Poetry (Audio)

Thomas E. Ricks is The Washington Post’s special military correspondent and a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. He discusses his book, The Gamble, his second installment on the Iraq War story. Series: "Voices" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 16445]

Political satirist (”Thank You For Smoking”) Christopher Buckley brings down the house in this raucous interview with host Dean Nelson as part of the 2009 Writer’s Symposium by the Sea, sponsored by Point Loma Nazarene University. Series: "Writer's Symposium By The Sea" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 15782]

Songwriters Richie Furay (Buffalo Springfield, Poco) and Greg Laswell (Three Flights From Alto Nido) share tips on composing lyrics and then play music for host Karl Martin as part of the 2009 Writer’s Symposium by the Sea sponsored by the Point Loma Nazarene University. Series: "Writer's Symposium By The Sea" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 15699]

One of the great postwar Central European poets, Slovenian Tomaz Salamun has published over thirty books. He has taught at universities around the world. He reads to an audience at UC Berkeley. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 15431]

Born in Odessa, Ilya Kaminsky immigrated to the United States in 1993 when his family was granted asylum by the American government. Kaminsky teaches comparative literature, poetry and literary translation at San Diego State University. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 15428]

Tracy K. Smith received degrees in English and creative writing from Harvard and Columbia, and was a Wallace Stegner Fellow in poetry at Stanford. Her first book, The Body's Question, was awarded the 2002 Cave Canem Poetry Prize, and her most recent collection, Duende: Poems, received the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets. She teaches creative writing at Princeton. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 15430]

U.S. Army Captain Craig Mullaney tells the story of his personal evolution, moving from his blue-collar upbringing in Rhode Island through his education at West Point and as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, to his deployment as an infantry platoon leader along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Mullaney's "unforgiving minute" came as he learned of the first casualty among his men in Afghanistan. Hailed as a thoughtful and compelling coming-of-age story, his book is a sustained meditation on the intellectual and physical discipline and the emotional compassion required of a wartime officer. Series: "Revelle Forum" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 15602]

Robin Blaser emerged from the Berkeley Renaissance of the 1940s and ‘50s along with Jack Spicer and Robert Duncan, and later established himself as one of Canada’s foremost experimental poets. In addition to numerous works of poetry, criticism, and translation, Blaser has also penned an English and Latin opera libretto entitled The Last Supper in collaboration with Sir Harrison Birtwistle. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 15429]

Washington Post Associate Editor and Senior Correspondent Robert Kaiser previews his forthcoming book, “So Damn Much Money: The Triumph of Lobbying and the Corrosion of American Government,” by offering an insider’s perspective on how special interests have distorted lawmakers’ priorities and damaged Washington politics. Series: "Revelle Forum" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 15601]

Host Harry Kreisler welcomes writer Michael Pollan for a discussion of the agricultural industrial complex that dominates consumer choices about what to eat. He explores the origins, evolution and consequences of this system for the nation’s health and environment. He highlights the role of science, journalism, and politics in the development of a diet that emphasizes nutrition over food. Pollan also sketches a reform agenda and speculates on how a movement might change America’s eating habits. He also talks about science writing, the rewards of gardening, and how students might prepare for the future. Series: "Conversations with History" [Public Affairs] [Science] [Agriculture] [Show ID: 15882]