Behind the Mic With Kirkus Reviews

Jo Reed talks with contributor Stephen Cummings about three
memoirs created with audio at their center, using performance, archival clips, live recordings, and the human voice to tell their stories. Billy Eichner looks back at his Queens childhood, his rise through Billy on the Street, and the creation of the film Bros in Billy on Billy, an audio-only memoir that mixes his narration with clips from his career and reveals a more
reflective side of the famously confrontational comedian. In Peeing in an
Empty Bottle, comedian Roz Hernandez takes listeners along on a solo tour through the South and Midwest, combining exuberant narration with live performances and recorded conversations that explore comedy, community, and the realities of traveling through America as a transgender woman. Voice actor Billy West draws on his extraordinary vocal range in Voice-A-Versa, a memoir in which his honesty is as striking as his virtuosity. West moves from a painful childhood to the many characters he created for dozens of commercials and TV programs such as The Ren & Stimpy Show and Futurama (among many others), as well as his years on The Howard Stern Show. Together, the three audiobooks show what happens when memoir is conceived for the ear, making the voices, performances, and sounds of a life part of the storytelling itself.



Audiobooks Discussed:

Billy on Billy: An Audio Memoir, written and read by Billy Eichner (Macmillan Audio)

Peeing in an Empty Bottle (And Other Glamorous Shenanigans of an Almost-Famous Transgender Comedienne on the Road), written and read by Roz Hernandez (Simon & Schuster Audio)

Voice-A-Versa: Finding My Voice(s) Behind the Mic, written and read by Billy West (Recorded Books Inc.)

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Host Jo Reed and contributor Leslie Fine explore three distinctive
novels and the narrators who shape the listening experience. In Sarah Damoff’s The Burning Side, Stacy Gonzalez, Timothy Andrés Pabon, and Jackie Sanders portray members of a family in crisis, with Sanders’ warm, multidimensional performance as the family matriarch a particular standout. Elizabeth Strout’s extraordinary The Things We Never Say finds an ideal interpreter in Golden Voice Robert Petkoff, whose beautifully restrained Earphones Award–winning performance captures Artie’s loneliness and vulnerability while allowing Strout’s remarkable portrait of community, connection, and ordinary life to speak for itself. And in Emma Straub’s American Fantasy, Marin Ireland brings humanity and personality to three very different characters aboard a boy-band nostalgia cruise, making a light, pleasant novel considerably richer in audio. Jo and Leslie consider what happens when narrators know exactly how much—or how little—to do, and how the right performance can deepen an already
exceptional novel or add dimension to a lighter one.



Audiobooks Discussed:

The Burning Side by Sarah Damoff, read by Stacy Gonzalez, Timothy Andrés Pabon & Jackie Sanders (Simon & Schuster Audio)

The Things We Never Say by
Elizabeth Strout, read by Robert Petkoff (Random House Audio)

American Fantasy by Emma Straub, read by Marin Ireland (Penguin
Audio)

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Host Jo Reed talks with contributor Kendra Winchester about
three audiobooks that explore disability and offer distinct perspectives on
community, resilience, and belonging. They begin with Mother Tongue by
Sara Nović, narrated by Lisa Flanagan, a memoir that blends personal experience with Deaf history and culture while using inventive audio production to incorporate ASL into the listening experience. Next is A Way Home by Cinelle Barnes, read by the author, a brilliantly written,
emotionally layered memoir that interweaves recovery from a brain aneurysm, an overdue return to the Philippines, and a search for home and self, with Barnes’ authentic narration adding another dimension to the listening experience. They conclude with All My Dead Cats and Other Losses by s.e. smith, performed by Em Grosland, which uses the stories of the author's cats as springboards for a thoughtful exploration of grief, disability, memory, and the many ways we mourn, with Grosland’s restrained, deeply empathetic narration giving Smith's reflections room to resonate. Together, these three audiobooks invite listeners to rethink disability—not as a single experience but as a rich and varied part of what it means to be human.



Audiobooks Discussed

Mother Tongue by Sara Nović, read by Lisa Flanagan (Random House Audio)

A Way Home: A Memoir of Losing Yourself, and the Beauty of Returning written and read by Cinelle Barnes (Brilliance Audio)

All My Dead Cats and Other Losses: Practicing Good Grief in a Culture That Fears Mourning by s.e. smith, read by Em Grosland (Harper Audio)

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Host Jo Reed and Kirkus young readers’ editor Laura Simeon
discuss three audiobooks for young listeners that use sports to explore
identity, family, culture, and social change. In Medicine Wheels by
Byron Graves, narrator Meegwun Fairbrother captures both the turmoil and the exhilaration of an Ojibwe teenager who discovers skateboarding—and a new connection to his late father. Eva Kaminsky brings clarity and urgency to Elizabeth Rusch’s A Greater Goal, a gripping account of the U.S. women’s soccer team’s fight for equal pay and the solidarity that sustained it. Finally, in Malia Maunakea’s The Shark Prince, narrator Noah Keawekane captures the humor and vulnerability of a Native Hawaiian teenager trying to understand both his changing body and his dangerous inheritance as a descendant of the shark king. Together, these audiobooks move beyond the action of skateboarding, soccer, and surfing to explore family ties, cultural identity, and the power of solidarity.



Audiobooks Discussed:

Medicine Wheels by Byron Graves, read by Meegwun Fairbrother (Harper Audio)

A Greater Goal: The Epic Battle for Equal Pay in Women’s Soccer—And Beyond by Elizabeth Rusch, read by Eva Kaminsky (Harper Audio)

The Shark Prince by Malia Maunakea, read by Noah Keawekane (Listening
Library)

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Three audiobooks explore people whose patience, curiosity, and determination changed how we understand—and protect—the natural world. Contributor Alan Minskoff joins host Jo Reed to discuss Homesick for a World Unknown: The Life of George B. Schaller by Miriam Horn, a biography of the pioneering wildlife biologist whose decades of patient fieldwork transformed our understanding of animals in the wild. Timothy Andrés Pabon's restrained narration mirrors Schaller's own quiet, methodical approach, allowing the extraordinary scope of his life and work to unfold naturally. Next comes Bernd Heinrich's The Common Uncommon: A Forest Journey, warmly yet authoritatively read by Steve Marvel, which blends memoir, science, and quiet delight in the natural world, inviting listeners to experience it with Heinrich’s infectious sense of wonder. Rounding out the episode is James H. McCommons’ The Feather Wars: And the Great Crusade to Save America’s Birds, narrated by Colin
White, whose calm, measured narration keeps the focus on the remarkable history of America’s birds, the people who nearly destroyed them, and the unlikely coalition that fought to save them. Together, these audiobooks make a fascinating trio about discovery, conservation, and the enduring rewards of paying close attention.



Audiobooks Discussed:

Homesick for a World Unknown: The Life of George B. Schaller by Miriam Horn, read by Timothy Andrés Pabon & Claudia Dunn (Penguin Audio)

The Common Uncommon: A Forest Journey by Bernd Heinrich, read by Steve Marvel (Tantor Media)

The Feather Wars: And the Great Crusade to Save America’s Birds by James H. McCommons, read by Colin White (Tantor Media)

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices