Richard Shindell

“Living in Argentina, I’ve learned a lot about how the world works. You live in The States and a dollar’s a dollar,” says Richard Shindell. That’s not the case in other countries, where “the IMF, Moody’s and what they say about a country is important information for normal people.”

Shindell’s life and songwriting craft made up a large part of our discussion, but we also talked about what happens when he decides to change on the fly how a song is played on stage. Hint: it’s sometimes stressful for his band mates.

Shindell will bring his perceptive and conscious songwriting to Six String Concerts on April 4 and is part one of this week’s Craft Double Header on WCBE.

First person to comment gets a free Richard Shindell CD.

Travel writer Carl Hoffman will be at Thurber House on March 31 to discuss his new book Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller’s Tragic Quest for Primitive Art.  We talked about how Hoffman followed up on his journalistic hunches to unravel this fascinating tale.

Cable Green received his doctorate in educational psychology from Ohio State and started its first online doctoral program. He is now the Director of Global Learning at Creative Commons, a nonprofit for open access. He will deliver the keynote address at Ohio State University’s Innovate 2014 conference.

We discussed what Creative Commons does and what benefits it has for education.

What’s REALLY March Madness? WCBE giving me a full hour on March 22 at 3 pm (daytime, even) to delve into the nature of humor and humor writing with an array of great writers:

Witness the triumphant return of Ohio native Kelsey Kinney with the Happily Ever Laughter tour with Chicago’s Second City on March 21 and 22. In addition to revisiting classic sketches from the 54-year history of Second City, Kelsey and the rest of the cast will engage in improvisation with the audience, during which she will guarantee that they’ll make comedy gold happen right before your eyes.“

Amy Talkington

Novelist and screenwriter Amy Talkington’s book Liv Forever debuts this week. We talk about how she got started on the book, what kinds of supernatural experiences led (or didn’t lead) to this paranormal thriller, and how she feels about doing an elevator pitch for a novel.

JA Jance will be in Columbus with the Thurber House on March 10. We talked about how she got started, why she doesn’t like the word “prolific,” and why you shouldn’t plan even fictional murders in restaurants.

JA Jance discusses writing and the appropriate place to plan a murder (it’s not a restaurant).

Chang-rae Lee book cover

Pulitzer-prize finalist Chang-Rae Lee tells me about his latest novel, working with students, and the potential for going into writing as a money-making career (his advice: don’t).

Aaron Jay Kernis
Credit: Kim Pluti for Parallel Productions

The Ohio premiere of composer Aaron Jay Kernis’s trumpet concerto, “A Voice, a Messenger” will be February 25 by the Ohio State University Wind Symphony, featuring Michael Sachs, principal trumpet player for the Cleveland Orchestra. Commissioned by the NY Philharmonic and  Big Ten Band Directors Association, the work reflects Kernis’s interest in biblical references to the sound of the trumpet or horn. Listen to composer Aaron Jay Kernis on Craft

First person to comment below wins The Road from Gap Creek by Robert Morgan and The Scent of Pine by Lara Vapnyar.

How a play about a pastor of a dying church who is losing his religion led to an upbeat gospel song: Listen to The Steel Wheels on Craft

Six String Concerts hosts The Steel Wheels on Saturday, February 15 at 8:00 PM at the Columbus Performing Arts Center, 549 Franklin Ave, Columbus

First person to comment gets two tickets to The Steel Wheels concert.