Tag Archives: creative nonfiction

Podcast

Capitalism, Poverty, Solidarity: Ahmed White, UNDER THE IRON HEEL & Nikhil Goyal, LIVE TO SEE THE DAY

We talk with historian Ahmed White about the Wobblies and the capitalist war on radical workers. His award-winning book is Under the Iron Heel.

Then Nikhil Goyal tells us about his book, Live to See the Day: Coming of Age in American Poverty. It follows three children as they struggle to survive in the poorest neighborhood of the poorest large city in America.

Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004.

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key words: IWW, poverty, Nikhil Goyal, Ahmed White, history, creative nonfiction, labor history, podcast, book recommendations, author interview, book podcast, book show Continue reading

Podcast

Paul Kix on the fight to end Jim Crow, YOU HAVE TO BE PREPARED TO DIE BEFORE YOU CAN BEGIN TO LIVE

Paul Kix tells us the thrilling story of the fight to end Jim Crow, led by the greatest figures of the Civil Rights Movement—and won by children. We spend the hour with Kix talking about his book, You Have To Be Prepared To Die Before You Can Begin To Live: Ten Weeks In Birmingham That Changed America.

Read Transcript of Interview with Paul Kix

Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004.

Find us on Facebook at Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon, on Instagram and Threads  @WritersVoicePodcast or find us on X/Twitter @WritersVoice.

Read transcripts and subscribe at the Writer’s Voice Substack 

Love Writer’s Voice? Please rate us on your podcast app. It really helps to get the word out about our show.

key words: writers voice, podcast, book recommendations, author interview, book podcast, book show, creative nonfiction, history, Paul Kix, Civil Rights Continue reading

Podcast

Jeff Goodell talks climate change in THE HEAT WILL KILL YOU FIRST & Suing the Fossil Fuel Industry

July 4, 2023 was the hottest day ever recorded on Earth. Are we exceeding the “Goldilocks zone” of a habitable planet?

We ask that question of climate journalist and author Jeff Goodell. His new book is THE HEAT WILL KILL YOU FIRST: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet.

We also revisit a conversation about suing the fossil fuel companies for scorching our planet. We play an excerpt from our 2017 interview with Lynn Zinser of Climate Liability News that is still relevant now, five years later.

Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004.

Like us on Facebook at Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon or find us on Twitter @WritersVoice.

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READ THE TRANSCRIPT

Tags: climate change, global warming, extreme heat, Jeff Goodell, climate litigation, Lynn Zinser, podcast, book recommendations, author interview, book podcast, book show, creative nonfiction Continue reading

Podcast

Talking the Trumpocene with Jeff Sharlet & A Review of Dennis Lehane’s Small Mercies

We talk with Jeff Sharlet about his new book, The Undertow: Scenes From A Slow Civil War.

Then we air part of an interview we did with Sharlet in 2009 about the increasing influence of rightwing extremism into the US military.

And finally, a review of Dennis Lehane’s new novel Small Mercies.

Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004.

Like us on Facebook at Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon, on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast or find us on Twitter @WritersVoice.

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Tags: fascism, Trump, MAGA, Christian Right, Jeffrey Sharlet, Dennis Lehane, podcast, book recommendations, author interview, book podcast, book show, creative nonfiction, fiction Continue reading

Podcast

Jane Marshall, SEARCHING FOR HAPPY VALLEY & A Story from Francesca

Travel writer Jane Marshall takes us on her modern quest for Shangri La; her book is Searching for Happy Valley.

Then, Francesca shares a story from her own journey to a Happy Valley in the foothills of the Maritime Alps of Haute Provence, where a market vendor of medicinal herbs taught her something about true vocation.

“I feel like if we can spend time in a place like one of these Happy Valleys that still holds these wisdom cultures that had these technologies and these systems that survived thousands and thousands of years before industrialization, that maybe we can learn how to respect the land again.” Jane Marshall

Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004.

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Tags: Writers Voice, podcast, book recommendations, author interview, book podcast, book show, creative nonfiction, travel, Jane Marshall, Shangri-La Continue reading

Podcast

The Case For Climate Hope: Joëlle Gergis, HUMANITY’S MOMENT

I’ve been thinking about climate change lately in really simple terms: that it’s really about the people and the places we love. It isn’t actually any more complex than that. So, yes, we talk a lot about parts per million and all these degrees of warming and all these complex things. And they are indeed metrics that scientists use to talk about climate change. But if you just strip it all the way back, it is really about protecting those places that we love and the beautiful planet that we live on as well. — Joëlle Gergis

We spend the hour with IPCC climate scientist Joëlle Gergis, talking about her powerful and moving book, Humanity’s Moment: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope.

It’s about how she grapples with the grief her scientific findings confront her with — but also the hope she feels as she witnesses how the tide is turning toward climate protection.

Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004.

Like us on Facebook at Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon, on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast or find us on Twitter @WritersVoice.

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Key terms: climate change, IPCC, Joëlle Gergis, climate science, podcast

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Podcast

The Wonders of Beavers: Leila Philip, BEAVER LAND plus Transgender Appreciation Day: Mimi LeMay, WHAT WE WILL BECOME

Oh, those pesky beavers, Interfering with our property values! Right?

Wrong. We talk with Leila Philip about beavers, a keystone species that we need to protect as we face the challenges of climate chaos. Her book is Beaver Land: How One Weird Rodent Made America.

Then, we missed it last week: the Day of Transgender Visibility. But with all the vicious rightwing attacks on transgender people and the fascist laws being passed against them, we thought “better late than never.”

So, we bring you a piece from our archives that we first aired in 2019. It’s an excerpt from our interview with Mimi LeMay about her memoir What We Will Become. It’s about how her family learned to come to terms with the fact that their young child was transgender—and how they came to support him.

Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004.

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Podcast

How The Democrats Lost Their Soul & The End of the American Dream: Ed Burmila & Alissa Quart

Why does the Democratic Party struggle so much to win elections by comfortable margins (when it isn’t losing them) despite the fact that the Republicans are so extreme?

Could there be a hint in the fact that so many ordinary Americans keep losing ground economically, no matter who holds the reins of power? Clearly, the myth of the American Dream isn’t working.

In this episode, we talk first with Ed Burmila about his book, Chaotic Neutral: How the Democrats Lost Their Soul in the Center. Then, Alissa Quart of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project tells us about her just released new book, Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves from the American Dream.

Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004.

Like us on Facebook at Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon, on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast or find us on Twitter @WritersVoice.

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Podcast

A Personal History of Modern Ireland with Fintan O’Toole

We talk with Fintan O’Toole about his scathing — and tender — personal history of modern Ireland, We Don’t Know Ourselves. Then we hear Seamus Heaney reading a poem and a rare recording of storyteller Susan Porter reading from the Irish legend of Cuchulain.

Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004.

Like us on Facebook at Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon, on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast or find us on Twitter @WritersVoice.

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Podcast

Celebrating Black History Month: Interview with Biographer James McGrath Morris on Ethel Payne, First Lady of the Black Press

To celebrate Black History Month, we re-air our 2015 interview with acclaimed biographer James McGrath Morris about his biography, Eye on The Struggle: Ethel Payne, First Lady Of The Black Press.

Description

Black History Month honors the vital contributions made by African Americans throughout history, including the important role they played in the civil rights movement.

One of the unsung heroes of this movement was Ethel Payne. In this special podcast episode, acclaimed biographer James McGrath Morris discusses his biography of Payne, Eye on the Struggle, and sheds light on her remarkable life and legacy.

Through Morris’s captivating storytelling, listeners can gain a deeper understanding of the crucial role of the black press in the civil rights movement and the ongoing fight for equality.

Keywords: Black History Month, Ethel Payne, First Lady of the Black Press, civil rights movement, James McGrath Morris, biography, Eye on the Struggle, Washington Press Corps, White House Press Corps, Chicago Defender, Martin Luther King Jr., Emmet Till, McCarthyism, Pulitzer.

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Podcast

Exploring Grief, Sisterhood & Sport: Chetna Maroo, WESTERN LANE & Black History Month: Ta-Nahisi Coates, THE BEAUTIFUL STRUGGLE

We speak with Chetna Maroo about her debut novel, Western Lane. It’s a beautifully written coming of age story about a young girl and her British Indian family who are trying to come to terms with the recent death of the family matriarch.

Then, for Black History Month, we hear my 2008 interview with Ta-Nahisi Coates about his first book, The Beautiful Struggle: Between the World and Me.

Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004.

Like us on Facebook at Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon, on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast or find us on Twitter @WritersVoice.

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Podcast

How To Reckon With Patriarchy: V, RECKONING & Black History Month: DaMaris Hill, A BOUND WOMAN IS A DANGEROUS THING

We talk with V, formerly known as Eve Ensler about her collection of essays and poems, Reckoning.

Then in honor of Black History Month, we listen back to my 2019 interview with DaMaris Hill about her narrative in verse, A Bound Woman Is A Dangerous Thing: The Incarceration Of African-American Women From Harriet Tubman To Sandra Bland.

Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004.

Like us on Facebook at Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon, on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast or find us on Twitter @WritersVoice.

Love Writer’s Voice? Please rate us on your podcast app. It really helps to get the word out about our show.

I sometimes wonder, is it harder to go through violence or to witness violence? Is it harder to see those that you love go through a terrible experience or to actually go through it yourself? I think sometimes they’re equally painful, but I think I’ve also had this incredible privilege and honor to travel this world and to sit with women across this planet who told me their stories, shared their deepest secrets with me, opened their hearts to me, so I could be part of the listening part of the receiving of those stories. And you know, at times it’s been very, very hard. But I also feel I’ve also been privy to those women transforming that pain into so much beauty, so much wisdom, gardens and healings and organizations and struggle that has grown into this massive global movement.
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Podcast

Danielle Clode, KOALA & Russell Banks, VOYAGER

We remember Russell Banks, who passed away on January 7 at the age of 82. We last spoke with him in 2016, about his memoir Voyager, and re-air that interview today.

But first, we talk with Danielle Clode, award-winning natural history writer, about her new book Koala: A Natural History and an Uncertain Future.

Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004.

Like us on Facebook at Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon, on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast or find us on Twitter @WritersVoice.

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Podcast

Kathryn Miles, TRAILED & SUPERSTORM

How safe are our national parks, especially for women hikers?

Not safe enough, says Kathryn Miles. We talk with her about her book Trailed: One Woman’s Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders. It’s about the murders of two remarkable women in 1996, a botched investigation and the failure by the National Park Service to take the safety of women hikers seriously.

Then, as 2022 is slated to experience a severe hurricane season, we revisit our 2015 conversation with Kathryn Miles about her book about Hurricane Sandy, Superstorm.

Writer’s Voice — in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004.

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Podcast

Megha Majumdhar, A BURNING & Gigi Georges, DOWNEAST

We talk with Megha Majumdhar about her breakout debut novel, A Burning. It follows three characters in today’s India: one, a young Muslim woman falsely accused of terrorism, and two others who must choose between justice and self-interest.

Then, rural America isn’t just poverty, opioid addiction and despair; it’s also community, resilience, and some remarkable young women.
We talk with Gigi Georges about Downeast: Five Maine Girls and the Unseen Story of Rural America.

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