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Journalist Jim Sterba talks about the growing battles over wildlife in America’s cities and suburbs — about deer, beavers, geese, bears, feral cats and more. His book is NATURE WARS: The Incredible Story of How Wildlife Comebacks Turned Backyards into Battlegrounds. It’s about the resurgence of wildlife into areas of human habitation and the resulting struggles to balance human and wildlife needs.
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Betty Medsger talks about a colossal blunder committed by the FBI during its investigation of the burglary — its prosecution of what turned out to be a totally unrelated incident in Camden, NJ that left the FBI with some serious egg on its face.
It was the arrest and prosecution of a large group of antiwar activists who planned a break-in at a draft board office. The FBI was sure the break-in was linked to the burglary of the Media, PA FBI office. But it wasn’t. Find out what happens by listening to this excerpt.
Listen to this Web-only excerpt about the Camden 28Â from our longer interview with Betty Medsger about her book, The Burglary.
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Betty Medsger talks about her book about the 1971 Media, PA theft of files from an FBI office, The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret FBI. And Don Mitchell tells how he got involved in the fight to protect endangered bats in his book, Flying Blind.
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David Bollier talks about The Commons economy in his new book, THINK LIKE A COMMONER. But the Commons economy isn’t the only way to help communities — so can the market, if it’s in the form of investing in local and sustainable businesses. Michael Shuman’s new book, LOCAL DOLLARS, LOCAL SENSE, says that’s good for communities and investors.
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Leah Vincent talks about her memoir Cut Me Loose: Sin and Salvation After My Ultra-Orthodox Girlhood. And April is poetry month; we talk with poet Amy Dryansky about her new poetry volume, Grass Whistle, and about balancing being a mother and a poet.
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Amy Dryansky reads her poem “Lost and Found” from her poetry collection Grass Whistle.
Grass Whistle has been named a “must-read” by the Massachusetts Center for the Book and is one of six finalists for the MA Book Award in Poetry.
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Robert Harris talks about his terrific new novel about the Dreyfus Affair and the whistleblower who blew it wide open: An Officer And A Spy. And Francine Prose talks about her new historical novel about France in the 1930’s: Lovers At The Chameleon Club-Paris, 1932.
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John Rennie Short talks about dealing with disasters; his book is Stress Testing The USA:Â Public Policy and Reaction to Disaster Events. And could simple, affordable, appropriate technology be the solution to surviving the post industrial future? John Michael Greer says yes! His book is Green Wizardry: Conservation, Solar Power, Organic Gardening, and Other Hands-On Skills From the Appropriate Tech Toolkit.
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M.P. Barker talks about her new historical novel for middle readers and above, Mending Horses. It’s a sequel to her wonderful first novel, A Difficult Boy. And then Ellen Bryson takes P.T. Barnum’s first circus as the setting to explore the outsider in all of us. Her novel is The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno. Continue reading
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Dr. Brad Spellberg talks about his book Rising Plague: The Global Threat from Deadly Bacteria and Our Dwindling Arsenal to Fight Them. And Edward McClelland discusses the death of the labor movement, the destruction of the middle class — and what comes next for the Rust Belt. His book is Nothin’ But Blue Skies: The Heyday, Hard Times, and Hopes of America’s Industrial Heartland. Continue reading
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Rob Okun talks about the collection of essays he edited, VOICE MALE: The Untold Story of the Pro-feminist Men’s Movement. Then we re-air our 2009 interview with feminist poet Honor Moore about the anthology she edited, Poems From The Women’s Movement. Continue reading
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Sports medicine physician Jordan Metzl talks about exercise as medicine. His book is The Exercise Cure: A Doctor’s All-Natural, No-Pill Prescription for Better Health and Longer Life.
And publisher Randy Davila discusses how to market your book in his book, Think Like A Publisher: 33 Essential Tips to Write, Promote, & Sell Your Book. Continue reading
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Judy Foreman talks about America’s biggest health problem — chronic pain. Her book, A NATION IN PAIN, is a comprehensive and fascinating exploration of what chronic pain is, what’s wrong with how our nation treats it and better ways to treat it, including a saner approach to pain medication and non-drug treatments like massage, acupuncture, exercise and meditation.
The book’s central thesis is that chronic pain is a disease in its own right — and deserves to be treated as the serious health problem it is. Continue reading
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Lauren Coodley talks about her new biography, UPTON SINCLAIR: California Socialist, Celebrity Intellectual. Then we remember poet Maxine Kumin with our 2006 interview with her and a 2007 conversation about Kumin with Jeanne Braham and Barry Moser.
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If you were reading or listening to the news this week, you might have heard about the State Department’s environmental impact report on the Keystone XL pipeline. If so, you probably think it cleared the way for the pipeline to go forward. At least,that’s what most of the media seemed to think.
But the reality is more complicated than that. In fact, while it contained language cheered by proponents of the pipeline, the report also raised some real questions that environmentalists will be using as ammunition in the continuing fight over whether Keystone XL will be built. John Cushman discusses what the report does and doesn’t say and why the fight to stop Keystone XL is so important.
The State Department’s EIS, it turns out, “relied heavily” on studies funded by Alberta, Canada government agencies and carried out by Jacobs Consultancy, a subsidiary of a major tar sands developer, as Cushman reported several days after his interview with WV:
The Jacobs Consultancy is a subsidiary of Jacobs Engineering, a giant natural resources development company with extensive operations in Alberta’s tar sands fields. The engineering company has worked on dozens of major projects in the region over the years. Its most recent contract, with Canadian oil sands leader Suncor, was announced in January.
“The Alberta Oil Sands are a very important component of our business,” the parent company said in late 2011, announcing seven new contracts in the region. “Jacobs has a strong history in the area, and we are pleased to support our clients in these initiatives.”
A journalist in Washington since the mid 70s, Cushman covered the EPA for the New York Times and now works with Inside Climate News, the online news site that won a Pulitzer Prize last year for its report,”The Dilbit Disaster,” an investigation into the million-gallon spill of Canadian tar sands oil into the Kalamazoo River in 2010.