Dialogue with Marcia Franklin

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...

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 sub...

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 visi...

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 recipien...

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 inter...

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 f...

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 fo...

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 vi...

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 we...

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 subs...

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 webs...

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 f...

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 f...

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...

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...

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 se...

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...

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 forg...

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 Middl...

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 25...

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 p...

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...

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...

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 terror...

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 M...