All posts by Francesca Rheannon

About Francesca Rheannon

Francesca Rheannon is an award-winning independent radio producer. In addition to hosting Writer's Voice, she's a freelance reporter for National Public Radio and its affiliates. Recipient of the prestigious Nancy Dickerson Whitehead Award for reporting on substance abuse issues for her news series, VOICES OF HIV, produced for 88.5 WFCR public radio in western Massachusetts. She is also finishing a book on Provence (PROVINCE OF THE HEART) and working on a memoir of her father, THE ARGONAUTS.

Podcast

Julia Fine, THE UPSTAIRS HOUSE & Lisa Scottoline, ETERNAL

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We talk with Julia Fine about her genre-bending novel The Upstairs House. It’s about a new mother’s postpartum depression—and her obsession with Margaret Wise Brown, the author of Goodnight Moon.

Then best-selling legal thriller novelist Lisa Scottoline tells us about her first foray into writing historical fiction, Eternal. It’s about a love triangle between three young friends in Rome during Mussolini’s Fascist regime.

We also hear poet Martin Espada read his poem The Fugitive Poets of Fenway Park.

Writer’s Voice — in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004. Rate us on iTunes or whatever podcast app you use!

Like us on Facebook at Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon or on Twitter @WritersVoice.
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Podcast

Eliot Peper, VEIL & Paul Greenberg, THE CLIMATE DIET

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We talk with Eliot Peper about his cli-fi novel, Veil. It’s about what happens when a tech CEO decides to geo-engineer the climate—in secret.

Then, we catch up with author Paul Greenberg about The Climate Diet: 50 Simple Ways to Trim Your Carbon Footprint. It’s just out for Earth Day.

Writer’s Voice — in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004. Rate us on iTunes or whatever podcast app you use!

Like us on Facebook at Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon, find us on Vurbl, or on Twitter @WritersVoice.
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Podcast

Simon Winchester, LAND & Isabella Tree, WILDING

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We spend most of the hour talking with Simon Winchester about his new book Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World.

LISTEN HERE

Then we revisit part of our 2020 interview with one of the people Winchester talks about in Land, Isabella Tree. She tells us of the land she’s re-wilded. Her book is Wilding: the Return of Nature to a British Farm.

Writer’s Voice — in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004. Rate us on iTunes or whatever podcast app you use!

Like us on Facebook at Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon, find us on Vurbl, or on Twitter @WritersVoice.

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Podcast

Anna North OUTLAWED & Emily St. John Mandel, THE GLASS HOTEL

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We talk with Anna North about her acclaimed new novel, Outlawed. It’s about an alternate reality 1890s Hole in the Wall Gang—this one, run as a feminist collective.

Then Emily St. John Mandel is back from her triumph with Station Eleven with another exploration of catastrophe, this time the 2008 financial collapse. It’s called The Glass Hotel.

Writer’s Voice — in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004. Rate us on iTunes or whatever podcast app you use!

Like us on Facebook at Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon, find us on Vurbl, or on Twitter @WritersVoice.

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Podcast

Nancy Folbre, The Rise and Decline of Patriarchal Systems & Catherine Rothenberg & Lynne Segal, The Care Manifesto

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The Crisis in Care and How to Solve It

We talk with feminist economist and MacArthur Fellow Nancy Folbre about her new book, The Rise and Decline of Patriarchal Systems. She writes about the political economy of care provision, including at her blog Care Talk.

Then, Catherine Rothenberg and Lynne Segal talk about The Care Manifesto: The Politics of Interdependence. It’s about the global crisis of care and how to solve it.

Writer’s Voice — in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004. Rate us on iTunes or whatever podcast app you use!

Like us on Facebook at Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon, find us on Vurbl, or on Twitter @WritersVoice.

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Podcast

Elizabeth Kolbert, UNDER A WHITE SKY & Ian Shive, THE LAST UNKNOWN

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New Yorker staff writer Elizabeth Kolbert talks about her new book Under A White Sky: The Nature of the Future.

Then, wildlife photographer extraordinaire Ian Shive goes to the volcanic Aleutian islands of Alaska to tell us about the stunning new documentary he’s in, The Last Unknown. It’s streaming now on Discovery2.

Writer’s Voice — in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004. Rate us on iTunes or whatever podcast app you use!

Like us on Facebook at Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon, find us on Vurbl, or on Twitter @WritersVoice.

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Podcast

Suketu Mehta, THIS LAND IS OUR LAND & Lew Daly, FALSE SOLUTIONS

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We talk with Suketu Mehta about his powerful book, This Land Is Our Land: An Immigrant Manifesto.

Then, we speak with researcher Lew Daly about his report on some of the false solutions being proposed in the Green energy space.

Writer’s Voice — in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004. Rate us on iTunes or whatever podcast app you use!

Like us on Facebook at Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon, find us on Vurbl, or on Twitter @WritersVoice.

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Podcast

Abdul El Sayed & Micah Johnson, MEDICARE FOR ALL: A Citizen’s Guide & Norton Juster Remembered

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We talk with Dr. Micah Johnson and Dr. Abdul El Sayed about their book, Medicare For All: A Citizen’s Guide.

Then, we remember Norton Juster, the author of the beloved children’s classic, The Phantom Toll Booth. He died March 9. We air a gem of an excerpt from our 2005 interview with him.

NEWSFLASH! Reps. Pramila Jayapal and Debbie Dingell will reintroduce their Medicare for All bill on March 17. This is several months earlier than we reported in this episode. The timeline was moved up!

Writer’s Voice — in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004. Rate us on iTunes or whatever podcast app you use!
Like us on Facebook at Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon, find us on Vurbl, or on Twitter @WritersVoice.

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Podcast

Dean Spade, MUTUAL AID & Rachel Louise Snyder, NO VISIBLE BRUISES

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We talk with Dean Spade about his book Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (And The Next).

Then, at a time when domestic violence is skyrocketing, we re-air our 2019 interview with Rachel Louise Snyder. Her book is No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us.

Writer’s Voice — in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004. Rate us on iTunes or whatever podcast app you use!

Like us on Facebook at Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon, find us on Vurbl, or on Twitter @WritersVoice.

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Podcast

Writer’s Voice: Jenny Offill, WEATHER & Ben Ehrenreich, DESERT NOTEBOOKS

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We talk with Jenny Offill about her acclaimed cli-fi novel, Weather. Then, Ben Ehrenreich tells us about Desert Notebooks: A Road Map for the End of Time.

Writer’s Voice — in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004. Rate us on iTunes or whatever podcast app you use!

Like us on Facebook at Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon, find us on Vurbl, or on Twitter @WritersVoice. Continue reading →

Podcast

Heather McGhee, THE SUM OF US & Michelle Commander, UNSUNG

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We talk with Heather McGhee about her important new book, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone And How We Can Prosper Together. It’s about how the politics of racial division keeps working class people of all races from having what they deserve.

But first, we talk with Michelle Commander of the Schomburg Center about the anthology she’s co-edited: UNSUNG: Unheralded Narratives of American Slavery & Abolition.

Writer’s Voice — in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004. Rate us on iTunes or whatever podcast app you use!

Like us on Facebook at Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon or find us on twitter @WritersVoice.

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Podcast

Rebecca Sacks, CITY OF A THOUSAND GATES & Susan Abulhawa, The Blue Between Sky and Water

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We talk with Rebecca Sacks about her powerful debut novel, City of a Thousand Gates. It’s about the intersecting stories of the peoples of Israel and Palestine, and how oppression twists and informs the humanity of perpetrators and victims.

Then, we replay our 2016 interview with Palestinian-American novelist Susan Abulhawa about her second novel, The Blue Between Sky and Water.

Writer’s Voice — in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004. Rate us on iTunes or whatever podcast app you use!

Like us on Facebook at Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon or find us on Twitter @WritersVoice.

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Podcast

Michael Mann, THE NEW CLIMATE WAR & John Nichols on Covid9 relief

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We talk with world renowned climate scientist Michael Mann about his book, The New Climate War. It’s about all the ways the fossil fuel industry and its allies seek to discredit, divide, and deflect the movement to save the climate from making our planet uninhabitable.

Later, we check in with Nation magazine political correspondent John Nichols about his recent post about the fight over the COVID19 relief plan.

Writer’s Voice — in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004. Rate us on iTunes or whatever podcast app you use!

Like us on Facebook at Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon or find us on twitter @WritersVoice.

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Podcast

Paul Pitcoff, COLD WAR SECRETS & Laura Levitt, THE OBJECTS THAT REMAIN

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We talk with Paul Pitcoff about his memoir, Cold War Secrets. It’s about growing up in leftwing circles in New York City in the 1950s and 1960s with a father who had a hidden past.

Then, a woman is raped and finds a path toward healing by examining the objects associated with her trauma. We talk with Laura Levitt about her memoir, The Objects That Remain.

Writer’s Voice — in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004. Rate us on iTunes or whatever podcast app you use!
Like us on Facebook at Writers Voice Radio or find us on twitter @WritersVoice.

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Podcast

Guido Girgenti, WINNING THE GREEN NEW DEAL & Ian Shive, REFUGE

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What’s the prospect for a Green New Deal in the Biden administration? We talk with Guido Girgenti about the book he co-edited with the Sunrise Movement’s Varshini Prakash, Winning The Green New Deal.

Then, we talk with wildlife photographer Ian Shive about his stunning book of photos and essays about America’s wildlife refuges. It’s called Refuge: America’s Wildest Places.

Writer’s Voice — in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004. Rate us on iTunes or whatever podcast app you use!

Like us on Facebook at Writers Voice Radio with Francesca Rheannon or find us on twitter @WritersVoice.

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