Dialogue with Marcia Franklin

S.C. "Sam" Gwynne is the author of Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2011, a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist and the winner of both the Texas and Oklahoma Book Awards. It paints the epic story of the Comanches, whose territory comprised an estimated 250,000 square miles of the American Plains, an area now part of five states. It also draws the more intimate story of Cynthia Ann Parker, a nine-year old girl who was kidnapped by Comanches during a raid on the family's Texas homestead. Parker subsequently spent 24 years with the tribe and had three children, including Quanah, who would become one of the Comanche's most skilled warriors.

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Originally Aired: 10/19/2012

The interview is part of Dialogue's series "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference" and was taped at the 2012 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world's most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.

Marcia Franklin talks with author Brando Skyhorse about his life and works, focusing on his memoir, Take This Man. In the book, Skyhorse writes about what it was like to grow up thinking he was Native American and then to find out that was not true. He also discusses the topic of his next novel, Wall.

Don't forget to subscribe, and visit the Dialogue website for more conversations that matter.

Originally Aired: 11/15/2019

The interview is part of Dialogue's series "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference" and was taped at the 2019 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world's most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.

Marcia Franklin interviews author Kevin Powers, a veteran of the war in Iraq. His first work, "The Yellow Birds," was a finalist for the National Book Award. The novel depicts the friendship between two American soldiers in Iraq trying to keep each other alive, and the emotional journey of one of them as he returns home.

Powers, who was a speaker at the University of Idaho's annual Hemingway conference, talks about the influence of Hemingway on him, why he wanted to write "The Yellow Birds," the themes in it, and the reaction to the book. Franklin also asks him about his views on the war in Iraq.

Originally aired: 11/07/2014

Host Marcia Franklin interviews Phil Klay, an author and veteran of the war in Iraq. Klay's first work, "Redeployment," won the National Book Award for Fiction in 2014.

The 12 short stories in "Redeployment" draw on Klay's experiences as a U.S. Marine Corps Public Affairs Officer in the Anbar province of Iraq from 2007 to 2008.

Franklin talks with Klay about why he wanted to write the book and how he developed the different voices in in his stories, which include a Mortuary Affairs Officer and a chaplain. Klay also reads from his book, and shares some of his thoughts on the war.

In addition to his book, Klay's writing has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Granta and Tin House. He was a finalist for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and received the National Book Critics' Circle John Leonard Award for the best debut in any genre of writing.

Originally aired: 06/12/2015

Host Marcia Franklin interviews a lawyer who believes America's legal system is strangling what's best about our country.

Philip Howard is an attorney based in New York City and the author of books about legal reform, including "The Rule of Nobody," "The Death of Common Sense" and "Life Without Lawyers." Franklin talks with Howard about his philosophy and the changes he'd like to see in the country's legislative, executive and judicial branches.

In 2002, Howard formed a coalition called The Common Good, whose mission is to "overhaul governmental and legal systems to allow people to make sensible choices." Mr. Howard's TED Talk on the subject has been viewed more than half a million times. His opinion pieces have been published in major newspapers, including the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.

Howard was in Boise in October 2015 to address the Bench-Bar Conference organized by the federal court system in Idaho.

Originally aired: 01/22/2016

Marcia Franklin talks with Idaho author Anthony Doerr about his bestselling novel, "All the Light We Cannot See," which took ten years to research and write. The book debuted at #10 on the New York Times' Best Sellers list and received glowing reviews around the country. It also won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2015 shortly after this interview.

Franklin talks with Doerr, who lives in Boise, about his novel, which depicts the lives of two European children in World War II, children whose lives ultimately intersect in war-torn Saint Malo, France. The town was nearly destroyed by Allied forces at the end of the war.

Doerr discusses the book's themes, which include the power of radio during that time period, and the moral choices faced by civilians during wartime. Doerr also talks about what kept him motivated during the decade-long writing process.

Originally aired: 07/10/14

On this edition of Dialogue, Marcia Franklin talks with Idahoan Esther Emery, who wrote a book about her year off the internet called "What Falls From the Sky."

Emery talks about the crisis in her life that made her decide to unplug from the web, the challenges she encountered, and how the experience grounded and connected her in new ways to herself and her family.

The two also talk about Emery's current life living off the electric grid with her husband and three children in the mountains above Robie Creek, about 30 miles from Boise. Emery homeschools her children, and the family raises goats and chickens, along with growing some of their food. Her mother, Carla Emery, was a leader in the back-to-the-land movement of the 1970s, and the author of the popular "Encyclopedia of Country Living."

Originally aired: 02/10/2017

To coincide with the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Marcia Franklin talks with historian Douglas Brinkley, Ph.D., about his 2012 biography of iconic CBS newsman Walter Cronkite, who famously announced Kennedy's death to a national TV audience on November 22, 1963.

In "Cronkite," Brinkley (no relation to newscaster David Brinkley) drew on his access to Cronkite's private papers at the University of Texas and interviews with more than 150 of Cronkite's friends and family members to write the first major biography of the "the most trusted man in America."

Franklin and Brinkley discuss the highlights of Cronkite's career and what distinguished him from other broadcasters, as well as some of the eccentricities of Cronkite's personality that Brinkley discovered while researching the book.

Brinkley, a professor of history at Rice University, was in Coeur d'Alene to speak at the Idaho Humanities Council's annual Northern Idaho Distinguished Humanities Lecture.

Originally aired: 11/22/2013

Marcia Franklin continues her conversation with Boise-based outdoor writer Michael Lanza, focusing on tips for hiking and camping, including some of the best gear and small essentials to pack. The two also talk about ways to keep safe in the backcountry.

Lanza, the former Northwest editor for Backpacker magazine, has written three books about hiking, as well as many articles chronicling his worldwide adventures hiking, climbing, skiing and paddling.

"Before They're Gone," his book about his family's adventures hiking through some of the national parks in America most threatened by climate change, won an honorable mention in the National Outdoor Book Awards.

Lanza also runs the website thebigoutside.com, which was chosen by USA Today readers as one of the top 10 hiking and outdoors blogs.

Originally aired: 08/07/2015

Marcia Franklin talks with Idaho outdoor writer and photographer Michael Lanza about some of the best backcountry trips in our region. Lanza, the former Northwest editor for Backpacker magazine, has written three books about hiking, as well as many articles chronicling his worldwide adventures backpacking, climbing, skiing and paddling.

"Before They're Gone," his book about his family's adventures hiking through some of the national parks in America most threatened by climate change, won an honorable mention in the National Outdoor Book Awards. Franklin talks with him about why he wanted to write the book, and what it was like to backpack with his young children. Lanza also runs the website thebigoutside.com, which was chosen by USA Today readers as one of the top 10 hiking and outdoors blogs.

Originally aired: 07/10/2015