Suzanne Lang talks with activist and author Alice Rothchild, whose own feminist enlightenment was gained by persevering through a male dominated medical field to become an OB/GYN who reshaped women’s health through her subsequent work. She tells her story, in Inspired and Outraged, the Making of a Feminist Physician , a memoir in free verse. Also featured is Susan Muaddi Darraj with her novel Behind You is the Sea, a story of the Palestinian diaspora set in a Palestinian American community in Baltimore. It’s A Novel Idea, Sunday January 19 th at 10:00am PT. Streaming and podcasting at krcb.org .

Suzanne Lang talks with Eiren Caffall, a writer who also has a hereditary illness. She writes of the environment’s wounds that affect the life and health of our planet and of our ocean’s through the lens of her own life, struggles, and ultimate optimism, in her book The Mourner’s Bestiary. Amory Patrick Blaine joins Suzanne to talk about Book 1 of the trilogy American Renaissance, or Inquiry Concerning Political Justice in the Arts & its Influence on Morals and Happiness, a playful and philosophically probing story of art, culture, terrorism, and political intrigue. It’s A Novel Idea, first, third, and fifth Sundays at 10:00am PT. Streaming and podcasting at krcb.org .

Suzanne Lang brings you her conversation with trauma surgeon and policy advisor Brian H Williams about his intense and eye-opening revelations in his book The Bodies Keep Coming, Dispatches from a Black Trauma Surgeon on Racism, Violence, and How We Heal. Also featured is Candi Milo, voice over artist you probably heard on TV and film in her many cartoon roles, and she tells her story in Surviving the Odd, a memoir of growing up in a half way house, run by her dad, a New York entertainer who decided to support his family in an unusual way. Two authors with unique and meaningful stories. Sunday, December 29th at 10am PT.

Suzanne Lang welcomes internationally acclaimed journalist and PBS & NPR commentator David Tereshchuk to talk about his memoir A Question of Paternity, My Life as an Unaffiliated Reporter. David has reported from all over the world, but his journalistic skills could not open the mystery of who his father was. Also featured is author and Emmy award winning documentarian Stephen Most with his book River of Renewal: Myth and History in the Klamath Basin. Four dams have just been removed from the Klamath River. The salmon are returning, and the lives of the tribes who live there are instrumental in the management of this watershed. Stephen and Suzanne discuss it all. It’s A Novel Idea. Streaming and podcasting at krcb.org .

Discovering Tony Rice is the biography of the virtuosic and enigmatic bluegrass guitarist, Tony Rice. Suzanne Lang talks with its author, Bill Amatneek, who is also a musician and played bass with the David Grisman Quintet, among others. Also featured is Jessi Haley, Editorial Director of Cita Press, an online library focused on discovery and rediscovery of female authors who may have been forgotten, marginalized, or simply un-discovered by contemporary readers. It’s A Novel Idea. Streaming and podcasting at krcb.org .

Suzanne Lang talks with Pelumi Olatinpo -poet, activist, and entrepreneur, who has created a poetic form called the Soneta. Six lines on a page. Ten words per line. Within that, a universe of expression. He brings this to us in his recent publication expressing what it means to be human in the 21 st century, Poeta: Sonetas and Sonnets. Also featured are Naomi Ko and Cade Palmer, youth Poet Ambassadors working with the Marin County Youth Poet Laureate program, and the program’s coordinator, Maxine Flasher-Duzgunes. It’s A Novel Idea, live on Sunday, November17th at 10am PT, streaming and podcasting at krcb.org .

Sheri T. Joseph joins Suzanne Lang in conversation on her award winning novel, Edge of the Known World, set in the near future where geopolitics only vaguely resembles our own, and blood, DNA, and family loyalties challenge the global power structures. Barbara L Baer talks with Suzanne on her latest novel, Masha and Alejandro Crossing Borders, which follows the plight of an immigrant family who move to Trinity County California, looking for a more affordable life and encountering a segment of America they hadn’t anticipated. A Novel Idea with Suzanne M. Lang.

Voices of writers, voices of creative, accomplished women have gotten lost in the fog of other people’s fame, and mostly by the conventions and male-centric perspective that permeated the 20 th century literary scene in America. Iris Jamal Dunkle intends to change that and joins Suzanne Lang in conversation on her current biography, Riding Like the Wind: The Life of Sanora Babb, and her previous book, Charmian Kittredge London: Trailblazer, Author, Adventurer. It’s A Novel Idea. Streaming and podcasting at krcb.org .

S uzanne Lang talks with Matthew Ferrence, who ran for the Pennsylvania State Legislature (and lost) in a gerrymandered red area that is deemed “un-winnable” by Democrats. He tells his story in I Hate it Here, Please Vote for Me: Essays on Rural Political Decay . Also featured is Suzanne’s conversation with award winning librarian and free speech advocate Amanda Jones, who has been the target of a nasty campaign of harassment from the far right in her home state of Louisiana. Her memoir is That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America. It’s A Novel Idea on KRCB FM 104.9. streaming and podcasting at krcb.org .

Suzanne Lang talks with philanthropist, motivational speaker, and author Jillian Haslam on her memoir A Voice Out of Poverty. Haslam grew up in India amongst the poorest of the poor, for a time living with her family under a cement stairwell; she miraculously emerged to work in international banking and has founded educational and vocational organizations to give a hand up to those who still struggle. Also featured is long time NPR commentator Andrei Codrescu, musing on his life and past and the state of the world. It’s A Novel Idea, Sunday, September 29 th at 10am PT on KRCB FM 104.9, streaming and podcasting at krcb.org .