Writer's Voice with Francesca Rheannon

Is a politics of love essential to our survival? We talk with activist, spiritual leader and former presidential candidate, Marianne Williamson about her book, A Politics of Love: A Handbook for a New American Revolution. Then, we replay an extended excerpt from our 2020 interview with Rabbi Michael Lerner, about his book, Revolutionary Love. Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004. Like us on Facebook at Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon, on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast or find us on twitter @WritersVoice. Love Writer’s Voice? Please rate us on your podcast app. It really helps to get the word out about our show. Marianne Williamson We could solve all our problems if we all just followed the Golden Rule: treat others as you would be treated. In other words, love thy neighbor as thyself. And we are all neighbors on this finite planet. When Marianne Williamson ran in the 2020 presidential election, she was mocked by mainstream pundits for her supposedly naive message of a politics of love. But as she brilliantly argues in her book of that title, what’s naive is to think that we can survive the crises we face without love at the core of our politics. When we hurt others, we hurt ourselves. When we treat others with love and compassion, we uplift us all. That’s as true in politics as it is in our individual lives. And, as A Politics of Love shows with its powerful narrative, we have no choice but love if we are to survive. Marianne Williamson is an internationally acclaimed author, speaker, and activist, as well as former presidential candidate. Six of her published books have been New York Times bestsellers. A Politics of Love was published in 2019. Read an excerpt from A Politics of Love Rabbi Michael Lerner Back in 2020, we spoke with rabbi and social justice activist Rabbi Michael Lerner about his take on love and politics: his book Revolutionary Love. It focuses on different points than Marianne Williamson’s book but is very much coming from the same place. We listen back to an extended segment from that conversation. Hear the full interview

This week, we talk about two novels about colonialism, both from the point of view of the colonized. First, we are honored to talk with the 2021 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Abdulrazak Gurnah about his novel Afterlives, just published in the United States by Penguin Random House. Then R.F. Kuang tells us about her fantasy/slash/alternate history novel, Babel, Or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translator’s Revolution. Like us on Facebook at Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon, on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast or find us on twitter @WritersVoice. Love Writer’s Voice? Please rate us on your podcast app. It really helps to get the word out about our show. Abdulrazak Gurnah In 2021, Abdulrazak Gurnah received the Nobel Prize in Literature for, in the words of the Nobel Committee, “his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents.” That is certainly evident in his novel Afterlives, first published in the UK in 2020 and now out in a new American edition. It tells the brutal story of colonialism in East Africa; first, German colonialism then, after Germany’s defeat in WWI, the British variety. It’s a brutal story, but not a brutal novel. Instead, Afterlives spins a profoundly moving and human tale centered on three young people who find love, caring and community despite the psychological and physical traumas the colonial system subjects them to. The novel shows the terrible toll of injustice—and the power of love and compassion to heal it. Abdulrazak Gurnah was born in Zanzibar in 1948 and teaches at the University of Kent. He’s the author of numerous novels, including Paradise, which was short-listed for the Booker Prize, and By the Sea, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist. Read an excerpt from Afterlives R.F. Kuang It isn’t often that fantasy fiction provides a deep dive into real history, let alone the history of British colonialism. But that’s what Rebecca Kuang’s novel Babel does. It spreads its wings across a few different genres: fantasy, “dark academia” and historical fiction in a page-turning read that leaves the reader knowing a whole lot more about how that empire operated than many straight histories do. In Babel’s version of history, magical inscriptions on silver bars provide the energy that coal did in the real British Empire. And the magic is driven by matched words in translation. It’s an intriguing concept—one that illuminates the power of language both to exert domination and spark liberation. Rebecca F. Kuang is the award-winning author of the bestselling Poppy War trilogy. Read an excerpt from Babel  

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, we air our 2019 interview with playwright and author Octavio Solis. We spoke with him about growing up the son of Mexican migrants in El Paso Texas. His book of stories based on that history is Retablos: Stories from a Life Lived Along the Border. Octavio Solis. Then, a new novel from British novelist Freya Sampson, The Lost Ticket. It’s one of those heart-warming but page-turning reads that makes you feel really good. Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004. Like us on Facebook at Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon, on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast or find us on twitter @WritersVoice. Love Writer’s Voice? Please rate us on your podcast app. It really helps to get the word out about our show. Octavio Solis Octavio Solis is one of America’s most prominent Latino playwrights. Author of over 20 plays, including Mother Road, currently running at the Oregon Shakespeare festival, Solis recently published his first collection of stories, Retablos (City Lights Press 2019). They are based on his own life growing up the son of Mexican migrants in El Paso, Texas. Living in a home just a mile from the Rio Grande, Solis was a skinny brown kid on the border, growing up among those who live there, and those passing through on their way North. The stories use memory as a muse to talk about his complicated relationship with his father, the Chicano movement that informed his view of politics at an early age, his estrangement from his brother, so like a border wall, and how the border is as much myth as reality, replete, as he writes, “with gods and monsters, heroes and fallen angels, troubadours and exiles.” Freya Sampson Freya Sampson’s two novels involve people helping others and discovering themselves in the process. Her first novel, The Last Library, was about a community coming together to save their local library. Her new novel, The Lost Ticket, brings a group of strangers together to help an old man in his quest to find and thank a young woman he met on a bus who changed his life. When Libby Nicholls arrives in London, brokenhearted and with her life in tatters, the first person she meets on the bus is elderly Frank. He tells her about the time in 1962 that he met a girl on the number 88 bus . They made plans for a date at the National Gallery art museum, but Frank lost the bus ticket with her number on it. For the past sixty years, he’s ridden the same bus trying to find her. Libby decides to help Frank in his quest, enlisting the help of others who have their own burdens to bear. Throughout the twists and turns of The Lost Ticket, readers follow the characters as they meet challenges, forge connections, and discover hidden strengths, both in themselves and together. Read an excerpt from The Lost Ticket Next week on Writer’s Voice, the theme is colonialism. We talk with Abdulrazak Gurnah, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2021. His new novel is After Lives. We also speak with fantasy writer R.H. Kuang about her novel Babel. Don’t miss it!

We talk with Bill McKibben about his terrific new book, The Flag, The Cross And The Station Wagon: A Graying American Looks Back at His Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What The Hell Happened. Then, a brilliant coming-of-age novel that treats the personal as political and vice versa. We talk with Sarah Thankam Mathews about All This Could Be Different. Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004. Like us on Facebook at Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon, on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast or find us on twitter @WritersVoice. Love Writer’s Voice? Please rate us on your podcast app. It really helps to get the word out about our show. Bill McKibben Bill McKibben is best known for his work as a global leader in the fight for a livable climate. But he’s also a long time environmental journalist and the author of eighteen books. His latest is a look at what’s happened to America since McKibben was a boy growing up in a suburb of Boston in the 1970s. The Flag, The Cross And The Station Wagon looks through the lens of personal memoir, history and astute observation at the predicaments we find ourselves in and how they happened: extreme inequality, erosion of democracy and climate breakdown. Bill McKibben is the co-founder of the climate protection group 350.org and Third Act, which centers its work on mobilizing seniors to protect the climate and democracy. Read an excerpt from The Flag, The Cross And The Station Wagon Sarah Thankam Mathews Sarah Thankam Mathews’ debut novel All This Could Be Different is one of those reads that delights with the discovery of an important new voice in fiction. Released to effusive praise, the novel follows a young woman, a recent college graduate originally from India, as she lands her first job in the wake of the 2008 Great Recession. Flung into a very white, middle American community in Wisconsin, Sneha has to navigate not only a new environment but her own personal ghosts as they imprint her relationships and her struggles to become an adult in a precarious world. It’s a compelling story, beautifully told. Sara Thankam Matthews grew up between Oman and India, immigrating to the United States at seventeen. She’s published short stories, including in Best American Short Stories 2020 and is the co-founder of the mutual aid group, Bed-Stuy Strong. Read an excerpt from All This Could Be Different  

We talk with Dolen Perkins-Valdez about her novel, Take My Hand. It’s based on a famous case accusing the federal government of forced sterilization of poor and minority women inspires a novel about reproductive justice. Then we air an excerpt from our 2021 interview with Honorée Fanonne Jeffers about her novel The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois. Writer’s Voice — in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004. Rate us on your favorite podcast app! It really helps others find our show. And like us on Facebook at Writers Voice Radio or find us on Twitter @WritersVoice. Dolen Perkins-Valdez The “Mississippi Appendectomy.” That’s what the great civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer called the practice of involuntary sterilization forced on poor, mostly Black and Brown, women for decades in the 20th century — a practice Hamer herself was a victim of. Dolen Perkins Valdez’ novel Take My Hand takes up this history in the story of a young nurse who fights for justice for two young girls who have been sterilized in Mississippi in 1971. Out from Penguin Random House in April of this year, the book has garnered widespread praise. Ms Magazine called it “A searing and ultimately hopeful novel about (in)justice and the importance of learning from history.” In addition to Take My Hand, Dolen Perkins-Valdez is the New York Times bestselling author of previous novels, Wench and Balm. Honorée Fanonne Jeffers In 2021 Writer’s Voice spoke with Honorée Fanonne Jeffers about her award-winning novel, The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois. Listen to the full interview here. We play an extended excerpt from that interview.

We talk with journalist Keri Blakinger about her powerful prison memoir, Corrections In Ink. Then, Eve Karlin tells us about her historical novel Track 61. It’s about the invasion by a group of German saboteurs during World War II, who came ashore in Amagansett, Long Island. Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004. Like us on Facebook at Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon, on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast or find us on twitter @WritersVoice. Love Writer’s Voice? Please rate us on your podcast app. It really helps to get the word out about our show. Keri Blakinger Keri Blakinger was on the dean’s list at Cornell University when she got arrested with a Tupperware container full of illegal drugs, including 6 ounces of heroin. The stash was partly for her own use and partly to sell to feed her heroin habit. The former skating champion and upper-middle class striver then began a two year incarceration for felony drug possession, first in the county jail, then in a series of prisons in New York State. Along the way, she got clean—not because of incarceration, but in spite of it. When she got free, Blakinger became a journalist. She went on to write crusading stories about prison conditions in America, first for the Houston Chronicle and now for the Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering the US criminal justice system. Read an excerpt from Corrections In Ink Eve Karlin Just after midnight on June 13, 1942 four German saboteurs invaded the territory of the United States, coming ashore in Amagansett Long Island, bent on a Nazi mission to disrupt rail transport and sow chaos. As a child, Eve Karlin spent summers at a cottage near the landing site. Her grandmother was a refugee from Nazi Germany. Karlin weaves a tale inspired by these two strands of history—the Amangansett invasion and her grandmother’s story in her new novel Track 61. It’s a coming of age story compellingly told, with a young teenager named Grete faced with moral choices that pit her feelings against her loyalties. In addition to Track 61, Eve Karlin is the author of another historical novel, City of Liars and Thieves. She lives in East Hampton New York.

Mohsin Hamid tells us about his fable of race and humanity, where white people suddenly turn brown. It’s called The Last White Man. Then Omar El Akkad talks about his novel What Strange Paradise. It’s about what happens when a Syrian refugee, a young boy, washes up on a Greek island. Writer’s Voice — in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004. Rate us on your favorite podcast app! It really helps others find our show. And like us on Facebook at Writers Voice Radio or find us on Twitter @WritersVoice. Mohsin Hamid What would it be like if white people lost their whiteness—not just the privilege that comes with whiteness, but the skin color itself? How would they deal with a world where, all of a sudden, they woke up brown? That’s the device at the heart of Mohsin Hamid’s novel The Last White Man. It’s a kind of fable that examines what happens when the social construction of race falls away to reveal our fundamental humanity. Mohsin Hamid is the author of five novels, including Exit West and The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Read an Excerpt from The Last White Man Omar El Akkad The world was shocked when two year old Alan Kurdi’s body washed up on a Turkish beach in 2015 after he and his family fled from Syria. Then, the world seemed to forget. But the drownings continue—more than 3,200 died or went missing crossing the Mediterranean for Europe just in 2021. Omar El Akkad’s new novel What Strange Paradise tells the story of a Syrian child migrant who is washed up on a Greek Island. The novel follows him as he revives and is then befriended by a local girl who hides him and tries to get him to a transit point where he can travel to safe harbor. What Strange Paradise asks hard questions about how those who are privileged discount others and hide from our common humanity. Omar El Akkad is a journalist and author of the bestselling novel, American War. He is an award-winning journalist and worked as a war correspondent reporting from Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and many other locations around the world.  

Bruce Holsinger tells us about his novel, The Displacements. It’s about what happens to a family when the first Category Six hurricane hits the wealthy enclave of Coral Gables, Florida. Then, we talk with moral philosopher Elizabeth Cripps about her book, What Climate Justice Means and Why We Should Care. Bruce Holsinger There’s nowhere to run, nowhere to hide in a world beset by the Climate Catastrophe—not even if you’re rich. The leveling impact of climate change is at the heart of Bruce Holsinger’s novel The Displacements. It’s a page-turning dive into what happens to people when climate driven disasters take everything from them. And how they cope in an America where disaster response is ever more stretched to the breaking point. Bruce Holsinger is the author of the bestselling novel The Gifted School, as well as two historical novels set in the Middle Ages, among other books. He teaches English at the University of Virginia. Read an excerpt from The Displacements Elizabeth Cripps At the very heart of the climate crisis is the question: what is our responsibility to our fellow humans, future generations and all the other living beings we share the planet with? Elizabeth Cripps examines the moral dimensions of the climate crisis in her book What Climate Justice Means and Why We Should Care. Cripps is a moral and political philosopher and writer, specializing in climate justice and parental duties. She teaches at the University of Edinburgh and is Associate Director of CRITIQUE: Centre for Ethics and Critical Thought.

We talk to Mary Pipher about her new memoir, A Life In Light: Meditations On Impermanence. And poet, therapist and translator Anita Barrows talks with us about her stunning debut novel, The Language of Birds. Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004. Like us on Facebook at Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon, on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast or find us on twitter @WritersVoice. Love Writer’s Voice? Please rate us on your podcast app. It really helps to get the word out about our show. Anita Barrows Anita Barrows is a poet, translator and therapist working with children with disabilities, including autism. She draws on all these vocations in her debut novel The Language of Birds. The novel is beautifully written—there’s the poet. It’s about two sisters, one autistic, the other socially isolated, and their struggle to connect with others and their own strengths—there’s the therapist. And, in exploring the world of an autistic character, Barrows translates that world for the reader with sensitivity and compassion. Both sisters carry the burden of loss. But coming to terms with that loss unlocks the resilience within each of them to open to the love and care of others, and return it. Anita Barrows has published three poetry volumes. Her translations with Joanna Macy of Rilke’s poetry and prose have been set to music, and nominated for national awards. She teaches at the Wright Institute in Berkeley, California, and maintains an active therapy practice specializing in trauma and developmental disabilities in children, adolescents and adults. Mary Pipher Mary Pipher has been exploring what sustains us as individuals, members of families and of society for well over twenty years. From her classic, Reviving Ophelia, to the last book we spoke with her about, Women Rowing North, Pipher put us in touch with ourselves, our challenges and our resilience. Her latest book, A Life In Light, is a memoir, where she draws on these challenges and strengths as they applied in her own life. Drawing from her own experiences and expertise as a psychologist specializing in women, trauma, and the effect of our culture on our mental health, she looks inward to what shaped her as a woman, one who has experienced darkness throughout her life but was always drawn to the light. Listen to our interview with Mary Pipher about Women Rowing North

Artist, technologist, and philosopher James Bridle tells us about his book, Ways of Being: Animals, Plants, Machines: The Search for A Planetary Intelligence. Then we talk with Sy Montgomery (Soul of the Octopus) about her new book, a memoir of falconry, The Hawk’s Way. Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004. Like us on Facebook at Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon, on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast or find us on twitter @WritersVoice. James Bridle What does it mean to be intelligent? Is it something unique to humans or shared with other beings— beings of flesh, wood, stone, and silicon? Artist, technologist, and philosopher James Bridle seeks the answer in his book, Ways of Being: Animals, Plants, Machines: The Search for A Planetary Intelligence. He explores the different kinds of intelligences that we have lived among since time immemorial — as well as the new intelligences we are creating through technology. What can we learn from them, and how can we change ourselves, our technologies, our societies, and our politics to live better and more equitably with one another and the nonhuman world? James Bridle draws on biology and physics, computation, literature, art, and philosophy to explore these questions. Listen to an excerpt from Ways of Being Sy Montgomery Sy Montgomery is noted for her friendships with animals. There are the octopuses she wrote about in her bestseller The Soul of An Octopus. The pig, Christopher Hogwood. And the myriad animals she lived with during both childhood and adulthood, whom she wrote about in How To Be A Good Creature. But her latest relationship can’t really be called a friendship—more like a vassalship to a noble being: a hawk. Montgomery writes about learning to be a hawk’s junior hunting partner in her new book The Hawk’s Way — and what that taught her about the heart of wildness. Listen to an audio excerpt from The Hawks Way and see photos of the magnificent birds Montgomery writes about. Next Week on Writer’s Voice We talk with Mary Pipher about her new book, A LIFE IN LIGHT. Then Anita Barrows tells us about her novel, THE LANGUAGE OF BIRDS.

We talk with Ari Rabin-Havt about his campaign memoir, The Fighting Soul: On The Road With Bernie Sanders. Then we play an excerpt from our 2020 interview with Chuck Rocha, Bernie’s campaign lead on Latino voters, about his book, Tío Bernie. Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004. Like us on Facebook at Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon, on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast or find us on twitter @WritersVoice. Love Writer’s Voice? Please rate us on your podcast app. It really helps to get the word out about our show. Ari Rabin-Havt In 2017, a poll found that Bernie Sanders was the most popular politician in America. Yet he inspired some of the most vicious vitriol from the established press and the Twitterverse ever seen. Few people know who Bernie really is, as he deliberately keeps the focus on his policies, not himself. In his book, The Fighting Soul, Ari Rabin-Havt reveals the real Bernie Sanders. He was a close advisor and deputy campaign manager on Sanders’s 2020 campaign, spending more hours with the Vermont senator than anyone else. The book is a fascinating dive into a presidential campaign like no other—how it succeeded in building a massive following and how it ultimately failed to gain the nomination. In addition to serving as deputy campaign manager on Senator Bernie Sanders’s 2020 presidential campaign, Ari Rabin-Havt  was a Sanders aide from 2017 to 2021. His writing has appeared in the New Republic and the Washington Post, among other publications. Read An Excerpt Chuck Rocha Chuck Rocha was a chief strategist for Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign. While he worked broadly in the campaign, his special mission was to mobilize the Latino vote for the Senator. We spoke with him in 2020 about his memoir of the campaign Tío Bernie. We play an excerpt from that conversation. Listen to the entire interview

We talk with novelist Jim Shepard about his latest work of fiction, Phase Six. It’s about what happens when a mining operation in the thawing permafrost of Greenland releases a deadly virus into the world. Then, we talk with Cob Carlson about his new documentary, The Greatest Radio Station In The World. It’s about listener-supported WPKN 89.5 fm Bridgeport CT, which just happens to be the home station of Writer’s Voice. Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004. Like us on Facebook at Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon, on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast or find us on twitter @WritersVoice Jim Shepard One of the least known but most terrifying consequences of global warming is the release of ancient pathogens from the melting permafrost. Lethal viruses and bacteria that have been locked up for many millennia—and against which humans have zero immunity—pose the threat of lethal pandemics that could take out millions, if not billions of humans and other animals. In his new novel Phase Six, Jim Shepard brings together two interrelated trends that increase the risk: the thawing Arctic is leading to more mining—and that mining threatens to release pathogens that are new to human immune systems. A mining operation in Greenland releases a virus that wipes out an Inuit community, save for the sole survivor, a young boy. As the deadly virus spreads, two young investigators from the CDC race to identify the pathogen and sequence its genome. The connections between the scientists and the young boy the CDC has taken charge of pose questions about the moral responsibilities we owe each other and how we carry them out. Jim Shepherd is the author of eight novels. Read an excerpt from Phase Six. Cob Carlson WPKN 89.5 FM in Bridgeport CT has been the radio home of Writer’s Voice for over a decade. We are proud to be part of this terrific station, home to some of the best music and public affairs programming you can find on the radio dial—and streaming on the Web. So when the New Yorker magazine published a piece calling WPKN “The Greatest Radio Station In The World,” we were thrilled that it was finally getting the national recognition it so richly deserved. Then, filmmaker and WPKN listener Cob Carlson came out with a documentary film about the station, taking its title from the Nw Yorker article. It premiered last month and will headline the Bridgeport Film Festival on July 23 in Bridgeport, CT. Cob Carlson has been a film editor and producer on numerous films, such as Farmageddon and on TV shows Frontline and Nova. In addition to The Greatest Radio Station in The World, he made the documentary, Donald Ross: Discovering The Legend.

We speak with Jonathan Lee about his historical novel The Great Mistake. It’s about the man who’s called “The Father of Greater New York,” Andrew Haswell Green. Then, Michael Mechanic takes us on a tour into the lives of the super-rich and what their astronomic wealth says about America. His book is Jackpot: How the Super-Rich Really Live- and How their Wealth Harms Us All. Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004. Like us on Facebook at Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon or find us on twitter @WritersVoice. Love Writer’s Voice? Please rate us on your podcast app. It really helps to get the word out about our show. Jonathan Lee Central Park, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History and the New York Public Library: all of these great public institutions were the inspiration of one man: Andrew Haswell Green. He was also responsible for the borough system that makes up greater New York: Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island, Brooklyn and the Bronx. So how come so few people have ever heard of him? Did it have something to do with the horror and absurdity of his end? He was murdered in 1903 by someone who thought he was actually someone else. That mistake is one inspiration for Jonathan Lee’s novel about Andrew Green, The Great Mistake. Lee immerses the reader in the character of Green—a fictional imagining that fascinates both with the strangeness and the humanity of this remarkable historical person. Jonathan Lee is the author of three previous novels. Read an excerpt from The Great Mistake Michael Mechanic The rich are getting much, much richer while more Americans are falling into poverty. In 2018, the three richest men in America held combined fortunes worth more than the total wealth of the poorest half of Americans. The bottom 40% of Americans have no assets at all. Michael Mechanic wanted to know how the super-rich deal with all that astronomical wealth. Does it make them happy? How does it skew their perception of reality? His book Jackpot explores these questions and more. It’s an inquiry that begs the question: should billionaires exist? Michael Mechanic is an author and journalist for Mother Jones Magazine.

We talk with David Bollier about his latest book, The Commoners Catalog For Change Making: Tools For The Transitions Ahead. Then, in light of the Supreme Court ruling taking away the constitutional right of women to reproductive freedom, we listen back to our 2015 interview with Katha Pollitt about her book, PRO: Reclaiming Abortion Rights. Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004. Like us on Facebook at Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon or find us on twitter @WritersVoice. Love Writer’s Voice? Please rate us on your podcast app. It really helps to get the word out about our show. David Bollier It’s becoming pretty clear that our current economic system is leading us straight over the cliff. Whether you call it predatory capitalism or neoliberalism, the whole notion of subordinating all socio-economic and environmental needs to endlessly increasing short-term profit for a tiny elite is, well, nuts. But what’s a workable alternative? One that can promote wellbeing and democracy?David Bollier says the answer is both new and age-old: he calls it “commoning.” Commoners seek to prioritize people’s needs over market extraction, steward the Earth, relocalize the economy, and build new institutions of empowerment. And The Commoner’s Catalog for Changemaking Bollier has complied is a kind of Whole Earth Catalog for the 21st century. It explains the transformational power of social collaboration by showcasing dozens of pathbreaking projects, books, websites, and activist initiatives. It’s an indispensable tool for transition to a livable future. David Bollier is a global leader in the commoning movement. He’s the author of numerous books, including Fair, Free and Alive, Think Like a Commoner, and Brand Name Bullies. And we’ve talked with him about all those books and more. He is also the founder of the website OnThe Commons.org and the host of the podcast, Frontiers of Commoning. Read an Online Version of The Commoners Catalog Katha Pollitt The Supreme Court has now stripped away the constitutional right of women to make their own reproductive choices. Overturning Roe vs. Wade is just the beginning of an all-out assault on women’s rights, the rights of LGBTQ people, and other crucial rights, like the right to free and fair elections and the right to protect the environment. It’s a horrific shock but not unexpected. It’s been coming for years, as the right to reproductive freedom has been steadily chipped away. Back in 2015, we spoke with Katha Pollitt about her book, Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights. It’s as relevant today as ever.

How safe are our national parks, especially for women hikers? Not safe enough, says Kathryn Miles. We talk with her about her book Trailed: One Woman’s Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders. It’s about the murders of two remarkable women in 1996, a botched investigation and the failure by the National Park Service to take the safety of women hikers seriously. Then, as 2022 is slated to experience a severe hurricane season, we revisit our 2015 conversation with Kathryn Miles about her book about Hurricane Sandy, Superstorm. Writer’s Voice — in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004. Rate us on your favorite podcast app! It really helps others find our show. And like us on Facebook at Writers Voice Radio or find us on Twitter @WritersVoice. Trailed In May 1996, two skilled backcountry leaders, Lollie Winans and Julie Williams, entered Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park for a week-long backcountry camping trip. After the pair didn’t return home as planned, park rangers found their tent slashed open, their beloved dog missing, and both women dead in their sleeping bags. When journalist and author Kathryn Miles began looking into the case, she found conflicting evidence, mismatched timelines, and details that didn’t add up. An innocent man, Miles is convinced, has been under suspicion for decades, while the true culprit is a known serial killer Miles says authorities should investigate. But Trailed is more than a gripping true crime story. It’s a plea to make wilderness a safer space for women and to change the cultural narratives that put them at risk. Kathryn Miles is the author of, among other books, Quakeland and Superstorm. Superstorm Scientists say that climate change is driving the giant storms that are ever more frequently battering the East and Gulf Coasts of the US. It’s been ten years since one of them hit: Superstorm Sandy. It was the deadliest, most destructive, and strongest hurricane of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season. Kathryn Miles wrote the first complete account of what happened during the nine days of Sandy’s life, Superstorm. I spoke with her about the book in 2015.