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...
May 26, 2024•29 min
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...
May 19, 2024•29 min
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...
May 12, 2024•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...
May 05, 2024•29 min
As Russia’s dominance on the international stage increases, along with its presence in the American presidential election, Dialogue host Marcia Franklin talks with journalist Jill Dougherty about Russian President Vladimir Putin. Dougherty, who reported for CNN for 30 years, most recently as its Foreign Affairs Correspondent, was also the network’s Moscow Bureau Chief and White House Correspondent. She left CNN in 2013 to get a Master’s degree in International Relations from Georgetown Universit...
Apr 28, 2024•29 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. ...
Apr 21, 2024•29 min
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...
Apr 14, 2024•29 min
In his book, Active Liberty: Interpreting Our Democratic Constitution , U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer lays out his judicial philosophy, that judges should decide cases in a way that allows the public to maximize participation in government through what he calls "active liberty." Marcia Franklin talks with Justice Breyer about the precepts of "active liberty, why he wanted to write the book, the values that guide him in his judicial decisions, and why it's important for judges to writ...
Apr 07, 2024•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...
Feb 25, 2024•29 min
Novelist Tayari Jones describes the process of writing “An American Marriage,” a novel that chronicles the trajectory of a marriage when one of the spouses is wrongfully convicted of a crime. Jones talks with Marcia about the serendipity that led to the book’s characters, as well as how her writing is informed by the experiences of her parents, who were both active in the civil rights movement. Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter. Original...
Feb 18, 2024•30 min
Bob Edwards, National Public Radio senior correspondent and longtime host of “Morning Edition,” has died. His sonorous voice has kept millions of NPR listeners company for decades. Edwards talked with Marcia Franklin in 2004 about his career and his book “Edward R. Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism.” Originally aired: 07/22/2004
Feb 11, 2024•30 min
Pulitzer Prize-winning Kiowa author N. Scott Momaday has died. In this interview from 1996, host Marcia Franklin talks with 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, as well as the relationship between Native Americans and American society. Originally aired: 09/25/1996
Feb 04, 2024•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...
Jan 28, 2024•29 min
Writer Ethan Watters joins Marcia Franklin to discuss the themes in his book, Urban Tribes , which looks at the ways in which young, unmarried Americans create their own sense of family. Ethan Watters has written about psychiatry and social psychology for 20 years. He has also taught writing at Berkeley, Stanford, and California College of the Arts. In 1994 he co-founded the San Francisco Writers' Grotto. In addition to several books, he's written about social trends for publications from Esquir...
Jan 21, 2024•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 14, 2024•46 min
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...
Jan 07, 2024•29 min
Conversations From the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference is back for a 16th season! 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 t...
Dec 31, 2023•29 min
Conversations From the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference is back for a 16th season! In this episode, journalist Andrea Elliott joins host Marcia Franklin to talk about her book, Invisible Child , which won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. The book chronicles eight years in the life of Dasani Coates, a child in Brooklyn. Elliott shares what compelled her to spend that much time covering the story, and how Dasani’s life exemplifies the challenges of being poor in America. Elliott also ...
Dec 24, 2023•29 min
Conversations From the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference is back for a 16th season! 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 direc...
Dec 17, 2023•29 min
Conversations From the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference is back for a 16th season! In this episode, Hernan Diaz joins Marcia Franklin to discuss his latest novel, Trust , which won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The intricately braided tale about characters in the world of high finance gives readers four different takes on the same story, playing with the idea of “truth.” Diaz explains why he constructed the novel using multiple voices, and what it was like to win the Pulitzer Prize. Origina...
Dec 10, 2023•29 min
Conversations From the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference is back for a 16th season! 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 pa...
Dec 03, 2023•29 min
Longtime New Yorker writer and author Susan Orlean joins host Marcia Franklin for a lively chat about her writing style and her work, including hundreds of magazine articles, “The Library Book,” and an upcoming memoir. Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter. Originally Aired: 12/31/2021 The interview is part of Dialogue ’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference” and was taped at the 2021 conference. Since 1995, the conf...
Nov 26, 2023•30 min
Known for elevating the “ordinary” with her keen observations, including life in Latino and Arab communities, Palestinian-American poet Naomi Shihab Nye is the author or editor of more than 30 works of poetry, fiction and essays. Her books include Words Under the Words; Red Suitcase; Fuel; You and Yours; Never in a Hurry; Habibi; A-maze Me; Honeybee; and 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East, which was nominated for the National Book Award. Nye, whose father was a journalist, gleans ...
Nov 19, 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...
Nov 12, 2023•29 min
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. “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.” The conversation was taped at the 2022 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference....
Nov 05, 2023•40 min
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...
Oct 29, 2023•29 min
Marcia Franklin talks with author Gretel Ehrlich about her works and passions. Perhaps best known for her memoirs about the American West, including The Solace of Open Spaces, Ehrlich has also spent extensive time in the Arctic, writing about the effects of climate change on the wildlife and culture there. Franklin talks to her about that issue, her writing style and her love for the West. Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter. Originally Ai...
Oct 22, 2023•29 min
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
Oct 15, 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 ...
Oct 08, 2023•30 min
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...
Oct 01, 2023•29 min
