Our interview with poet and award-winning author Ben Lerner about his gripping novel 10:04. On anxiety for the future, the importance of imagination, and why the line between fiction and reality is blurrier than we might suppose.
For me, literature, like life, is about being open to the contradictions of experience as opposed to papering them over or offering false solutions – Ben Lerner
Ben Lerner author of 10:04
Picture yourself as a man in your 70’s living in a small out-port on a remote island off the coast of Newfoundland. You love where you live, and your roots to the place go deep. You were born and grew up there, and asides from a few short periods it’s where you’ve lived your entire life. The landscape, the people, the history of the place is practically in your bones. But since the collapse of the fishery jobs are non-existent and opportunities are few. And in order to save costs, the 
provincial government has offered to pay residents a significant sum of money to relocate to a new city. But there’s a major catch. They will only pay if everyone agrees. Your friends, family, neighbours are all in favour, and you are the only hold out.
This is the painful dilemma faced by Moses Sweetland, the central character in Michael Crummey’s touching new novel of the same name – Sweetland.
With stakes high, Moses faces an increasing amount of resentment, even threats, from his fellow residents. Caught between the past and the future, between home and the unknown, between capitulation and holding on, what follows is a gripping story that touches on aspects of belonging, death, and what to do in the face of inevitable change.
It’s also a meditation on a very real dilemma that residents of small Newfoundland out-ports have faced in waves since 1954. In a province of many isolated hamlets, and ongoing economic turmoil, resettlement has been a painful, often debated reality of life for decades. 
Michael Crummey is an award winning novelist and poet who has made exploring the contradictions, beauty, and hardships of life on Newfoundland the topic of much of his prose. He skilfully paints a picture of a way of life that few of us will experience, and one that is quickly becoming a thing of the past in our rapidly changing interconnected world.
Sweetland is Michael Crummey’s his fourth book, and it is both a subtle and thought-provoking read. Listen to our interview here.
Author David Sedaris
Best-Selling and celebrated author David Sedaris has been delighting readers for more that 20 years with his self-effacing essays in which he mines stories from his family, childhood, and day-to-day experiences for the perverse humour of human existence.
Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls by David Sedaris
He first gained popularity in the early 1990s with his humourous radio essays on NPR (such as the SantaLand diaries in which he recounts his stint working as a Christmas elf at the Macy’s Department Store) and then later through his contributions to PRI’s This American Life, and the New Yorker magazine.
His latest collection of essays Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls is his 9th book and has earned him the usual glowing reviews and place on-top of the best-sellers list.
David Sedaris was in Toronto in May as part of his book tour and I leapt at the chance to have him on for an interview. We spoke about everything from his success as an artist, and his public persona, to his early days as a writer, and his admiration for the radio prose of the great Jonathan Goldstein.
Lewis Lapham editor of Lapham’s Quarterly
Whenever anyone happens to mention the name Lewis Lapham – the renowned American writer, and social thinker – chances are that a reference to Harper’s Magazine isn’t too far away. Over the course of the almost 30 years he spent in the role as editor of the influential magazine, Lapham and Harper’s became virtually synonymous.
Although he left his day-to-day role at Harper’s in 2006, the magazine still bears many of his distinctive marks; from its layout, to the style of writing – even the Index and Readings sections which were created in a 1984 redesign he spearheaded – Lapham in many ways shaped the magazine into what it is today. And although the circulation of Harper’s has never rivaled that of more mainstream publications, an impressive number of people, from Ira Glass to Thomas Frank, credit Lapham and the magazine with influencing their journalistic sensibilities.
Harper’s Magazine
But it’s not just for his role as an editor that Lapham become widely known. He is also by many considered one of the most prescient voices in America today. For decades through his columns and books, Lapham, with sharp wit and fierce independence, has been deconstructing the social-cultural landscape of America – traits which have seen him compared with both H.L Menken, and Mark Twain.
He came from a privileged background –attending both Yale and Cambridge, but Lapham has never been shy in criticizing what he sees as the excess, greed and short-sightedness of the ruling elite. He vocally argued for the impeachment of George W. Bush for launching the Iraq War, was openly critical of the Clinton’s, and regularly has taken to task the mainstream media and press for their subservience to power and unwillingness to tackle the important issues.
Lapham’s Quarterly
While he left Harper’s in 2006, Lapham has by no means slowed down. Having long been passionate about the wisdom that can be gleaned from examining history, he immediately went to work founding and editing Lapham’s Quartery a unique publication that takes an issue or topic of current interest and concern—War, Religion, Money, – and examines it in a historical context using the voices and events of the past to bring the topic to light.
I spoke to Lewis Lapham at his office in downtown Manhattan.
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Thomas Frank is probably best known for his regular easy chair column in Harper’s Magazine – the opening essay in which he draws together elements from history culture and politics to make insightful, often unexpected observations into the social-political landscape of our time.
In his columns he has taken on everything from the high cost of tuition and the obsession with austerity in Washington D.C, to the culture of gun violence in America.
Thomas Frank, Easy Chair columnist at Harper’s Magazine
He was born in Kansas City Missouri in 1965, and attended the University of Virginia to study history. Although he originally was conservative, and was even briefly involved with the campus Republicans, soon he discovered his interest in writing, and while still an undergrad, he along with a group of friends founded THE BAFFLER magazine, a journal of cultural criticism.
In 1988 he began studying American history at the University of Chicago, from which he received a PhD in 1994. His dissertation was eventually turned into THE CONQUEST OF COOL a book about how industry had successfully commercialized the idea of rebellion and 60’s counterculture. After leaving academia, he became a full time journalist, although his main interest was culture, while writing for the Chicago Reader he became increasingly drawn to political and economic topics from investigating the advertising efforts of Enron, to challenging the dominant free market ideology of the day.
During his career as a newspaper and magazine columnist He also has written four best selling books – His most recent is called Pity the Billionaire: The Hard-times Swindle and the Unlikely Comeback of the Right.
This week! An interview with host of CBC’s Definitely Not The Opera, and all around Canadian renaissance woman, Sook-Yin Lee. From her tumultuous childhood in Vancouver, and early interest in the arts, to her days as a Much Music VJ, and her work with film and acting.
Host of DNTO on CBC Radio, Sook-Yin Lee
In the interview, Sook-Yin Lee also speaks about the experience playing the role of Olivia Chow in Jack, the CBC biopic of the late Jack Layton, leader of the federal NDP.
Sook-Yin Lee with Olivia Chow. Sook-Yin played Olivia in the CBC biopic on Jack Layton.
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CBC Radio’s Wiretap has long been one of my absolute favourite radio programs and podcasts. It combines fictive, humourous, and reflective elements, and the end result is a show that is thoroughly entertaining and thought-provoking.
Wiretap with Jonathan Goldstein
The show is hosted and produced by Jonathan Goldstein, who also produces pieces as a contributing editor for This American Life (he also worked at TAL as a full time producer from 2000-2002).
But interestingly Jonathan didn’t originally set out to be in radio – his main creative passion for most of his life has been writing and he has published several books, most recently I’ll Seize the Day Tomorrow.
I sat down with Jonathan to ask him about his life as a writer, his journey in public radio and the advantages and drawbacks of looking at life with an outsiders perspective.
Wiretap is currently in its 9th season, and if you haven’t already been won over, I highly recommend you check it out. You can find out more about the show and subscribe to the podcast at http://www.cbc.ca/wiretap/
Jonathan Goldstein, writer and host of CBC Radio’s Wiretap
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Activist, author, and media commentator Judy Rebick
For the very first episode of The Public, a full hour interview with writer, political commentator and Q media panel member Judy Rebick.
Judy has been one of the leading progressive voices in Canada for years. She has been involved with many issues from social justice and labour rights to woman’s rights. She also is the founder of Rabble.ca, the progressive online news magazine.
She has recently published an ebook called Occupy This! which looks at the Occupy movement in a historical perspective. I spoke to Judy speaks about Occupy, the Quebec student protest movement, the state of democracy in Canada, as well as about her early transformative years traveling around the world from India to Iran, and how she started getting involved in political action.
Her new e-book Occupy This is available from Penguin Canada here.
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