The National Writers Series Podcast

This week the NWS welcomes bestselling suspense/thriller novelist Brad Meltzer to the NWS stage!. In advance of that, we thought we'd take a look back at a recent conversation with a similar author: Brad Thor. 

In this conversation, held virtually in the summer of 2020 following the release of "Near Dark," Brad and NWS co-founder Doug Stanton talk about everything from how the thriller genre changed after 9/11 to pitching a travel show to PBS to Brad's potential run for President in 2016. Why didn't he decide to jump into the fray? Listen in and find out! 

This week, Northern Express published a list of 2022's Fascinating People: Northerners You Need to Know. On that list was United States Marine Corps Major General Michael Lehnert (Ret.), who was our guest host for this conversation with author Eric Fair in 2017.

Lehnert was the first to serve as commander of the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, and since leaving the Marine Corps has been one of the loudest voices in favor of closing the base. We thought he would be the perfect person to interview Eric Fair about his book "Consequence: A Memoir," which discusses his time working as a contract interrogator in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison complex and the things he saw there, including aggressive interrogation techniques including sleep deprivation and stress positions.

In this conversation, Lehnert and Fair discuss Fair's experience as an interrogator and interpreter, his decision to go back to Iraq and "redeem the experience of war" for himself, and about the decision to use "enhanced interrogation" techniques. 

With Eastern Europe looking at another conflict region opening up between Russia and Ukraine, we're looking back to a conversation with a person who's been a journalist, an author, and a special adviser to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Sarah Chayes offers us some still-timely insight into the inner workings of international politics. 

In this discussion, guest host Jack Segal of the TCIAF leads the conversation about Sarah's book Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security. Chayes' book connects the dots from Syria to Ukraine to Nigeria to Afghanistan, showing how kleptocratic regimes – tolerated or even facilitated by the United States – can drive fed-up citizens into the arms of extreme fundamentalist groups.

This Friday (Feb. 4), we're talking about morals, ethics, and philosophy with Michael Schur, so we thought for this week's podcast we'd look back to another conversation about living a meaningful life. Dr. Lucy Kalanithi joined us in June 2016 to talk about the book she completed for her husband, neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi. This conversation is hosted by bestselling author and NWS co-founder Doug Stanton.

When he was diagnosed with cancer, he decided to write a memoir. He didn’t live to see his book “When Breath Becomes Air” published, but it turned into a New York Times number one bestseller. In this profoundly moving book, Dr. Kalanithi wrote about mortality and how to live a meaningful life. He was a philosopher and seeker who became a neurosurgeon, in part, to discover life’s deeper mysteries. 

Uncertain of how long he had to live, Paul decided to complete his medical training, write a memoir, and become a parent. His daughter, Elizabeth Acadia “Cady” Kalanithi, was born nine months after his diagnosis. Tragically, Paul died in March of 2015 and Lucy lovingly finished what her husband could not, drawing on letters, videos and emails. 

In 2013, Michael Paterniti joined the NWS on the stage of the Traverse City Opera House for a conversation with NWS co-founder Doug Stanton. According to Paterniti, the greatest storyteller he ever met is a cheese maker in the small Spanish village of Guzman. When he joined us, Paterniti's latest was The Telling Room: A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge, and World's Greatest Piece of Cheese. 

For a previous book, Paterniti ended up on a cross-country road trip with Albert Einstein's brain in the trunk of the car. His literary non-fiction has appeared in magazines such as Outside, Rolling Stone, and Esquire. 

This NWS Podcast episode celebrates the birthday week of critically-acclaimed master of suspense Karin Slaughter. 

Slaughter’s first novel Blindsighted became an international success, was published in almost 30 languages, and made the Crime Writers’ Association’s Dagger Award shortlist for “Best Thriller Debut” of 2001.  She is also the author of the Will Trent series that takes place in Atlanta and features GBI special agent Will Trent, his partner Faith Mitchell, and Angie Polaski. 

In this episode from 2014, Slaughter sits down with author and creative writing instructor Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli to discuss Slaughter's newest book: Cop Town. 

In this book, two women from different backgrounds who try to wear the badge and carry the gun for Atlanta’s macho police department as the city faces a seismic upheaval. It’s 1974, and a brutal killing and furious manhunt have rocked the divided police force.

For our last episode of the year, we wanted to bring you our conversation with author Debbie Macomber from 2015. Her work includes fiction, nonfiction, children’s books, knitting and cookbooks, and inspirational books. She’s also released a yearly Christmas-themed book for decades, hence the timing of this episode.

At this point, she has more than 200 million copies of books in print; she’s published over a dozen book series; 70 other stand-alone books; plus several anthologies and collaborations. That’s a pretty amazing bibliography.

Starting with the revelation of Debbie’s “literary guardian angel,” our guest host Ron Hogan brought us through a discussion that ranged from her first break as a writer to her love of knitting to how reader feedback impacted her series of Christmas books.

It's been quite a while since this audio featuring Peter and Elmore Leonard has been publicly available and easily accessible, so let's look all the way back to 2009 with this week's podcast episode. 

This conversation features stories including Elmore's interactions with actors like Charles Bronson and John Travolta; where his famous character names like Raylan Givens and Chili Palmer came from; how his Ten Rules for Writing came to be, and much more! 

About five years ago we were welcoming bestselling author Kyle Mills to the stage for a conversation hosted by NWS co-founder Doug Stanton.

At the time, Kyle had recently taken over as the author of the Mitch Rapp series of novels, stepping in for the late Vince Flynn. Kyle has also written books in the Robert Ludlum Covert-One series as well as his own series of political thrillers. Since his latest book was just released a couple of months ago called Enemy at the Gates, we thought it was worth revisiting this conversation.

Listen in as we talk about how Kyle came to take on the Mitch Rapp series, how he got into writing after a career in the banking industry, what his first drafts look like before he sends them to his mom to read … and about how he tried to walk away from it all.

If you are a Hulu subscriber, you've undoubtedly seen promos for their new series Dopesick starring Michael Keaton. That show premiered a couple of weeks ago, and it's been getting some pretty good reviews. All of which made us think, hey - author Beth Macy joined us to talk about Dopesick back in 2018. Since then it's been adapted into the show you're watching now, and that's why we're bringing you that conversation here today. 

From the introduction of OxyContin in 1996 to the pharmaceutical industry that pushed these highly addictive drugs, Dopesick takes readers through the harrowing trajectory of the most critical drug epidemic in recent history. This conversation is guest hosted by Peter Payette, executive director of Interlochen Public Radio.