five most recent presidents, and number 45. 

In this episode of "What to Reid," Joy talks with authors / investigative reporters David Corn and Michael Isikoff about their book: Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump Hardcover; now out in paperback. The book details how the Kremlin hijacked American democracy by creeping into the Trump campaign and exploiting it to their own ends, and in the new chapter, they walk us through Donald Trump's impeachment, and the implications. Also they both sport jaunty corona beards! Enjoy!

On this episode of What to Reid, Joy interviews AM Joy favorite Jill Wine Banks, who made a name for herself as a young woman, as the lone female member of the Watergate prosecuting team that took down President Richard Nixon. Jill talks about questioning Nixon's secretary, Rose Mary Woods, who tried to take the fall for the gap in the Watergate tapes with her famous "Rose Mar y Stretch," finding out her own house was bugged, and the sexism that tried, but failed, to stop her career. Check it out!

Former senior advisor to President Barack Obama, and longtime friend and colleague of both Barack and Michelle Obama, Valerie Jarrett joins Joy to talk about her book: Finding My Voice: My Journey to the West Wing and the Path Forward, which is now out in paperback. In the book, Valerie talks about her family roots, and her path to the West Wing, and gives sage advice about surviving childhood as the kid who's "different," and asserting your independence as a woman, mom and (in the new afterward) as a grandmother. (Recorded on June 1, 2020).

On this episode of What to Reid, Joy-Ann talks with CNN political analyst and the former youngest black elected official in South Carolina history Bakari Sellers, whose new book, "My Vanishing Country" explores the lives of America's REAL forgotten men and women, in America's black rural south. Part-biography, part cultural-historical analysis, the book tells the story of Sellers' family in Denmark, South Carolina, including his father's shooting by police during the civil rights era, and of the Americans who are often overlooked in standard media narratives. (Note: recorded on May 28, 2020).

On this episode of What to Reid, Joy-Ann talks with Maria Hinojosa, founder and director of the Futuro Media Group and NPR journalist, about her new book, "Once I Was You," which explores immigration from a deeply personal perspective, including the children separated from their parents by the Trump administration, and "mediaing while Latina."