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This recording is presented in partnership by Princeton Public Library and Housing Initiatives of Princeton. Matthew Hersh of the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey discusses housing policy under the new administration.

Matthew Hersh, Vice President of Policy & Advocacy - Responsible for leading the Network’s policy, advocacy and community engagement efforts. A long-time journalist and policy and nonprofit communications professional, Matthew previously served as senior editor at Shelterforce Magazine, a publication of the National Housing Institute, which focuses on federal, state, and local affordable housing policy as well as community development and community organizing. He has worked extensively with several local chapters of Habitat for Humanity, New Jersey Clean Communities, the Newark Trust for Education, New Jersey Audubon, and more. Matthew is a member of the Highland Park Borough Council, as well as a member of the Highland Park Affordable Housing Corporation. As a member of the Borough Council, he worked with the NJ Alliance for Immigrant Justice and the New Jersey ACLU to lead the Borough’s “Inclusive Communities” policies to assure protections for undocumented residents. He is also a member of the board of trustees of the Highland Park Educational Foundation, which makes small grants to the Highland Park Public Schools.

This event was recorded on February 22, 2026.

This recording is presented in partnership by Princeton Public Library and Labyrinth Books. Economist Misty Heggeness discusses her book, "Swiftynomics" which views pop culture through a feminist lens and illuminates how women influence and shape the economy.

About the book (from the publisher):
"Swiftynomics: How Women Mastermind and Redefine Our Economy" assesses the complex economic lives of everyday American women. Through the stories of women like Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, and Dolly Parton, Misty Heggeness explores how the successes of celebrities can help us understand the central role of women in today's economy.

Through extensively researched data, Heggeness reveals women's hidden contributions, aspirations, and the largely unexamined value they bring to the economy by pursuing their own ambitions. She highlights the abundance of productive activity in women’s daily lives and acknowledges their unique economic barriers. Exploring critical reforms regarding caregiving and gendered labor, this book demonstrates how women can thrive in an economy that was not built for them.

About the Author:
Misty L. Heggeness is a proud Swiftie and an economist who studies the intersection of gender, poverty, inequality, and the high-skilled workforce. Her research has been featured in "The New York Times," "The Wall Street Journal," NPR, "The Economist," and "Science"—and has helped shape federal policy over the past decade.

She is the founder and co-director of the Kansas Population Center, an associate professor of economics and public affairs, and an associate research scientist at the Institute for Policy and Social Research at the University of Kansas.

She is also innovator and founder of The Care Board, a dashboard of economic statistics on care.

This event was recorded on March 02, 2026.

This recording is presented by Princeton Public Library. Historian Andrew David Edwards presents his new book, "Money and the Making of the American Revolution."

About the Book (from the publisher):
American money and American democracy have always been in tension, pitting political equality against economic inequality. In "Money and the Making of the American Revolution," Andrew David Edwards shows how this struggle emerged in America’s founding era. Everyone knows that the founders waged a revolt against taxation without representation. Edwards shows that the dispute over taxes was really a dispute over money: what it was, who could make it, and how to keep it from being used at the expense of the colonists in North America. The colonial rebels refocused their resistance on democratic, local control—defending the power they had used to make money for themselves.

Edwards’s narrative spans four continents, linking the problems of money and revolt in early America to the transatlantic slave trade, the disastrous mismanagement of the East India Company in India, and violence against Native Americans. His analysis emerges from the story itself, through the lives of individuals ranging from John Blackwell, Oliver Cromwell’s one-time war treasurer, to Thomas Paine, the impassioned pamphleteer of the American Revolution. Edwards argues that as the republican vision of an agrarian, independent monetary system faded, the leaders of the Revolution tied the nation to capitalism and imperialism at its founding. The colonists may have won the battle for representation, but the money that underpinned European empire had established a stronghold in the new republic. "Money and the Making of the American Revolution" offers both an ambitious new interpretation of the Revolution and a fascinating story about the power of economic ideas.

About the Author:
Andrew David Edwards is lecturer in early American history in the School of History at the University of St Andrews. He is a historian of early America, capitalism and money. He received my doctorate from Princeton University in 2018 to become the inaugural career development fellow in the global history of capitalism at Brasenose College, Oxford. Before joining the School of History, he was a Sawyer fellow at the New School for Social Research in New York City, working on the project "Currency and Empire: Race, Monetary Policy and Power." My research has appeared in Past & Present, The Journal of American History, Law & Social Inquiry, and L’Atelier du Centre de recherches historiques.

Public Humanities programs are presented with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this programming do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This recording is presented by Princeton Public Library. The author discusses her novel "Wait for Me" with Anica Mrose Rissi.

"Wait for Me" has been selected by the "Today" show's Jenna Bush Hager as a Read with Jenna Book Club pick.

About the Books (from the publisher):
Young folk singer Elle Harlow reaches the height of her prowess in 1973, with two wildly beloved albums to her name and a hidden history of impossible heartbreak. When she sets foot on the famed Grand Ole Opry stage, a far cry from the mountain that raised her, Elle gives the biggest performance of her life. Then, to the dismay of shocked fans, her producer, and the man who still loves her, she vanishes.

Almost two decades later, eighteen-year-old Marijohn Shaw is spending her summer pumping gas, writing songs on her broken mandolin, and longing for a mother. Her father, Abe, has always sworn he was the last person to see Elle Harlow alive, but when a meteor strikes the woods of their sleepy Pennsylvania town and a piece of Elle’s past emerges from the wreckage, the truth of her disappearance sets fire to everything Marijohn believes about herself, her music, and her ability to love with abandon.

"Wait for Me" exalts the lush hills of Appalachia and the bright lights of Nashville as it reveals the legacy of Elle Harlow, the bold voice that defined her, the intimate betrayal that undid her, and the unexpected faith of another young woman determined to resurrect her.

In Conversation:
Amy Jo Burns is the author of the memoir "Cinderland" and the novel "Shiner," which was a Barnes & Noble Discover Pick and an NPR Best Book of the year. She is also the author of the novel, "Mercury," is a Barnes & Noble Book Club Pick, a Book of the Month Pick, a People Magazine Book of the Week, and an Editor’s Choice selection in The New York Times.

Anica Mrose Rissi is the award-winning author of more than a dozen books for kids and teens, including picture books, chapter books, middle grade, and YA. Her essays have been published by "The Writer" and the "New York Times," and she plays fiddle in and writes lyrics for the band Owen Lake and the Tragic Loves. Anica grew up in Maine and spent many years in New York City, where she worked as an executive editor in children’s book publishing. She currently lives in central New Jersey with her very good dog, Sweet Potato.

This event was recorded on March 08, 2026.

This program was originally recorded on September 4, 2025.

Without Oswald Veblen, Princeton would have no Institute for Advanced Study, no Institute Woods, no Old Fine Hall, no Herrontown Woods, and no Presented in partnership by Princeton Public Library and The Friends of Herrontown Woods.

Einstein. Steve Hiltner and historian Cindy Srnka team up to present new research on the behind the scenes influence Veblen, and later Einstein, had on the trajectory of Princeton and the Institute for Advanced Study.

In 1933, exiled from his home in Germany, Einstein had many options for where to live. Why he chose Princeton has much to do with Veblen’s leadership in building Princeton’s math department, and his founding vision for the Institute for Advanced Study. From Einstein’s first office in Old Fine Hall to meditative walks with brilliant colleagues at the Institute Woods–Veblen had been setting the stage for Einstein’s arrival since first coming to Princeton in 1905. Relevant to current events, the talk will touch on Veblen’s initiatives to find homes for many other European scholars displaced by the Nazis, and his founding role in integrating nature into Princeton’s intellectual and communal life.

About the Speakers:

Cindy Srnka is a museum educator and nonprofit leader committed to cultural advocacy, historical preservation, environmental education, and public engagement in museums and heritage sectors. She is dedicated to heritage conservation, nonprofit development, and educational programming. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, she is currently on staff at the Historical Society of Princeton.

Steve Hiltner is a writer, musician, naturalist, actor, and president of the Friends of Herrontown Woods. Trained in botany and water quality, his interest in Oswald Veblen began with discovering the Veblens' house, boarded up and neglected in Princeton's first nature preserve. Steve has devoted the years since to restoring not only the preserve and house, but also the extraordinary and largely forgotten legacy of the Veblens. His historical research can be found at VeblenHouse.org.

Presented with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this programming do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This recording is presented by Princeton Public Library. The author discusses "The Lost Baker of Vienna," a sweeping saga about survival, loss, love and the reverberating effects of war inspired by her family's experiences after the Holocaust.

About the Books (from the publisher):
In 2018, Zoe Rosenzweig is reeling after the loss of her beloved grandfather, a Holocaust survivor. She becomes obsessed with finding out what really happened to her family during the war.

Vienna, 1946: Chana Rosenzweig has endured the horrors of war to find herself, her mother, and her younger brother finally free in Vienna. But freedom doesn’t look like they’d imagined it would, as they struggle to make a living and stay safe.

Despite the danger, Chana sneaks out most nights to return to the hotel kitchen where she works as a dishwasher, using the quiet nighttime hours to bake her late father’s recipes. Soon, Chana finds herself caught in a dangerous love triangle, torn between the black-market dealer who has offered marriage and protection, and the apprentice baker who shares her passions. How will Chana balance her love of baking against her family’s need for security?

The Lost Baker of Vienna affirms the unbreakable bonds of family, shining a light on the courageous spirit of WWII refugees as they battle to survive the overwhelming hardships of a world torn apart.

About the Author:
Sharon Kurtzman worked in television marketing before pursuing her dream of becoming a writer. She earned her MFA in fiction from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and her undergraduate degree from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications. The Lost Baker of Vienna was inspired by the war and postwar experiences of her own family, who were Holocaust survivors. Kurtzman lives in North Carolina with her husband; they have two adult children.