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

John Rennie Short, STRESS TESTING THE USA & John Michael Greer, GREEN WIZARDRY

John Rennie Short
John Rennie Short
John Michael Greer
John Michael Greer

John Rennie Short talks about dealing with disasters; his book is Stress Testing The USA: Public Policy and Reaction to Disaster Events. And could simple, affordable, appropriate technology be the solution to surviving the post industrial future? John Michael Greer says yes! His book is Green Wizardry: Conservation, Solar Power, Organic Gardening, and Other Hands-On Skills From the Appropriate Tech Toolkit.

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Podcast

M.P. Barker, MENDING HORSES & Ellen Bryson THE TRANSFORMATION OF BARTHOLOMEW FORTUNO

M.P. Barker
M.P. Barker
Ellen Bryson
Ellen Bryson

M.P. Barker talks about her new historical novel for middle readers and above, Mending Horses. It’s a sequel to her wonderful first novel, A Difficult Boy. And then Ellen Bryson takes P.T. Barnum’s first circus as the setting to explore the outsider in all of us. Her novel is The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno. Continue reading

Podcast

Dr. Brad Spellberg, RISING PLAGUE & Edward McClelland, NOTHIN’ BUT BLUE SKIES

Dr. Brad Spellberg
Dr. Brad Spellberg
Edward McClelland
Edward McClelland

Dr. Brad Spellberg talks about his book Rising Plague: The Global Threat from Deadly Bacteria and Our Dwindling Arsenal to Fight Them. And Edward McClelland discusses the death of the labor movement, the destruction of the middle class — and what comes next for the Rust Belt. His book is Nothin’ But Blue Skies: The Heyday, Hard Times, and Hopes of America’s Industrial Heartland. Continue reading

Podcast

Rob Okun, VOICE: MALE & Honor Moore, POEMS FROM THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT

Rob Okun
Rob Okun
Honor Moore
Honor Moore

Rob Okun talks about the collection of essays he edited, VOICE MALE: The Untold Story of the Pro-feminist Men’s Movement. Then we re-air our 2009 interview with feminist poet Honor Moore about the anthology she edited, Poems From The Women’s Movement. Continue reading

Podcast

Dr. Jordan Metzl, THE EXERCISE CURE & Randy Davila, THINK LIKE A PUBLISHER

Dr Metzl
Dr. Jordan Metzl
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Randy Davila

Sports medicine physician Jordan Metzl talks about exercise as medicine. His book is The Exercise Cure: A Doctor’s All-Natural, No-Pill Prescription for Better Health and Longer Life.

And publisher Randy Davila discusses how to market your book in his book, Think Like A Publisher: 33 Essential Tips to Write, Promote, & Sell Your Book. Continue reading

Podcast

Judy Foreman, A NATION IN PAIN

Judy Foreman
Judy Foreman

nationJudy Foreman talks about America’s biggest health problem — chronic pain. Her book, A NATION IN PAIN, is a comprehensive and fascinating exploration of what chronic pain is, what’s wrong with how our nation treats it and better ways to treat it, including a saner approach to pain medication and non-drug treatments like massage, acupuncture, exercise and meditation.

The book’s central thesis is that chronic pain is a disease in its own right — and deserves to be treated as the serious health problem it is. Continue reading

Podcast

Lauren Coodley, UPTON SINCLAIR & WV Remembers Maxine Kumin

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Lauren Coodley
Maxine Kumin
Maxine Kumin

Lauren Coodley talks about her new biography, UPTON SINCLAIR: California Socialist, Celebrity Intellectual. Then we remember poet Maxine Kumin with our 2006 interview with her and a 2007 conversation about Kumin with Jeanne Braham and Barry Moser.

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Podcast

John Cushman of Inside Climate News: Keystone XL Pipeline

John Cushman
John Cushman

If you were reading or listening to the news this week, you might have heard about the State Department’s environmental impact report on the Keystone XL pipeline. If so, you probably think it cleared the way for the pipeline to go forward. At least,that’s what most of the media seemed to think.

But the reality is more complicated than that. In fact, while it contained language cheered by proponents of the pipeline, the report also raised some real questions that environmentalists will be using as ammunition in the continuing fight over whether Keystone XL will be built. John Cushman discusses what the report does and doesn’t say and why the fight to stop Keystone XL is so important.

The State Department’s EIS, it turns out, “relied heavily” on studies funded by Alberta, Canada government agencies and carried out by Jacobs Consultancy, a subsidiary of a major tar sands developer, as Cushman reported several days after his interview with WV:

The Jacobs Consultancy is a subsidiary of Jacobs Engineering, a giant natural resources development company with extensive operations in Alberta’s tar sands fields. The engineering company has worked on dozens of major projects in the region over the years. Its most recent contract, with Canadian oil sands leader Suncor, was announced in January.

“The Alberta Oil Sands are a very important component of our business,” the parent company said in late 2011, announcing seven new contracts in the region. “Jacobs has a strong history in the area, and we are pleased to support our clients in these initiatives.”

A journalist in Washington since the mid 70s, Cushman covered the EPA for the New York Times and now works with Inside Climate News, the online news site that won a Pulitzer Prize last year for its report,”The Dilbit Disaster,” an investigation into the million-gallon spill of Canadian tar sands oil into the Kalamazoo River in 2010.

Podcast

Ruth Thomas-Suh, REJECT, Herbert Thomas, THE SHAME RESPONSE TO REJECTION & John Cushman on KXL

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Ruth Thomas-Suh
Herbert Thomas
Herbert Thomas

Ruth Thomas-Suh talks about her powerful new film, REJECT. Joining the conversation is her father, Herbert Thomas, author of THE SHAME RESPONSE TO REJECTION. And environmental journalist John Cushman talks about about what’s really in the State Department’s Environmental Impact report on the Keystone XL pipeline.

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Podcast

Ann Patchett, THIS IS THE STORY OF A HAPPY MARRIAGE & Jeanne Ray, CALLING INVISIBLE WOMEN

Ann Patchett
Ann Patchett
Jeanne Ray
Jeanne Ray

Ann Patchett talks about her collection of essays, This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage. Then we re-air our 2012 interview with Patchett’s mother Jeanne Ray — also a writer — about her novel, Calling Invisible Women.

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Podcast

Isabel Allende, RIPPER

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Isabel Allende
Isabel Allende

Isabel Allende talks about her latest novel — and her first mystery — RIPPER. It’s about an appealing young sleuth who teams up with her grandfather and some online friends to solve a spate of murders in San Francisco. Then we re-broadcast our 2010 interview with Allende about her novel of revolutionary Haiti, Island Beneath The Sea.

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Podcast

John Hunter: WORLD PEACE AND OTHER FOURTH GRADE ACHIEVEMENTS & Heather Rogers, GREEN GONE WRONG

John Hunter
John Hunter
Heather Rogers
Heather Rogers

Teacher John Hunter talks about the inspiring World Peace Game he’s been teaching to kids for thirty years. His book is WORLD PEACE AND OTHER FOURTH GRADE ACHIEVEMENTS.  And Heather Rogers talks about her book, GREEN GONE WRONG: How Our Economy Is Undermining the Environmental Revolution.

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Podcast

Katherine Bagley, BLOOMBERG’S HIDDEN LEGACY, plus Ten Best Shows of 2013

Katherine Bagley
Katherine Bagley
Ruth Ozeki
Ruth Ozeki

We talk with Inside Climate News reporter Katherine Bagley about Mayor Bloomberg’s record on climate resilience for New York City. She co-wrote BLOOMBERG’S HIDDEN LEGACY with Maria Galucci. Also we hear excerpts from WV’S “Best of 2013” episodes, featuring clips from interviews with Rilla Eskew, Carla Kaplan, Marisa Silver, Ruth Ozeki and Richard Heinberg. Continue reading

Podcast

Elisa Segrave, THE GIRL FROM STATION X & Jennet Conant, THE IRREGULARS

Jennet Conant
Jennet Conant
Elisa Segrave
Elisa Segrave

We hear two Stories of British intelligence during World WWar II: Elisa Segrave talks about her memoir/history, The Girl from Station X: My Mother’s Unknown Life, and we replay our 2008 interview with Jennet Conant about The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington.

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