About this episode

Andrew Wilson discusses his biography of Marilyn Monroe, exploring her life through 100 unique perspectives.

Publishing one hundred years after her birth, Andrew Wilson’s biography of Marilyn Monroe, I Wanna Be Loved By You: Marilyn Monroe: A Life in 100 Takes (Grand Central Publishing, 2026), is a kaleidoscopic tour of her life told through 100 captivating snapshots.Dreamer. Bombshell. Icon. Featuring a wealth of unpublished material, I Wanna Be Loved By You presents Marilyn in a startling new light. It draws upon unpublished letters from Marilyn, Arthur Miller, and Joe DiMaggio; case notes and private letters from Monroe’s psychoanalyst, Dr. Ralph Greenson; and unpublished audio recordings from the likes of Jane Russell, Billy Wilder, John Huston, Amy and Milton Greene, housekeeper Eunice Murray (the last person to see Marilyn alive), and many more.We go behind the scenes of her marriages to teenage sweetheart Jim Dougherty, Joe DiMaggio, and Arthur Miller. We see Marilyn train with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio, working to dismantle the common perception that she was merely a dumb blonde. And in the concluding chapters, Wilson dissects what happened on the night Marilyn died after a suspected drug overdose. Were the Kennedys involved, or was she just let down by those closest to…

People in this episode

Host: Marshall Poe

Guest: Andrew Wilson

Topics covered

• Marilyn Monroe
• biography
• Hollywood
• fame
• icon
• psychology
• history

Keywords

• Marilyn Monroe
• biography
• Andrew Wilson
• Hollywood
• icon
• fame
• psychology
• history

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Grand Central Publishing

More episodes of New Books in Biography & Memoir

• Gayle F. Wald, "This Is Rhythm: Ella Jenkins, Children’s Music, and the Long Civil Rights Movement" (U Chicago Press, 2025) · July 15, 2026 · 1h 1m
• Sarah Kaminsky, "The Forger of Paris" (Doppelhouse Press, 2025) · July 15, 2026 · 56 min
• Heidegger in Ruins · July 13, 2026
• Rachel Phan, "Restaurant Kid: A Memoir of Family and Belonging" (Douglas & McIntyre, 2025) · July 11, 2026 · 43 min
• Brad Tolinski and Chris Gill, "Blow by Blow: The Jeff Beck Story" (Da Capo, 2026) · July 9, 2026 · 53 min
• Ted Powell, "Churchill and the Crown" (Oxford UP, 2026) · July 6, 2026 · 39 min

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the New Books in Biography & Memoir podcast page.