Dialogue with Marcia Franklin: Recent Episodes
Idaho Public Television
Choose from dozens of illuminating conversations with some of the finest writers and thinkers in the world, interviewed over the past 25 years by Idaho Public Television host Marcia Franklin. Be sure to subscribe to receive the latest episodes!
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 linked stories about soldiers in the Vietnam War, published in 1990. It was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award, and is required reading in many high school and college classes.
Franklin talks with O'Brien about his style of writing, which often blurs fact with fiction, and about his new life as a first-time father later in life. The two also talk extensively about war in our culture, and O'Brien shares his thoughts on how he thinks Veterans Day and Memorial Day would be best observed.
O'Brien was in Boise as the keynote speaker for the Idaho Humanities Council's 2015 Distinguished Humanities Lecture.
Originally aired: 11/13/2015
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
Journalist Louisa Thomas talks about her book Louisa: The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. Adams, which examines the life and times of First Lady Louisa Catherine Adams, the wife of President John Quincy Adams and the first foreign-born First Lady of the United States. Thomas illuminates not only the life of this fascinating woman, but also the political life of America in the 1800s.
Don't forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 9/1/2017
The interview is part of Dialogue's series "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference" and was taped at the 2017 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world's most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin talks about her book, Team of Rivals, which chronicles the sometimes fraught relationship between Abraham Lincoln and his cabinet members. The book was the basis for the 2012 movie, Lincoln, which was nominated for 12 Academy Awards.
Goodwin talks about the lessons we can learn from Lincoln, who was the rare president who asked his main rivals to be a part of his cabinet, and what it was like to spend so much time researching such an iconic person.
Don't forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter!
Originally Aired: 12/07/2006
The interview is part of Dialogue's series, "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference," and was taped at the 2006 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world's most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life. This was the second year Marcia Franklin interviewed speakers there.
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 in 1986.
During their conversation, Lewis and Franklin discussed his emotions on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act, the election of President Obama, what Lewis sees as current civil rights challenges, and his advice to the next generation. The two also discuss a trilogy of graphic novels called March that he and a staffer, Andrew Aydin, are writing. The series illustrates the congressman's life in the civil rights movement. The first book hit #1 on the New York Times Best Sellers List.
Originally Aired: 11/14/2014
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
Host Marcia Franklin talks with historian David Kennedy about Depression-era policies and whether they have parallels to the modern financial crisis.
Kennedy, professor emeritus at Stanford University, is known for integrating both economic and cultural analyses in his works about particular historical eras, as he did in Freedom from Fear, a book about the Great Depression in the United States. That book won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000.
Kennedy is also the author of several other books, including Over Here: The First World War and American Society, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1981.
He and Franklin discuss the differences between the financial crises in the Great Depression and today, as well as issues that concern him including the growing gap he sees between civilian and military society. Kennedy also talks about the priorities for the Bill Lane Center for the American West, of which he was a co-director.
Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter!
Originally Aired: 12/23/2010
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 aired: 11/23/2012
Host Marcia Franklin talks with author Margaret Atwood about her work, which includes the bestselling novel, "The Handmaid's Tale" and its sequel, "The Testaments." Atwood also shares her thoughts on whether the United States could head towards totalitarianism. The conversation was recorded at the 2024 Sun Valley Writers' Conference.
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 redemptive as the original; it's all heart, and I read it in a couple of ebullient, Christmassy gulps."
Silva talks with Franklin about what drew her to Dickens, how she researched her book, why she thinks "A Christmas Carol" crystallizes Dickens' ethos, and why the story is still relevant.
A graduate of Boise State University and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Silva is a screenwriter who has sold projects to Paramount, Universal, New Line Cinema, and TNT. A film version of her short story, "The Big Burn," won the One Potato Short Screenplay Competition at the 2017 Sun Valley Film Festival and will be released in 2018. Silva will also be writing another novel.
Host Marcia Franklin continues her conversation with Idaho-born playwright Samuel Hunter, focusing on the craft of playwriting, some of the actors he admires, and a new project he's working on that's not for the stage.
Hunter, a Moscow, ID native, is the recipient of a 2014 MacArthur Fellowship, known colloquially as the "Genius Grant." He also won an Obie Award in 2011.
Originally Aired: 10/16/2015
He's only 34, but has already won some of the most prestigious awards for creativity in the country. On this episode of Dialogue, Marcia Franklin interviews playwright and Moscow, ID native Samuel Hunter. Hunter is the recipient of a 2014 MacArthur Fellowship, known colloquially as the "Genius Grant." He also won an Obie Award in 2011.
Hunter talks about what it was like to win the MacArthur, and what he plans to do with the time and money it affords him to dedicate to his craft. He also discusses the evolution of his works, which have been performed all over the country, and the role of Idaho in his plays.
Originally Aired: 10/09/2015
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: 03/27/2008
Host Marcia Franklin talks with author Colum McCann about his books since their last conversation in 2011, which include "American Mother," "Apeirogon," and his most recent novel, "Twist." The two also discuss McCann's nonprofit, Narrative 4, which uses storytelling to bring youth from different backgrounds together. The conversation was taped at the 2025 Sun Valley Writers' Conference.
Host Marcia Franklin talks with author Wright Thompson about his book, "The Barn," which delves into the history of the barn in Mississippi where 14-year-old Emmett Till was tortured in 1955. The murder and subsequent trial accelerated the civil rights movement in America. The conversation was taped at the 2025 Sun Valley Writers' Conference.
Host Marcia Franklin talks with author Andre Dubus III about his work, which includes his bestselling novel, "House of Sand and Fog" and memoir, "Townie." The two also discuss his most recent books, "Ghost Dogs: On Killers and Kin," and "Such Kindness," as well as his thoughts on the digital world. The conversation was taped at the 2025 Sun Valley Writers' Conference.
Host Marcia Franklin talks with author Ocean Vuong about his work, which includes the bestselling novels, "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous" and the recent "The Emperor of Gladness." Vuong, a professor at New York University, also discusses his love of photography and how it has influenced his writing. The conversation was taped at the 2025 Sun Valley Writers' Conference.
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 series "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference" and was taped at the 2015 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world's most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 University and is now writing a book on Putin's 'soft power.' At the time she spoke with Franklin, Dougherty was a Global Fellow at the Kennan Institute, a division of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.
The two discuss what Dougherty means by 'soft power,' and some of the factors that drive President Putin's persona and politics. Franklin also asks Dougherty about Putin's involvement in the United States' presidential election and what the next U.S. president should keep in mind when negotiating with Russia.
Dougherty was in Boise in September 2016 to address the Boise Committee on Foreign Relations.
Originally Aired: 09/30/2016
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.”
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 11/18/2022
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference” and was taped at the 2022 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Marcia Franklin talks with Rabbi Sharon Brous of IKAR, a Jewish congregation in Los Angeles. The two discuss how the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel affected her and her congregants, Israel’s bombing of Gaza, increasing antisemitism, and a path forward to peace.
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 lives ultimately intersect in war-torn Saint Malo, France. The town was nearly destroyed by Allied forces at the end of the war.
Doerr discusses the book's themes, which include the power of radio during that time period, and the moral choices faced by civilians during wartime. Doerr also talks about what kept him motivated during the decade-long writing process.
Originally aired: 07/10/14
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: 10/24/2014
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2014 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 garden some think is an Islamic design to honor martyrs. The outcry is reminiscent of the 2010 controversy over Park51, a planned Islamic community center in New York City near the former Twin Towers. But Waldman had finished the first draft of her book before that story erupted.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 10/12/2012
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference” and was taped at the 2012 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Marcia Franklin talks with Clarissa Ward, the chief international correspondent for CNN, about her start in the business, her assignments in some of the most dangerous parts of the world and the continuing need for journalistic ethics. The two also discuss her memoir, “On All Fronts: The Education of a Journalist.” The conversation was taped at the 2024 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference.
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 discusses some of the ethical considerations involved in reporting this complex and personal story.
Originally Aired: 12/22/2023
The interview is part of the series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference” and was taped at the 2023 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 movement, wilderness designation and salmon recovery.
Cecil Andrus, a Democrat, began his political career in 1960 as a state senator from Orofino, ID. After three terms in the statehouse, he lost his first election for governor in 1966, but won an unprecedented four terms in 1970, 1974, 1986 and 1990, a record which still stands.
From 1977 to 1981, Andrus served as Secretary of the Interior under President Jimmy Carter, the first Idahoan to serve in a presidential cabinet. In that position, he was known for helping pass the Alaska Lands Act, which set aside more than 100 million acres of land in that state as wilderness, including the Arctic national Wildlife Refuge. In 1995, Andrus founded the Andrus Center for Public Policy at Boise State University.
A Kellogg native and former reporter, Chris Carlson served as Andrus' press secretary for more than eight years, from 1972 to the end of Andrus' tenure at the Department of Interior. He served on the Northwest Power and Conservation Council and as government affairs director for Kaiser Aluminum. Andrus and Carlson also worked together at Gallatin Public Affairs, a research and lobbying group of which Carlson is a co-founder. He is retired and lives in north Idaho.
Originally aired: 11/17/2011
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, named after the gospel singer Mavis Staples. Eilen and Jason are also in a gospel band, The Sacred Shakers. Jewell talks with Franklin about why she's attracted to gospel music and performs a song she wrote for her new daughter.
This program was taped at AudioLab Recording Studios in Garden City and includes footage of Jewell and her band performing at the Sapphire Room at the Riverside Hotel, also in Garden City. One of the songs, "My Hometown," is about Boise.
Originally aired: 12/26/2014
Marcia Franklin talks with playwright Samuel D. Hunter about his work, including “The Whale,” which was adapted into a movie with Brendan Fraser, who won an Academy Award. The two also discuss the role of Idaho in his works, and the importance of the humanities.
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 family’s adventures hiking through some of the national parks in America most threatened by climate change, won an honorable mention in the National Outdoor Book Awards.
Lanza also runs the website thebigoutside.com, which was chosen by USA Today readers as one of the top 10 hiking and outdoors blogs.
Originally aired: 08/07/2015
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 honorable mention in the National Outdoor Book Awards. Franklin talks with him about why he wanted to write the book, and what it was like to backpack with his young children. Lanza also runs the website thebigoutside.com, which was chosen by USA Today readers as one of the top 10 hiking and outdoors blogs.
Originally aired: 07/10/2015
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
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.
Originally Aired: 11/21/2014
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2014 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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," which introduced readers to the true story behind Herman Melville's Moby Dick. It won the National Book Award in 2001, and was the basis for an American Experience documentary on PBS in 2011.
Originally aired: 10/18/2013
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’ Conference,” and was taped at the 2021 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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
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 taped at the 2023 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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
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 interview is part of the series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference” and was taped at the 2023 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 Flower Moon.
Originally Aired: 12/15/2023
The interview is part of the series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference” and was taped at the 2023 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 in Boise that will be a filmmaking center.
Originally aired: 06/22/2006
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
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 with a team to locate 232 surviving copies of the First Folio, 72 more than were originally thought to exist. An estimated 800 were originally printed. There are now 235 known copies. The group went on to painstakingly document the condition of every page of as many copies as it could examine.
Rasmussen is also the author of The Shakespeare Thefts: In Search of the First Folios, in which he includes some of the more colorful stories surrounding the various copies of the 900-plus page book, both ones that have been found and those that are still missing. Franklin talks with the professor about his interest in the First Folio, how he authenticates the new copies he finds, some of the unique aspects of the books, what he’s learned studying them, and what he thinks about the various authorship theories regarding Shakespeare’s works.
The interview took place at the Humanities Institute at Boise State University, one of 52 locations in the United States chosen by the Folger Shakespeare Library to display the First Folio in 2016.
Originally Aired: 09/09/2016
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 political and societal solutions for reversing climate change.
The two also discuss his views on global governance, about which he writes in The Great Experiment: The Story of Ancient Empires, Modern States, and the Quest for a Global Nation. Talbott also sits on North American Executive Committee of the Trilateral Commission. The two discuss some Americans’ fears of a "One World government."
Talbott, who was Deputy Secretary of State under President Bill Clinton, specialized in working with the new independent states of the Soviet Union. He talks with Franklin about a scandal in which Russian spies were found to have been living in the United States for many years. The two also discuss Brookings Mountain West, an offshoot of the Brookings Institution in Las Vegas, which examines public policy issues pertaining to the Intermountain West.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter!
Originally Aired: 12/16/2010
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series, "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference," and was taped at the 2010 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 historians now believe he had as many as seven children. Hemings, a slave at Monticello, was also the half-sister of Jefferson's wife, Martha, who died when Jefferson was 39.
A professor at Rutgers University and the New York College of Law at the time of the interview, Gordon-Reed is currently the Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History at Harvard Law School and Professor of History in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter!
Originally Aired: 12/03/2009
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series, "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference," and was taped at the 2009 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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
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
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 fought at Khe Sanh in what would become the longest siege of the Vietnam War, and which would end in a stalemate. In the film Bravo!, Rodgers, Wiese and 13 other former Marines describe their experiences in combat and how those experiences have continued to affect their lives.
Franklin asks the Rodgers' about why they wanted to produce the documentary and what they hope viewers will learn from it. Franklin also talks with Wiese about his experiences at Khe Sanh, and what has helped him overcome the traumas he experienced.
Originally aired: 11/08/2013
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 Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2024 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Marcia Franklin talks with former Idaho Governor Phil Batt about his life and legacy.
Originally aired: 01/2027/2000
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 Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2021 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2021 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 rose to become the editor of Newsweek. Meacham was the speaker at the Idaho Humanities Council’s 2016 Distinguished Humanities Lecture in Boise.
Meacham’s latest book is His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope with an afterword by John Lewis. His 2015 book Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush was a #1 New York Times bestseller. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 2009 for his book American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. He’s also the author of Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship, and American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers and the Making of a Nation.
Originally Aired: 10/20/2016
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter!
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: 10/24/2014
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2014 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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
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
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 in 1986.
During their conversation, Lewis and Franklin discussed his emotions on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act, the election of President Obama, what Lewis sees as current civil rights challenges, and his advice to the next generation. The two also discuss a trilogy of graphic novels called March that he and a staffer, Andrew Aydin, are writing. The series illustrates the congressman's life in the civil rights movement. The first book hit #1 on the New York Times Best Sellers List.
Originally Aired: 11/14/2014
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series, "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference," and was taped at the 2014 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life. Marcia Franklin has interviewed speakers there since 2005.
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
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’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2016 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2016 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 redemptive as the original; it's all heart, and I read it in a couple of ebullient, Christmassy gulps."
Silva talks with Franklin about what drew her to Dickens, how she researched her book, why she thinks "A Christmas Carol" crystallizes Dickens' ethos, and why the story is still relevant.
A graduate of Boise State University and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Silva is a screenwriter who has sold projects to Paramount, Universal, New Line Cinema, and TNT. A film version of her short story, "The Big Burn," won the One Potato Short Screenplay Competition at the 2017 Sun Valley Film Festival and will be released in 2018. Silva will also be writing another novel.
Author Adam Johnson, who has won both a Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for his works, talks with host Marcia Franklin about his writing philosophy. The two also discuss his thoughts on North Korea, which he has visited and about which he wrote in The Orphan Master's Son.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 11/2/2018
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2018 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Host Marcia Franklin talks with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gretchen Morgenson, then a financial editor and columnist at the New York Times who covered the country’s financial crisis since its inception.
They discuss the federal government’s push to increase home ownership, which Morgenson sees as the underpinning of the financial collapse. The two also talk about various taxpayer-funded bailouts of companies such as AIG, and whether Morgenson sees any light at the end of the tunnel for the slumping economy.
Before moving to The Wall Street Journal in November 2017, Morgenson was assistant business and financial editor at the New York Times since May 1998. Prior to that she was assistant managing editor at Forbes magazine. She was also the press secretary for the Forbes for President campaign. In 2002, she won a Pulitzer Prize for her coverage of Wall Street.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter!
Originally Aired: 09/10/2009
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series, “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference,” and was taped at the 2009 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Marcia Franklin talks with playwright Samuel D. Hunter about his work, including “The Whale,” which was adapted into a movie with Brendan Fraser, who won an Academy Award. The two also discuss the role of Idaho in his works, and the importance of the humanities.
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.
Marcia Franklin talks with Clarissa Ward, the chief international correspondent for CNN, about her start in the business, her assignments in some of the most dangerous parts of the world and the continuing need for journalistic ethics. The two also discuss her memoir, “On All Fronts: The Education of a Journalist.” The conversation was taped at the 2024 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference.
Marcia Franklin talks with Rabbi Sharon Brous of IKAR, a Jewish congregation in Los Angeles. The two discuss how the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel affected her and her congregants, Israel’s bombing of Gaza, increasing antisemitism, and a path forward to peace.
Host Marcia Franklin talks with author Margaret Atwood about her work, which includes the bestselling novel, “The Handmaid’s Tale” and its sequel, “The Testaments.” Atwood also shares her thoughts on whether the United States could head towards totalitarianism. The conversation was recorded at the 2024 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference.
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 taped at the 2023 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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.
Originally Aired: 12/08/2023
The interview is part of the series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference” and was taped at the 2023 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 Flower Moon.
Originally Aired: 12/15/2023
The interview is part of the series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference” and was taped at the 2023 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 discusses some of the ethical considerations involved in reporting this complex and personal story.
Originally Aired: 12/22/2023
The interview is part of the series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference” and was taped at the 2023 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 interview is part of the series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference” and was taped at the 2023 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
More of Marcia Franklin’s 2019 conversation with National Book Award-winning author and world traveler Barry Lopez about his life, his philosophy of writing and his new memoir, Horizon.
In December 2020, the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference awarded Barry Lopez with the inaugural Writer in the World Prize in recognition of his singular voice in the landscape of English Literature. Lopez died December 25, 2020.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 11/29/2019
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2019 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Marcia Franklin talks with National Book Award-winning author and world traveler Barry Lopez about his philosophy of writing and his penultimate memoir, Horizon.
In December 2020, the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference awarded Barry Lopez with the inaugural Writer in the World Prize in recognition of his singular voice in the landscape of English Literature. Lopez died on December 25, 2020.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 11/22/2019
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2019 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2019 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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
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.”
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 11/18/2022
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference” and was taped at the 2022 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Catherine Grace Katz talks with host Marcia Franklin about “The Daughters of Yalta,” her first book. In it, she illuminates the contributions that Anna Roosevelt, Sarah Churchill and Kathleen Harriman made during the seminal 1945 meeting of world leaders at Yalta, which included their fathers, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Averell Harriman.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 12/17/2021
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 conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 11/25/2022
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference” and was taped at the 2022 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Marcia Franklin talks with Yale Professor of History Joanne Freeman about her book The Field of Blood. In it, Freeman illustrates how the U.S. Congress leading up to the Civil War was a more violent body than previously thought. Franklin asks her about parallels to current tensions in Congress. Freeman also discusses her next book, “Hunting for Hamilton,” and the value of studying history.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 11/8/2019
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference” and was taped at the 2019 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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.
Originally Aired: 11/11/2022
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series, “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference,” and was taped at the 2022 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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’ Conference,” and was taped at the 2021 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter!
Originally Aired: 11/4/2022
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series, “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference,” and was taped at the 2022 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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
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," which introduced readers to the true story behind Herman Melville's Moby Dick. It won the National Book Award in 2001, and was the basis for an American Experience documentary on PBS in 2011.
Originally aired: 10/18/2013
Journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Eliza Griswold talks with host Marcia Franklin about her book Amity and Prosperity, which investigates the effects of fracking in a southwestern Pennsylvania community. The two discuss how Griswold researched the book and the rural-urban divide in American politics. Griswold also talks about her forthcoming book of poetry.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 11/9/2018
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2018 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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
As the United States heads for what portends to be a raucous convention season, Dialogue host Marcia Franklin talks with Eric Liu, the founder of Citizen University in Seattle, about whether it’s even possible in a seemingly fractured society to have a civil discussion about politics. Liu, also the executive director of the Citizenship and American Identity Program at the Aspen Institute, is trying to reclaim civic education from the doldrums and encourage Americans to act on their rights. His TED Talk on the subject has more than a million and a half views.
Franklin and Liu discuss the “tectonic” demographic shift in the country and what it potentially means for governing, how Americans from diverse backgrounds are still bound together by a common creed, and what he describes as a “third Reconstruction Period” in the United States. Liu, an attorney, is the author of more than a half-dozen books, including “Gardens of Democracy,” “Guiding Lights,” “The True Patriot,” and “The Accidental Asian.”
Originally aired: 07/15/2016
Marcia Franklin talks with author Richard Ford, who won a Pulitzer Prize for Independence Day, a book in his Frank Bascombe series, and who was nominated for a Pulitzer for his most recent book in the series Let Me Be Frank With You. Ford talks with Franklin about his themes, his writing style, his muse and his thoughts on race relations.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 11/6/2015
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2015 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 themes in it, and the reaction to the book. Franklin also asks him about his views on the war in Iraq.
Originally aired: 11/07/2014
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 family’s adventures hiking through some of the national parks in America most threatened by climate change, won an honorable mention in the National Outdoor Book Awards.
Lanza also runs the website thebigoutside.com, which was chosen by USA Today readers as one of the top 10 hiking and outdoors blogs.
Originally aired: 08/07/2015
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 honorable mention in the National Outdoor Book Awards. Franklin talks with him about why he wanted to write the book, and what it was like to backpack with his young children. Lanza also runs the website thebigoutside.com, which was chosen by USA Today readers as one of the top 10 hiking and outdoors blogs.
Originally aired: 07/10/2015
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
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 University and is now writing a book on Putin’s ‘soft power.’ At the time she spoke with Franklin, Dougherty was a Global Fellow at the Kennan Institute, a division of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.
The two discuss what Dougherty means by ‘soft power,’ and some of the factors that drive President Putin’s persona and politics. Franklin also asks Dougherty about Putin’s involvement in the United States’ presidential election and what the next U.S. president should keep in mind when negotiating with Russia.
Dougherty was in Boise in September 2016 to address the Boise Committee on Foreign Relations.
Originally Aired: 09/30/2016
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.
Originally Aired: 11/21/2014
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2014 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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’ Conference,” and was taped at the 2005 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life. This was the first year Marcia Franklin interviewed speakers there.
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 write well.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter!
Originally Aired: 12/21/2006
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series, "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference," and was taped at the 2006 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life. This was the second year Marcia Franklin interviewed speakers there.
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
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.
Originally Aired: 1/7/2022
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 conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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
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
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: 10/24/2014
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2014 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 Esquire to the New York Times Magazine, among other national and regional publications. He has also created pieces for Public Radio International's This American Life.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter!
Originally Aired: 12/18/2008
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series, "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference," and was taped at the 2008 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 in 1986.
During their conversation, Lewis and Franklin discussed his emotions on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act, the election of President Obama, what Lewis sees as current civil rights challenges, and his advice to the next generation. The two also discuss a trilogy of graphic novels called March that he and a staffer, Andrew Aydin, are writing. The series illustrates the congressman's life in the civil rights movement. The first book hit #1 on the New York Times Best Sellers List.
Originally Aired: 11/14/2014
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series, "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference," and was taped at the 2014 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life. Marcia Franklin has interviewed speakers there since 2005.
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 to take the journey, what he learned along the way, and why he wanted to write a book about his experiences. In an Extra, Koontz shares tips for walking the Camino, and describes the process of writing and publishing his book.
Originally aired: 07/24/14
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 to “imagine the world into a better place.”
Originally Aired: 12/29/2023
The interview is part of the series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference” and was taped at the 2023 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 discusses some of the ethical considerations involved in reporting this complex and personal story.
Originally Aired: 12/22/2023
The interview is part of the series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference” and was taped at the 2023 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 directed by Martin Scorsese, as was another of Grann’s bestsellers, Killers of the Flower Moon.
Originally Aired: 12/15/2023
The interview is part of the series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference” and was taped at the 2023 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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.
Originally Aired: 12/08/2023
The interview is part of the series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference” and was taped at the 2023 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 part of the series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference” and was taped at the 2023 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 many of the subjects for her poems from the news, including writing about both the tensions and close relationships between Palestinians and Israelis. The promotion of cross-cultural understanding and peace is an important component of her work, as is teaching poetry to children, publishing their poems and writing children’s books.
Marcia Franklin talks with Nye about her beginnings as a poet, the influences on her work, her tips for writing, the role of poetry in society and her thoughts on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 10/26/2012
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference” and was taped at the 2012 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 linked stories about soldiers in the Vietnam War, published in 1990. It was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award, and is required reading in many high school and college classes.
Franklin talks with O’Brien about his style of writing, which often blurs fact with fiction, and about his new life as a first-time father later in life. The two also talk extensively about war in our culture, and O’Brien shares his thoughts on how he thinks Veterans Day and Memorial Day would be best observed.
O’Brien was in Boise as the keynote speaker for the Idaho Humanities Council’s 2015 Distinguished Humanities Lecture.
Originally aired: 11/13/2015
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.
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 series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference” and was taped at the 2015 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 Aired: 12/19/2014
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference” and was taped at the 2014 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 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 in Boise that will be a filmmaking center.
Originally aired: 06/22/2006
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 “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference” and was taped at the 2017 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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’ Conference,” and was taped at the 2005 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life. This was the first year Marcia Franklin interviewed speakers there.
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
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 garden some think is an Islamic design to honor martyrs. The outcry is reminiscent of the 2010 controversy over Park51, a planned Islamic community center in New York City near the former Twin Towers. But Waldman had finished the first draft of her book before that story erupted.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 10/12/2012
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference” and was taped at the 2012 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 Aired: 11/16/2018
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference” and was taped at the 2018 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 movement, wilderness designation and salmon recovery.
Cecil Andrus, a Democrat, began his political career in 1960 as a state senator from Orofino, ID. After three terms in the statehouse, he lost his first election for governor in 1966, but won an unprecedented four terms in 1970, 1974, 1986 and 1990, a record which still stands.
From 1977 to 1981, Andrus served as Secretary of the Interior under President Jimmy Carter, the first Idahoan to serve in a presidential cabinet. In that position, he was known for helping pass the Alaska Lands Act, which set aside more than 100 million acres of land in that state as wilderness, including the Arctic national Wildlife Refuge. In 1995, Andrus founded the Andrus Center for Public Policy at Boise State University.
A Kellogg native and former reporter, Chris Carlson served as Andrus' press secretary for more than eight years, from 1972 to the end of Andrus' tenure at the Department of Interior. He served on the Northwest Power and Conservation Council and as government affairs director
for Kaiser Aluminum. Andrus and Carlson also worked together at Gallatin Public Affairs, a research and lobbying group of which Carlson is a co-founder. He is retired and lives in north Idaho.
Originally aired: 11/17/2011
Marcia Franklin talks with former Idaho Governor Phil Batt, who passed away earlier this year.
Originally aired: 01/2027/2000
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
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 linked stories about soldiers in the Vietnam War, published in 1990. It was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award, and is required reading in many high school and college classes.
Franklin talks with O'Brien about his style of writing, which often blurs fact with fiction, and about his new life as a first-time father later in life. The two also talk extensively about war in our culture, and O'Brien shares his thoughts on how he thinks Veterans Day and Memorial Day would be best observed.
O'Brien was in Boise as the keynote speaker for the Idaho Humanities Council's 2015
Distinguished Humanities Lecture.
Originally aired: 11/13/2015
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 compensation, what factors he took into account when designing the programs he administered, how the nature of his assignments has affected him, whether there is a role for government in compensating victims of disasters and whether he thinks the funds he's administered are appropriate models for the future.
Feinberg has written two books about his experiences, "What is Life Worth?" and "Who Gets What," and has served as adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University, the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, New York University, and the University of Virginia. He was in Idaho in October to present the annual Bellwood Memorial Lecture at the University
of Idaho College of Law.
Originally aired: 11/16/2012
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 Russian people, while Sophia wants the Tolstoy family to keep the rights.
Hoffman, who wrote and directed the script, shuttled for years between Boise and Germany, where the film was financed and made. He talks with Franklin about why he was attracted to the story, the process of making the film, and what it was like to direct Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer, who play the Tolstoys. Both are nominated for Academy Awards.
Originally aired: 03/04/2010
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 captivity, his views on the differences between the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, his thoughts on our military presence in Afghanistan, and what has drawn him to that country for so many years, despite the danger.
Originally aired: 04/28/2011
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
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
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 prestigious Iowa Writer's Workshop.
Originally aired: 11/24/2002
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
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," which introduced readers to the true story behind Herman Melville's Moby Dick. It won the National Book Award in 2001, and was the basis for an American Experience documentary on PBS in 2011.
Originally aired: 10/18/2013
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.
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 fought at Khe Sanh in what would become the longest siege of the Vietnam War, and which would end in a stalemate. In the film Bravo!, Rodgers, Wiese and 13 other former Marines describe their experiences in combat and how those experiences have continued to affect their lives.
Franklin asks the Rodgers' about why they wanted to produce the documentary and what they hope viewers will learn from it. Franklin also talks with Wiese about his experiences at Khe Sanh, and what has helped him overcome the traumas he experienced.
Originally aired: 11/08/2013
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
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, moderator for 10 nationally televised presidential debates, and winner of the 1999 Presidential Humanities Medal.
Originally aired: 11/23/2006
Mr. Lehrer's Journalistic Guidelines:
- Do nothing I cannot defend.
- Cover, write and present every story with the care I would want if the story were about me.
- Assume there is at least one other side or version to every story.
- Assume the viewer is as smart and as caring and as good a person as I am.
- Assume the same about all people on whom I report.
- Assume personal lives are a private matter until a legitimate turn in the story absolutely mandates otherwise.
- Carefully separate opinion and analysis from straight news stories and clearly label everything.
- Do not use anonymous sources or blind quotes except on rare and monumental occasions. No one should ever be allowed to attack another anonymously.
- I am not in the entertainment business.
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
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: 03/27/2008
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 people. The creative class — visionaries, creative professionals, technicians — now total about 30 percent of the entire U.S. workforce, up from less than 20 percent in 1980. The rules of recruitment are changing, Florida says, with the increased need for people who can originate new forms, creatively problem-solve, and develop unique ways to do a job.
Originally aired: 06/27/2002
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
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
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
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
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
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 in Boise that will be a filmmaking center.
Originally aired: 06/22/2006
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 growing violence in Pakistan, a country Raddatz has reported from many times.
Prior to joining ABC in 1999, Raddatz covered the Pentagon for National Public Radio for six years. Public Television viewers will recognize her as well for her regular appearances on Washington Week with Gwen Ifill.
The recipient of numerous honors, including a Peabody Award and three national Emmy awards, Ms. Raddatz was in Boise as the distinguished speaker for the Idaho Humanities Council's annual event.
Originally aired: 11/13/2008
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.
Originally aired: 11/17/2013
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 "The Torture Question." The producer of more than 200 national documentaries, Kirk has spent much of the past seven years documenting the political intrigue behind the decision to go to war in Iraq and the consequences of that decision.
An Idaho native, Kirk's public television career started at KUID-TV in Moscow. Originally aired: 10/09/2008
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, named after the gospel singer Mavis Staples. Eilen and Jason are also in a gospel band, The Sacred Shakers. Jewell talks with Franklin about why she's attracted to gospel music and performs a song she wrote for her new daughter.
This program was taped at AudioLab Recording Studios in Garden City and includes footage of Jewell and her band performing at the Sapphire Room at the Riverside Hotel, also in Garden City. One of the songs, "My Hometown," is about Boise.
Originally aired: 12/26/2014
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 aired: 11/23/2012
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 Earley discuss why he wanted to write the book, how he researched it, and what he views as solutions for the current gaps in mental health policy in America.
Earley was in Boise to speak to the Idaho chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).
Originally aired: 10/10/2014
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 redemptive as the original; it's all heart, and I read it in a couple of ebullient, Christmassy gulps."
Silva talks with Franklin about what drew her to Dickens, how she researched her book, why she thinks "A Christmas Carol" crystallizes Dickens' ethos, and why the story is still relevant.
A graduate of Boise State University and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Silva is a screenwriter who has sold projects to Paramount, Universal, New Line Cinema, and TNT. A film version of her short story, "The Big Burn," won the One Potato Short Screenplay Competition at the 2017 Sun Valley Film Festival and will be released in 2018. Silva will also be writing another novel.
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.
Originally titled "Thinking the Unthinkable," the post was picked up by The Blue Review, a journal published by the College of Social Sciences and Public Affairs at Boise State University, and renamed "I Am Adam Lanza's Mother," a phrase Long used in her piece. The Huffington Post then re-published it. Thousands of people have now commented on the piece - some identifying with Long's fear of her son and her frustrations seeking treatment for him, and others berating her for discussing his personal life so openly. Franklin talks with Long about the reaction to the piece and about the past year, during which she testified before a Congressional committee, appeared on numerous television programs (including a PBS NOVA documentary), gave a TedX talk in San Antonio and wrote a book.
Originally aired: 12/13/13
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 aired: 11/11/2022
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 series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2015 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2017 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 intimate story of Cynthia Ann Parker, a nine-year old girl who was kidnapped by Comanches during a raid on the family’s Texas homestead. Parker subsequently spent 24 years with the tribe and had three children, including Quanah, who would become one of the Comanche’s most skilled warriors.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 10/19/2012
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference” and was taped at the 2012 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2019 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 themes in it, and the reaction to the book. Franklin also asks him about his views on the war in Iraq.
Originally aired: 11/07/2014
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 chaplain. Klay also reads from his book, and shares some of his thoughts on the war.
In addition to his book, Klay’s writing has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Granta and Tin House. He was a finalist for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award and received the National Book Critics’ Circle John Leonard Award for the best debut in any genre of writing.
Originally aired: 06/12/2015
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 chaplain. Klay also reads from his book, and shares some of his thoughts on the war.
In addition to his book, Klay’s writing has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Granta and Tin House. He was a finalist for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award and received the National Book Critics’ Circle John Leonard Award for the best debut in any genre of writing.
Originally aired: 06/12/2015
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 Common Good, whose mission is to "overhaul governmental and legal systems to allow people to make sensible choices." Mr. Howard's TED Talk on the subject has been viewed more than half a million times. His opinion pieces have been published in major newspapers, including the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.
Howard was in Boise in October 2015 to address the Bench-Bar Conference organized by the federal court system in Idaho.
Originally aired: 01/22/2016
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 Common Good, whose mission is to "overhaul governmental and legal systems to allow people to make sensible choices." Mr. Howard's TED Talk on the subject has been viewed more than half a million times. His opinion pieces have been published in major newspapers, including the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.
Howard was in Boise in October 2015 to address the Bench-Bar Conference organized by the federal court system in Idaho.
Originally aired: 01/22/2016
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 lives ultimately intersect in war-torn Saint Malo, France. The town was nearly destroyed by Allied forces at the end of the war.
Doerr discusses the book's themes, which include the power of radio during that time period, and the moral choices faced by civilians during wartime. Doerr also talks about what kept him motivated during the decade-long writing process.
Originally aired: 07/10/14
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 lives ultimately intersect in war-torn Saint Malo, France. The town was nearly destroyed by Allied forces at the end of the war.
Doerr discusses the book's themes, which include the power of radio during that time period, and the moral choices faced by civilians during wartime. Doerr also talks about what kept him motivated during the decade-long writing process.
Originally aired: 07/10/14
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 Robie Creek, about 30 miles from Boise. Emery homeschools her children, and the family raises goats and chickens, along with growing some of their food. Her mother, Carla Emery, was a leader in the back-to-the-land movement of the 1970s, and the author of the popular “Encyclopedia of Country Living.”
Originally aired: 02/10/2017
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 Robie Creek, about 30 miles from Boise. Emery homeschools her children, and the family raises goats and chickens, along with growing some of their food. Her mother, Carla Emery, was a leader in the back-to-the-land movement of the 1970s, and the author of the popular “Encyclopedia of Country Living.”
Originally aired: 02/10/2017
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 and family members to write the first major biography of the "the most trusted man in America."
Franklin and Brinkley discuss the highlights of Cronkite's career and what distinguished him from other broadcasters, as well as some of the eccentricities of Cronkite's personality that Brinkley discovered while researching the book.
Brinkley, a professor of history at Rice University, was in Coeur d'Alene to speak at the Idaho Humanities Council's annual Northern Idaho Distinguished Humanities Lecture.
Originally aired: 11/22/2013
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 and family members to write the first major biography of the "the most trusted man in America."
Franklin and Brinkley discuss the highlights of Cronkite's career and what distinguished him from other broadcasters, as well as some of the eccentricities of Cronkite's personality that Brinkley discovered while researching the book.
Brinkley, a professor of history at Rice University, was in Coeur d'Alene to speak at the Idaho Humanities Council's annual Northern Idaho Distinguished Humanities Lecture.
Originally aired: 11/22/2013
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 family's adventures hiking through some of the national parks in America most threatened by climate change, won an honorable mention in the National Outdoor Book Awards.
Lanza also runs the website thebigoutside.com, which was chosen by USA Today readers as one of the top 10 hiking and outdoors blogs.
Originally aired: 08/07/2015
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 honorable mention in the National Outdoor Book Awards. Franklin talks with him about why he wanted to write the book, and what it was like to backpack with his young children. Lanza also runs the website thebigoutside.com, which was chosen by USA Today readers as one of the top 10 hiking and outdoors blogs.
Originally aired: 07/10/2015
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 to take the journey, what he learned along the way, and why he wanted to write a book about his experiences. In an Extra, Koontz shares tips for walking the Camino, and describes the process of writing and publishing his book.
Host Marcia Franklin talks with Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof. Kristof was in Boise in October, 2018 to address the fall conference of the Idaho Women’s Charitable Foundation. The two discuss Kristof's views on current social issues in America. His next book will look at those concerns, focusing on his hometown of Yamhill, Oregon. Kristof talks about programs he believes would help ameliorate the problems, and they also discuss the role of private philanthropy. Franklin also asks Kristof about international topics, as he spends much of his time reporting from foreign countries, and he shares his thoughts on which of his stories he’s most proud.
Nicholas Kristof started his career at the New York Times as a reporter in 1984, becoming a columnist in 2001. During his tenure there, he has traveled to more than 150 countries and every state in the U.S. With his wife, Cheryl WuDunn, Kristof won a Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting in 1990 for their joint coverage of China during the Tiananmen Square uprising. He went on to win another Pulitzer in 2006 for commentary, and has been nominated seven times for the prestigious award.
Originally aired: 01/11/2019
Host Marcia Franklin interviews Michael Ames, the co-author of "American Cipher: Bowe Bergdahl and the U.S. Tragedy in Afghanistan." Ames, a former reporter for the Idaho Mountain Express and Sun Valley Magazine, became fascinated with the story of Bowe Bergdahl, an U.S. Army soldier who grew up in Hailey, Idaho, who was captured by the Taliban and held for five years. Ames and co-author Matt Farwell take a deeper look into Bergdahl’s life and the politics surrounding the search for him and his eventual release. Franklin talks with Ames about his conclusions and why he felt it was important to write the book.
Originally aired: 12/13/2019
Montana author Pete Fromm joins host Marcia Franklin to talk about his latest book, "A Job You Mostly Won’t Know How to Do." The novel tells the story of a young man who has to raise his child when his wife dies in childbirth. Fromm talks about how he developed the story, as well as his writing style. The two also discuss the success he’s had with his books in France. Fromm also reminisces about the seven months he lived in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness of Idaho, which he recounted in his award-winning memoir, Indian Creek Chronicles: A Winter Alone in the Wilderness.
A five-time winner of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Literary Award, Fromm is the author of five novels and five collections of short stories, including The Names of the Stars, a follow-up to Indian Creek Chronicles, and As Cool As I Am, which was made into a movie starring Clare Danes. He also teaches in the low-residency MFA writing program at the Pacific University Oregon. He was in Boise to speak at the Rediscovered Bookshop.
Originally aired: 12/27/2019
Marcia Franklin talks with author Kirk Wallace Johnson about his book The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century. The book details Johnson’s investigation into a major theft of 300 rare bird skins from a British museum in 2009 by a 20-year-old American, Edward Rist. Rist then illegally sold the feathers into the arcane world of Victorian salmon fly-tyers.
Johnson discusses why he felt it was important to write the book, and how the crime and other heists like it damage the field of natural history. He also shares his thoughts on the “feather thief,” whom he interviewed. The founder of The List Project to Resettle Iraqi Allies, Johnson worked in Fallujah, Iraq, for the U.S. Agency for International Development. He wrote a book about his experiences called "To Be a Friend Is Fatal." His third book, “The Fisherman and the Dragon: Two Dreams at War off the Texas Coast,” was published in 2022. He was in Boise to speak at The Rediscovered Bookshop.
Originally aired: 01/03/2020
As the United States heads for what portends to be a raucous convention season, Dialogue host Marcia Franklin talks with Eric Liu, the founder of Citizen University in Seattle, about whether it’s even possible in a seemingly fractured society to have a civil discussion about politics. Liu, also the executive director of the Citizenship and American Identity Program at the Aspen Institute, is trying to reclaim civic education from the doldrums and encourage Americans to act on their rights. His TED Talk on the subject has more than a million and a half views.
Franklin and Liu discuss the “tectonic” demographic shift in the country and what it potentially means for governing, how Americans from diverse backgrounds are still bound together by a common creed, and what he describes as a “third Reconstruction Period” in the United States. Liu, an attorney, is the author of more than a half-dozen books, including “Gardens of Democracy,” “Guiding Lights,” “The True Patriot,” and “The Accidental Asian.”
Originally aired: 07/15/2016
Host Marcia Franklin continues her conversation with Idaho-born playwright Samuel Hunter, focusing on the craft of playwriting, some of the actors he admires, and a new project he's working on that's not for the stage.
Hunter, a Moscow, ID native, is the recipient of a 2014 MacArthur Fellowship, known colloquially as the "Genius Grant." He also won an Obie Award in 2011.
Originally Aired: 10/16/2015
Marcia Franklin talks with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and author Fredrik Logevall, Ph.D.
about the antecedents to the Vietnam War.
Logevall, the Laurence D. Belfer Professor of International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School and a professor of history at Harvard College, won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in History for his book, "Embers of War." It examined France's colonial involvement in Vietnam, and how and why U.S. support of the French led to the Vietnam War.
In its citation, the Pulitzer committee called the work a "balanced, deeply researched history of how, as French colonial rule faltered, a succession of American leaders moved step by step down a road toward full-blown war." The book also won the Francis Parkman Prize from the Society of American Historians.
Franklin talks with Logevall about why he felt it was important for people to know about the pre-history of the Vietnam War, whether the war could have been avoided, and how the decisions made before and during the Vietnam War have affected our country's foreign policy since then.
The author or editor of nine books, Professor Logevall previously taught at Cornell, where he was the director of the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, and at the University of California Santa Barbara, where he co-founded the Center for Cold War Studies. He is the past president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. Franklin spoke with him in Idaho Falls, where he gave the keynote speech at the Idaho Humanities Council's 2016 Eastern Idaho Distinguished Humanities Lecture.
Originally Aired: 04/29/2016
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
Marcia Franklin talks with leading death penalty opponent Sister Helen Prejean, C.S.J. about her views, as well as the success of the book and film about her life, 'Dead Man Walking.' The two also discuss the potential future of the death penalty, women in the priesthood, and her next project.
Originally aired: 05/13/98
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 with a team to locate 232 surviving copies of the First Folio, 72 more than were originally thought to exist. An estimated 800 were originally printed. There are now 235 known copies. The group went on to painstakingly document the condition of every page of as many copies as it could examine.
Rasmussen is also the author of The Shakespeare Thefts: In Search of the First Folios, in which he includes some of the more colorful stories surrounding the various copies of the 900-plus page book, both ones that have been found and those that are still missing. Franklin talks with the professor about his interest in the First Folio, how he authenticates the new copies he finds, some of the unique aspects of the books, what he’s learned studying them, and what he thinks about the various authorship theories regarding Shakespeare’s works.
The interview took place at the Humanities Institute at Boise State University, one of 52 locations in the United States chosen by the Folger Shakespeare Library to display the First Folio in 2016.
Originally Aired: 09/09/2016
Marcia Franklin talks with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Frank McCourt about storytelling and the power of memory. (Note: McCourt died July 19, 2009)
The two talk about the loss of the storytelling ethos in our culture, and the need to preserve history through both oral and written tradition. They also discuss the rigors of teaching; McCourt taught high school English for 30 years and wrote about the experience in his 2005 book "Teacher Man". He says it was his students who urged him to write his memoir of growing up poor in Ireland, which was eventually published as "Angela's Ashes" and garnered the Pulitzer.
Franklin and McCourt also talk about how the events of 9/11 affected McCourt, who contributed to a book honoring the efforts of firefighters during the disaster. And he gives his picks for good reading. McCourt was in Boise to speak to the Idaho Humanities Council.
Originally Aired: 11/14/2002
Idaho native and author Alyssa Harad talks with Marcia Franklin about her first book, *Coming to My Senses*, which chronicles her surprise at discovering how the power of perfume helped her grow personally as both a writer and feminist. She also recommends books for good winter reading.
Harad, who grew up in Boise, had been working in a series of unfulfilling jobs in Austin, TX after receiving her Ph.D. One day she started reading about perfume. Her academic interest in the language and history of scent turned personal when she began ordering perfume for herself and others. She found that all of her senses became more acute, making her a better writer, and that enjoying perfume also broadened her ideas about what it meant to be a strong woman.
Originally Aired: 12/21/2012
Marcia Franklin talks with Judge Joan E. Donoghue of the International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court. Donoghue is the first female American judge to sit on the court, which is in The Hague, Netherlands, and is only the third female judge to be seated in that
court's history.
She discusses the role of the court, which hears disputes between nation-states, her experience on the court, and the importance of international law. The court's opinions are sometimes controversial, and since 1986, the United States has only recognized its jurisdiction on a case-by-case basis. Franklin also discusses that situation with Judge Donoghue.
Before being elected to her post in 2010 by the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council, Judge Donoghue had a distinguished career in the U.S. Department of State. Among her positions, she served as Principal Deputy Legal Adviser, Deputy Legal Adviser, Assistant Legal Adviser for Economic and Business Affairs and Assistant Legal Adviser for Oceans, Environment and Science.
Originally Aired: 07/19/2013
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
University and is now writing a book on Putin’s ‘soft power.’ At the time she spoke with
Franklin, Dougherty was a Global Fellow at the Kennan Institute, a division of the Woodrow
Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.
The two discuss what Dougherty means by ‘soft power,’ and some of the factors that drive President Putin’s persona and politics. Franklin also asks Dougherty about Putin’s involvement in the United States’ presidential election and what the next U.S. president should keep in mind when negotiating with Russia.
Dougherty was in Boise in September 2016 to address the Boise Committee on Foreign Relations.
Originally Aired: 09/30/2016
Director, writer and performance artist Miranda July talks with host Marcia Franklin about her life and work. The conversation was filmed at the Church of the Big Wood in Ketchum, as part of an event sponsored by the Sun Valley Center for the Arts. July discusses the inspirations for her work, her creative process, and how becoming a mother has changed her.
Miranda July wrote, directed and starred in the film "Me and You and Everyone We Know," which won a special jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival and the Caméra d’Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival. July’s novel, "The First Bad Man," was a New York Times bestseller, and her collection of short stories, "No One Belongs Here More Than You," won the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. July is also known for her performance pieces.
Originally aired: 05/19/17
Host Marcia Franklin talks with bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Anna Quindlen. The two discuss the political and cultural landscape of today, including the "Me Too" movement. The author of "How Reading Changed My Life," Quindlen also talks about the power of reading to bridge gaps between people.
Quindlen has written 17 books of fiction and non-fiction, including "Lots of Candles," "Plenty of Cake," "Still Life with Bread Crumbs," "A Short Guide to a Happy Life," "Miller's Valley," and her most recent book, "Alternate Side." A longtime reporter and columnist, Quindlen worked for the New York Times for many years. In 1992 she won a Pulitzer Prize for a series of columns she wrote for the paper, including some about the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. She was also a columnist for Newsweek.
Quindlen was in Boise as the keynote speaker for the annual Idaho Humanities Council Distinguished Lecture.
Originally aired: 11/23/2018
Host Marcia Franklin talks with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and Idaho native Laurel Thatcher Ulrich about her latest book, "Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History." Ulrich, a professor at Harvard University, coined the phrase in a scholarly paper she wrote in the 1970s.
Franklin and her guest discuss how growing up in Idaho influenced Professor Ulrich to become a historian. She also explains why she calls herself "a Mormon feminist" and why she believes "good history is almost always dangerous." Franklin recorded this interview after Ulrich's Distinguished Humanities Lecture in Idaho Falls for the Idaho Humanities Council.
Originally Aired: 06/11/2009
Marcia Franklin talks with novelist Dinaw Mengestu about the themes of his books, which include All the Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears and All Our Names. Mengestu, who emigrated from Ethiopia with his family when he was two, often writes about the lives of immigrants. He is the recipient of many honors, including the Guardian First Book Award and the MacArthur Fellowship.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 11/27/2015
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2015 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 historians now believe he had as many as seven children. Hemings, a slave at Monticello, was also the half-sister of Jefferson's wife, Martha, who died when Jefferson was 39.
A professor at Rutgers University and the New York College of Law at the time of the interview, Gordon-Reed is currently the Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History at Harvard Law School and Professor of History in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter!
Originally Aired: 12/03/2009
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series, "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference," and was taped at the 2009 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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
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
Marcia Franklin talks with Pulitzer-Prize winning novelist Richard Russo about his book, Elsewhere: A Memoir. The book describes the complicated relationship Russo had with his mother, who raised him, but who needed assistance herself. He and Franklin also discuss the themes of his other works, the process of adapting his books for the screen, and his upcoming projects. Originally Aired: 11/30/12
In this extra segment, host Marcia Franklin continues her discussion with Holocaust survivor Marion Blumenthal Lazan, focusing on the changes that have taken place in Germany since World War II, and her thoughts on Israel. Originally Aired: 09/05/13
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
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.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter!
Originally Aired: 11/14/2014
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 in 1986.
During their conversation, Lewis and Franklin discussed his emotions on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act, the election of President Obama, what Lewis sees as current civil rights challenges, and his advice to the next generation. The two also discuss a trilogy of graphic novels called March that he and a staffer, Andrew Aydin, are writing. The series illustrates the congressman's life in the civil rights movement. The first book hit #1 on the New York Times Best Sellers List.
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series, "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference," and was taped at the 2014 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life. Marcia Franklin has interviewed speakers there since 2005.
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.
Originally Aired: 1/7/2022
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 conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Longtime New Yorker writer and author Susan Orlean rounds out the month with a lively chat with Franklin 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 conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 12/24/2021
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 conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Catherine Grace Katz talks with host Marcia Franklin about “The Daughters of Yalta,” her first book. In it, she illuminates the contributions that Anna Roosevelt, Sarah Churchill and Kathleen Harriman made during the seminal 1945 meeting of world leaders at Yalta, which included their fathers, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Averell Harriman.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 12/17/2021
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 conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2021 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2021 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
More of Marcia Franklin’s 2019 conversation with National Book Award-winning author and world traveler Barry Lopez about his life, his philosophy of writing and his new memoir, Horizon.
In December 2020, the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference awarded Barry Lopez with the inaugural Writer in the World Prize in recognition of his singular voice in the landscape of English Literature. Lopez died December 25, 2020.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 11/29/2019
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2019 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Marcia Franklin talks with National Book Award-winning author and world traveler Barry Lopez about his philosophy of writing and his penultimate memoir, Horizon.
In December 2020, the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference awarded Barry Lopez with the inaugural Writer in the World Prize in recognition of his singular voice in the landscape of English Literature. Lopez died on December 25, 2020.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 11/22/2019
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2019 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2019 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Marcia Franklin talks with Pulitzer Prize–winning author Stacy Schiff about her latest 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 series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2015 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Marcia Franklin talks with Yale Professor of History Joanne Freeman about her book The Field of Blood. In it, Freeman illustrates how the U.S. Congress leading up to the Civil War was a more violent body than previously thought. Franklin asks her about parallels to current tensions in Congress. Freeman also discusses her next book, “Hunting for Hamilton,” and the value of studying history.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 11/8/2019
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2019 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2019 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Marcia Franklin talks with renowned architect Jeanne Gang about her work and architectural philosophy. Gang, the founder of Studio Gang in Chicago, is known for her innovative use of materials and approach to architecture. She was awarded a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship for her work.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 11/30/2018
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2018 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 Aired: 11/16/2018
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2018 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Eliza Griswold talks with host Marcia Franklin about her book Amity and Prosperity, which investigates the effects of fracking in a southwestern Pennsylvania community. The two discuss how Griswold researched the book and the rural-urban divide in American politics. Griswold also talks about her forthcoming book of poetry.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 11/9/2018
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2018 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Author Adam Johnson, who has won both a Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for his works, talks with host Marcia Franklin about his writing philosophy. The two also discuss his thoughts on North Korea, which he has visited and about which he wrote in The Orphan Master's Son.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 11/2/2018
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2018 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2017 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Falconer and author Helen Macdonald shares how a goshawk helped her soar above grief and loss and discusses her new PBS Nature documentary. Her memoir, "H is for Hawk," recounts the year Macdonald spent training a goshawk in the wake of her father’s death and how it helped her begin her life anew. She is also the author of Shaler’s Fish and has since published the book Vesper Flights.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 9/22/2017
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2017 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Ayad Akhtar talks with Marcia Franklin about his trajectory from Milwaukee to Broadway, and the often controversial themes of his works. Akhtar won the Pulitzer Prize in 2013 for his play "Disgraced."
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 9/8/2017
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2017 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Journalist Louisa Thomas talks about her book Louisa: The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. Adams, which examines the life and times of First Lady Louisa Catherine Adams, the wife of President John Quincy Adams and the first foreign-born First Lady of the United States. Thomas illuminates not only the life of this fascinating woman, but also the political life of America in the 1800s.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 9/1/2017
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2017 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
In a far-ranging discussion, Dialogue host Marcia Franklin talks with author Jamaica Kincaid about her life, her writing philosophy, gardening, Brexit, and race relations in America. Kincaid, who spoke at the 2016 Sun Valley Writers' Conference, was a staff writer for The New Yorker for 20 years. She's also the author of numerous books of fiction and nonfiction.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 12/16/2016
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2016 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Marcia Franklin talks with author Claire Vaye Watkins about the nexus between her life and her books, which include the novel Gold Fame Citrus and the short story collection Battleborn. The two also discuss the myths that surround the American West, and how Watkins has incorporated her anger about them into her works. Watkins, a professor at the University of California at Irvine, was the recipient of the Story Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship before she was 30.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 12/9/2016
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2016 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Author and open-water devotee Susan Casey talks with Marcia Franklin about her book, Voices in the Ocean: A Journey into the Wild and Haunting World of Dolphins. It examines the unique qualities of dolphins, threats to the species, and the people trying to save them.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 11/25/2016
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2016 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Marcia Franklin talks with Walter Robinson, former editor of the Boston Globe's Spotlight team. The team won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for its investigation of the cover-up within the Boston Archdiocese of sexual abuse by clergy. Robinson talks about the importance of the investigation, the stresses involved, and the Academy Award-winning movie made about it, "Spotlight."
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 11/18/2016
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2016 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2016 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2016 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Marcia Franklin talks with PBS NewsHour Chief Arts Correspondent Jeffrey Brown about his book of poetry, The News. The poems reflect some of Brown’s thoughts and emotions about his profession and the stories he covers. The two also discuss why he’s drawn to poetry. The interview was recorded at the annual Sun Valley Writers’ Conference in Idaho.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 12/4/2015
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2015 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Marcia Franklin talks with novelist Dinaw Mengestu about the themes of his books, which include All the Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears and All Our Names. Mengestu, who emigrated from Ethiopia with his family when he was two, often writes about the lives of immigrants. He is the recipient of many honors, including the Guardian First Book Award and the MacArthur Fellowship.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 11/27/2015
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2015 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Marcia Franklin talks with David Miliband, president of the International Rescue Committee, about the causes of the world's worst refugee crisis since World War II, the challenges involved, and how he thinks the U.S. should help. As of 2020, there are an estimated 80 million people displaced from their homes as a result of war and persecution.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 9/16/2016
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2016 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Marcia Franklin talks with author Richard Ford, who won a Pulitzer Prize for Independence Day, a book in his Frank Bascombe series, and who was nominated for a Pulitzer for his most recent book in the series Let Me Be Frank With You. Ford talks with Franklin about his themes, his writing style, his muse and his thoughts on race relations.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 11/6/2015
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2015 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 Aired: 12/19/2014
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2014 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Dialogue host Marcia Franklin talks with New Yorker editor Mary Norris about her book Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen. The two discuss grammar tips, some of her favorite writers to edit and what it's like to help hold up the editing standard at The New Yorker.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 11/20/2015
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2015 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Dialogue host Marcia Franklin talks with New Yorker journalist and author Lawrence Wright, who won a Pulitzer for his book The Looming Tower. He shares his thoughts on radical Islamic terrorism. The two also discuss his book 13 Days in September, which chronicles the tensions behind the 1978 Camp David Accords and their legacy.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 9/10/2015
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2015 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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.
Originally Aired: 11/21/2014
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2014 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Marcia Franklin talks with author Yiyun Li about her works, including her recent novel, Kinder Than Solitude. Li, who came to the U.S. in 1996, originally studied to be an immunologist but fell in love with writing. In addition to many awards for her fiction, Li received a MacArthur “Genius Grant.” She discusses her life, the themes of her books, and why she only writes in English.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 10/30/2014
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2014 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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: 10/24/2014
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2014 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 many of the subjects for her poems from the news, including writing about both the tensions and close relationships between Palestinians and Israelis. The promotion of cross-cultural understanding and peace is an important component of her work, as is teaching poetry to children, publishing their poems and writing children’s books.
Marcia Franklin talks with Nye about her beginnings as a poet, the influences on her work, her tips for writing, the role of poetry in society and her thoughts on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 10/26/2012
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2012 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 intimate story of Cynthia Ann Parker, a nine-year old girl who was kidnapped by Comanches during a raid on the family's Texas homestead. Parker subsequently spent 24 years with the tribe and had three children, including Quanah, who would become one of the Comanche's most skilled warriors.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 10/19/2012
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2012 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 garden some think is an Islamic design to honor martyrs.
The outcry is reminiscent of the 2010 controversy over Park51, a planned Islamic community center in New York City near the former Twin Towers. But Waldman had finished the first draft of her book before that story erupted.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 10/12/2012
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2012 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Marcia Franklin talks with author Alexandra Fuller about her works, her life and her writing philosophy. Fuller was raised in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Malawi and Zambia, and her reminiscences of growing up in war-torn Africa with her hardscrabble parents form the basis of two memoirs, Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood (2002) and Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness (2011).
In the books, she details her growing awareness not only of the manic depression and alcoholism of her mother, who lost three children to disease and accident, but also of the unequal treatment of whites and blacks in Africa and her parents’ own racism.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 10/5/2012
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2012 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Marcia Franklin talks with author and former journalist Kati Marton. She describes the experience of researching her book Enemies of the People, which chronicles her effort to learn more about her parents. They were imprisoned by the Hungarian government during the Cold War for their work as reporters for American news outlets. Released after nearly two years, her parents fled to the United States, where they lived out their lives and never discussed their ordeal.
Years after their deaths, Marton had the unique opportunity to look at the once-secret files compiled on her family. She discovered not only who had betrayed her parents, but more about their past lives than she had ever imagined.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 12/15/2011
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2011 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Marcia Franklin talks with Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin. Called the "first great 9/11 novel" and winner of the 2009 National Book Award for fiction, the novel weaves together the stories of fictional characters all living in New York City in 1974 during the week Philippe Petit made his famous tightrope walk between the Twin Towers. Although the book barely mentions the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, it is considered an homage to that day and its effect on the country.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 12/8/2011
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2011 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
When a Tunisian street vendor set himself on fire in December 2010 to protest treatment by a police officer, he set off an unlikely chain of uprisings throughout the region, now dubbed as the “Arab Spring.”
Marcia Franklin talks with Suzanne Maloney, an expert on Iran who was at the time a scholar at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, about how uprisings in the Middle East affect the United States. Maloney is now a vice president of Brookings and director of its foreign policy program.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.
Originally Aired: 10/6/2011
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2011 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Host Marcia Franklin talks with historian David Kennedy about Depression-era policies and whether they have parallels to the modern financial crisis.
Kennedy, professor emeritus at Stanford University, is known for integrating both economic and cultural analyses in his works about particular historical eras, as he did in Freedom from Fear, a book about the Great Depression in the United States. That book won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000.
Kennedy is also the author of several other books, including Over Here: The First World War and American Society, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1981.
He and Franklin discuss the differences between the financial crises in the Great Depression and today, as well as issues that concern him including the growing gap he sees between civilian and military society. Kennedy also talks about the priorities for the Bill Lane Center for the American West, of which he was a co-director.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter!
Originally Aired: 12/23/2010
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series, "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference," and was taped at the 2010 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 political and societal solutions for reversing climate change.
The two also discuss his views on global governance, about which he writes in The Great Experiment: The Story of Ancient Empires, Modern States, and the Quest for a Global Nation. Talbott also sits on North American Executive Committee of the Trilateral Commission. The two discuss some Americans’ fears of a "One World government."
Talbott, who was Deputy Secretary of State under President Bill Clinton, specialized in working with the new independent states of the Soviet Union. He talks with Franklin about a scandal in which Russian spies were found to have been living in the United States for many years. The two also discuss Brookings Mountain West, an offshoot of the Brookings Institution in Las Vegas, which examines public policy issues pertaining to the Intermountain West.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter!
Originally Aired: 12/16/2010
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series, "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference," and was taped at the 2010 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Host Marcia Franklin talks with author and world traveler Pico Iyer, whose books and essays about the far corners of the world explore not just the dynamics of those cultures, but also travel itself and its effect on an "outsider."
Iyer's many books include: Video Night in Kathmandu, The Lady and the Monk, Falling off the Map and The Global Soul. His most recent book when Franklin interviewed him, The Open Road, is about the life and philosophy of the Dalai Lama, who was a friend of Iyer's father.
Franklin and Iyer talk about why he enjoys journeying so much, what tips he has for others who want to travel, and why he's concerned that so few Americans have passports. They also discuss the politics of Tibet, and what Iyer learned about the personality of the Dalai Lama in the years of researching his book on him.
A former reporter for Time magazine, Iyer also writes many articles for periodicals and newspapers, including The New York Times and the New York Review of Books.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter!
Originally Aired: 12/09/2010
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series, "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference," and was taped at the 2010 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Host Marcia Franklin talks with former child soldier Ishmael Beah, whose bestselling book, A Long Way Gone, details his harrowing experiences in the 1990s when he fought with the government-backed army in Sierra Leone as a teenager during a brutal civil war. Beah fled attacking rebels in his homeland at age 12 and was later picked up and forced to serve in the government army. He was eventually released by the army and sent to a UNICEF rehabilitation center.
Franklin and Beah talk about how he and other children are drawn into war, what effect his experiences had on him, what society can do about this illegal practice, and what he plans to do with his future. Beah also addresses allegations that there were factual inaccuracies in his book, including how long he was a soldier.
Beah moved to the United States in 1998 and later earned a bachelor's degree in political science. He has spoken before the United Nations, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities (CETO) at the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, as well as many other panels on children affected by the war.
Beah’s novel Radiance of Tomorrow was published in January 2014. His most recent novel Little Family was published in April 2020.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter!
Originally Aired: 12/02/2010
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series, "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference," and was taped at the 2010 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Host Marcia Franklin talks with author and New Yorker magazine writer Philip Gourevitch about the stories he's covered, including the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison. The two discuss what lessons Gourevitch thinks can be learned from these events, and why he is often drawn to subjects that make others look away.
In The Ballad of Abu Ghraib, Gourevitch pieced together transcripts of interviews filmmaker Errol Morris conducted with soldiers who were accused of torturing inmates at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Those interviews were also part of a documentary, "Standard Operating Procedure." Gourevitch talks with Franklin about why he thinks some of the soldiers engaged in abusive acts.
Gourevitch also authored We Wish to Inform You That Today We Will Be Killed With Our Families, an account of the 1994 mass killing of at least 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus by other Hutus. The book was the recipient of numerous awards.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter!
Originally Aired: 12/17/2009
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series, "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference," and was taped at the 2009 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Host Marcia Franklin talks with Dr. Abraham Verghese, a professor at the Stanford School of Medicine and an author of both fiction and non-fiction works. They discuss not only the themes of his work, but also his thoughts on healthcare reform and ways for doctors to establish better working relationships with their patients.
Verghese's first book, My Own Country, was a poignant chronicle of how his life was changed by working with AIDS patients in rural Tennessee. It was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He went on to pen another non-fiction work called The Tennis Partner, about a doctor's struggle with mental illness and drug addiction. He is also a frequent contributor to magazines and journals, writing articles about medical ethics.
In his first novel, Verghese turned his focus to a work of fiction, Cutting for Stone. It is set in Ethopia, where he grew up. The expansive book follows the saga of two Indian brothers as they learn more about their past. With medicine as its backdrop, it also allows Verghese to explore some of what he views as the best and worst aspects of his profession.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter!
Originally Aired: 12/10/2009
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series, "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference," and was taped at the 2009 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Host Marcia Franklin talks with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gretchen Morgenson, then a financial editor and columnist at the New York Times who covered the country's financial crisis since its inception.
They discuss the federal government's push to increase home ownership, which Morgenson sees as the underpinning of the financial collapse. The two also talk about various taxpayer-funded bailouts of companies such as AIG, and whether Morgenson sees any light at the end of the tunnel for the slumping economy.
Before moving to The Wall Street Journal in November 2017, Morgenson was assistant business and financial editor at the New York Times since May 1998. Prior to that she was assistant managing editor at Forbes magazine. She was also the press secretary for the Forbes for President campaign. In 2002, she won a Pulitzer Prize for her coverage of Wall Street.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter!
Originally Aired: 09/10/2009
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series, "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference," and was taped at the 2009 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 Esquire to the New York Times Magazine, among other national and regional publications. He has also created pieces for Public Radio International's This American Life.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter!
Originally Aired: 12/18/2008
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series, "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference," and was taped at the 2008 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Marcia Franklin talks with Indian politician, author and former U.N. Under-Secretary-General Dr. Shashi Tharoor. They discuss his revealing look at India's role in the global economy, The Elephant, The Tiger, and The Cell Phone: The Transformation of India in the 21st Century. After talking with Franklin, Tharoor was elected to the Indian Parliament in 2009 to represent the Thiruvananthapuram constituency in the Indian state of Kerala.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter!
Originally Aired: 12/11/2008
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series, "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference," and was taped at the 2008 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Marcia Franklin talks with John Hockenberry, a longtime journalist who was the program director for the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference. They discuss his view on changes in the media world, as well as advances in adaptive technology for disabled people. Hockenberry became a paraplegic in an auto accident as a teenager, but that didn't keep him from reporting all over the world. He recorded those wheelchair-piloted adventures in his 1995 book, Moving Violations - War Zones, Wheelchairs and Declarations of Independence.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter!
Originally Aired: 12/04/2008
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series, "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference," and was taped at the 2008 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Host Marcia Franklin talks with New Yorker writer George Packer, who has been to Iraq six times. Packer discusses his book on the subject, The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq, which the New York Times named one of the ten best books of 2005. He also talks with Franklin about the changing political landscape at home in America.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter!
Originally Aired: 10/05/2008
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series, "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference," and was taped at the 2008 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Idaho Public Television host Marcia Franklin interviews Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Haynes Johnson about his nonfiction book, The Age of Anxiety: McCarthyism to Terrorism, in which he examines the parallels between the McCarthy era of the 1950s and today's post 9-11 political arena. He also offers his views on Fidel Castro’s place in Cuba, and opines about the current states of journalism and education.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter!
Originally Aired: 12/14/2006
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series, "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference," and was taped at the 2006 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life. This was the second year Marcia Franklin interviewed speakers there.
After the 9/11 attacks, were Americans any safer five years later? Marcia Franklin asks that question of counterterrorism expert Juliette Kayyem, who also discusses the recommendations of a report she co-authored, "Preserving Security and Democratic Freedoms on the War in Terrorism."
Don't forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter!
Originally Aired: 09/14/2006
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series, "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference," and was taped at the 2006 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life. This was the second year Marcia Franklin interviewed speakers there.
Idaho Public Television host Marcia Franklin talks with Thomas Cahill, the former director of religious publishing at Doubleday and the author of The Hinges of History, a seven-volume series that examines the transitional moments in Western civilization. They discuss several of the volumes, including How the Irish Saved Civilization, The Gift of the Jews, Why the Greeks Matter and The World Before and After Jesus, as well as the commonalities we have with ancient civilizations.
Don't forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter!
Originally Aired: 12/29/2005
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series, "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference," and was taped at the 2005 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life. This was the first year Marcia Franklin interviewed speakers there.
Firoozeh Dumas, the Iranian-born humorist and author of Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America, talks with Marcia Franklin about growing up as an Iranian immigrant in California after the Iranian Revolution, why she felt it was so important to write her memoir, and the role of humor in her life.
Don't forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter!
Originally Aired: 12/22/2005
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series, "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference," and was taped at the 2005 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life. This was the first year Marcia Franklin interviewed speakers there.
The recipient of the coveted Caldecott Medal, David Macaulay is the creator of children’s books that explain how architectural wonders such as pyramids and cathedrals were built. He and host Marcia Franklin discuss his show, “Building Big,” his books Cathedral and Mosque, and his philosophy on modern architecture.
Don't forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter!
Originally Aired: 12/15/2005
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series, "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference," and was taped at the 2005 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life. This was the first year Marcia Franklin interviewed speakers there.
Idaho Public Television host 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' Conference," and was taped at the 2005 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life. This was the first year Marcia Franklin interviewed speakers there.
Idaho Public Television host Marcia Franklin talks with award-winning Australian author Thomas Keneally about his novel Schindler's Ark, which was the basis for the Oscar-winning movie, Schindler's List. They discuss his experiences researching and writing the book, as well as his thoughts on adapting the story to film with Steven Spielberg. They also take a peek at Keneally’s next book, The Commonwealth of Thieves: The Story of the Founding of Australia.
Don't forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter!
Originally Aired: 12/01/2005
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series, "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference," and was taped at the 2005 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life. This was the first year Marcia Franklin interviewed speakers there.
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.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter!
Originally Aired: 11/14/2014
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 in 1986.
During their conversation, Lewis and Franklin discussed his emotions on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act, the election of President Obama, what Lewis sees as current civil rights challenges, and his advice to the next generation. The two also discuss a trilogy of graphic novels called March that he and a staffer, Andrew Aydin, are writing. The series illustrates the congressman's life in the civil rights movement. The first book hit #1 on the New York Times Best Sellers List.
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series, "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference," and was taped at the 2014 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life. Marcia Franklin has interviewed speakers there since 2005.
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 rose to become the editor of Newsweek. Meacham was the speaker at the Idaho Humanities Council’s 2016 Distinguished Humanities Lecture in Boise.
Meacham’s latest book is His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope with an afterword by John Lewis. His 2015 book Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush was a #1 New York Times bestseller. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 2009 for his book American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. He’s also the author of Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship, and American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers and the Making of a Nation.
Originally Aired: 10/20/2016
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter!
Host Marcia Franklin talks with investigative journalist Jane Mayer, the author of Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right.
Mayer, a staff writer for The New Yorker, worked for more than three years on the book, an expansion of an article she wrote on Charles and David Koch for The New Yorker in 2010. The two brothers, the scions of Koch Industries, have spent decades funding conservative candidates and causes. In her book, Mayer traces the history of the family and its political strategies, and examines the rise of untraceable "dark" money in the political system.
"They've built up something that hasn't really existed before in the country's politics, which is a huge, multi-state, private political machine," says Mayer about the Kochs.
"They operate in 35 states. They have a bigger budget and payroll than the Republican National Committee, yet they're private citizens."
Mayer is the author or co-author of four books, including Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas and The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals. Both were finalists for the National Book Award.
Mayer, who started her career writing for newspapers in Vermont, was a reporter for the Washington Star and then for the Wall Street Journal for 12 years, where she was that paper's first female White House correspondent. She joined The New Yorker in 1995.
She is the recipient of numerous honors, including the John Chancellor Award, the J. Anthony Lukas Prize, the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, the Toner Prize for Political Reporting, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter!
Originally Aired: 09/15/2017
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series, "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference," and was taped at the 2017 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
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 write well.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter!
Originally Aired: 12/21/2006
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series, "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference," and was taped at the 2006 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life. This was the second year Marcia Franklin interviewed speakers there.
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 historians now believe he had as many as seven children. Hemings, a slave at Monticello, was also the half-sister of Jefferson's wife, Martha, who died when Jefferson was 39.
A professor at Rutgers University and the New York College of Law at the time of the interview, Gordon-Reed is currently the Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History at Harvard Law School and Professor of History in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter!
Originally Aired: 12/03/2009
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series, "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference," and was taped at the 2009 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin talks about her book, Team of Rivals, which chronicles the sometimes fraught relationship between Abraham Lincoln and his cabinet members. The book was the basis for the 2012 movie, Lincoln, which was nominated for 12 Academy Awards.
Goodwin talks about the lessons we can learn from Lincoln, who was the rare president who asked his main rivals to be a part of his cabinet, and what it was like to spend so much time researching such an iconic person.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter!
Originally Aired: 12/07/2006
The interview is part of Dialogue’s series, "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference," and was taped at the 2006 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life. This was the second year Marcia Franklin interviewed speakers there.
Welcome to "Dialogue with Marcia Franklin." The podcast includes dozens of interviews that Marcia has conducted over the past 25 years with some of the most respected writers and thinkers in the world. Take a listen, and subscribe for more "conversations that matter!"