From the Archives: Robert Caro on How He Does It

Subscribe: iTunes | Google Play Music | How to Listen For the 15 years it’s been around, the Book Review’s podcast has never missed an episode. But during the coronavirus crisis, we’re going back to our archives for the time being. This week, we have an episode from just about a year ago with the great biographer Robert A. Caro.

Caro had just published “Working,” a collection of pieces about how he writes his prizewinning books. With readers eagerly awaiting the fifth volume of his epic series about the life of Lyndon Johnson, Caro spoke about his new book and all that had come before. Also on this episode, the poet Reginald Dwayne Betts recited the Joseph Brodsky poem “May 24, 1980”; and Gregory Cowles, Tina Jordan and John Williams talked about what they were reading. Pamela Paul is the host.

Here are the books discussed in this episode’s “What We’re Reading”: “Lost Children Archive” by Valeria Luiselli “Ulysses” by James Joyce “Goodbye, Vitamin” by Rachel Khong “The Magic of Handwriting” by Christine Nelson “Hard News” by Seth Mnookin We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review’s podcast in general. You can send them to books@nytimes. com.