Podcast #253 – “Four Paths, One Impossible Dream,” Part IV: Challenging the Canon

Podcast #253 – “Four Paths, One Impossible Dream,” Part IV: Challenging the Canon

From Biographers International Organization by Biographers International Organization

April 3, 2026 · 18 min

About this episode

In this episode, four authors discuss the challenges of writing biography while confronting historical truths and personal dilemmas.

In this fourth episode of our six-part miniseries, Sara finds out that President Lincoln presided over the largest mass execution on American soil, and she wants to know why nobody taught her that. Kevin has a death certificate that answers a question other scholars keep pretending is a mystery. Katie Rose reads congressional testimony from a hundred years ago that could have been written this morning. And Kate has to reckon with the fact that one of her subjects was a racist. The ideas. The arguments. The stuff that keeps them up at night, and BIO Podcast producer Jenny Skoog explores these dilemmas with the four authors. “Four Paths, One Impossible Dream” follows four authors navigating the challenges of writing biography. Over eight months in 2025, BIO Podcast producer Jenny Skoog spoke with comedian Sara Benincasa, tackling Abraham Lincoln; professor Kate Culkin, working on a book about Ralph Waldo Emerson’s daughters; historian Kevin McGruder, who has spent decades researching Harlem Renaissance writer Rudolph Fisher; and journalist Katie Rose Quandt, on the challenges of completing a book proposal while pregnant.

People in this episode

Host: Jenny Skoog

Guests: Sara Benincasa, Kate Culkin, Kevin McGruder, Katie Rose Quandt

Topics covered

  • biography
  • historical events
  • racism
  • literature
  • writing challenges
  • congressional testimony

Keywords

  • biography
  • Abraham Lincoln
  • racism
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • Harlem Renaissance
  • writing
  • historical research
  • congressional testimony

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Four Paths, One Impossible Dream

Places: Harlem

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