Marcia Franklin talks with Idaho outdoor writer and photographer Michael Lanza about some of the best backcountry trips in our region. Lanza, the former Northwest editor for Backpacker magazine, has written three books about hiking, as well as many articles chronicling his worldwide adventures backpacking, climbing, skiing and paddling. “Before They’re Gone,” his book about his family’s adventures hiking through some of the national parks in America most threatened by climate change, won an hono...
Jul 27, 2025•29 min
Ernest Hemingway spent the last years of his life in Ketchum, where he died in 1961. To commemorate his life and writing on the 100th anniversary of his birth, the Idaho Humanities Council in 1999 invited several noted Hemingway scholars to Sun Valley to work with Idaho teachers. Marcia Franklin talks with four scholars about Hemingway; the discussion includes his style, his personal life and the influence of Idaho on his work. Originally aired: 12/23/1999...
Jul 20, 2025•59 min
Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist Dave Barry hams it up with host Marcia Franklin at the 2014 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference. The two talk about Barry’s various misadventures in the Gem State, including tree-climbing, snowmobiling and trout fishing—and what he thinks the new motto for Idaho should be. They also discuss Barry’s partnership with Ridley Pearson on the Peter and the Starcatchers book series. Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter. ...
Jul 13, 2025•29 min
Marcia Franklin talks with maritime writer and historian Nathaniel Philbrick, the speaker at the 2013 Idaho Humanities Council Distinguished Humanities Lecture. Philbrick is the author of numerous books, including most recently "Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution," which looks at the deadliest battle of the American Revolution and how it influenced the birth of our country. A sailor, Philbrick is also known for his book, "In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex," whic...
Jul 06, 2025•29 min
Sarah Broom unpacks her National Book Award-winning memoir, “The Yellow House,” which chronicles the devastating effects that decades of neglect and bureaucratic amnesia have had on her childhood neighborhood of New Orleans East. The book also pays homage to the house she and her 11 siblings grew up in, which was destroyed in Hurricane Katrina, but which lives on in Broom’s prose. Originally Aired: 12/24/21 The interview is part of Dialogue’s series, “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers’ C...
Jun 29, 2025•30 min
Marcia Franklin interviews Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson about her book, The Warmth of Other Suns . The work, about the Great Migration of African-Americans from the south to other parts of the country, took Wilkerson 15 years to research and write. They discuss the reasons for the migration, its influence on the country, and how the book's success has affected Wilkerson. Originally Aired: 10/16/14...
Jun 22, 2025•29 min
In this episode, host Marcia Franklin talks with Dr. Abraham Verghese about his latest blockbuster novel, The Covenant of Water . The epic, which includes a mystery at its core, covers more than 70 years in the intertwined lives of families in the Indian state of Kerala. Verghese discusses the ties the story has to his own family history and shares his joy of writing. Originally Aired: 12/01/2023 The interview is part of the series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference” and was ...
Jun 08, 2025•1 sec
Marcia Franklin talks with Emily Ruskovich, the author of Idaho: A Novel. In 2019, the novel won the Dublin Literary Award, worth more than $100,000. Ruskovich reflects on what it has been like to win the award. The two also discuss the plot of Idaho, whose setting is based on the landscape of Ruskovich’s childhood in northern Idaho. Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter. Originally Aired: 11/1/2019...
Jun 01, 2025•29 min
In this episode, host Marcia Franklin speaks with writer Mohsin Hamid about his latest novel, The Last White Man . The story follows the transformation of a man who wakes up one day to find that his skin color has changed. Hamid, who often incorporates his own multicultural background into his work, talks with Franklin about how his life changed after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and how he aims with his writing to “imagine the world into a better place.” Originally Aired: 12/29/2023 The inter...
May 25, 2025•1 sec
In this episode, David Grann regales viewers with some of the amazing true stories surrounding the wreck of The Wager, a British ship that sank off the tip of South America in 1741. In his book The Wager , Grann uses rare primary source documents to reconstruct the harrowing experiences of the ship’s castaways and shows how the aftermath of the saga is still relevant today. The book will be adapted into a film directed by Martin Scorsese, as was another of Grann’s bestsellers, Killers of the Flo...
May 18, 2025•1 sec
Marcia Franklin talks with Idaho filmmakers Heather Rae and Russell Friedenberg. The two produced and wrote “Trudell,” a documentary about Native American poet and activist John Trudell. The documentary aired on Idaho Public Television as part of the “Independent Lens” series. Rae and Friedenberg discuss their film, which premiered at Sundance and has been screened around the world. They also talk about their upcoming works, the state of documentary filmmaking, and their plans to buy a building ...
May 11, 2025•30 min
Marcia Franklin talks with Idaho filmmaker Michael Hoffman about the inspiration for his movies, including Promised Land , One Fine Day , A Midsummer's Night Dream , and Restoration , which won two Academy Awards. The two also discuss his work with the Idaho Shakespeare Festival, which he co-founded, and how growing up in Idaho and going to Boise State University influenced his work. Originally aired: 03/11/1999...
May 04, 2025•29 min
As part of the events in 2016 surrounding the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death, Dialogue host Marcia Franklin talks with Professor Eric Rasmussen of the University of Nevada, Reno. Rasmussen, the chair of the English department at UNR, is a pre-eminent Shakespeare scholar and an expert on the First Folio, which was published in 1623 and includes almost all of the Bard of Avon’s plays. Rasmussen, also the author of a 1000-page catalog called The Shakespeare First Folio, worked wit...
Apr 27, 2025•29 min
Host Marcia Franklin talks with Strobe Talbott, a former journalist and diplomat who was the president of the Brookings Institution from 2002 to 2017. Talbott, who wrote for Time magazine for more than 20 years, has also penned a dozen books. Franklin and Talbott talk about his passion for the subject of global warming, and whether the issue is still on the political radar for politicians and the public. His book, Fast Forward: Ethics and Politics in the Age of Global Warming , suggests politica...
Apr 20, 2025•29 min
Host Marcia Franklin sits down with historian and law professor Annette Gordon-Reed about her book, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family . The book, which won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, explores the complex bonds between President Thomas Jefferson and one of his slave families, the Hemingses. Using primary source documents, as well as second-hand accounts, Gordon-Reed tries to piece together the relationship between Jefferson and Sally Hemings, with whom most...
Apr 13, 2025•29 min
Dialogue host Marcia Franklin talks with historical novelist Lois Leveen about two of her works: The Secrets of Mary Bowser , about a former slave who was a spy in the Confederate White House, and Juliet's Nurse , which imagines the life of the nurse in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Franklin asks Leveen about how she researches her ideas and what she hopes readers will glean from her works. Originally Aired: 02/13/15...
Apr 06, 2025•29 min
Marcia Franklin continues her conversation with Ken and Betty Rodgers about their documentary, "Bravo! Common Men, Uncommon Valor," which chronicles the experiences of the member of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 26th Marines in the Siege of Khe Sanh in Vietnam. She focuses on how the couple produced the film. She also talks with Steve Wiese, a veteran of Khe Sanh who is in the documentary. Originally aired: 11/08/2013...
Mar 30, 2025•28 min
Marcia Franklin talks with Ken and Betty Rodgers, residents of Eagle, ID, who have produced a documentary called "Bravo! Common Men, Uncommon Valor," about the 1968 siege of Khe Sanh in Vietnam. Ken Rodgers is a former Marine Lance Corporal and a veteran of Khe Sanh. He and his wife Betty are joined by Steve Wiese, a former Marine Corporal who is also a veteran of Khe Sanh and lives in California. Both Rodgers and Wiese were members of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 26th Marine Regiment, which fo...
Mar 23, 2025•29 min
Marcia Franklin talks with historian Tiya Miles about her book, “All That She Carried,” which won the National Book Award. It tells the story of “Ashley’s sack,” a bag given to an enslaved girl by her mother in the 1850s. The two discuss how a material object can bring untold history alive, and also talk about Miles’ book, “Night Flyer,” which looks at the effect of the outdoors on Harriet Tubman. Originally aired: 11/01/2024 The interview is part of Dialogue ’s series “Conversations from the Su...
Mar 16, 2025•29 min
Marcia Franklin talks with former Idaho Governor Phil Batt about his life and legacy. Originally aired: 01/2027/2000
Mar 09, 2025•28 min
Tom Ikeda, who provided critical research for Daniel James Brown’s book “Facing the Mountain,” discusses his Seattle-based non-profit, Densho. It preserves the stories of Americans of Japanese descent during World War II. Ikeda’s parents and grandparents were imprisoned in the Minidoka camp in Idaho. Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter. Originally Aired: 12/10/2021 The interview is part of Dialogue ’s series “Conversations from the Sun Val...
Mar 02, 2025•30 min
Daniel James Brown, the best-selling author of “The Boys in the Boat,” talks about his newest book, “Facing the Mountain,” which honors the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a segregated unit of Japanese-Americans who fought in World War II despite the fact that many of their families were incarcerated in the United States simply for being of Japanese descent. Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter. Originally Aired: 12/3/2021 The interview is pa...
Feb 23, 2025•30 min
In the lead-up to the November 2016 elections, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham joined Dialogue host Marcia Franklin to talk about presidential character. Meacham talks with Franklin about the qualities he believes are essential to being a successful president, and the unique nature of the 2016 presidential race. An executive editor at Random House, Meacham is well-known for his appearances on political discussion programs. He started his journalistic career at the Chattanooga Times and...
Feb 16, 2025•29 min
Marcia Franklin talks with David Epstein, an award-winning sports journalist and author of the bestselling book The Sports Gene. It delves into the controversial research on what role genetics plays in the development of athletic talent. The book also takes on the so-called “10,000 Hour Rule,” which contends that 10,000 hours of practice can produce mastery in a field, including sports. Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter. Originally Aired...
Feb 09, 2025•29 min
For decades, Russian poets have preserved both the suffering and the joy of their people - but for their honesty, some writers paid with their lives. World-renowned Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko talks with host Marcia Franklin about his life and work. Originally aired: 05/27/1999
Feb 02, 2025•29 min
Host Marcia Franklin talks with Holocaust survivor Marion Blumenthal Lazan about her experiences in several concentration camps, including Bergen-Belsen, and her life educating others about how to prevent such a tragedy from occurring again. Lazan is the co-author of a young adult book about her experiences called Four Perfect Pebbles, and is the subject of a documentary called Marion's Triumph. Originally Aired: 09/05/13...
Jan 26, 2025•29 min
Marcia Franklin talks with Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), the last of the so-called "Big Six" leaders of the African-American civil rights movement. Lewis was the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) from 1963 to 1966, and played a seminal role in some of the 56 most important activities of the movement, including the Freedom Rides, the march from Selma to Montgomery and the March on Washington (at which he was the youngest speaker). He became a United States Representative ...
Jan 19, 2025•46 min
Marcia Franklin interviews presidential historian Robert Dallek about the upcoming election and the qualities he believes are important in order to lead a country. Dallek, the author of more than a half dozen books, including a two-volume biography of President Lyndon Johnson, is a professor of history at Boston University. He is a frequent commentator on radio and television, and was the 2004 distinguished Idaho Humanities Council lecturer. Originally aired: 10/14/2004...
Jan 12, 2025•29 min
In part two of her interview with David Benioff & D.B. Weiss, co-creators of “Game of Thrones,” Marcia Franklin talks with the duo about the effect the program has had on Northern Ireland, where they film, the technological breakthroughs the production has achieved, what they’d like the legacy of the series to be, and their next project. Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter. Originally Aired: 11/11/2016 The interview is part of Dialogue...
Jan 05, 2025•27 min
In part one of her interview with David Benioff & D. B. Weiss, co-creators of the immensely popular “Game of Thrones” television series, Marcia Franklin talks with the duo about why they wanted to create the series, what they think of criticism about its violence, how they work together, and how they’ve dealt with the fear of the unknown on such a complex project. Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter. Originally Aired: 11/4/2016 The int...
Dec 29, 2024•29 min
