Jim Foster: Conversations On The Coast

Izzeldin Abuelaish, Harvard-educated Palestinian doctor and author of "I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity," explains how he is living a life of peace despite losing three of his daughters when Israeli shells hit his home in 2009, and talks about why every human life is important. This full interview from a 2011 episode of "Conversations On The Coast wi...

David Abrams, retired veteran and author of "Fobbit," describes what a Fobbit was during the Iraq War and Operation Iraqi Freedom. This full interview from a 2012 episode of "Conversations On The Coast with Jim Foster" can be heard now wherever you get your podcasts.

Abbott Kahler, Author of "American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee," talks about how difficult it was after vaudeville died for Rose Louise Hovick to reinvent herself and how many today like Lady Gaga have taken a page from Gypsy Rose Lee in various ways ever since. This full interview from a 2011 episode of "Conversations On The Coast with Jim Foster" can be heard n...

Barry Lopez, Editor of "Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape," talks about the interesting definition essay on the words 'lake' and 'desire path.' This full interview from a 2006 episode of "Conversations On The Coast with Jim Foster" can be heard now wherever you get your podcasts.

David Remnick, Author of "Reporting: Writings from The New Yorker," talks about his strange beginnings at The Washington Post including what happened when Katharine Graham took the helm as publisher of her family newspaper, and the state of print journalism in the age of the internet. This full interview from a 2006 episode of "Conversations On The Coast with Jim Foster" can be heard now wherever...

Haynes Johnson and Dan Balz, Authors of "The Battle for America 2008: The Story of an Extraordinary Election," discuss what President Obama said about how he would tell the story of his own election, the emergence of the age of blogging and the internet, and what went on behind the scenes leading up to the endorsement from Ted Kennedy. This full interview from a 2009 episode of "Conversations On T...

Sam Barry, Author of "How To Play the Harmonica: and Other Life Lessons," teaches a brief harmonica lesson and plays a little blues tune together with the student. This full interview from a 2009 episode of "Conversations On The Coast with Jim Foster" can be heard now wherever you get your podcasts.

Derek Anderson, Author and Illustrator of "How the Easter Bunny Saved Christmas," talks about what happens when the Easter Bunny tries to fill in for an ailing Santa at the North Pole. This full interview from a 2006 episode of "Conversations On The Coast with Jim Foster" can be heard now wherever you get your podcasts.

Robert Cowley, editor of "What Ifs? of American History," talks about what might have happened if The Mayflower had never sailed in the first place. This full interview from a 2004 episode of "Conversations On The Coast with Jim Foster" can be heard now wherever you get your podcasts.

Tolbert McCarroll, author of "A Winter Walk," talks about how the winter can be a unique time of reflection and discovering spiritual paths without following the doctrines of religious institutions. This full interview from a 2006 episode of "Conversations On The Coast with Jim Foster" can be heard now wherever you get your podcasts.

George E. Koonce Jr., co-author of "Is There Life After Football?: Surviving the NFL," talks about what it's like to live 'in the bubble' and what happens after that bubble bursts and a player's career ends. This full interview from a 2015 episode of "Conversations On The Coast with Jim Foster" can be heard now wherever you get your podcasts.

David Shannon, author and illustrator of "It's Christmas, David!," talks about some of the ways the version of David within the book gets himself heading toward trouble in the lead-up to Christmas, including playing with the ornaments on the tree. This full interview from a 2010 episode of "Conversations On The Coast with Jim Foster" can be heard now wherever you get your podcasts.

Nathaniel Philbrick, author of "Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War," talks about how the Pilgrims made it to the very first Thanksgiving. This full interview from a 2007 episode of "Conversations On The Coast with Jim Foster" can be heard now wherever you get your podcasts.

Nina Simonds, author of "Spices of Life: A Cookbook of Simple and Delicious Recipes for Great Health," talks about the wonders of chicken soup across many cultures. This full interview from a 2005 episode of "Conversations On The Coast with Jim Foster" can be heard now wherever you get your podcasts.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author of "The Thing Around Your Neck," talks about how a person considered a hero by the world at large can be thought of differently by their own family, as told in one of the short stories within the novel entitled 'The American Embassy.' This full interview from a 2009 episode of "Conversations On The Coast with Jim Foster" can be heard now wherever you get your podca...

David Grann, author of "The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon," talks about the endless amount of people from all corners of the globe who, for decades, searched for evidence of what happened to British explorer Percy Fawcett and a place he called "The Lost City of Z" following his disapparance in the Amazon in 1925. This full interview from a 2009 episode of "Conversations...

Joe Eszterhas, screenwriter and author of "The Devil's Guide to Hollywood: The Screenwriter as God!," talks about why hopeful screenwriters should focus on being a writer that happen to write for the screen, and also discusses the 'Lamborghini' solution to writer's block. This full interview from a 2006 episode of "Conversations On The Coast with Jim Foster" can be heard now wherever you get your...

Jeannette Walls, author of "The Silver Star," talks about the difficulty in choosing what to do when people who are supposed to be in a position of authority violate that authority, as the two sisters Bean and Liz experience in the novel. The full version of this 2013 episode of "Conversations On The Coast with Jim Foster" can be heard now wherever you get your podcasts.

Ron Chernow, author of "Alexander Hamilton," talks about how the beginnings of the American republic included many feuds, among them being how to balance State Rights and the Executive Branch. This full interview from a 2004 episode of "Conversations On The Coast with Jim Foster" can be heard now wherever you get your podcasts.

Robert Elias, author of "The Empire Strikes Out: How Baseball Sold U.S. Foreign Policy and Promoted the American Way Abroad," talks about baseball's unique status in America and how that status was always more than just symbolic. The full interview from a 2010 episode of "Conversations On The Coast with Jim Foster" can be heard now wherever you get your podcasts.

David Harris, author of "The Genius: How Bill Walsh Reivented Football and Created an NFL Dynasty," gives a colorful example of what kind of guy Bill Walsh was as a younger man, and how he was an excellent general manager in addition to head coach. The full interview from a 2008 episode of "Conversations On The Coast with Jim Foster" can be heard now wherever you get your podcasts.

Christine Watkins, author of "Full of Grace: Miraculous Stories of Healing and Conversion Through Mary's Intersection," reads an excerpt from her collection of true stories of conversion and healing linked to Mary's apparitions at Medjugorje. The full interview from a 2010 episode of "Conversations On The Coast with Jim Foster" can be heard now wherever you get your podcasts.

Cheryl Strayed, author of "Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar," talks about how we can't convince people to love us, and why we should buy ten books of poetry and read them each five times. The full interview from a 2012 episode of "Conversations On The Coast with Jim Foster" can be heard now wherever you get your podcasts.

On this special episode, host and producer Jim Foster speaks with technical producer Robert Costa about how "Conversations On The Coast with Jim Foster" became a long-running program airing on various radio stations in the San Francisco Bay Area for several decades, and also speaks about how the book publishing world has changed over the years, where the industry is going next, and many other subj...

In "The Whole World Over," author Julia Glass writes a novel about all the little accidents in life that come together to determine our choices in love and connections to others in the world. This second discussion about the book took place on a 2007 episode of "Conversations On The Coast with Jim Foster" originating in San Francisco, California. Photo: Robert Costa.