We discuss biographies this episode.

Their power resides in their place in history. New facts emerge, new understandings reshape our understandings of the person. Biographies remind us the ways the present influences the past.

Biographies we mentioned in this episode

“Steve Jobs, Insanely Great” by Jesse Hartland

“Jonas Salk, A Life,” by Charlotte DeCroes Jacobs

“Daughters of the Samuri: A Journey From East and West and Back” Janice P. Nimura

“Phillis Wheatley: Biography of a Genius in Bondage,” Vincent Carretta

“A Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames,” by Kai Bird

“The Bully Pulpit,” Doris Kearns Goodwin

“Bolivar: Aerican Liberator” by Marie Arana

“The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government,” by David Talbot

“Crazy Rich: Power, Scandal, and Tragedy Inside the Johnson & Johnson Dynasty,”

by Jerry Oppenheimer

“Sons of Wichita: How the Koch Brothers Became America's Most Powerful and Private Dynasty” by Daniel Schulman

“King of the World: Muhammed Ali and the Rise of an American Hero,” David Remnick

“Catharine the Great: Portrait of a Woman,” Robert K. Massie