Wes Moore: “Five Days: The Fiery Reckoning of an American City”

This is the twenty-ninth episode of "Talking with Authors" by HEC Media and HEC Books. We're a program dedicated to speaking with some of the best selling authors around, covering many different genres.

We’re excited to be able to come back to you after an unplanned hiatus due to the Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020. Since no authors were able to travel, and our partners at the St. Louis County Library and Left Bank Books were physically closed in the early days of social distancing, we were unable to conduct many of the scheduled interviews that we had planned.  But, after the initial weeks of the global shutdown, we were able to set up remote video interviews with many authors. And in the coming weeks, we’ll be providing you with the audio of these interviews. The sound quality may be slightly different than our previous podcasts, but they all still contain the great content that you’ve come to expect.

Our guest this time is Wes Moore. We spoke with him via Zoom in July of 2020 about his most recent book “Five Days: The Fiery Reckoning of an American City” published by Penguin Random House.

He’s an author, combat veteran, and CEO of the Robin Hood Foundation, a top poverty fighting nonprofit. But his incredible life story isn’t the focus of this episode’s conversation. Instead, he discusses the life and tragic death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man that suffered a fatal spinal cord injury at the hands of the Baltimore police in April of 2015. Moore’s latest book examines the aftermath of this young man’s death, as told through the experiences of multiple people from different backgrounds. Important topics concerning race, police violence, and the needs for systemic change in the United States are addressed on this edition of Talking with Authors from HEC Media and HEC Books.

HEC Media is a production company out of St. Louis, Missouri.  With the help of independent bookstore Left Bank Books and St. Louis County Library, we are able to sit down with these amazing writers and thought leaders to discuss their work, their inspiration, and what makes them special. You can watch video versions of most of our interviews at hecmedia.org.

Producer – Christian Chastain
Host – Kira Banks
Video Editor – Christian Chastain and Greg Kopp
Audio Editor- Ben Smith
Production Support – Jayne Ballew
HEC Media Executive Director - Dennis Riggs
Talking with Authors Podcast Executive Producer - Christina Chastain
Podcast Producer – Paul Langdon
Podcast Host - Rod Milam

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