In this interview from 1996, Marcia Franklin talks with Pulitzer Prize winning author N. Scott Momaday about his role in commentating on Native American culture in the recently released Ken Burns documentary 'The West.' Momaday also talks about how to find your voice as an author and the relationship between Native Americans and American society. Originally aired: 09/25/1996
Marcia Franklin continues her conversation with Michael Kirk, a producer and director for FRONTLINE on PBS since its inception in 1983. The two discuss Kirk's career, including his start in Idaho at KUID, the public television station in Moscow. They also talk about how he chooses the subjects for his documentaries. Kirk discusses his upcoming work, "United States of Secrets," which will look at secrecy in the Obama administration. He also reflects on the current state of broadcast media. Origin...
Marcia Franklin talks with FRONTLINE producer Michael Kirk about his latest documentary for the series, League of Denial. The program looks at what the NFL knew about the serious and long-lasting effects of concussions on its players. The two discuss why Kirk wanted to produce the film, what he learned, and the future of football. They also talk about the beginning of his career, which was in Idaho. Originally aired: 11/15/2013
Host Marcia Franklin talks with Frontline co-founder and producer Mike Kirk. Kirk discusses his upcoming program, "The Choice," which profiles presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain. For 20 years, Frontline has been profiling the major candidates for the American presidency, giving voters a behind-the-scenes look at their backgrounds, values and life decisions. Kirk also talks about his work on ten documentaries about the "war on terror," including "Bush’s War," "Cheney’s Law," and...
In a special one-hour Dialogue, Marcia Franklin interviews Boise singer/songwriter Eilen Jewell. Jewell, known colloquially as the 'Queen of the Minor Key,' has attracted international kudos and fans for her Americana-style music. She talks with Franklin about why she moved back to Idaho; where she grew up; how she defines and crafts her music; and what's next for her and The Eilen Jewell Band, which also includes her husband, drummer Jason Beek. The couple just welcomed baby daughter Mavis, nam...
Marcia Franklin interviews award-winning author and New York Times columnist Tim Egan. Egan, who was part of a team of New York Times reporters that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2001, has covered the American West for more than 20 years. He talks with Franklin about how the region is changing socially and politically. He also discusses the struggles of the Dust Bowl survivors of the 1930s, whose stories he chronicles in The Worst Hard Time . That work won a National Book Award in 2006. Originally air...
Author Terry Tempest Williams talks about her latest series of essays, The Open Space of Democracy , which describe the nexus between the environment and democracy and encourage Americans to become involved in civic life. Originally aired: 12/28/2006
Marcia Franklin talks with playwright Samuel Hunter, a native of Moscow, ID. Hunter was the recipient of an Obie Award, the equivalent of a Tony Award for off-Broadway works, for his play "A Bright New Boise." Hunter was in Boise to work with actors at the Boise Contemporary Theater who were premiering his play, "A Permanent Image." He talks with Franklin about the themes of his works, his style of writing and the influence of Idaho in his plays. Originally aired: 5/17/2012...
Host Marcia Franklin interviews Pete Earley, a former Washington Post reporter who has also become a mental health advocate. Earley, who has penned numerous "true crime" books, found one of his most difficult books to write to be Crazy . The book is a memoir about his son, who has a mental illness. Crazy , a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2007, describes Earley's harrowing attempts to get help for his son, as well as major problems in mental health systems around the country. Franklin and Ea...
It's one of his most beloved tales, but was written in a hurry and under duress. On this holiday episode of Dialogue, Marcia Franklin talks with Boise writer Samantha Silva about "A Christmas Carol," penned by Charles Dickens in 1843. In her debut novel, "Mr. Dickens and His Carol," Silva melds fact with fiction to imagine how Dickens came up with the plot for his now-classic story. Of Silva's work, Pulitzer Prize-winner and Boise resident Anthony Doerr says, "It's as foggy and haunted and redem...
Marcia Franklin talks with Liza Long, the Boise author of "I Am Adam Lanza's Mother," a blog post that was eventually read by millions of people around the world. Long wrote the piece hours after the mass shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., on December 14, 2012. In it, she expressed her fears about her teenage son "Michael," who has a mental illness and has physically threatened her. The essay was a plea for help for him and for Long, who had struggled to get him services. Orig...
Host Marcia Franklin talks in-depth with author Anthony Doerr about his newest book, “Cloud Cuckoo Land,” and the Netflix adaptation of “All the Light We Cannot See,” his 2014 novel that won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The conversation was taped at the 2022 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference. “Mr. Doerr’s been on Dialogue more times than any other author,” says Franklin. “But still, it had been eight years since we’d recorded an interview together. So it was a lot of fun to catch up with him.”...
Host Marcia Franklin talks with author Kalani Pickhart about her debut novel, “I Will Die in a Foreign Land.” Based on the Maidan uprising in Ukraine in 2013 and 2014, the book’s publication coincidentally occurred a few months before the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Pickhart talks about what that’s been like, and why she was drawn to write about Ukraine. The conversation was recorded at the 2022 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference.
Host Marcia Franklin talks with political scientist Yascha Mounk about identity, political divides and his outlook on America. Mounk is the author of several books, including “The People vs. Democracy,” “The Great Experiment,” and “Stranger in My Own Country.” The conversation was recorded at the 2022 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference.
Host Marcia Franklin talks with author Kali Fajardo-Anstine about her short story collection, “Sabrina & Corina,” which was a finalist for a National Book Award, and her novel, “Woman of Light.” Both draw on her own multicultural history to tell stories set in Colorado. The conversation was taped at the 2022 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference.
Conversations From the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference on Dialogue returns for its 15th season. Marcia Franklin talks with author Rebecca Donner about “All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days,” which chronicles the life of Mildred Harnack, her great-great-aunt. Harnack and her husband helped found one of the largest resistance groups against the Nazis. They were both discovered, however, and killed. Mildred is the only known American woman to be executed on the direct orders of Hitler. Originally a...
Marcia Frankin talks with Stephen Kinzer, a New York Times correspondent and author of "All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle Eastern Terror." In his book, Kinzer recounts the 1953 U.S-led coup against Iranian prime minister Mohammed Mossadegh, which resulted in the dictatorship of the Shah. Kinzer talks with Franklin, who just returned from Iran, about the effects the coup continues to have, and the potential future of Iran. Originally aired: 04/01/2004...
Marcia Franklin talks with Pulitzer Prize–winning author Stacy Schiff about her work , The Witches. The book examines the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, delving into what precipitated them, and the participants involved. Franklin talks with Schiff about why she wanted to write the book, the challenges involved and the legacy of the trials. Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter. Originally Aired: 10/29/2015 The interview is part of Dialogue ’s s...
Author and professor Andrew Solomon relates how he went from being a bullied child suffering from depression to an award-winning journalist traveling the world. Solomon’s 2001 book, The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression, won the National Book Award for Nonfiction. He has delivered popular TED Talks on culture and psychology. Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter. Originally Aired: 9/29/2017 The interview is part of Dialogue ’s series “Co...
S.C. “Sam” Gwynne is the author of Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2011, a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist and the winner of both the Texas and Oklahoma Book Awards. It paints the epic story of the Comanches, whose territory comprised an estimated 250,000 square miles of the American Plains, an area now part of five states. It also draws the more i...
Marcia Franklin talks with author Brando Skyhorse about his life and works, focusing on his memoir, Take This Man. In the book, Skyhorse writes about what it was like to grow up thinking he was Native American and then to find out that was not true. He also discusses the topic of his next novel, Wall. Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter. Originally Aired: 11/15/2019 The interview is part of Dialogue ’s series “Conversations from the Sun Va...
Marcia Franklin interviews author Kevin Powers, a veteran of the war in Iraq. His first work, "The Yellow Birds," was a finalist for the National Book Award. The novel depicts the friendship between two American soldiers in Iraq trying to keep each other alive, and the emotional journey of one of them as he returns home. Powers, who was a speaker at the University of Idaho's annual Hemingway conference, talks about the influence of Hemingway on him, why he wanted to write "The Yellow Birds," the...
Host Marcia Franklin interviews Phil Klay, an author and veteran of the war in Iraq. Klay’s first work, "Redeployment," won the National Book Award for Fiction in 2014. The 12 short stories in "Redeployment" draw on Klay’s experiences as a U.S. Marine Corps Public Affairs Officer in the Anbar province of Iraq from 2007 to 2008. Franklin talks with Klay about why he wanted to write the book and how he developed the different voices in in his stories, which include a Mortuary Affairs Officer and a...
Host Marcia Franklin interviews a lawyer who believes America's legal system is strangling what's best about our country. Philip Howard is an attorney based in New York City and the author of books about legal reform, including "The Rule of Nobody," "The Death of Common Sense" and "Life Without Lawyers." Franklin talks with Howard about his philosophy and the changes he'd like to see in the country's legislative, executive and judicial branches. In 2002, Howard formed a coalition called The Comm...
Marcia Franklin talks with Idaho author Anthony Doerr about his bestselling novel, "All the Light We Cannot See," which took ten years to research and write. The book debuted at #10 on the New York Times' Best Sellers list and received glowing reviews around the country. It also won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2015 shortly after this interview. Franklin talks with Doerr, who lives in Boise, about his novel, which depicts the lives of two European children in World War II, children whose li...
On this edition of Dialogue, Marcia Franklin talks with Idahoan Esther Emery, who wrote a book about her year off the internet called “What Falls From the Sky.” Emery talks about the crisis in her life that made her decide to unplug from the web, the challenges she encountered, and how the experience grounded and connected her in new ways to herself and her family. The two also talk about Emery’s current life living off the electric grid with her husband and three children in the mountains above...
To coincide with the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Marcia Franklin talks with historian Douglas Brinkley, Ph.D., about his 2012 biography of iconic CBS newsman Walter Cronkite, who famously announced Kennedy's death to a national TV audience on November 22, 1963. In "Cronkite," Brinkley (no relation to newscaster David Brinkley) drew on his access to Cronkite's private papers at the University of Texas and interviews with more than 150 of Cronkite's friends ...
Marcia Franklin continues her conversation with Boise-based outdoor writer Michael Lanza, focusing on tips for hiking and camping, including some of the best gear and small essentials to pack. The two also talk about ways to keep safe in the backcountry. Lanza, the former Northwest editor for Backpacker magazine, has written three books about hiking, as well as many articles chronicling his worldwide adventures hiking, climbing, skiing and paddling. "Before They're Gone," his book about his fami...
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...
Marcia Franklin talks with Boise resident Kurt Koontz about his book, "A Million Steps," which chronicles his journey along the Camino de Santiago trail in northern Spain. The 500-mile route, known colloquially as 'The Way,' was originally a trek made by Catholic pilgrims to the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral, believed to be the burial place of St. James, an apostle of Jesus. Today, 200,000 seekers a year from all backgrounds traverse the path. Franklin talks with Koontz about why he decided t...
