KPFA - Radio Wolinsky

Jan Morris, who died on November 20th, 2020 shortly after her 94th birthday, was known as an historian and a travel writer. As James Morris, she accompanied Edmund Hillary on the first expedition to the summit of Mount Everest. Before and after her transition in 1964, Jan Morris wrote 18 travel books, six history books including a noteworthy three volume history of the British Empire, eight memoirs including the best-selling Conundrum, two novels, and twelve collections of essays.

This interview, conducted by Richard A. Lupoff and Richard Wolinsky, was recorded in San Francisco on August 20, 1999 while Jan Morris was appearing at a conference in the San Francisco Bay Area. There were would be a second interview in 2001, which will be digitized and posted in the future.

Jan Morris’s book, Lincoln: A foreigner’s quest, discussed in the interview, was published in 2001.

Complete 38-minute interview.

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Robert Macfarlane, whose latest book is “Ghostways: Two Journeys in Unquiet Places,” written in collaboration with artist Stanley Donwood and writer Dan Richards, is interviewed by host Richard Wolinsky.

This short book examines two strange areas in England, Orford Ness, a spit of sand in the southeast of England, not far from Cambridge, which was used as a weapons testing site in the Cold War, and the holloways of Dorset, strange paths beaten over centuries, and often covered over by trees, almost as caves.

In this interview, recorded December 8, 2020, he talks about the book, both places in England, how the pandemic has affected his life, and how climate change is affected by the shutdown.

The author of several books, including “Underland,” “Mountains of the Mind” and “The Old Ways,” Robert Macfarlane teaches at Cambridge University.

Front photo: The Holloways.

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Noel Casler, since 2018, has developed a large Twitter following based on his violation of an NDA, revealing information about Donald Trump gleaned from his six years working on the Celebrity Apprentice program, and before that, watching Trump in action at a teenage beauty pageant. He is interviewed by host Richard Wolinsky.

Today a stand-up comedian working on a book about his experiences, Noel Casler spent two decades working behind the scenes at live events as a celebrity handler, with such stars as Madonna, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen and many others. But it was in 2015, having experienced Donald Trump on multiple occasions, that he decided to forgo his career and speak on the record about what he knew, first with the Clinton campaign (which chose not to follow up because of hubris and overconfidence) and later on Twitter, where he has amassed close to 300,000 followers.

In this hour-long interview, he discusses his background, the difference between the fictional businessman created for the two Apprentice TV shows, and the real Donald Trump, and goes into some depth about Ivanka Trump, who was his primary charge during the last three years of Apprentice live finales. He also discusses the role producer Mark Burnett played in the Trump make-over, as well as the role of Jeff Zucker in that endeavor, in charge at NBC at the time (and later at CNN).f

Noel Casler Twitter Feed

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A Conversation with Gore Vidal, 1990.

This encore podcast originally was posted on November 18, 2015 and reposted on May 26, 2017. Always worth another listen.

Gore Vidal (1925-2012) was the author of such novels as Burr, 1976, Julian and Myra Breckinridge, as well as one of America’s greatest essayists. On June 30, 1990, he sat down with Richard Wolinsky for an illuminating interview about his career as both writer and social critic. The interview was transcribed and published in the San Francisco Bay Guardian on July 11, 1990. It was recorded in the offices of the KPFA Folio because the off-air studio at 2207 Shattuck Avenue was incapacitated, which frequently happened in the years before the move to the building on Martin Luther King Jr. Way.

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This encore podcast was originally posted on April 4, 2019.

Tommy Orange, author of the novel “There There,” in conversation with Richard Wolinsky.

Winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award, the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize, and the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. “There There” is set in and around Fruitvale and the Coliseum areas in Oakland, and looks at the lives of several Native Americans, young and old, as they converge for a giant pow-wow. The novel stretches back in time to the takeover of Alcatraz and forward to the present day, shattering stereotypes and delving into the real lives of the urban Native American.

Tommy Orange was born and raised in Oakland, and is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes of Oklahoma.

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