Dialogue with Marcia Franklin

Host Marcia Franklin talks with investigative journalist Jane Mayer, the author of Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right.

Mayer, a staff writer for The New Yorker, worked for more than three years on the book, an expansion of an article she wrote on Charles and David Koch for The New Yorker in 2010. The two brothers, the scions of Koch Industries, have spent decades funding conservative candidates and causes. In her book, Mayer traces the history of the family and its political strategies, and examines the rise of untraceable "dark" money in the political system.

"They've built up something that hasn't really existed before in the country's politics, which is a huge, multi-state, private political machine," says Mayer about the Kochs.

"They operate in 35 states. They have a bigger budget and payroll than the Republican National Committee, yet they're private citizens."

Mayer is the author or co-author of four books, including Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas and The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals. Both were finalists for the National Book Award.

Mayer, who started her career writing for newspapers in Vermont, was a reporter for the Washington Star and then for the Wall Street Journal for 12 years, where she was that paper's first female White House correspondent. She joined The New Yorker in 1995.

She is the recipient of numerous honors, including the John Chancellor Award, the J. Anthony Lukas Prize, the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, the Toner Prize for Political Reporting, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence.

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Originally Aired: 09/15/2017

The interview is part of Dialogue's series, "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference," and was taped at the 2017 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.

In his book, Active Liberty: Interpreting Our Democratic Constitution, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer lays out his judicial philosophy, that judges should decide cases in a way that allows the public to maximize participation in government through what he calls "active liberty."

Marcia Franklin talks with Justice Breyer about the precepts of "active liberty, why he wanted to write the book, the values that guide him in his judicial decisions, and why it's important for judges to write well.

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

Originally Aired: 12/21/2006

The interview is part of Dialogue's series, "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference," and was taped at the 2006 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. This was the second year Marcia Franklin interviewed speakers there.

Host Marcia Franklin sits down with historian and law professor Annette Gordon-Reed about her book, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family. The book, which won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, explores the complex bonds between President Thomas Jefferson and one of his slave families, the Hemingses.

Using primary source documents, as well as second-hand accounts, Gordon-Reed tries to piece together the relationship between Jefferson and Sally Hemings, with whom most historians now believe he had as many as seven children. Hemings, a slave at Monticello, was also the half-sister of Jefferson's wife, Martha, who died when Jefferson was 39.

A professor at Rutgers University and the New York College of Law at the time of the interview, Gordon-Reed is currently the Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History at Harvard Law School and Professor of History in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard.

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

Originally Aired: 12/03/2009

The interview is part of Dialogue's series, "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference," and was taped at the 2009 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.

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin talks about her book, Team of Rivals, which chronicles the sometimes fraught relationship between Abraham Lincoln and his cabinet members. The book was the basis for the 2012 movie, Lincoln, which was nominated for 12 Academy Awards.

Goodwin talks about the lessons we can learn from Lincoln, who was the rare president who asked his main rivals to be a part of his cabinet, and what it was like to spend so much time researching such an iconic person.

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

Originally Aired: 12/07/2006

The interview is part of Dialogue's series, "Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference," and was taped at the 2006 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. This was the second year Marcia Franklin interviewed speakers there.

Welcome to "Dialogue with Marcia Franklin." The podcast includes dozens of interviews that Marcia has conducted over the past 25 years with some of the most respected writers and thinkers in the world. Take a listen, and subscribe for more "conversations that matter!"

Idaho Public Television host Marcia Franklin interviews Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Haynes Johnson about his nonfiction book, "The Age of Anxiety: McCarthyism to Terrorism," in which he examines the parallels between the McCarthy era of the 1950s and today's post 9-11 political arena. He also offers his views on Fidel Castro’s place in Cuba, and opines about the current states of journalism and education.

Originally Aired: 12/14/2006

After the 9/11 attacks, were Americans any safer five years later? Marcia Franklin asks that question of counterterrorism expert Juliette Kayyem, who also discusses the recommendations of a report she co-authored, "Preserving Security and Democratic Freedoms on the War in Terrorism."

Originally Aired: 09/14/2006

Idaho Public Television host Marcia Franklin talks with Thomas Cahill, the former director of religious publishing at Doubleday and the author of The Hinges of History, a seven-volume series that examines transitional moments in Western civilization. They discuss several of the volumes, including "How the Irish Saved Civilization," "The Gift of the Jews," "Why the Greeks Matter" and "The World Before and After Jesus", and the commonalities we have with ancient civilizations.

Originally Aired: 12/29/2005

Firoozeh Dumas, the Iranian-born humorist and author of "Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America," talks with Marcia Franklin about growing up as an Iranian immigrant in California after the Iranian Revolution, why she felt it was so important to write her memoir, and the role of humor in her life.

Originally Aired: 12/22/2005

The recipient of the coveted Caldecott Medal, David Macaulay is the creator of children’s books that explain how architectural wonders such as pyramids and cathedrals were built. He and host Marcia Franklin discuss his show, “Building Big,” his books "Cathedral" and "Mosque," and his philosophy on modern architecture.

Originally Aired: 12/15/2005