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

Writer, Humanist and Physician Abraham Verghese, THE COVENANT OF WATER & CUTTING FOR STONE

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A profoundly humanist novel tackles the tragedies of life:

As a physician I’m perhaps more aware than most people of how perilous our everyday lives are and how quickly they could transition to something quite disastrous. And I think in America especially we exist in a sort of denial of our mortality…As a result we are very shocked when any hint of tragedy comes our way. — Abraham Verghese

We spend the hour speaking with Abraham Verghese, first about his latest novel, The Covenant of Water. Then, we look back to our 2009 conversation with him about his novel Cutting for Stone.

Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004.

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Tags: Abraham Verghese, Francesca Rheannon, Writers Voice, fiction, India, Kerala, podcast, book recommendations, author interview, book podcast, book show Continue reading →

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Jane Marshall, SEARCHING FOR HAPPY VALLEY & A Story from Francesca

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Travel writer Jane Marshall takes us on her modern quest for Shangri La; her book is Searching for Happy Valley.

Then, Francesca shares a story from her own journey to a Happy Valley in the foothills of the Maritime Alps of Haute Provence, where a market vendor of medicinal herbs taught her something about true vocation.

“I feel like if we can spend time in a place like one of these Happy Valleys that still holds these wisdom cultures that had these technologies and these systems that survived thousands and thousands of years before industrialization, that maybe we can learn how to respect the land again.” Jane Marshall

Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004.

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Tags: Writers Voice, podcast, book recommendations, author interview, book podcast, book show, creative nonfiction, travel, Jane Marshall, Shangri-La Continue reading →

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Peggy Orenstein, UNRAVELING & Katy Simpson Smith, THE WEEDS

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We talk with Peggy Orenstein about her book, Unraveling: What I Learned About Life While Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool, and Making the World’s Ugliest Sweater.

But first, Katy Simpson Smith tells us about her new novel, The Weeds. It weaves history, botany, feminism and the climate crisis together into a compelling and sharply funny tale.

Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004.

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

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Episode Transcript

Tags: Writer’s Voice, podcast, book recommendations, author interview, book podcast, book show, book excerpt, nonfiction, fiction, botany, knitting Continue reading →

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Media Literacy: Allison Butler’s MEDIA & ME. Also, EGG with Lizzie Stark

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Today on Writer’s Voice, an eclectic offering. Later in the show, we talk about eggs: actual, mythological and artistic. Author Lizzie Stark tells us about her book, Egg.

But first, we talk about media literacy, something that is vital if we are to preserve and strengthen democracy. We speak with Allison Butler about the book she co-wrote for Project Censored, THE MEDIA AND ME: A Guide To Critical Media Literacy For Young People.

Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004.

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

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Tags: writers voice, podcast, book recommendations, media, media literacy, author interview, book podcast, book show, book excerpt, nonfiction, eggs

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An Intimate Portrait of MLK, Jr.: Jonathan Eig, KING

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Writer’s Voice spends the hour with Jonathan Eig talking about his acclaimed new biography, KING: A Life. It’s a captivating portrait of the renowned civil rights leader, unveiling new material and providing an intimate perspective.

“He suffered tremendously from doubt. And he suffered terribly from the effects of the FBI assault on him. He kept doing his work. He kept marching forward. He kept going more and more boldly into the breach. But it had an impact. He was hospitalized several times, maybe, fair to say, many times for exhaustion, for just succumbing to the stress of what he was doing. So that kind of courage in the face of doubt, to me, makes him even more heroic.” — Jonathan Eig

Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004.

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

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Key words: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., MLK, Jonathan Eig, history, biography, podcast, book recommendations, author interview, book podcast, book show, creative nonfiction

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Americans and the English Language with Ilan Stavans, THE PEOPLE’S TONGUE

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Did you know that American English (not British English) is one of the very few languages that has no dialects? No matter where you are from in this big country, you can easily understand the speech of anyone else. That’s true, even with having different regional accents or ethnic differences such as Black English.

That’s one of the many fascinating things one learns from reading Ilan Stavans’ anthology of writings in American English, spanning 450 years of our history as a nation. We talk with Stavans about The People’s Tongue: Americans and the English Language.

Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004.

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

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Key words: language, English language, Ilan Stavans, anthology, podcast, book recommendation

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The Case For Climate Hope: Joelle Gergis, HUMANITY’S MOMENT

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I’ve been thinking about climate change lately in really simple terms: that it’s really about the people and the places we love. It isn’t actually any more complex than that. So, yes, we talk a lot about parts per million and all these degrees of warming and all these complex things. And they are indeed metrics that scientists use to talk about climate change. But if you just strip it all the way back, it is really about protecting those places that we love and the beautiful planet that we live on as well. — Joelle Gergis

We spend the hour with IPCC climate scientist Joelle Gergis, talking about her powerful and moving book, Humanity’s Moment: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope.

It’s about how she grapples with the grief her scientific findings confront her with — but also the hope she feels as she witnesses how the tide is turning toward climate protection.

Writers Voice, in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004.

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Key terms: climate change, IPCC, JoÁ«lle Gergis, climate science, podcast

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What’s Happening To Our Microbiome: THE INVISIBLE EXTINCTION with Sarah Schenck and Steven Lawrence

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Our Miraculous Microbiome Is Under Threat

Our microbiome, the collection of microbes that live in and on our bodies, is under threat. Antibiotics, processed foods, and even stress can disrupt the delicate balance of our gut bacteria, leading to a range of health problems. Problems with our gut microbiome could be factors in the rise of diabetes, obesity, food allergies and even developmental disorders like autism.

We talk with  filmmakers Sarah Schenck and Steven Lawrence about their film The Invisible Extinction. It’s about the threats to our life-supporting microbiome and the scientists racing to save our vanishing microbes before it’s too late.

Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004.

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

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Key words: microbiome, biodiversity, documentary, Sarah Schenck, Steven Lawrence, film, podcast, diabetes, obesity, health, autism

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How To Save The Planet, Collectively & Individually: Stephen Markley, DELUGE, plus Peter Kalmus & Darr Reilly

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How can we make the change we need to save our future?

I spent a lot of time studying how we as collective agents of history have helped foment enormous change and also how we have failed at it. That was another important element, to look at the revolutions that did not work. Because unlike basically every one of those revolutions, this is something we can’t miss on. We’re not going to get a do-over on this. It’s now or never.  — Stephen Markley

We talk with Stephen Markley about his acclaimed new novel about the climate crisis, The Deluge. It lays out the different paths that may be taken to changing the political will to tackle climate, the unintended consequences they lead to, and the twists and turns of political, ecological and individual fates that intertwine and react with each other.

Then we talk about what we can do in our own lives to protect our planet from climate disaster. We air excerpts from our interviews with Peter Kalmus (Being The Change) and Darr Reilly of Carbon C.R.E.W.

Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004.

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The Five Senses of the Wildscape with Nancy Lawson & A Mystery about Pandora’s Box with Susan Stokes Chapman

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Spring is here and the birds are returning. But the roar of the leaf blowers is a big turn-off to our feathered friends:

Right now they’re starting to migrate back in from Central and South America and either coming through or stopping to stay and breed. And if they’re going to a spot where there’s this constant noise, well, why are they going to want to nest there?

We talk with Nancy Lawson about her book, Wildscape: Trilling Chipmunks, Beckoning Blooms, Salty Butterflies, And Other Sensory Wonders Of Nature. It’s about the vibrant web of nature outside our back door—where animals and plants perceive and communicate using marvelous sensory abilities we are only beginning to understand.

Then, a novel links the Pandora myth to a young namesake in Jane Austen’s London — and a mystery that must be solved. Susan Stokes Chapman tells us about Pandora. Continue reading →

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The Wonders of Beavers: Leila Philip, BEAVER LAND plus Transgender Appreciation Day: Mimi LeMay, WHAT WE WILL BECOME

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Oh, those pesky beavers, Interfering with our property values! Right?

Wrong. We talk with Leila Philip about beavers, a keystone species that we need to protect as we face the challenges of climate chaos. Her book is Beaver Land: How One Weird Rodent Made America.

Then, we missed it last week: the Day of Transgender Visibility. But with all the vicious rightwing attacks on transgender people and the fascist laws being passed against them, we thought “better late than never.”

So, we bring you a piece from our archives that we first aired in 2019. It’s an excerpt from our interview with Mimi LeMay about her memoir What We Will Become. It’s about how her family learned to come to terms with the fact that their young child was transgender—and how they came to support him.

Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004.

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Elsa Panciroli on mammal evolution, BEASTS BEFORE US & gardening author Maggie Stuckey, THE CONTAINER VICTORY GARDEN

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We talk with Elsa Panciroli about her book, BEASTS BEFORE US: The Untold Story of Mammal Origins and Evolution. Delving into the fascinating and little-known history of mammal evolution, she provides a fascinating and uplifting look at the resilience of life on this planet, through the lens of how mammals came to be.

Then, motivated by the pandemic lockdown, many people renewed a gardening tradition that was all the rage during WWII, the Victory garden. We kick off the gardening season talking with gardening book author Maggie Stuckey about The Container Victory Garden: A Beginners Guide To Growing Your Own Groceries.

Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004.

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Keywords: mammal evolution, paleontology, Elsa Panciroli, Beasts Before Us, University of Oxford, research fellow, science writers, container gardening, victory gardens, Maggie Stuckey, vegetable gardening

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How The Democrats Lost Their Soul & The End of the American Dream: Ed Burmila & Alissa Quart

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Why does the Democratic Party struggle so much to win elections by comfortable margins (when it isn’t losing them) despite the fact that the Republicans are so extreme?

Could there be a hint in the fact that so many ordinary Americans keep losing ground economically, no matter who holds the reins of power? Clearly, the myth of the American Dream isn’t working.

In this episode, we talk first with Ed Burmila about his book, Chaotic Neutral: How the Democrats Lost Their Soul in the Center. Then, Alissa Quart of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project tells us about her just released new book, Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves from the American Dream.

Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004.

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A Personal History of Modern Ireland with Fintan O’Toole

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We talk with Fintan O’Toole about his scathing — and tender — personal history of modern Ireland, We Don’t Know Ourselves. Then we hear Seamus Heaney reading a poem and a rare recording of storyteller Susan Porter reading from the Irish legend of Cuchulain.

Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004.

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