Category Archives: Podcast

Get all the weekly shows in the Writer’s Voice podcast

Podcast

Jewish Book Fair Authors

We talk about to two writers featured at the 2007 Springfield Jewish Book Fair: David M. Gross, author of FAST COMPANY: A Memoir of Life, Love, and Motorcycles in Italy and Alana Newhouse on A LIVING LENS: Photographs of Jewish Life from the Pages of the Forward.

Supported by a grant from the Jewish Arts & Culture Initiative of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation.

Podcast

Writer’s Voice Listener Web Quiz

QUESTION: Writer’s Voice interviewed Alana Newhouse about A LIVING LENS: Photographs of Jewish Life from the Pages of the Forward. Newhouse mentioned a letter that was given to Edward Jacobsen. Who was the letter from?

The first listener who sends in the correct answer to our email address will be the lucky winner of the inaugural edition of our Listener Web Quiz! Send it along with your address to writersvoice@wmua.org

Podcast

Alan Weisman & Katharine Weber

Alan Weisman talks about his acclaimed book THE WORLD WITHOUT US.

Also, Katharine Weber tells us about her novel, TRIANGLE. Katharine Weber was a featured author at the 2007 Springfield (Massachusetts) Jewish Book Fair.

Thanks to the Harold Grinspoon Foundation for supporting our series of authors featured at the 2007 Jewish Book Fair.

Podcast

Leonard Nimoy’s THE FULL BODY PROJECT

Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Nimoy

Leonard Nimoy talks to us about his new book, THE FULL BODY PROJECT, as well as photography, acting, and being (and not being) Mr. Spock.

5138eyJrNiL._SL500_AA300_Also, we talk with Leslea Newman and Susan Stinson about body image and the Full Body Project.

Podcast

Francisco Goldman and Lynn Thompson

We talk with novelist and journalist Francisco Goldman about his acclaimed non-fiction book, THE ART OF POLITICAL MURDER: WHO KILLED THE BISHOP.

And poet Lynn Thompson reads from BEG NO PARDON, which won this year’s Perugia Press Award.

Podcast

Dr. Bruce Levine and George Monbiot

Clinical psychologist Bruce E. Levine joins us to talk about his book, SURVIVING AMERICA’S DEPRESSION EPIDEMIC: How to Find Morale, Energy, and Community in a World Gone Crazy.

Also, a preview of a conversation with George Monbiot we’ll be airing later in the season about his book, HEAT: How to Stop the Planet from Burning.

Podcast

Wrestling With Angels, Clayton

We have an in-depth conversation with author John J. Clayton about his wonderful short story collection, WRESTLING WITH ANGELS: New and Collected Stories and he reads from several of his favorite stories in the book. It deals with universal themes of loss and spiritual redemption, acceptance, fading ideals, as well as with contemporary struggles of Jewish life and family. Clayton has been writing fiction since 1969 and teaches modern literature and fiction writing at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. He’s won the O’Henry and Pushcart Prizes for short stories as well as a place in Best American Short Stories anthologies.

Podcast

How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future

Vali Nasr
Vali Nasr

Middle East expert Vali Nasr talks about THE SHIA REVIVAL: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future in this engrossing interview with Francesca Rheannon.

Iranian-born scholar Vali Nasr recently went to work for the Obama Adminstration’s Richard Holbrooke as a special representative on Af-Pak (Afghanistan-Pakistan) affairs. We talked to him in 2007 about his book The Shia Revival. It’s about how conflicts within Islam — notably the Shia and Sunni sects and the respective countries they dominate — “will shape the future”. He was just featured in the September 28, 2009 issue of The New Yorker, in an article by George Packer about Holbrooke, “The Last Mission.”

[amazon-product align=”left”]0393329682[/amazon-product]

He covers the history of the Shia-Sunni split and says the Shia’s rise (aided by the Bush Administration’s misadventure in Iraq and destruction of Saddam’s Sunni dictatorship) encompasses Lebanon and Syria through the Persian Gulf to Iraq and Iran, and finally Pakistan and India.

His new book, just out, is[amazon-product text=”Forces of Fortune: The Rise of the New Muslim Middle Class and What It Will Mean for Our World” type=”text”]1416589686[/amazon-product]. You can also watch Nasar getting funny with John Stewart on The Daily Show recently:

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Podcast

Should Water Be a Private or Public Resource?

We spend the hour live with Alan Snitow, co-author of THIRST: Fighting the Corporate Theft of Our Water.

Also, local organizer Joanne Sunshower talks about efforts to stop Nestle from coming to Montague, Massachusetts.

Podcast

Focus on Global Warming

Mayer Hillman
David Gershon

We talk with dean of the British environmental movement Mayer Hillman about THE SUICIDAL PLANET: How to Prevent Global Climate Catastrophe. He co-authored the book with Tina Fawcett and Sudhir Chella Rajan. Also, David Gershon of the Empowerment Institute tells us about his LOW CARBON DIET: A 30 Day Program to Lose 5000 Pounds.

Podcast

Junot Diaz, BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO and Laraine Herring on writing

Junot Diaz
Laraine Herring

Literary sensation Junot Diaz talks about his acclaimed novel, THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO. Also, Laraine Herring on writing. Her book is WRITING BEGINS WITH THE BREATH: Embodying Your Authentic Voice.

Podcast

Paul Hawken, BLESSED UNREST

Environmental activist and green economy imagineer Paul Hawken talks about BLESSED UNREST: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming. Co-hosted with Corporate Watchdog Radio’s Bill Baue.

Also, Michael Shuman, author of SMALL MART REVOLUTION, talks about his post on food miles on the blog, The Ethicurian.

Podcast

TAJ MAHAL and some final Indian Tales

Diana Preston tells us about TAJ MAHAL: Passion and Genius at the Heart of the Moghul Empire. She co-wrote the book with her husband, Michael Preston.

And the final episode in our series on Jaime de Angulo’s INDIAN TALES, thanks to the Pacifica Archives. Also, Native American storyteller tells the story of corn and takes us on a tour the traces of Native peoples who lived in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Podcast

ETHICAL MARKETS and more INDIAN TALES

We talk with futurist Hazel Henderson about ETHICAL MARKETS: Growing the Green Economy, co-written with Simran Sethi.

Also, we continue our month-long series on Jaime de Angulo’s INDIAN TALES, thanks to the Pacifica Archives and Writer’s Voice associate producer, Michael Pollitt.

Podcast

IAMBICS OF NEWFOUNDLAND and more INDIAN TALES

We talk with nature writer Robert Finch about THE IAMBICS OF NEWFOUNDLAND: Notes from an Unknown Shore.

And we continue our special series of readings from Jaime de Angulo’s INDIAN TALES.