Talking with Authors

This is the twenty-second episode of "Talking with Authors" by HEC Media and HEC Books. We're a program dedicated to speaking with some of the best selling authors around, covering many different genres.

We’re very excited to be able to come back to you after an unplanned hiatus due to the Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020. Since no authors were able to travel, and our partners at the St. Louis County Library and Left Bank Books were physically closed  in the early days of social distancing, we were unable to conduct many of the scheduled interviews that we had planned.  But, after the initial weeks of the global shutdown, we were able to set up remote video interviews with many authors. And in the coming weeks, we’ll be providing you with the audio of these interviews. Now sound quality may be slightly different than our previous podcasts, but they all still contain the great content that you’ve come to expect.

Today, our author is a New York Times economic reporter and writer, Eduardo Porter. We spoke with him via Zoom in March of 2020 about his book “American Poison: How Racial Hostility Destroyed our Promise” by publisher Penguin Random House.

Being an economic reporter and having focused on the cost that people are willing to pay for things in their everyday lives in his first book “The Price of Everything”, Eduardo Porter wanted his second book to focus on how the United States seemed to be unwilling to pay as much for a social safety net as compared to its peer nations. But the path to writing that book lead him down the road to why that unwillingness exists…Race.

And throughout the book he dives into how and why those lines have diminished the potential that the US has.   We’ll hear some of these details, talk about some possible solutions, and learn a bit about the life of reporter and writer Eduardo Porter on this edition Talking With Authors from HEC Media and HEC Books.

Our host and interviewer this time is Christina Chastain.

HEC Media is a production company out of St. Louis, Missouri.  With the help of independent bookstore Left Bank Books and St. Louis County Library, we are able to sit down with these amazing writers and thought leaders to discuss their work, their inspiration, and what makes them special. You can watch video versions of most of our interviews at hecmedia.org.

Producer, Host, and Video Editor - Christina Chastain
Audio Editor- Ben Smith
Supervising Producer - Julie Winkle
HEC Media Executive Director - Dennis Riggs
Talking with Authors Podcast Executive Producer - Christina Chastain
Podcast Producer - Rod Milam
Podcast Host - Rod Milam

You can follow us on all social media platforms. Just search for "Talking with Authors":

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/talkingwithauthors
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkingwithauthors
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TalkingwAuthors

This is the twenty-first episode of "Talking with Authors" by HEC Media and HEC Books. We're a program dedicated to speaking with some of the best selling authors around, covering many different genres.

Today, our author is documentary filmmaker and writer of books about Hollywood history, Robert Matzen. We spoke with him as he was on tour in November of 2019 with his book “Dutch Girl: Audrey Hepburn and World War II” by publisher GoodKnight Books.

Robert Matzen was working on his second book in the mid-2010s about Hollywood actors during World War II, when he learned that Audrey Hepburn actually lived in German occupied The Netherlands throughout the conflict. It had been believed that she’d been part of the Dutch resistance during that time, but Robert, ever the documentarian, couldn’t find any definitive writings that could confirm that OR much about her life during that time. The reason…her parents’ pre-war sympathies and activities. Even with press questions at time, they yielded nothing.

But later he was able to connect with the sons of Audrey Hepburn and spend a great deal of time in The Netherlands to unearth the details of the decade’s hidden subject and write about it himself first…to his amazement.  We’ll learn about some of these details, how they were gotten, and how Audrey Hepburn’s life as a child in a war zone lead her to her support children suffering in conflicts around the world as an adult in our conversation with filmmaker and writer Robert Matzen on this edition Talking With Authors from HEC Media and HEC Books.

Here’s our host and interviewer this time, Paul Schankman.

HEC Media is a production company out of St. Louis, Missouri.  With the help of independent bookstore Left Bank Books and St. Louis County Library, we are able to sit down with these amazing writers and thought leaders to discuss their work, their inspiration, and what makes them special. You can watch video versions of most of our interviews at hecmedia.org.

Host, editor, and producer of this episode - Paul Schankman
Photography - Peter Foggy, Ken Calcaterra
Audio - Paul Langdon
Editor and Graphics - Jayne Ballew and Gregg Kopp
Supervising Producer - Julie Winkle
Production Support - Christina Chastain
HEC Media Executive Director - Dennis Riggs
Talking with Authors Podcast Executive Producer - Christina Chastain
Podcast Producer - Rod Milam
Podcast Host - Rod Milam

You can follow us on all social media platforms. Just search for "Talking with Authors":

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/talkingwithauthors
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkingwithauthors
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TalkingwAuthors

This is the twentieth episode of "Talking with Authors" by HEC Media and HEC Books. We're a program dedicated to speaking with some of the best selling authors around, covering many different genres.

Today, our author is a culture reporter for the New York Times and four time book author Dave Itzkoff. We spoke with him as he was on tour in November of 2019 with his then brand new book “Robin” a biography of Robin Williams by publisher Pan Macmillan.

Dave Itzkoff is a journalist that has covered the worlds of film, theatre, TV, and pop culture…and he would need to use his knowledge of all of those worlds to take on the subject of the comedian and actor Robin Williams when he decided to write his biography.  The multi-talented artist that died back in 2014 had previously given some interviews with Itzkoff back in 2008 and 2009. Those talks coupled with more than another 100 interviews with family and friends, helped Dave learn about the ways that Williams connected to his fame and his fans. He also learned about the darker world of depression and addiction that Willams occupied. We’ll take a deep dive into the career of the iconic comedian and actor Robin Williams and learn about his journey through Hollywood and later life. Culture writer Dave Itzkoff on this edition Talking With Authors from HEC Media and HEC Books.

Our host and interviewer this time is Angie Weidinger.

HEC Media is a production company out of St. Louis, Missouri.  With the help of independent bookstore Left Bank Books and St. Louis County Library, we are able to sit down with these amazing writers and thought leaders to discuss their work, their inspiration, and what makes them special. You can watch video versions of most of our interviews at hecmedia.org.

Host and producer of this episode - Angie Weidinger
Photography - Peter Foggy, Ken Calcaterra, and John Ross
Audio - Ben Smith
Editor and Graphics - Jayne Ballew
Supervising Producer - Julie Winkle
Production Support - Christina Chastain and Jayne Ballew
HEC Media Executive Director - Dennis Riggs
Talking with Authors Podcast Executive Producer - Christina Chastain
Podcast Producer - Rod Milam
Podcast Host - Rod Milam

You can follow us on all social media platforms. Just search for "Talking with Authors":

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/talkingwithauthors
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkingwithauthors
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TalkingwAuthors

This is the nineteenth episode of "Talking with Authors" by HEC Media and HEC Books. We're a program dedicated to speaking with some of the best selling authors around, covering many different genres.

Our author is award winning investigative journalist Ben Westhoff. We spoke with him as he was on tour in September of 2019 with his then brand new book “Fentanyl, Inc.: How Rogue Chemists Are Creating the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic” by publisher Grove Atlantic.

But after following that thread of information, he found himself tracking down the source of the additives to China, tracing the spread of the synthetic drug throughout the world, and testifying in the halls of the Congress about the manufacture, use, abuse, and effect of fentanyl in the United States.  We’ll learn about investigative journalist Ben Westhoff’s deep journey through the illicit drug world and hear some stories about the lives of the businesses and people effected by it on this edition Talking With Authors from HEC Media and HEC Books.

Our host and interviewer this time is Brenda Madden.

HEC Media is a production company out of St. Louis, Missouri.  With the help of independent bookstore Left Bank Books and St. Louis County Library, we are able to sit down with these amazing writers and thought leaders to discuss their work, their inspiration, and what makes them special. You can watch video versions of most of our interviews at hecmedia.org.

Host and producer of this episode - Brenda Madden
Photography - Peter Foggy and Ken Calcaterra
Audio - Ben Smith
Editor and Graphics - Kerry Marks
Supervising Producer - Julie Winkle
Production Support - Christina Chastain and Jane Ballew
HEC Media Executive Director - Dennis Riggs
Talking with Authors Podcast Executive Producer - Christina Chastain
Podcast Producer - Rod Milam
Podcast Host - Rod Milam

You can follow us on all social media platforms. Just search for "Talking with Authors":

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/talkingwithauthors
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkingwithauthors
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TalkingwAuthors

This is the eighteenth episode of "Talking with Authors" by HEC Media and HEC Books. We're a program dedicated to speaking with some of the best selling authors around, covering many different genres.

Today, our author is independent film and television producer and writer Marra Gad. We spoke with her as she was on tour in November of 2019 with her book “The Color of Love: A Story of a Mixed-Race Jewish Girl” by Agate Publishing.

Marra Gad was born as the product of a relationship between an unwed black father and white Jewish mother in Chicago, Illinois, and was adopted into an all white Jewish family in 1970 at three days old.  As an obviously mixed race child of the time, she grew up standing out in the close knit Jewish community and synagogue of her adopted parents and in the city of Chicago in general. But her parents were firmly behind her and against all people that couldn’t understand that she was who she was.  But the strain from too much attention was always with her.

But with explicit backing, she found a way to always seek paths of connection to those that were racist and hurtful to her…even those in her own family that she was once close with when they were willing and able to receive her love.  We’ll take a deep dive into the unique life of producer and author Marra Gad, our guest on this edition Talking With Authors from HEC Media and HEC Books.

Our host and interviewer this time is Brenda Madden.

HEC Media is a production company out of St. Louis, Missouri.  With the help of independent bookstore Left Bank Books and St. Louis County Library, we are able to sit down with these amazing writers and thought leaders to discuss their work, their inspiration, and what makes them special. You can watch video versions of most of our interviews at hecmedia.org.

Host and producer of this episode - Brenda Madden
Photography - Peter Foggy and Ken Calcaterra
Audio - Ben Smith
Editor and Graphics - Kerry Marks
Supervising Producer - Julie Winkle
Production Support - Christina Chastain and Jane Ballew
HEC Media Executive Director - Dennis Riggs
Talking with Authors Podcast Executive Producer - Christina Chastain
Podcast Producer - Rod Milam
Podcast Host - Rod Milam

Special thanks to the St. Louis Jewish Book Festival

You can follow us on all social media platforms. Just search for "Talking with Authors":

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/talkingwithauthors
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TalkingwAuthors

This is the seventeenth episode of "Talking with Authors" by HEC Media and HEC Books. We're a program dedicated to speaking with some of the best selling authors around, covering many different genres.

Today, our author is the New York Times Best Selling writer Dr. Michael Roizen. We spoke with him as he was on tour in November of 2019 with his book “What to Eat When: A Strategic Plan to Improve Your Health and Life Through Food” by publisher The National Geographic Society.

Dr. Roizen is a board certified anesthesiologist and internist, and the chief wellness officer of the Cleveland Clinic, an academic based medical center in Cleveland, Ohio.  He became a 5-time New York Times Best Selling author with a series of books from his RealAge service of personal health tools for the general public.  He has made many media appearances over the years and been part of the Dr. Oz Show for several episodes.  In this new book “What to Eat When” that he penned with fellow doctor Michael Crupain, he talks about new research that showed him that timing of eating also effects people’s overall health.

We’ll go over his findings and prescription for changing the way that everyone eats so that they can maximize their health. Dr. Michael Roizen is our guest on this edition Talking With Authors from HEC Media and HEC Books.

Our host and interviewer this time is Victoria Babu.

HEC Media is a production company out of St. Louis, Missouri.  With the help of independent bookstore Left Bank Books and St. Louis County Library, we are able to sit down with these amazing writers and thought leaders to discuss their work, their inspiration, and what makes them special. You can watch video versions of most of our interviews at hecmedia.org.

Host and editor of this episode - Victoria Babu
Photography - Peter Foggy and Jim Chambers
Audio - Ben Smith
Editor - Greg Kopp
Supervising Producer - Julie Winkle
Production Support - Christina Chastain and Jane Ballew
HEC Media Executive Director - Dennis Riggs
Talking with Authors Podcast Executive Producer - Christina Chastain
Podcast Producer - Rod Milam
Podcast Host - Rod Milam

Special thanks to the St. Louis Jewish Book Festival

You can follow us on all social media platforms. Just search for "Talking with Authors":

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/talkingwithauthors
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TalkingwAuthors

This is the sixteenth episode of "Talking with Authors" by HEC Media and HEC Books. We're a program dedicated to speaking with some of the best selling authors around, covering many different genres.

Today, our guest is a journalist, psychotherapist, and New York Times best selling author Lori Gottlieb. We spoke with her as she was on tour in November of 2019 for her book “Maybe You Should Talk to Someone” by publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Lori Gottlieb’s professional career has taken her from film development, to TV writing and production in the 1990s with NBC, to medical school, to journalism, and to psychology later on. And now with her behind-the-scenes look into the life of a therapist in the book “Maybe You Should Talk to Someone” being adapted to a TV series, she’s coming full circle…back to the media world.  She very much wants to tell stories about real life and to help lead people to take care of their mental health like they would other aspects of their well-being.

And between this book, her column in “The Atlantic”, her public speaking work, and her therapy practice she’s on a mission to have as many people as possible realize that they too are worthy and deserve to be helped and heard in order to live a more healthy life over all.  Psychologist, journalist, and New York Times Best Selling author Lori Gottlieb on this episode of Talking with Authors from HEC Media and HEC Books.

Our host and interviewer this time is Christina Chastain

HEC Media is a production company out of St. Louis, Missouri.  With the help of independent bookstore Left Bank Books and St. Louis County Library, we are able to sit down with these amazing writers and thought leaders to discuss their work, their inspiration, and what makes them special. You can watch video versions of most of our interviews at hecmedia.org.

Host and editor of this episode - Paul Schankman
Photography - Peter Foggy and Ken Calcaterra
Graphics - Jane Ballew and Greg Kopp
Supervising Producer - Julie Winkle
Production Support - Christina Chastain
HEC Media Executive Director - Dennis Riggs
Talking with Authors Podcast Executive Producer - Christina Chastain
Podcast Producer - Rod Milam
Podcast Editor - Paul Langdon
Podcast Host - Rod Milam

Special thanks to the St. Louis Jewish Book Festival

You can follow us on all social media platforms. Just search for "Talking with Authors":

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/talkingwithauthors
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TalkingwAuthors

This is the fifteenth episode of "Talking with Authors" by HEC Media and HEC Books. We're a program dedicated to speaking with some of the best selling authors around, covering many different genres.

Today, our author is famed fashion designer Issac Mizrahi. We spoke with him at the Jewish Community Center in St. Louis as he was on tour in November of 2019 with his book “I.M.: A Memoir” by publisher Macmillian.

This world famous fashion designer and TV personality started off his life in Brooklyn, New York in the 1960s as one of three children in an observant Syrian-Jewish family. His father was in the clothing business and gave him a sewing machine when he was 10 and he eventually went to school at the famed LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts and Parsons School of Design in Manhattan. His eventual voyage to fame in the very liberal and open worlds of high fashion and television performance was far from smooth, especially given the very conservative background he came from.  One of the big things that he did not get from his home life was...optimism.

But he's found out that living his life in full has taught and continues to teach him what he did not get growing up. We’ll hear about the other eclectic things that life has taught this man of many talents…designer, TV show host, business owner, and author Issac Mizrahi on this episode of Talking with Authors from HEC Media and HEC Books.

Our host and interviewer this time is Paul Schankman.

HEC Media is a production company out of St. Louis, Missouri.  With the help of independent bookstore Left Bank Books and St. Louis County Library, we are able to sit down with these amazing writers and thought leaders to discuss their work, their inspiration, and what makes them special. You can watch video versions of most of our interviews at hecmedia.org.

Host and editor of this episode - Paul Schankman
Photography - Peter Foggy and Ken Calcaterra
Graphics - Jane Ballew and Greg Kopp
Supervising Producer - Julie Winkle
Production Support - Christina Chastain
HEC Media Executive Director - Dennis Riggs
Talking with Authors Podcast Executive Producer - Christina Chastain
Podcast Producer - Rod Milam
Podcast Editor - Paul Langdon
Podcast Host - Rod Milam

Special thanks to the St. Louis Jewish Book Festival

You can follow us on all social media platforms. Just search for "Talking with Authors":

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/talkingwithauthors
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TalkingwAuthors

This is the fourteenth episode of "Talking with Authors" by HEC Media and HEC Books. We're a program dedicated to speaking with some of the best selling authors around, covering many different genres.

Today, our author is a Newberry award winning writer Erin Entrada Kelly. We spoke with her at the HEC Media studios as she was on her summer book tour in September of 2019 when her book “Lalani of the Distant Sea” was hot off the presses.

This New York Times Best Selling children’s book writer was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana and started off her career as a journalist in The South. She then relocated to the American Northeast and became an author in 2015 and only 2 years later in 2017, she won the Newberry award for her third book, “Hello, Universe”. Writing for and being able to relate to middle schoolers and young people is clearly a passion for Erin Entrada Kelly. And she knows that being able to provide a sense of belonging in book form for her audience is very important. And in the book we’ll learn about and talk about today, “Lalani of the Distant Sea”, we’ll hear about the trials of adolescent girls and boys through a lens of fantasy. That and how this award winning Filipino American writer’s career came to be and how she plays her role in the world. New York Times Best Selling and Newberry Award winning author Erin Entrada Kelly on this episode of Talking with Authors from HEC Media and HEC Books.

Our host and interviewer this time is Brenda Madden.

HEC Media is a production company out of St. Louis, Missouri.  With the help of independent bookstore Left Bank Books and St. Louis County Library, we are able to sit down with these amazing writers and thought leaders to discuss their work, their inspiration, and what makes them special. You can watch video versions of most of our interviews at hecmedia.org.

Host of this episode - Brenda Madden
Photography - Peter Foggy and Ken Calcaterra
Editor & Graphics - Kerry Marks
Audio - Ben Smith
Supervising Producer - Julie Winkle
Production Support - Jayne Ballew and Christina Chastain
HEC Media Executive Director - Dennis Riggs
Talking with Authors Podcast Executive Producer - Christina Chastain
Podcast Producer - Rod Milam
Podcast Editors - Ben Smith
Podcast Host - Rod Milam

You can follow us on all social media platforms. Just search for "Talking with Authors":

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/talkingwithauthors
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TalkingwAuthors

This is the thirteenth episode of "Talking with Authors" by HEC Media and HEC Books. We're a program dedicated to speaking with some of the best selling authors around, covering many different genres.

Today, our author is New York Times best selling writer Marty Makary, M.D. We spoke with him as he was touring the United States talking about his book “The Price We Pay: What Broke the American Healthcare System - and How to Fix It”. This one-on-one was done in October of 2019.

More than a writer, Dr. Makary is an oncology and gastrointestinal surgeon plus a teacher of public health policy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland. Through all of his contact with his patients, he knows that the trust that people have with doctors is one of the most critical components in promoting good public health.  But given the way that people are forced to interact with the financial part of healthcare system, Dr. Makary knows that trust can become eroded because of that interaction. He strongly feels that there needs to be public accountability for hospitals that are involved in what he calls price gauging.

In spite of that doctor has optimism for what the future of healthcare could be in the US…and he has a prescription for some “common sense” solutions for some of the biggest woes. We’ll see what the prognosis is during this interview with the New York Times best selling writer Marty Makary on this episode of “Talking with Authors” from HEC Media and HEC Books.

Our host and interviewer this time is Paul Schankman.

HEC Media is a production company out of St. Louis, Missouri.  With the help of independent bookstore Left Bank Books and St. Louis County Library, we are able to sit down with these amazing writers and thought leaders to discuss their work, their inspiration, and what makes them special. You can watch video versions of most of our interviews at hecmedia.org.

Host and editor of this episode - Paul Schankman
Photography - Peter Foggy and Ken Calcaterra
Graphics - Greg Kopp
Supervising Producer - Julie Winkle
Production Support - Jayne Ballew and Christina Chastain
HEC Media Executive Director - Dennis Riggs
Talking with Authors Podcast Executive Producer - Christina Chastain
Podcast Producer - Rod Milam
Podcast Editors - Paul Langdon
Podcast Host - Rod Milam

You can follow us on all social media platforms. Just search for "Talking with Authors":

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/talkingwithauthors
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TalkingwAuthors