Booked Up with Jen Taub

By: Jennifer Taub & Politicon LLC
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  • Summary

  • Booked Up with Jen Taub features intimate interviews with nonfiction authors. Jen’s guests include writers of current bestsellers and beloved backlist books. Conversations cover love, money, politics, early dreams, writing habits, reading tastes, procrastination techniques, self-doubt, and news of the day. Creator and host, Jen Taub is a law professor, advocate, and author. Her nonfiction books include BIG DIRTY MONEY (Viking 2020) and OTHER PEOPLE’S HOUSES (Yale Press 2014). She focuses on “follow the money” matters— promoting transparency and opposing corruption. Jen’s favorite poem is Prufrock (and yes she knows that Eliot held abhorrent views. She contains multitudes and can separate the dancer from the dance.) Taub was the Bruce W. Nichols Visiting Professor of Law in fall 2019 at Harvard Law School and is now a professor of law at the Western New England University School of Law. A former associate general counsel at Fidelity Investments, she is a graduate of Yale College and Harvard Law School.
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Episodes
  • 59: Sgt. Aquillino Gonell

    59: Sgt. Aquillino Gonell
    Jan 7 2024
    Today nearly three years after the attack on the US Capitol my guest is American hero, Aquillino Gonell, author of the new book American Shield: The Immigrant Sergeant Who Defended Democracy. You know Staff Sergeant Gonell as one of the brave members of the Capitol Police who defended our country and our constitution when insurrectionist mobs attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021.

    You saw Sergeant Gonell testify in July of 2021 at a televised Congressional hearing. At the witness table with him was his friend and fellow U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Harry Dunn. And also with them were Washington Metropolitan Police Department officers Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges.

    As I wrote in the Washington Monthly at the time, “These four heroes and their colleagues defended the U.S. Capitol from an angry mob hell-bent on murdering Vice President Pence and Speaker Nancy Pelosi and stopping the House and Senate from officially counting electoral votes to declare Joe Biden and Kamala Harris the winners of the November presidential election.”

    Gonell was born in the Dominican Republic and came to the United States in 1992. The first member of his family to attend college, he became a U.S. citizen just before his 21st birthday. He praised “this country” for giving him the opportunity to “become whatever I wanted.”

    In his testimony, Gonell said he was more fearful on January 6 than when he was deployed in Iraq. In Iraq, he was scared to go in convoys or supply missions to Iraqis, but he knew the risks. At the Capitol, he didn’t. How could he? “I did not recognize my fellow citizens,” he said. He heard threats against Pelosi and Pence, and realized his own life was at risk. “The rioters called me ‘traitor,” he said. They shouted that he should be “executed.” These were not peaceful protesters: “The mob brought weapons to try to accomplish their insurrectionist agenda.” These included hammers, rebar, knives, batons, bear spray, and pepper spray. They wore tactical gear. Some seized officers’ batons and shields. One rioter attacked an officer with an American flag.

    Rioters pulled Gonell by his leg, shield, and gear. “My survivor’s instincts kicked in,” he said. He hit a rioter who was grabbing him. Then he stood and fended off “new attackers as they kept rotating and attacking me again and again.” It was “like a medieval battle, fighting hand to hand.” The rioters were shouting “Trump sent us. Pick the right side. We want Trump.” Gonell heard an officer near him, whom he later learned was Hodges, scream in pain. He thought “this is how I’m going to die.”

    Gonell wiped away tears as he described learning later on that his family had been texting him frantically because they saw the turmoil. Returning home in the middle of the night, he had to tell his wife not to hug him because of the chemicals on his uniform. His body was burning. He showered, barely slept, then returned to work at Capitol around 8 am.

    “I’m still trying to recover from my injuries,” Gonell said. Both of his hands, his left shoulder, and his right foot were injured. He needed surgery on his right foot and now needs it on shoulder, too. He’ll likely require rehab for at least a year. He wants to know why the U.S. Capitol Police had all the support it needed during Black Lives Matter protests but not on January 6. “We don’t want medals,” he said. “We want justice and accountability.”

    Today I am honored to have Aquillino Gonell as my guest to talk about his new book American Shield, how his recovery is progressing, and what is to come.



    Contact Booked Up:
    You can email Jen & the Booked Up team at: BOOKEDUP@POLITICON.COM or by writing to:

    BOOKED UP
    P.O. BOX 147
    NORTHAMPTON, MA 01061

    Get More from Sgt. Gonell
    Twitter | Website | Author of AMERICAN SHIELD

    Get More from Jen Taub:
    Twitter | Money & Gossip Substack | Author of BIG DIRTY MONEY

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    1 hr and 10 mins
  • 58: Norman Lear: Even This I Get to Experience

    58: Norman Lear: Even This I Get to Experience
    Dec 31 2023
    Welcome back to Booked Up, a podcast that features you, me and our favorite authors. We release a new episode every Sunday morning.

    Today for the December book club, we are discussing Norman Lear, the Hollywood legend who passed this month at the young age of 101. There are gazillion people who have a thing or two to say about this ground-breaking writer, director, producer, activist. So, to anchor our conversation, Jen selected his best-selling memoir Even This I Get to Experience, published by Penguin Books in 2014.

    With a blend of sheer luck, immense creativity, and epic perseverance, Lear created programs for television and film that transformed television for the better. Known best for situation comedies: All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Maude, and Good Times, Norman Lear brought diverse, complicated families into our living rooms night after night, year after year.

    His films include cult favorites like This is Spinal Tap and The Princess Bride. May his memory be a blessing. Less known is his work in founding the non-profit People for the American Way.

    Here to talk about Norman Lear today on the Book Club are two friends of the show and a new for us here at Booked Up. First the new guy: David Kusnet. David was one of the first staffers hired by Norman for People for the American Way where he was the VP for communications.. After working there, David went on to chief speechwriter for former President Bill Clinton during the 1992 campaign.He is the author of Speaking American and Love the Work, Hate the Job and co-author

    Also returning to the show today are Dr. Bridgette Baldwin and Comedian Judy Gold. Bridgette teaches courses in criminal law and also Critical Race Theory. Her scholarly work has examined the intersection of the 9th Amendment and social movements, as well as, the convergence of race, class and gender on welfare reform legislation. She is a Professor of Law at the Western New England University School of Law.

    Also joining the book club today is two-time Emmy-Award winning comedian Judy Gold. Judy is a comedian, actor, and writer. She’s the author of: Yes, I Can Say That: When They Come for the Comedians, We Are All in Trouble. You can see Judy live doing her stand up schtict in on January 12 at City Winery in New York. Then the next day, January 13 at City Winery in Philly. Of course there are more shows. Look them up yourself. What am I, her booking agent?



    Contact Booked Up:
    You can email Jen & the Booked Up team at: BOOKEDUP@POLITICON.COM or by writing to:

    BOOKED UP
    P.O. BOX 147
    NORTHAMPTON, MA 01061


    Get More from Bridgette Baldwin
    Facebook | Website | Author of WISCONSIN WORKS?

    Get More from Judy Gold
    Twitter | Website | Author of YES, I CAN SAY THAT

    Get More from Mark Tushet
    Twitter | Money & Gossip Substack | Author of BIG DIRTY MONEY

    More from Jen Taub:
    Twitter | Money & Gossip Substack | Author of BIG DIRTY MONEY


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    57 mins
  • 57: THE OCTOPUS IN THE PARKING GARAGE with Rob Verchick

    57: THE OCTOPUS IN THE PARKING GARAGE with Rob Verchick
    Dec 24 2023
    Rob Verchick, author of the award-winning new book, The Octopus in the Parking Garage: A Call for Climate Resilience is Jen’s guest today.

    Why this unusual title? As he describes: “One morning in Miami Beach, an unexpected guest showed up in a luxury condominium complex’s parking garage: an octopus. The image quickly went viral. But the octopus—and the combination of infrastructure quirks and climate impacts that left it stranded—is more than a funny meme. It’s a potent symbol of the disruptions that a changing climate has already brought to our doorsteps and the ways we will have to adjust.”

    Replete with gorgeous writing and inspiring calls-to-action, The Octopus in the Parking Garage offers hope. Rob takes us on a journey with his words, including his description of kayak paddling with his law school class. “A forty-odd-minute drive from New Orleans, Maurepas Swamp consists of about ninety-six square miles of flooded forest consisting mainly of water tupelo and bald cypress trees and the rootlike ‘knees’ of the latter poking out of the water like dragon’s teeth. Dripping with Spanish moss, their branches shade an understory of wax myrtle, pumpkin ash, and an abundance of things that slide and crawl.”

    Rob is a leading climate law scholar who designed and implemented climate-resilience policies in the Obama administration. Before graduating from Harvard Law School, he majored in English at Stanford where his senior thesis topic was “Mark Twain and Comic Theory.” Jen got to ask him about that. It’s not something you’ll see in his official buttoned up bio.

    Rob holds the Gauthier-St. Martin Chair in Environmental Law at Loyola University New Orleans, is a senior fellow in disaster resilience at Tulane University, and serves as president of the Center for Progressive Reform. He has written four other books in addition to the Octopus in the Parking Garage of the podcast Connect the Dots.



    Contact Booked Up:
    You can email Jen & the Booked Up team at: BOOKEDUP@POLITICON.COM or by writing to:

    BOOKED UP
    P.O. BOX 147
    NORTHAMPTON, MA 01061




    Get More from Rob Verchick
    Twitter | Website | Author of THE OCTOPUS IN THE PARKING GARAGE

    More from Jen Taub:
    Twitter | Money & Gossip Substack | Author of BIG DIRTY MONEY


    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 3 mins

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