- Susan Quinn, ELEANOR AND HICK & Naomi Oreskes, THE COLLAPSE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION
- Overpopulation: Ecological Elephant In The Room?
- Naomi Oreskes, THE COLLAPSE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION & Dr. James Hansen, STORMS OF MY GRANDCHILDREN
- Paul Ehrlich, HOPE ON EARTH & Ryan Mitchell, TINY HOUSE LIVING
- Elizabeth Kolbert, THE SIXTH EXTINCTION & Annalee Newitz, SCATTER, ADAPT AND REMEMBER
- Boris Fishman, A REPLACEMENT LIFE & John Cushman, KEYSTONE AND BEYOND
- John Cushman of Inside Climate News: Keystone XL Pipeline
- Ruth Thomas-Suh, REJECT, Herbert Thomas, THE SHAME RESPONSE TO REJECTION & John Cushman on KXL
- Alan Weisman, COUNTDOWN
- David Bollier on The Commons: GREEN GOVERNANCE & VIRAL SPIRAL
- Richard Heinberg, SNAKE OIL & Bill McKibben, OIL AND HONEY
- Brian Fagan, THE ATTACKING OCEAN & Christine Shearer, KIVALINA
- Jim Shepard, PHASE SIX & Cob Carlson, THE GREATEST RADIO STATION IN THE WORLD
- Paolo Bacigalupe (encore), Susan Rockefeller, MISSION OF MERMAIDS & Jason Chin, ISLAND
- Barbara Kingsolver, FLIGHT BEHAVIOR & James Howard Kunstler TOO MUCH MAGIC
- Richard Zacks, ISLAND OF VICE & Stan Cox, LOSING OUR COOL
- Jonathan Koomey, COLD CASH, COOL CLIMATE & Philip Warburg, HARVEST THE WIND
- Philip Warburg, HARVEST THE WIND
- William deBuys, A GREAT ARIDNESS & Dave Gardner, GROWTHBUSTERS
- Will Potter, GREEN IS THE NEW RED & David Gessner, MY GREEN MANIFESTO
- John Elder Robison, BE DIFFERENT & Tony Sorgi, The New Earth Archive
- Amy Seidl, FINDING HIGHER GROUND & Matthew Stein, WHEN DISASTER STRIKES
- Jim Motavalli, HIGH VOLTAGE & James Hoggan, CLIMATE COVER-UP
- John Michael Greer, APOCALYPSE NOT & Richard Heinberg, THE END OF GROWTH
- James Workman, HEART OF DRYNESS & Christine Shearer, KIVALINA
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We talk with novelist Jim Shepard about his latest work of fiction, Phase Six. It’s about what happens when a mining operation in the thawing permafrost of Greenland releases a deadly virus into the world.
Then, we talk with Cob Carlson about his new documentary, The Greatest Radio Station In The World. It’s about listener-supported WPKN 89.5 fm Bridgeport CT, which just happens to be the home station of Writer’s Voice.
Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004.
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Jim Shepard
One of the least known but most terrifying consequences of global warming is the release of ancient pathogens from the melting permafrost. Lethal viruses and bacteria that have been locked up for many millennia—and against which humans have zero immunity—pose the threat of lethal pandemics that could take out millions, if not billions of humans and other animals.
In his new novel Phase Six, Jim Shepard brings together two interrelated trends that increase the risk: the thawing Arctic is leading to more mining—and that mining threatens to release pathogens that are new to human immune systems.
A mining operation in Greenland releases a virus that wipes out an Inuit community, save for the sole survivor, a young boy.
As the deadly virus spreads, two young investigators from the CDC race to identify the pathogen and sequence its genome. The connections between the scientists and the young boy the CDC has taken charge of pose questions about the moral responsibilities we owe each other and how we carry them out.
Jim Shepherd is the author of eight novels. Read an excerpt from Phase Six.
Cob Carlson
WPKN 89.5 FM in Bridgeport CT has been the radio home of Writer’s Voice for over a decade. We are proud to be part of this terrific station, home to some of the best music and public affairs programming you can find on the radio dial—and streaming on the Web.
So when the New Yorker magazine published a piece calling WPKN “The Greatest Radio Station In The World,” we were thrilled that it was finally getting the national recognition it so richly deserved.
Then, filmmaker and WPKN listener Cob Carlson came out with a documentary film about the station, taking its title from the Nw Yorker article. It premiered last month and will headline the Bridgeport Film Festival on July 23 in Bridgeport, CT.
Cob Carlson has been a film editor and producer on numerous films, such as Farmageddon and on TV shows Frontline and Nova. In addition to The Greatest Radio Station in The World, he made the documentary, Donald Ross: Discovering The Legend.