KRCB-FM: A Novel Idea

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 is Tap 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 book Queen of the Mountaineers, the Trailblazing Life of Fanny Bullock Workman, a story of a remarkable woman, explorer and climber of high peaks in the Alps and the Himalaya at the turn of the Twentieth Century. It’s a Novel Idea with Suzanne Lang, Sunday, April 21 at 10am PT. Streaming and podcasting at norcalpublicmedia.org.

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 book Adieu: 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 even in Lourdes. In 1950, at the age of 16, Alfred, miraculously reunited with his mother, emigrates to Oakland California where he learns English, and despite not having much formal education, excels in school, attends Berkeley and eventually becomes a successful lawyer in Los Angeles. Also featured is Katrin Ciaffa, translator of Hannelore Krollpfeiffer’s autobiographical novel We Lived in Berlin: A Story About the End of the War. First published in German in 1947, re-issued in 2007, and now translated into English, it’s the story of two sisters in their early twenties making their way in Berlin near the end of the war, who live in a bombed out building amidst daily air raids. More concerned with the fate of their prized record collection and their romantic flings than the fact that their Jewish neighbors disappear overnight, they are not Nazi’s, they are skeptical, at times cynical, but they are utterly complacent. Suzanne also talks with Peter Bromberg, Associate Director of EveryLibrary (everylibrary.org), an organization that supports and defends libraries nationwide, including efforts against book banning and illicit political interference in public, school, and college libraries.

We go above and below, at every depth. Tessa Hill joins Suzanne Lang in conversation on At 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 that host so much life. Also featured is a conversation with Marianna Leuschel and Josie Iselin, co-directors of Above/Below, an ocean literacy campaign that has created a webstory, The Mysterious World of Bull Kelp, online at https://bullkelp.info. It's A Novel Idea with Suzanne M. Lang. Streaming and podcasting at KRCB.org.

Jennifer Manocherian’s book is Alpha 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 about this, her first Novel, Alpha Bette. Suzanne also talks with Jude Berman, who has spent the last 30 years supporting other writers as a coach, editor, and ghostwriter, and now has a slew of novels coming out which include, The Die, a utopian techno-thriller set in the near future that folds in ancient wisdom from the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata. It’s A Novel Idea with Suzanne M. Lang. Streaming and podcasting at KRCB.org.

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 novel I, Caravaggio, that depicts the artist’s phychological unraveling while evolving his art and arising as a super star. It’s A Novel Idea. Streaming and podcasting at krcb.org.

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 book No 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.

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 with their mentor Maxine Flasher-Düzgüneş, and author & poet Jennie Orvino reading the works of Naomi Shihab Nye.

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 21 at 10 am PDT. Streaming and podcasting at krcb.org.

The South Pacific has inspired artists and writers since the 19 century 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, which has 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 on A Novel Idea.

On this encore presentation, story and story-tellers are the link to and legacy of our cultural roots and identity. Suzanne Lang talks with Megan 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. Suzanne also 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 the Iranian Revolution, which changed the lives of women and also of literature. Enjoy this encore presentation of an episode originally aired October 125, 2023.

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 in The 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 Lueza, whose birth went not according to plan and whose happiness and energy radiate throughout the memoir. It’s A Novel Idea with Suzanne M. Lang is heard every first, third, and fifth Sundays at 10:00am. Streaming and podcasting at krcb.org.

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 include Copy Boy, Tom Boy, and now Poster 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 in Death is Potentail.

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 is Freedoms’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, Sunday, November 19 at 10 am PT on KRCB, 104.9 FM in Sonoma County, streaming and podcasting to the world at krcb.org.

Award winning writer and historian Julia Bricklin joins Suzanne Lang to talk about her most recent book Red 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 book A Girlhood: Letter to my Transgender Daughter and its author Carolyn Hays in conversation with Suzanne. Carolyn is an award winning author, but chose to publish this book under a pen name to protect her family; her daughter, assigned male at birth, asserted that she was a girl at the age of three and has been living that way ever since. It’s A Novel Idea, Sunday, November 5 at 10am PT. Broadcasting at 104.9 in Sonoma County, streaming and podcasting at krcb.org.

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 novel Las 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 in la Finca -Love, Loss, and Laundry on a Tiny Puerto Rican Island. It is A Novel Idea, Sunday October 29, at 10am PT on KRCB 104.9 in Sonoma County, streaming and podcasting at krcb.org.

Story and story-tellers are the link to and legacy of our cultural roots and identity. Suzanne Lang talks with Megan 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. Suzanne also 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 the Iranian Revolution, which changed the lives of women and also of literature.

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 of her latest, a thriller with snark, A Twisted Love Story. Her debut novel was My Lovely Wife, characterized as ”Dexter meets Mr. and Mrs. Smith”. Also featured is a conversation with 16-year-old first time author A.J. Wich on her novel The Amazing Adventures of Ann Turnner. A Novel Idea is heard first, third, and fifth Sundays at 10:00 am PT on KRCB 104.9.

Marked Women is the focus this time on A Novel Idea. First, Suzanne Lang talks with Laura Maylene Walter on her award-winning novel Body 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.

Marine mammal researcher and co-founder of the Ocean Conservation Society, Maddalena Bearzi, like many of us, had her work curtailed during the initial shutdown period of the pandemic. But her habit is to observe, and her world did not get smaller, as she found a universe of life right in her own backyard. Her book is Stranded, Finding Nature in Uncertain Times and she joins Suzanne Lang in conversation. Also featured is Greg Sarris, author and Tribal Chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria with his work Becoming Story, A Journey among Seasons, Places, Trees, and Ancestors. It’s A Novel Idea, Sunday, September 3 at 10am PT on KRCB FM, 104.9 in Sonoma County, streaming and podcasting at krcb.org.

True crime and bestselling author Daniel Stashower’s American Demon: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America’s Jack the Ripper probes the depression era search for the “torso murderer” who left a wake of dismembered bodies in Cleveland Ohio, while also revealing the post-Untouchables life and career of Eliot Ness in his role as Cleveland’s Public Safety Director. Stashower joins Suzanne Lang in conversation! A Novel Idea airs the first, third, and fifth Sundays of each month at 10:00 am PT. Streaming at krcb.org.