Clicked : Voices in my head

Voices in my head: Believe what you want but...

Will Femia — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 16:53:00 GMT

For this interview I was fortunate to get access to Marci Hamilton, a law professor and author who specializes in the legal line between religious freedom and the criminal acts. I was anxious to hear her thoughts because the story in the news right now about the raid on the polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints compound in Texas raises so many social and cultural objections that the actual legal strategy of prosecutors gets lost in the din of moral outrage.The short answer: You can...(read more)

Voices in my head: The genius of America

Will Femia — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 02:31:00 GMT

I saw this book as an opportunity to ask all of those otherwise rhetorical Constitution questions. I tried to recall every time I've thought to myself, "Surely this is not what the founders intended." And I tried to think of complaints I've heard about the Constitutionality of some of the actions by the Bush administration. The authors, Eric Lane and Michael Oreskes, found hope in the Constitution and it's principles but lately I've been feeling pretty pessimistic about the viability of our system....(read more)

Voices in my head: Advertising's global reach

Will Femia — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 19:47:00 GMT

This interview with Mark Tungate is a good example of what's so fun about talking to someone about their field of expertise. That buoyant enthusiasm is the reason I enjoy doing these "Voices" chats.In this case the field of expertise is advertising. As I mention in the interview, the only real reason I pay attention to the ad industry is to guard against being manipulated and marketed-to, but Tungate brings a global perspective and sense of history that makes the industry feel less predatory.The...(read more)

Voices in my Head: Last chance for Earth

Will Femia — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 23:26:00 GMT

I interviewed the Guardian's environment correspondent, Paul Brown, about his new book on Global Warming. I actually talked to him last week but fitting it into this week's "green" coverage seemed like a good idea (though of course every week is green week on Clicked). The book itself is really attractive. If you happen to be in a book store it's worth at least flipping through. The interview went well, but listening to it again in the production process I wonder if I sound like a skeptic. It's...(read more)

Voices in my head: The lure of the lemmings

Will Femia — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 04:10:00 GMT

I talked to William Bonner about the perils of following the crowd and how trendiness can lead to disaster. This may go without saying, but his book reads a lot like the answers he gave. He answers with stories and illustrates with examples. Granted, I invite all of the Voices guests to speak at length because the format is so open, but Bonner is particularly suited to the longer form. I frankly struggled with the questions, as you'll hear, but he carried the interview well. You can download the...(read more)

Voices in my head: The Body has a mind of its own

Will Femia — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 02:19:00 GMT

When this book was first pitched to me I thought it was going to be about biofeedback - which is it, a little - but really it's about how the brain literally maps the body as well as its surroundings. Literally, physically, stick-an-electrode-in-your-brain-and-feel-a-poke-in-your-elbow kind of map. It's fascinating and the possibilities of what technology can do once we learn to read and utilize these maps is really exciting. The mp3 of my interview with the authors is here or else the bottom...(read more)

Voices in my Head: The book on Guinness

Will Femia — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 06:30:00 GMT

You may recall during the Summer I started the interview series Voices in my Head. After a brief lapse I'm picking up where I left off. This first one is with Bill Yenne, author of a book called Guinness: The 250-year quest for the perfect pint. I confess when I saw the book title I mostly wanted to ask an expert all the thing I'd heard about Guinness as a bartender, so that's pretty much what the first half of it is. The transcript page is here, with a video option so you don't have to wait...(read more)

Voices in my Head: Ted Kerasote on lessons from a freethinking dog

Will Femia — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:57:00 GMT

With this chat with Ted Kerasote about his dog Merle the video solution makes more sense because he was able to give me a bunch of photos to show against the audio. You may have heard of this book already because it's already a bestseller. If you're a dog person at all you'll appreciate it. I admit, I don't always think smiling dogs are actually smiling, so I had a hard time with some of the anthropomorphization. But he also did a lot of research into the science and history of...(read more)

Voices in my Head: Jean Pfaelzer

Will Femia — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:43:00 GMT

I've been trying to find a way to add a video component to the audio interviews I do. I used my interview with Jean Pfaelzer, author of Diven Out, as the first, most basic test. The video is just the cover of her book, but I think you'll see that listening through the video player is better than waiting for the audio file to load. As for the interview itself, Pfaelzer's book was really interesting and it was hard to interview her without just saying, "Oh, tell about this part, now...(read more)

Voices in my head: Arianna Huffington

Will Femia — Mon, 21 May 2007 18:41:00 GMT

As I mentioned last week, I got to talk with Arianna Huffington on the phone today about her new book "On Becoming Fearless." It probably won't come as a surprise to hear that she's pretty easy to talk to. She's not exactly a media newbie. It sounds like I gave her a huge softball in asking about the Huffington Post's plans for the election but honestly I was expecting her to talk about online activism and I definitely didn't think she'd have that whole answer so well prepared....(read more)