Discover the moving, untold family story behind Abraham Zapruder’s film footage of the Kennedy assassination and its lasting impact on our world.

Abraham Zapruder didn’t know when he ran home to grab his video camera on November 22, 1963, that this single spontaneous decision would change his family’s life for generations to come. Originally intended as a home movie of President Kennedy’s motorcade, Zapruder’s film of the JFK assassination is now shown in every American history class, included in Jeopardy and Trivial Pursuit questions, and referenced in novels and films. It is the most famous example of citizen journalism, a precursor to the iconic images of our time, such as the Challenger explosion, the Rodney King beating, and the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers.

But few know the complicated legacy of the film itself. Now Abraham’s granddaughter, Alexandra Zapruder, is ready to tell the complete story for the first time. In this video, Zapruder discusses her book, Twenty-Six Seconds: A Personal History of the Zapruder Film; part biography, part family history, and part historical narrative, Zapruder demonstrates how one man’s unwitting moment in the spotlight shifted the way politics, culture, and media intersect, bringing about the larger social questions that define our age.

This event was a partnership with the Jewish Community Center of Greater Ann Arbor as part of the 2017 Jewish Book Festival.

Why are graphic novels so good at capturing history? Find out when Nate Powell stops by AADL for this presentation. Best known for his work on the award-winning March series he co-created with Andrew Aydin and legendary Civil Rights activist Congressman John Lewis, Powell explores many of the unique and immersive storytelling principles used in comics.

Joni Mitchell may be the most influential female recording artist and composer of the late twentieth century. In Reckless Daughter, the music critic David Yaffe tells the remarkable, heart-wrenching story of how the blond girl with the guitar became a superstar of folk music in the 1960s, a key figure in the Laurel Canyon music scene of the 1970s, and the songwriter who spoke resonantly to, and for, audiences across the country.

Amy Emberling and Frank Carollo, Managing Partners of Zingerman’s Bakehouse, discuss the Zingerman's Bakehouse cookbook, their first-ever cookbook, which features all the recipes of the Bakehouse’s most popular items. Also included are recipes that are unique to Michigan, along with Frank and Amy’s personal favorites. They’ve also added essays and brief stories for context, to give readers a sense of how the Zingerman’s community works together to produce great food. 

Named a best book of 2017 by Bloomberg Businessweek, the Financial times and Amazon, Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy paints an epic picture of change in an intimate way by telling the stories of the tools, people, and ideas that had far-reaching consequences for all of us.

From cookbook author Julia Turshen comes Feed the Resistance, a practical and inspiring handbook for political activism—with recipes.

As the millions who marched in January 2017 demonstrated, activism is the new normal. When people search for ways to resist injustice and express support for civil rights, environmental protections, and more, they begin by gathering around the table to talk and plan. These dishes foster community and provide sustenance for the mind and soul, including a dozen of the healthy, affordable recipes Turshen is known for, plus over 15 more recipes from a diverse range of celebrated chefs.

With stimulating lists, extensive resources, and essays from activists in the worlds of food, politics, and social causes, "Feed the Resistance" is a must-have handbook for anyone hoping to make a difference.

Julia Turshen is a writer who lives in upstate New York, the author of "Small Victories" and numerous other cookbooks. She hosted the first two seasons of Radio Cherry Bombe and has written for Vogue, Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, Saveur, SELF, T Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and Lucky Peach.

This event was created in partnership with the University of Michigan Library and Literati Bookstore.

Graced by the Huron River with an abundance of parks, Ann Arbor offers residents and visitors entertainment, sports, shopping, dining, and of course, the University of Michigan.

Legendary Locals of Ann Arbor, Michigan celebrates its citizens. Many are creative artists, inspiring educators, dedicated public servants, and determined business owners. With the exception of Lewis the cat, who reigned at Downtown Home and Garden, this book is filled with stories about people who have made and are making Ann Arbor one of the best places to live in the United States.

Co-author Joanne Nesbit discusses some of the great stories they discovered while putting together the book and how local legends were selected. With a career spanning journalism and as a public information officer at Indiana University and the University of Michigan, Nesbit has always been fascinated by local history, stories, and people. She is the author of three other books, and is the founder of Knitwits at the University of Michigan.

Actor and writer Jon Glaser sits down with us to discuss his television and comedy career.

Jon Glaser created, starred in, and co-wrote the TV shows Neon Joe Werewolf Hunter, Jon Glaser Loves Gear, and Delocated. He is well-known as Councilman Jamm on Parks and Recreation, and Laird on HBO's Girls. Other TV credits include Inside Amy Schumer, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Wonder Showzen.

Film credits include Trainwreck, Be Kind Rewind, and Pootie Tang. Cartoon voice work includes Bob's Burgers, Archer, Lucy: Daughter of the Devil, TV Funhouse, and Aqua Teen Hunger Force. He appeared as Video Cowboy in the ESPN web series Mayne Street, and he created, wrote, directed and starred in a series of web shorts for Comedy Central called Tiny Hands.

As a writer and consultant, Jon's credits include Inside Amy Schumer, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Dana Carvey Show, Human Giant, and Cheap Seats. He has written several stories for The New York Times Magazine, and his writing has also appeared in ESPN The Magazine, The Onion A.V. Club, and online for New York Magazine.

His first book, My Dead Dad Was In ZZ Top, was published by Harper Perennial, and he wrote and directed the music video for Bob Mould’s Star Machine.

In this sweeping history of popular music in the United States, National Public Radio’s acclaimed music critic examines how popular music shapes fundamental American ideas and beliefs, allowing us to communicate difficult emotions and truths about our most fraught social issues, most notably sex and race.

In Good Booty, Ann Powers explores how popular music became America’s primary erotic art form. Powers takes us from nineteenth-century New Orleans through dance-crazed Jazz Age New York to the teen scream years of mid-twentieth century rock-and-roll to the cutting-edge adventures of today’s web-based pop stars. Drawing on her deep knowledge and insights on gender and sexuality, Powers recounts stories of forbidden lovers, wild shimmy-shakers, orgasmic gospel singers, countercultural perverts, soft-rock sensitivos, punk Puritans, and the cyborg known as Britney Spears to illuminate how eroticism—not merely sex, but love, bodily freedom, and liberating joy—became entwined within the rhythms and melodies of American song. This cohesion, she reveals, touches the heart of America's anxieties and hopes about race, feminism, marriage, youth, and freedom.

In a survey that spans more than a century of music, Powers both heralds little known artists such as Florence Mills, a contemporary of Josephine Baker, and gospel queen Dorothy Love Coates, and sheds new light on artists we think we know well, from the Beatles and Jim Morrison to Madonna and Beyoncé. In telling the history of how American popular music and sexuality intersect—a magnum opus over two decades in the making—Powers offers new insights into our nation psyche and our soul.

Martin’s interview with Ann Powers was recorded on September 27, 2017.

Dylan Jones’s engrossing, magisterial biography of David Bowie is unlike any Bowie story ever written. Drawn from over 180 interviews with friends, rivals, lovers, and collaborators, some of whom have never before spoken about their relationship with Bowie, this oral history weaves a hypnotic spell as it unfolds the story of a remarkable rise to stardom and an unparalleled artistic path. Tracing Bowie’s life from the English suburbs to London to New York to Los Angeles, Berlin, and beyond, its collective voices describe a man profoundly shaped by his relationship with his schizophrenic half-brother Terry; an intuitive artist who could absorb influences through intense relationships and yet drop people cold when they were no longer of use; and a social creature equally comfortable partying with John Lennon and dining with Frank Sinatra.

By turns insightful and deliciously gossipy, David Bowie: A Life is as intimate a portrait as may ever be drawn. It sparks with admiration and grievances, lust and envy, as the speakers bring you into studios and bedrooms they shared with Bowie, and onto stages and film sets, opening corners of his mind and experience that transform our understanding of both artist and art. Including illuminating, never-before-seen material from Bowie himself, drawn from a series of Jones’s interviews with him across two decades, David Bowie is an epic, unforgettable cocktail-party conversation about a man whose enigmatic shapeshifting and irrepressible creativity produced one of the most sprawling, fascinating lives of our time.

Martin’s interview with Dylan Jones was recorded on September 21, 2017.