Monday, August 10, 2009
We revisit Bob’s conversation with Jared Diamond, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. The book searches for vanished people, from Easter Island to the Vikings of Greenland. Diamond examines the environmental and cultural issues behind each people’s disappearance.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
We revisit two interviews from our archives- first, Bob talks to New York Times best-selling author Stephen Greenblatt about his book Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare. Then, legendary jazz pianist, singer-songwriter and composer Mose Allison.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Today we replay Bob’s conversation with Julia Child’s grandnephew Alex Prud’homme about their bestseller My Life in France. Prud’homme completed his Aunt’s memoirs after her death in 2001. The book was adapted into the new movie, Julie & Julia starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. Then, Bob’s 2005 conversation with Anthony Bourdain, the sharp-tongued host of No Reservations on The Travel Channel. The program has been nominated for two Emmys this year. Bourdain is also the author of the 2000 book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
We bring back Bob’s interview with Peter Ames Carlin, author of Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall & Redemption of the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson. Carlin talks about Wilson’s relationship with his father, how The Beatles helped shape Wilson’s development as an artist and his triumphant return with his 2004 CD Smile.
Friday, August 14, 2009
David Broder of The Washington Post joins Bob to talk politics. Next, in his 2008 book, Kafka Comes to America, public defender Steve Wax recounted the stories of two inmates from Guantanamo Bay that he represented. Bob talked to Wax last year about the men, both victims of post-9/11 counterterrorism measures. Then, in this week’s installment of our ongoing series This I Believe, Bob talks with executive director Dan Gediman about the essay from Bernard Baruch. He rose to prominence as a financier and member of the New York Stock Exchange. Baruch advised Presidents Woodrow Wilson during World War I, Franklin Roosevelt during the New Deal and World War II, and Harry Truman in the post-war era.