Writer's Voice with Francesca Rheannon

We talk with Ari Berman about the Voting Rights Act, the backlash against it, and what it all means for us now. His book is Give Us The Ballot. Then, a new report says not only can electronic voting machines be hacked, they may already have been. We talk with lulu Fries’dat, co-author of the report An Electoral System in Crisis.

We talk with journalist Jack Cushman about his recent article for Inside Climate News, U.S. and China Ratify Paris Agreement, Upping Pressure on Other Nations. Then climate negotiator Dr. Hugh Sealy tells us about the threats to his island nation and his plans to combat climate change. Finally, a conversation with environmentalist Peter Seidel about big-picture thinking to save the planet. His book is There Is Still Time: To Look at the Big Picture...and Act.

We talk with journalist Dan Barry about his book The Boys In The Bunkhouse. It's about the scores of mentally challenged men who were exploited and abused as turkey plant workers and kept as virtual prisoners for decades in a small town in Iowa and how they got rescued. Then Andrew Nagorski tells us about the hunt to bring Nazi war criminals to justice. His book is The Nazi Hunters.

Ted Rall talks about his new book, Trump. Then, new revelations indicate serious conflicts of interest between Hilary’s State Department and the Clinton Foundation. In light of renewed scrutiny of the foundation, we talk with investigative reporter Ken Silverstein about his 2015 article for Harper’s Magazine, “Shaky Foundations.”

We spend the hour with acclaimed author Russell Banks today, first talking about his new book, a travel and personal memoir, Voyager. Then we re-air our 2011 interview with him about his novel Lost Memory of Skin.

David Bollier talks about the ancient social formation called the Commons and the radically new versions it’s taking — and spreading — around the world. His new book, co-edited with Silke Helfrich, is Patterns of Commoning. Then, the Rio Olympics are happening now, in a Brazil plagued by corruption, conflict and a de facto coup against president Dilma Roussef. We re-air our October 2015 interview with Juliana Barbassa about her book, Dancing With The Devil In The City of God: Rio de Janeiro on the Brink. It’s about how the preparations for the Olympic Games revealed the cracks in the “Brazilian miracle.”

Kermit Roosevelt talks about his novel Allegiance, a legal thriller that has the internal debate over the policy of internment of Japanese Americans at its core. Then we re-air our interview with Pamela Rotner Sakamoto about her book, Midnight in Broad Daylight. It’s the true story of a Japanese-American family sundered by World War II on both sides of the Pacific. One side suffered internment. The other side of the family were there when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.

We talk with Wendell Potter about the book he co-wrote with Nick Penniman, Nation on the Take: How Big Money Corrupts Our Democracy and What We Can Do About It. Then, we speak with journalist Adam Johnson about the corporate spin on the Wikileaks DNC revelations. His article for the media watch group FAIR is "With DNC Leaks, Former ‘Conspiracy Theory’ Is Now True -- and No Big Deal”.

Charlotte Rogan talks about her new novel, Now And Again. It’s about an ordinary woman who becomes inspired to take on the fight against the social ills she sees around her — and what that means for the people she loves. Then, Monique Morris talks about her groundbreaking book Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools.

Mary Costello talks about her wonderful debut novel, Academy Street. Then, in light of the Supreme Court decision June 27 declaring Texas’s restrictive law on abortion clinics unconstitutional, we re-air our 2015 interview with Katha Pollitt about her book, Pro.

We talk with Catie Marron about her celebration of the essential urban space, the city square. Her new book is titled City Squares: Eighteen Writers on the Spirit and Significance of Squares Around the World. Then we re-air our 2015 interview with urban philosopher David Kishik about his book, The Manhattan Project. It imagines what Walter Benjamin might have written about New York, had he survived World War II.

Richard Zacks talks about his new book, Chasing the Last Laugh: Mark Twain's Raucous and Redemptive Round-the-World Comedy Tour. Then we re-air Zacks' 2012 interview about his book Island of Vice.

Naturalist and environmental educator John Muir Laws talks about his book The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling. Then we talk with author Corinne Smith about another great lover of nature, Henry David Thoreau. Her latest book about the great 19th century writer is Henry David Thoreau For Kids, His Life And Ideas, with 21 Activities.

Jonathan Simon talks about his book Code Red: Computerized Election Theft and The New American Century. And we talk with Board of Elections Commissioner Virginia Martin. She’ll tell us how and why they hand count the vote in her county.

Francesca Rheannon (Francesca Freedman back in those days) caught up with Nancy Lang after 50 years to talk about Dwight, teaching, education then and now, how attitudes have changed toward gays and what Dwight meant to a newly minted English teacher in the 1960s.