Marcia Franklin talks with Robert MacNeil, the veteran journalist, author, and former co-host of the NewsHour on PBS. MacNeil, who was born in Canada, talks about becoming an American, how the news profession changed over the course of his career, and his love for the English language. Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter! Originally Aired: 12/08/2005 The interview is part of Dialogue’s series, “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers’ Co...
Sep 24, 2023•29 min
Marcia Franklin talks with poet Richard Blanco, the first LatinX and gay inaugural poet. Blanco wrote a poem for President Obama’s second inaugural and read it at the ceremony. He discusses the process of writing the inaugural poem, “One Today,” how the piece reflected his life and his philosophy of writing, the themes of his work, and the power of poetry to change lives. Mr. Blanco was the keynote speaker at the Idaho Humanities Council’s annual event in 2019. Originally aired: 12/20/19...
Sep 17, 2023•29 min
Amy Waldman, a former reporter for The New York Times, discusses her bestselling novel The Submission, which tells the fictional tale of Mohammad “Mo” Khan, a secular Muslim who wins a competition to design a memorial honoring the victims of a terrorist attack similar to 9/11. When the jury members discover who’ve they’ve selected, some try to change the result. But the decision is leaked to the press, resulting in outrage not over the selection of Khan, but over his entry, which includes a gard...
Sep 10, 2023•29 min
Journalist Steve Coll talks with Marcia Franklin about his latest book, Directorate S, a follow-up to his Pulitzer Prize-winning book Ghost Wars. He discusses why he wanted to write the book and what he learned — including about Idahoan Bowe Bergdahl, who was imprisoned by the Taliban. Coll, who is also the dean of the Columbia University School of Journalism, discusses threats to journalism. Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter. Originally...
Sep 03, 2023•29 min
Marcia Franklin talks with four-term Idaho Governor Cecil D. Andrus and one of his former press secretaries, Chris Carlson. Carlson has written a book about his experiences working for the governor entitled Idaho's Greatest Governor . The two discuss Andrus' personal and political philosophies, as well as what they consider the highlights of his career. The governor also weighs in on current political issues, such as the partisanship in Congress, President Obama's performance, the Occupy movemen...
Aug 27, 2023•29 min
Marcia Franklin talks with former Idaho Governor Phil Batt, who passed away earlier this year. Originally aired: 01/2027/2000
Aug 20, 2023•28 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...
Aug 13, 2023•29 min
Host Marcia Franklin interviews one of the most esteemed writers of the Vietnam War era, Tim O'Brien. O'Brien, who served as an infantryman from 1969 to 1970, wrote a memoir in 1972 called "If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home." It received excellent reviews, and in 1978, O'Brien won the National Book Award for "Going After Cacciato," a novel about a soldier who goes AWOL and the squad that tries to find him. O'Brien's most well-known book is "The Things They Carried," a work of...
Aug 06, 2023•29 min
Marcia Franklin talks with attorney Kenneth Feinberg, the special master of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund and the administrator of the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Trust and the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund at Virginia Tech. Mr. Feinberg also has served as special master in the Agent Orange, TARP executive compensation, asbestos personal injury, Dalkon shield, and DES (pregnancy medication) cases. The two discuss how Feinberg found himself developing the field of mass tort compensa...
Jul 30, 2023•29 min
Marcia Franklin talks with Idaho filmmaker Michael Hoffman, whose movie The Last Station has been nominated for two Academy Awards. Based on a novel by Jay Parini of the same name, The Last Station chronicles the final year in the life of Russian writer and philosopher Leo Tolstoy, who was locked in a battle with his wife Sophia about the rights to his works. Tolstoy is surrounded by acolytes who want him to leave the copyrights to his major novels such as War and Peace and Anna Karenina to the ...
Jul 24, 2023•29 min
Journalist Jere Van Dyk talks with Marcia Franklin about the 45 days he spent as a captive of the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2008. An experienced international reporter who had traveled to Afghanistan many times since the 1970s, Van Dyk was captured trying to find some of his original Mujahideen contacts from the 1980s. His account of his experience and eventual release is detailed in his book, Captive: My Time as a Prisoner of the Taliban . Franklin and Van Dyk talk about the conditions of his c...
Jul 16, 2023•29 min
Marcia Franklin talks with author Patricia Nelson Limerick about her books about the American West. Limerick shares her views that the West has been overly romanticized and that history has ignored the contributions of women and people of color in settling the West. Originally aired: 04/17/1997
Jul 14, 2023•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 02, 2023•59 min
Director Michael Hoffman and author Ethan Canin join Marcia Franklin for a conversation about Hoffman's film "The Emperor’s Club." The movie is based on Canin's short story, "The Palace Thief." Hoffman, an Idaho native, shares the reasons he wanted to direct "The Emperor's Club," his thoughts on the film's themes, and his experiences working with Canin. Hoffman won Academy Awards for best costume design and best art direction for his 1996 film "Restoration." Canin is an author who teaches at the...
Jun 25, 2023•29 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...
Jun 18, 2023•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...
Jun 11, 2023•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.
Jun 04, 2023•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...
May 28, 2023•29 min
Michael Kirk, senior producer of "Frontline," got his start at KUID-TV in Moscow. Since then, he has produced over 100 television programs, including "The Man Who Knew," "The Killer at Thurston High," and "Waco: The Inside Story." His programs have won many national awards, including the Peabody and the duPont Columbia. Michael Kirk talks with Marcia Franklin about his filmmaking philosophy, his most challenging programs and his current projects. Originally aired: 01/29/2004...
May 21, 2023•29 min
Dialogue presents a discussion with the anchor for PBS's The Newshour With Jim Lehrer . Marcia Franklin sat down with Lehrer when he visited Boise as the featured speaker for the Idaho Humanities Council's 10th Annual Distinguished Humanities Lecture and Dinner. In his conversation with Franklin, the NewsHour anchor and executive editor talks about the influences that have helped shape him as a journalist and his passion for writing. Lehrer is the author of 16 novels, an award-winning journalist...
May 16, 2023•29 min
His sonorous voice has kept millions of National Public Radio listeners company for more than two decades. NPR senior correspondent Bob Edwards talks with Marcia Franklin about his career and his book "Edward R. Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism." Originally aired: 07/22/2004
May 08, 2023•30 min
On this edition of Dialogue, host Marcia Franklin talks with New York Times bestselling author Mark Kurlansky. Kurlansky, who is known for his "microhistories" of objects and events we often take for granted, will speak about some of his works, including "Salt: A World History," "Cod, A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World," "1968: The Year that Rocked the World," "The Basque History of the World," and "Non-Violence: 25 Lessons from the History of a Dangerous Idea." Originally aired: 03/...
Apr 30, 2023•29 min
The author of "The Rise of the Creative Class and How It’s Transforming Work" talks with Marcia Franklin about what he sees are key ingredients for vibrant, economically successful cities. Richard Florida is professor of regional economic development at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Crunching numbers, combing focus groups, interviewing recruiters and those being recruited, Florida sees a high correlation between tolerance and diversity and the attraction of creative peo...
Apr 23, 2023•29 min
Marcia Franklin interviews USA Today founder Al Neuharth. Neuharth is also founder of the Freedom Forum, a non-partisan international foundation promoting the ideals of free speech and free press. The Freedom Forum operates the Newseum, the world’s only museum dedicated to the history of media. Originally aired: 08/10/2000
Apr 16, 2023•29 min
Journalist and author David Halberstam won the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting from Vietnam and has witnessed and researched many of the major events of the last half of the 20th century. He brings his insight, experience and wit to this discussion with Marcia Franklin. Originally aired: 10/04/2001
Apr 09, 2023•59 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
Apr 03, 2023•29 min
These two Idaho writers, Kim Barnes and Robert Wrigley, are married to each other. They talk about and read from their works with host Marcia Franklin, and recommend some of their favorite books. Originally aired: 02/24/2000
Mar 26, 2023•29 min
Host Marcia Franklin speaks with author Samantha Power, who in her book "A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide" decries U.S. complacency about mass murder and ethnic cleansing in other countries. Originally aired: 04/18/2002
Mar 19, 2023•29 min
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 ...
Mar 12, 2023•30 min
Host Marcia Franklin talks with ABC Chief White House correspondent Martha Raddatz about national politics and the war in Iraq. Although Raddatz could stay inside the Beltway to do her job, she's made it a priority to go to Iraq, a total of 17 times at this date. She talks with Franklin about why she takes that risk, whether she's seeing any progress in that country, and about her book, "The Long Road Home," which chronicles a battle in Sadr City. The two also talk about her thoughts on the grow...
Mar 05, 2023•29 min
