In this extended interview, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Dan Fagin discusses "Toms River" — his remarkable investigative story of industrial pollution in a New Jersey town — and why it's so difficult to prove the link between environmental toxins and cancer clusters.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
How's this for a novel premise? Owen Lerner is a pediatric psychiatrist. One day, he's struck by lightning. He survives but he has a new obsession -- with barbecue. That's the premise behind Mary Kay Zuravleff's novel, "Man Alive!" She talks about its inspiration and the book's themes.
Rajiv Joseph is a New York playwright. He tells Jim Fleming he wrote “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo” based on a small newspaper story...
Robert Leleux talks about growing up gay, in Texas, with his plastic surgery junkie and drama queen of a mother, whom he adores and who is accompanying him on his book tour.
Mark Barrowcliffe wasted his youth playing Dungeons and Dragons. Now he's turned his obsession into a book.
Alex Abramovich recommends "Blues People: Negro Music in White America" by Leroi Jones, who later changed his name to Amiri Baraka.
Can you actually see creativity in the brain? Neuroscientist Rex Jung describes brain imaging studies of creativity in action.
You can also listen to the EXTENDED interview, and read the extended transcript.
Pagan Kennedy is the author of “Black Livingstone,” a biography of 19th century black American missionary William Sheppard.
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