The Avett Brothers’ Bassist on Writing a John Quincy Adams Book
3/6/202638 min
For more than two decades, Bob Crawford has toured the country as the bassist for the Avett Brothers. But long before he began his career as a musician, he was obsessed with American history. After turning that obsession into two podcasts, he has now written his first book, “America’s Founding Son: John Quincy Adams, From President to Political Maverick.”
On this week’s episode, Crawford talks with Gilbert Cruz, the editor of The New York Times Book Review, about what it was like writing a book for the first time and the authors who have inspired him. In addition to discussing what he loves about John Quincy Adams, the country’s sixth president and the son of John Adams, Crawford also talks about the research he did for the book. That included scouring Adams’s 14,000-page diary.
“He’s not a perfect man — he’s far from perfect,” Crawford said of Adams. “But he’s so human. He’s suffered depression, and just the humanness in his diary, not to mention the actual historical narrative, is just incredible.”
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
We gave Times employees a preview of Crossplay from New York Times Games, and here's what they had to say.
Bob Crawford· Guest0:05
I can finally play with other people.
Gilbert Cruz· Host0:08
I'm pretty competitive. It's fun to beat friends and coworkers.
Speaker 00:12
I have a J for ten points.
Gilbert Cruz· Host0:14
I'm guessing Tenga is not a word. Let's see. Tenga is a word. Oh.
Bob Crawford· Guest0:19
As an English as a second language speaker, I like to learn new words.
Speaker 00:23
New York Times Game subscribers get full access to Crossplay, our first two-player word game. Subscribe now for a special offer on all of our games.
Gilbert Cruz· Host0:33
Hi, it's Gilbert. Before we start the show, I want to let you know that we are gonna be talking with the author of Project Hail Mary in an upcoming episode. I know that New York Times readers voted this book one of their top one hundred books of the twenty-first century, and more importantly to some, there's a movie adaptation starring Ron Gosling that's coming out in just a couple of weeks. So I'd love to hear from you. What questions do you have for Andy Weir, the author of Project Hail Mary? Let me know, and I may ask him your question when I talk to him. You can send your questions by email to thebookreview@nytimes.com. That is thebookreview@nytimes.com. You can also find a link to submit your questions in the show notes for this episode. And now on to this week's show.
Bob Crawford· Guest1:23
[instrumental music] So I pitched this as a beach read, something that you could, if you have two weeks off