Author Conversations

It was September 12, 1962, when Pres. John F. Kennedy delivered a speech at Rice University before nearly 50,000 people. By that time, America had launched but four men into space—the suborbital flights of Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom and the nearly identical three-orbit journeys of John Glenn and Scott Carpenter. Buoyed by the success of those missions and cognizant of the danger that lay ahead,...

This week we look forward to launching astronauts to space once again from US soil. So what better time to speak with an author of not one but three books regarding NASA testing facilities? Cindy Manto joins me this week as we look to the future while remembering the past.

With more than eighty recipes and stunning photography, writer and radio host Stella Fong marries cherished local ingredients with world flavors. Sourced from waterways, mountains, plains and local farmers’ markets, Montana’s resources shine in a diverse array of savory and sweet applications. Dishes like Pheasant Stir-Fry with Black Bean Sauce and Elk Kielbasa with Pomegranate bring international...

Maine has never been regarded as a pirate haven, but only because witnesses were few and far between. With a rugged coast and more than four thousand offshore islands, Maine’s dark waters attracted sea raiders like Dixie Bull from the 1600s through colonial times. Pirate treasure still awaits discovery in Phippsburg and Machias, and pirate deceit prompted a massacre in ancient Fort Loyall. The inf...

Author Michael Gabriel talks with us about New Jersey diners. 

Baseball may be the great American pastime, but in New York, it is a religion. Names like Ruth, Mays, Gehrig, Wright and Robinson live in the hearts and minds of New York fans like apostles. From the street corner to the subway car, debates about which Yankee, Giant, Dodger or Met is better than another have raged on for more than one hundred years. Now, the best of the best are chosen for each po...

Fly Fishing enthusiast Tim Travers joins us for few moments to talk about fly fishing in Vermont. 

Wendy Davis Author of Nevada County Wine, joins us to talk about what makes her hometown special. 

Was the Lost Colony of Roanoke never really lost at all? The legend of the Lost Colony has been captivating imaginations for nearly a century. When they left Roanoke Island, where did they go? What is the meaning of the mysterious word Croatoan? In the sixteenth century, Croatoan was the name of an island to the south now known as Hatteras. Scholars have long considered the island as one of the co...

Author of Lost Restaurants of Santa Cruz County, Liz Pollock joins us to let us know about her hometown. 

Author Tim Carrol takes 3 minutes to tell us about his town, Akron, OH. 

Known as a top tourist destination due to its white sand beaches and emerald waters, Northwest Florida is a place for sun, sand, and swimming, as well as springs and cave systems millions of years old. Along with the natural beauty of this area lies the abandoned, forgotten, and left behind. From buildings to boats and planes, Northwest Florida has a lot to offer the urban explorer. Whether it's a...

Husband and wife author team Jim and Vicki Erwin join us again to give us a bit more history about life along the Lower Missouri River.  Vicki Berger Erwin has written twenty-nine books in varied genres: picture books, middle-grade mysteries and novels, local histories and true crime. Her husband, James W. Erwin, has written only four previous books, three on the Civil War in Missouri and a histor...

Author Tom Poland tells us about what life was like growing up in a small Georgia town and how life there hasn't changed too much.  Tom Poland grew up in Lincoln County, Georgia, and graduated from the University of Georgia with degrees in journalism and education. He taught at the University of Georgia, Columbia College and the University of South Carolina. He writes about nature and the South an...

From the Battle of Port Royal, to Defending Fort Sumter, to the Crater at Petersburg General Stephen Elliot was there.  General Stephen Elliott rose from captain of a militia artillery battery to command of an infantry brigade. His early war reputation as a daring raider and superb artilleryman grew to true hero status through his exemplary service at Fort Sumter. Handpicked to defend Sumter to th...

Author Alexandria Brown takes us to the Napa Valley today. 

Introducing "Your Town in 3 Minutes"  During this time we all need a reminder of the incredible places we call home. We have asked authors to tell us in 3 minutes (or around 3 minutes) what makes their hometown, county or state, so special.  What binds us all together is community. From the local bookstore, to the local parks, to our favorite eateries. Even though the majority of us now find ourse...

Akron Beacon Journal cartoonist Web Brown was one of the best political cartoonists in America during World War II. After serving in the Spanish-American War, Brown returned to the States and began a forty-six-year career lasting from 1899 through 1945. Before and during the Second World War, Brown’s cartoons lampooned Hitler, Mussolini and Japan with a strong sense of justice, humor and history....

Today I am honored to be joined by retired Lt. Col Joseph W. McCorskie who’s new book The War for Missouri 1861-1862 will be available beginning April 27, 2020.  Missouri was filled with bitter sentiment over the Civil War. Governor Claiborne Jackson had a plan to seize the St. Louis Arsenal and arm a pro-secessionist force. Former governor and Mexican-American War hero Sterling Price commanded th...

They are the sites that capture our imaginations as we try to imagine life in a place that seems devoid of life. These are lost towns or maybe you call them ghost towns. However, there is life when you look. Especially in Georgia's ghost towns where kudzu reclaims structures and animals make nests or fish now inhabit remains of buildings of towns now under man made lakes. Lisa Russel will be our g...

This week I speak with another husband and wife team, Vicki and James Erwin.  During the nineteenth century, more than three hundred boats met their end in the steamboat graveyard that was the Lower Missouri River, from Omaha to its mouth. Although derided as little more than an “orderly pile of kindling,” steamboats were, in fact, technological marvels superbly adapted to the river’s conditions....

The legend of the Yellow Rose of Texas holds an indisputable place in Lone Star culture, tethered to a familiar song that has served as a Civil War marching tune, a pop chart staple and a halftime anthem. Almost two centuries of Texas mythmaking successfully muddled fact with fable in song. The true story of Emily D. West remains mired in dispute and unrecognizable beneath the manipulative tales t...

This week we go back to the Revolutionary War and look at the events that led to the Battle of Guilford Courthouse and with author John Maas.   Around the North Carolina village of Guilford Courthouse in the late winter of 1781, two weary armies clashed on a cold, wet afternoon. American forces under Nathanael Greene engaged Lord Cornwallis’s British army in a bitter two-hour battle of the Revolut...

Running for 664 miles along Kentucky's border, the Ohio River provided a remarkable opportunity for the enslaved to escape to free soil in Indiana and Ohio. The river beckoned fugitive slave Henry Bibb onto a steamboat at Madison, Indiana, headed to Cincinnati, where he discovered the Underground Railroad. Upriver from Cincinnati, a lantern signal high on a hill from the Rankin House in Ripley, Oh...

On this special episode I am joined by husband and wife authors Wil Elrick and Kelly Kazek. Between the two of them they have written about forgotten history that affected the nation, weird facts and strange stories. From a maritime disaster with a loss of life on par with the Titanic which took place on the Mississippi River to a man simply vanishing from his farm in Alabama this episode has it a...