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History/Bio

LAPL ID: 
6

Adam Hochschild, "To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918"

In conversation with Jon Wiener
Thursday, June 2, 2011
01:08:31
ALOUD
Listen:
Episode Summary

Hochschild (King Leopold's Ghost), one of America's best narrative historians, examines one of the greatest and most puzzling examples of civilized evils in history and the now obscure civilians and soldiers who waged a bitter, often heroic, struggle against it.

Participant(s) Bio
Adam Hochschild has won a reputation as a master of suspense and vivid character portrayal with his books King Leopold's Ghost, Bury the Chains, and others. His skill at evoking individual struggles for justice amid the sweep of historic events has made him a finalist for the National Book Award and won him a host of other prizes.

Jon Wiener is a contributing editor to The Nation magazine and a professor of history at the University of California - Irvine, where he specializes in recent American history. His books include: Historians in Trouble: Plagiarism, Fraud and Politics in the Ivory Tower, Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI Files; Professors, Politics and Pop; and Come Together: John Lennon in His Time. Wiener hosts an afternoon drive-time radio program on KPFK-90.7 FM featuring interviews on politics and culture.

Joan Schenkar and Kathleen Chalfant,"The Talented Miss Highsmith"

Tuesday, March 1, 2011
01:10:59
ALOUD
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Episode Summary

Patricia Highsmith's dazzling, dangerous novels entered the American consciousness in classic films such as Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley. Join us for an evening celebrating Highsmith: Schenkar's author talk that captures Highsmith's brilliance in creating disturbing fictions, a dramatic presentation by Obie Award- winning actress Chalfant, and never-before seen photos.

Participant(s) Bio

Joan Schenkar is the author of the highly acclaimed, award-winning biography The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith; of the widely praised biography Truly Wilde: The Unsettling Story of Dolly Wilde; and of a collection of award-winning plays, Signs of Life: 6 Comedies of Menace. She lives and writes in Paris and Greenwich Village.

Kathleen Chalfant is a Tony-nominated, Drama Desk and Obie Award-winning actress. Her many credits include the Broadway hit Angels in America, the Off-Broadway Wit and Nine Armenians. Her films include Duplicity, The People Speak, The Last New Yorker, Murder and Murder, among numerous others, and the TV shows Law and Order, Rescue Me, Book of Daniel, The Guardian, and The Laramie Project, as well as numerous radio programs.

I Love a Broad Margin to My Life

In conversation with Andrew Lam
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
01:15:53
ALOUD
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Episode Summary
In a voice that is humble, elegiac, and practical, the award-winning author of The Woman Warrior contemplates the meaning of family, the politics of war, and the striving for peace in this unconventional memoir
Participant(s) Bio
Maxine Hong Kingston is the daughter of Chinese immigrants. Growing up she was active in antiwar activities in Berkeley, but left the mainland for Hawai'i in the late 60's, where she then wrote The Woman Warrior, and China Men, which earned the National Book Award. Her most recent books include a collection of essays, Hawai'i One Summer, and her latest novel, The Fifth Book of Peace. Kingston was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 1997 by President Clinton. She is currently Senior Lecturer Emerita at the University of California, Berkeley.

Andrew Lam is an editor and co-founder of New America Media, an association of over 2000 ethnic media organizations in America. Born in Vietnam and living in the US since the age of 11, Lam's essays have appeared in newspapers and magazines across the country and his short stories are widely anthologized. He was a regular commentator on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" for eight years. Lam's awards include the Society of Professional Journalist Outstanding Young Journalist Award and The World Affairs Council's Excellence in International Journalism Award. His book, Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora, won the Pen American Beyond the Margins Award in 2006. His new book East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres was published September 2010.

Irrepressible: The Life and Times of Jessica Mitford

In conversation with Patt Morrison
Thursday, February 10, 2011
01:11:57
ALOUD
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Episode Summary
She eloped with Winston Churchill's nephew, severing her ties to privilege. She fought in the Spanish Civil War and joined the Freedom Riders in Montgomery, Alabama. She bore witness to the defining history of the 20th century. Jessica Mitford: queen of the muckrakers.
Participant(s) Bio
Leslie Brody has won the PEN Center USA West prize and a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, and several awards for her playwriting. She is the author of the memoir Red Star Sister and is a professor at the University of Redlands.

Patt Morrison is a writer and columnist for the Los Angeles Times and host of the daily Patt Morrison public affairs program on KPCC. She has won six Emmys and six Golden Mike awards as founding host and commentator on Life & Times Tonight, the nightly news and current affairs program on KCET. Her one-on-one television interview subjects include Salman Rushdie, Henry Kissinger, Frank Gehry, Ray Bradbury, Joan Didion, and many more.

Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage

In conversation with Gail Eichenthal
Monday, November 29, 2010
01:12:59
ALOUD
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Episode Summary

In a groundbreaking new account, Rowley describes the remarkable courage and lack of convention-private and public-that kept FDR and Eleanor together.

Participant(s) Bio

Hazel Rowley is the author of three previous biographies: Christina Stead: A Biography, a New York Times Best Book; Richard Wright: The Life and Times, a Washington Post Best Book; and Tête-à-Tête: Simone de Beavoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, which has been translated into twelve languages. She is the recipient of fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Gail Eichenthal is the Program Director of Classical KUSC 91.5 FM, and the co-producer and co-host of the Saturday 8am KUSC arts magazine program, Arts Alive. For more than twenty years, she hosted and produced the national radio broadcasts of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Gail was previously an award-winning news reporter and anchor at KNX and CBS Radio. Gail's articles have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the LA Times Magazine, and Symphony Magazine

The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy and the End of the Republic

In conversation with Warren Olney
Wednesday, February 18, 2004
01:08:04
ALOUD
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Episode Summary
The author of the prophetic national bestseller \"Blowback,\" offers a vivid look at the new caste of professional warriors who have infiltrated multiple branches of government, for whom the manipulation of the military budget is of vital interest. In conversation with journalist WARREN OLNEY (\"To the Point\").
Participant(s) Bio
Warren Olney is the award-winning journalist and host of "Which Way L.A?" and "To the Point" on KCRW-FM.

Chalmers Johnson is president of the Japan Policy Research Institute and Professor Emeritus at the University of California, San Diego. He is a frequent contributor to the Los Angeles Times and The Nation. His previous books include MITI and the Japanese Miracle.

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Solider

In conversation with Louise Steinman
Co-presented with Human Rights Watch Young Advocates
Thursday, April 5, 2007
01:08:23
ALOUD
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Episode Summary
At age twelve, Beah (now twenty-five), fled attacking rebels in his native Sierra Leone and was picked up by the government army. What is war like through the eyes of a child soldier? How does one become a killer? How does one stop?
Participant(s) Bio
Ishmael Beah was born in Sierra Leone in 1980. He moved to the United States in 1998 and finished his last two years of high school at the United Nations International School in New York. In 2004 he graduated from Oberlin College with a B.A. in political science. He is a member of the Human Rights Watch Children's Rights Division Advisory Committee and has spoken before the United Nations, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities 9CETO) at the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, and many other NGO panels on children affected by the war. His work has appeared in Vespertine Press and LIT magazine.

Louise Steinman is curator of the award-winning ALOUD series for the Library Foundation of Los Angeles and Co-Director of the Los Angeles Institute for Humanities at USC. She is the author of two books, most recently, The Souvenir: A Daughter Discovers Her Father's War, awarded the Gold Medal in Autobiography from ForeWord Magazine and the selection of several all-city and all-freshman reads programs.

Ziggurat

In conversation with Hovig Tchalian
Monday, November 22, 2010
01:20:13
ALOUD
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Episode Summary
Balakian's new collection of poems explore the aftermath of 9/11 through layered perspectives of myth, history, and personal memory; a panoramic work of contemporary witness in a new age of American uncertainty.
Participant(s) Bio
Peter Balakian is the Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Professor in Humanities and professor of English at Colgate University. He is the author of five books of poems and three prose works, including The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America's Response, a New York Times best seller, and Black Dog of Fate, a memoir.

Hovig Tchalian is the co-founder of Critics' Forum-a group of writers, critics and academics with an interest in English-language Armenian art and culture in the diaspora. He teaches writing and professional communication at the University of Southern California, in the business and engineering schools.

Phantom Noise: An evening with Solider-Poet Brain Turner

In conversation with Louise Steinman
Thursday, November 18, 2010
01:15:05
ALOUD
Listen:
Episode Summary
Turner's poems reflect his experiences as a soldier--seven years in the US Army, including a year as infantry team leader in Iraq--with penetrating lyric power and compassion.
Participant(s) Bio
Brian Turner is a soldier-poet whose debut book of poems, Here, Bullet, won the 2005 Beatrice Hawley Award, the New York Times "Editor's Choice" selection, the 2006 Pen Center USA "Best in the West" award, and the 2007 Poets Prize, among others. Turner served seven years in the US Army, to include one year as an infantry team leader in Iraq. Prior to that, he was deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1999-2000. Turner's poetry has been published in many reviews and in the Voices in Wartime Anthology published in conjunction with the feature-length documentary film of the same name.

Louise Steinman is curator of the award-winning ALOUD series for the Library Foundation of Los Angeles and Co-Director of the Los Angeles Institute for Humanities at USC. She is the author of two books, most recently, The Souvenir: A Daughter Discovers Her Father's War, awarded the Gold Medal in Autobiography from ForeWord Magazine and the selection of several all-city and all-freshman reads programs.

Cleopatra: A Life

In conversation with Robin Swicord
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
01:03:39
ALOUD
Listen:
Episode Summary
A Pulitzer-Prize willing biographer boldly separates fact from fiction to rescue the queen from her own hazy legend, subtly and originally probing classical sources to yield a fresh, thrilling account of a remarkable woman.
Participant(s) Bio
Stacy Schiff is the author of Saint Exupery, a Pulitzer Prize finalist; Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov), for which she received a Pulitzer in 2000; and most recently, A Great Improvisation, winner of the George Washington Book Prize. A Guggenheim Fellow, Schiff has received an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She is a contributor to The New Yorker, New York Times, and other publications.

Robin Swicord is known for her work as a screenwriter for "Memoirs Of A Geisha", "Little Women" (co-producer), "Matilda" (co-written and co-produced with Nicholas Kazan) and "Shag" (shared). In 2009 she received an Oscar nomination for her contribution to "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." She recently presented a talk at USC's Institute for the Humanities on "Reviving Cleopatra", in which she contrasted the historical Cleopatra with portrayals handed down over the next 2,000 years through images, plays and other entertainments.

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