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Why is being in nature so good for us? And how can we design our built environment to better serve our needs?
We talk with science journalist Florence Williams about her book The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative. Then we talk with Sarah Williams Goldhagen about her book, Welcome To Your World: How The Built Environment Shapes Our Lives. Continue reading
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Amy Sutherland talks about dogs in shelters, getting them adopted and keeping them out of shelters to begin with. We also talk about some of the wonderful dogs she’s rescued and rehabilitated during the years she has been a shelter volunteer. Her book is Rescuing Penny Jane: One Shelter Volunteer, Countless Dogs, and the Quest to Find Them All Homes.
Then, we give equal time to cats. We re-air part of our interview with cat behaviorist Sarah Ellis about her book, co-authored with John Bradshaw, The Trainable Cat. Continue reading
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Have diet scientists been feeding us junk food when it comes to advice on why we get fat? Science journalist Gary Taubes thinks so. He talks about his latest book, The Case Against Sugar.
Taubes says our massive consumption of refined sugars can be linked to diabetes, heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer’s. And, he says, the sugar industry is doing everything it can to throw the blame elsewhere. Continue reading
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Min Jin Lee talks about her acclaimed new novel Pachinko. It’s a multigenerational saga about a Korean family in Japan that defies oppression to thrive in a society stacked against them.
Then we air an edited version of our 2015 interview with Suki Kim about her book Without You There Is No Us. It’s her memoir of going undercover with the sons of the North Korean elite. Continue reading
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Francesca Rheannon talks with James W. Carden about what could turn out to be the Democrat’s Benghazi — the campaign against Russia charging that Putin colluded with Donald Trump to influence the presidential election.
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Ceridwen Dovey talks about her wonderful new short story collection Only The Animals (Farrar, Straus & Giroux). These poignant stories are told by the souls of ten literature-loving animals who were killed in the course of human conflict.
Then, a novel from the 1930’s is selling like hotcakes in 2017, as people wonder, “could it happen here”? We talk with Sally Parry, director of the Sinclair Lewis Society about Lewis’ novel about the coming of fascism to America, It Can’t Happen Here (Random House). Continue reading
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Diogo Castro Freire talks about his film, Facing The Surge. It’s the first in a series planned about the impact of climate change on you and me.
Then, we hear about the little known dangers of rayon manufacturing. Environmental and Occupational  Medicine expert Paul Blanc talks about his book Fake Silk: The Lethal History of Viscose Rayon. Continue reading
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Melissa Fleming talks about her book A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea: One Refugee’s Incredible Story of Love, Loss, and Survival. Then Alan Furst returns with a new thriller about the French Resistance during World War II. The book is A Hero of France. Continue reading
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Sebastian Barry talks about his acclaimed new novel Days Without End. It won the prestigious Costa Book of the Year prize in January. Then, Adelia Saunders discusses her debut novel, Indelible. It’s about a young woman who can read details of people’s lives written on their skin and the father and son whose secrets and searches become intertwined with hers. Continue reading
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Kimball Taylor talks about his book The Coyote’s Bicycle: The Untold Story of 7,000 Bicycles and the Rise of a Borderland Empire. It shows how human ingenuity and the humble bicycle are defeating the most expensive border barrier the US has ever built.
Then, it’s the 75th anniversary of the decree ordering the mass incarceration of Japanese-Americans during World War II. Richard Cahan tells us about his book Un-American: The Incarceration of Japanese Americans During World War II. It’s a collection with text of Images by Dorothea Lange, Ansel Adams, and other government photographers. Continue reading
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Nathan J. Robinson talks about his book Trump: Anatomy of a Monstrosity. It examines why Trump won; what the press, pundits and Democratic Party got wrong; and how they can get it right next time.
Also, Parneshia Jones reads her poem “What Would Gwendolyn Brooks Do?“ Continue reading
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Brad Gooch talks about his biography Rumi’s Secret: The Life of the Sufi Poet of Love (now available in paperback from Harper Perennial.) Then, we’ve all heard of near-death experiences — going through a dark tunnel toward a brilliant loving light. But what if your near-death journey is to the nether regions instead? Buddhist publisher and author Samuel Bercholz tells us about his graphic memoir, A Guided Tour of Hell
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Samuel Bercholz
Hell is other people, it’s been said, but Samuel Bercholz says that’s wrong. Rather, it’s our illusion that we are separate from other people and indeed from all sentient beings that condemns us to hell. He knows. He’s been there. He tells the story of his near-death experience and sojourn in Hell in his graphic memoir, A Guided Tour of Hell. Continue reading
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Journalist Wesley Lowery talks about his acclaimed book, They Can’t Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America’s Racial Justice Movement. Then Frederick Clarkson of Political Research Associates discusses Betsy de Vos and the Trump administration’s theocratic vision for America. Also, we hear Danez Smith read her poem C.R.E.A.M. Continue reading
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Sara van Gelder
Yes! Magazine is almost unique: a publication with positive stories about change, rather than the steady diet of gloom and doom that was the usual reading fare. Sarah van Gelder, is a cofounder of Yes!
But even someone who has been bringing stories about solutions instead of just problems to the public can get depressed sometimes, looking around that the enormous challenges we face in this world and this country. From economic to environmental meltdowns, the crises are overwhelming.
But her new book, The Revolution Where You Live, is filled with inspiring stories of ordinary Americans working together to confront power, take it back and make their communities better. The issues they confront range from threats to their land and water, workplaces closing down, poor access to healthy and adequate food and housing — and more.
From Native American reservations to the midwestern Rust Belt to the Northeast to the deep South, The Revolution Where You Live has stories that spark ideas and inspire hope.