When fiction is grounded in scientific fact, our world opens up. Suzanne Lang talks with novelist Elizabeth Reed Aden on her medical thriller The Goldilocks Genome, which uses the science behind pharmaceuticals and the human body to create a taut story of terrorism and the geeks who pursue the terrorist.Also featured is award winning writer Nell Freudenberger with her latest work of fiction, The Limits, anovel of family and culture, the survival of the coral reefs, and the social challenges of

It’s all about water. Suzanne Lang talks with author, photographer, and conservationist Tim Palmer on his book Seek Higher Ground, the Natural Solution to our Urgent Flooding Crisis. Tim explores the legacy of flooding in America and the climatic, economic, and ecological realities of our rivers and communities. Also featured is another visit with Julene Bair whose memoir isThe Ogallala Road, a Story of Love, Family, and the Fight to Keep the Great Plains from Running Dry. It’s A Novel Idea with

A dancer on Everest and a queen of high climbing mountaineers are featured. Suzanne Lang talks with Mimi Zieman, doctor and author of “The Post Roe Monologues” whose latest book isTap Dancing on Everest —a Young Doctor’s Unlikely Adventure, a chronicle of her life and serving as the team doctor on a dicey ascent from Tibet up the east side of Mt. Everest.Also featured is journalist Cathryn J. Prince, on her bookQueen of the Mountaineers, the Trailblazing Life of Fanny Bullock Workman, a story of

Stories from the devastating times in Europe during World War II, —told to us by the people who lived through them, speak loudly to us in our current moment of brutal wars and suffering people.Suzanne Lang talks with Alfred J. Lakritz on his bookAdieu: A Memoir of Holocaust Survival. His warm and moving tale relates his separation from his parents, and then the many people and experiences that kept Alfred and his brother safe from the Nazis in occupied France, including stays on remote farms and

We go above and below, at every depth. Tessa Hill joins Suzanne Lang in conversation onAt Every Depth, Our Growing Knowledge of the Changing Oceans,the book she wrote with science writer Eric Simons that takes readers from the shore to the ocean depths, from the tropics to polar regions, and introduces us to people who are working hard to save our oceans and the habitats thathostso much life.Also featured is a conversation with Marianna Leuschel and Josie Iselin, co-directors of

Jennifer Manocherian’s book isAlpha Bette, sort of the opposite of a coming of age story. It takes place over the course of a single day and is centered around a 95 year old widow, Bette Gartner, who wakes up one morning in her New York City apartment and decides to throw a dinner party that evening, with a surprising guest list. Manocherian, who has produced Broadway plays, written books for a couple of musicals, and has produced and written for film, joins Suzanne Lang in conversation to talk

For the past four hundred years, the groundbreaking Italian artist, Caravaggio, has challenged, intrigued, and transformed us. Suzanne Lang talks with Terence Ward on his book that combines memoir, history, biography, and journalism,The Guardian of Mercy: How an Extraordinary Painting by Caravaggio Changed an Ordinary Life.Suzanne also talks with author Eugenio Volpe on his post-modern novelI, Caravaggio,that depicts the artist’s phychological unraveling while evolving his art and arising as a

Novelists who write inside of their calling. D.J. Green is a geologist and writer who brings her love of the planet into a drama that ranges from the external challenges of earthquake prone Turkey to the inner lives of an American family living there in her bookNo More Empty Spaces.Historian and archivist, Lynn Downey talks about her interests in Western fashion and dude ranches in her novel set on one,Dude or Die. Both authors join host Suzanne Lang on A Novel Idea. Click the icon below to

Poetry communicates, teaches, and binds us together. Parisa Akhbari (@authorparisa) a mental health therapist and writer from Seattle, Washington joins Suzanne Lang in conversation on her YA novel, Just Another Epic Love Poem, which follows two queer best friends in Catholic school as they fall in love through the pages of a never-ending poem they’ve been writing back and forth for five years. Also featured are Youth Poet Ambassadors from the Marin Poetry Center, Naomi Ko and Cade Palmer along

When Marilyn Dear Nelson and her husband Chris Nelson started digging into her ancestry and the life of great grandfather, JW Dear, they discovered a sweeping story of grit, courage, brutality, and friendship. The resulting book is RED CLOUD AND THE INDIAN TRADER, THE REMARKABLE FRIENDSHIP OF THE SIOUX CHIEF AND JW DEAR IN THE LAST DAYS OF THE FRONTIER. The Nelsons join Suzanne Lang in conversation Sunday, January 21stat 10 am PDT. Streaming and podcasting atkrcb.org. Click the icon below to

The South Pacific has inspired artists and writers since the 19thcentury and Ralph Burke Tyree was among them. Historian and art collector C.J. Cook has produced two definitive works on the artist —Tyree, Artist of the South Pacific,whichhas won awards for it’s stunning cover art and as a biography of Tyree; and now,Beauty in the Beast, Flora, Fauna, and Endangered Species of Artist Ralph Burke Tyree(with Paige Herbert). CJ Cook joins Suzanne Lang in conversation onA Novel Idea. Click the

On this encore presentation, story and story-tellers are the link to and legacy of our cultural roots and identity.SuzanneLangtalks withMegan Kamalei Kakimoto on her wrenching and sensational story collection, Every Drop is a Man’s Nightmare, which follows native Hawaiians through a contemporary landscape filled with inherited wisdom and the ghosts of colonization. Suzannealso talks with Mojgan Ghazirad on her autobiographical coming of age novel,The House on Sun Street, set largely in Tehran

Suzanne Lang talks with Brian H. Williams - trauma surgeon, policy advisor, and current candidate for US Congress, who brings us his intense and eye-opening revelations inThe Bodies Keep Coming, Dispatches from a Black Trauma Surgeon on Racism, Violence, and How We Heal. Then, Jody Gelb, actress, Mother, and author talks with Suzanne about Gelb’s “micro-memoir,”She May Be Lying Down but She May Be Very Happy, an impressionistic portrayal of Jody’s life with her family, her career, and daughter

Sometimes authors use conventional forms of fiction to explore larger issues of history, gender, love, and success.Called the “Raymond Chandler for feminists”, Shelley Blanton-Stroud delivers the third installment of her novels featuring columnist Jane Benjamin, which includeCopy Boy,Tom Boy, and nowPoster Girl,and she joins Suzanne Lang in conversation. Suzanne also talks with mystery writer Bob Burnett about the first in a series featuring US Marshal Kate Swift inDeath is Potentail. Click

Eliot Pattison is the author of gritty mysteries set in the historic past and joins Suzanne Lang for an hour of conversation. His latest novel isFreedoms’s Ghost, a Mystery of the American Revolution,a recent installment into his Bone Rattler series, set in the pre-Revolutionary War Colonial America. Also featured is a 2019 segment with Eliot discussing the tenth and last installment of his “Inspector Shan” series set in Tibet,Bones of the Earth. Eliot Pattison and Suzanne Lang on A Novel Idea,

Award winning writer and historian Julia Bricklin joins Suzanne Lang to talk about her most recent bookRed Sapphire: The Woman Who Beat the Blacklist, the story of Hannah Weinstein, a left leaning activist who fled to Europe during the McCarthy era, and established Sapphire Films. With little background, she began producing successful television shows, all the while surreptitiously employing blacklisted American writers to provide the scripts. Also featured is the bookA Girlhood: Letter to my

Esmeralda Santiago, a prolific Puerto Rican author of a series of memoirs, along with nonfiction works, and works for young people joins Suzanne Lang to talk about her life, Puerto Rico, Puerto Ricans, and her latest novelLas Madres. Corky Parker, with roots in Public Radio and a successful career with her own media company, buys a small inn on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, and nearly twenty-five years later tells us about her experiences inla Finca -Love, Loss, and Laundry on a Tiny

Story and story-tellers are the link to and legacy of our cultural roots and identity.SuzanneLangtalks withMegan Kamalei Kakimoto on her wrenching and sensational story collection, Every Drop is a Man’s Nightmare, which follows native Hawaiians through a contemporary landscape filled with inherited wisdom and the ghosts of colonization. Suzannealso talks with Mojgan Ghazirad on her autobiographical coming of age novel,The House on Sun Street, set largely in Tehran during the concussive period of

Writers at different stages and phases of their craft. Suzanne Lang features three novelists at varying stages in their craft. Longtime journalist and South County Notebook columnist for the Petaluma Argus-Courier, Frances Rivetti talks of moving from nonfiction to fiction, as she writes of place. Internationally best-selling author Samantha Downing talks ofher latest, a thriller with snark,A Twisted Love Story. Her debut novel wasMy Lovely Wife, characterized as ”Dexter meets Mr. and Mrs

Marked Women is the focus this time on A Novel Idea. First, Suzanne Lang talks with Laura Maylene Walter on her award-winning novelBody of Stars. Then, it's a conversation with historians Ivy Anderson and Devon Angus on their nonfiction work,Alice: Memoirs of a Barbary Coast Prostitute. It’s A Novel Idea, airing every first, third, and fifth Sunday at 10:00 am PT. Streaming and podcasting at KRCB.org. Click the icon below to listen.