Paul Yamazaki has been the head buyer at the iconic City Lights bookstore in San Francisco since 1982. In this episode, Paul traces a singular life: from the music clubs of LA and the cultural ferment of late-1960s San Francisco, to more than four decades of deciding which books to shelve at one of the world’s most beloved bookstores. A longtime champion of independent presses and underrepresented voices, Paul Yamazaki shares his perspective on why books matter.

Perminder Mann is CEO of UK & International for Simon & Schuster, a role she stepped into in May 2024 after eight years as Group CEO of Bonnier Books UK. In this episode, Perminder traces an unlikely path to the top of publishing—from a working-class immigrant family outside West London, where she didn’t own a book until she was 22, to special sales, a tour through the toy industry, and ultimately the corner office. She talks about elocution lessons, flexibility as a philosophy, and what she is doing at Simon & Schuster to build a culture where difference is celebrated rather than managed around.

Bob Carrigan is the CEO of Audible, the world’s leading audiobook platform. In this episode, Bob describes Audible’s extraordinary growth and the company’s ambitious vision to make every book available as an audiobook in every language. He discusses the pandemic’s effect on listening habits, the landmark multicast production of the Harry Potter series, Audible’s new “Story House” pop-up in New York, the role of AI in expanding global catalogs, and the company’s deep roots in the economic renaissance of Newark, New Jersey.