I’ve had the good fortune to talk to several of the comics with the Arch City Comedy Festival and it’s shaping up to be a great event. 
Listen in to my talk with Beth Stelling to learn more. This week, WCBE will broadcast my talk with Stewart Huff. Check back in a few days for that talk, which includes a discussion of how he’s used confrontation in his act for comedy as well as occasional police action. And then, the very fun Erin Foley makes her third appearance on Craft.
Saturday, July 11, tune into WCBE, 90.5FM, to hear NPR and ABC correspondent Cokie Roberts, 6-word memoirist Larry Smith, comedian Erin Foley, and writer/actor Ali Wentworth.
Listen in to my talk with all of these fine people at the top of their Craft.
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Tune into WCBE on Saturday, June 27, to hear my talk with the fine folks from Columbus Speakeasy.
Jillian Corron, Barbara Allen, Karl Boettcher, Pam Cummings, and Sarah Fulmer tell me about their stories, what being storytellers means to them, and how others can get involved.
Here’s the Speakeasy Missing Episode!
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“‘That’s what presidents do these days,’ we think nowadays, ‘They cover things up.'”
James Tobin, professor of Media, Journalism and Film at Miami University and speaker of the above quotation, offers The Man He Became: How FDR Defied Polio to Win the Presidency, a fascinating look into the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, one that seeks to discover why a belief has arisen in the past few decades that there was a conspiracy to keep quiet about Roosevelt’s polio.
Tobin’s research into the changing legacy of FDR leads him to hypothesize that scandals and cover-ups by presidents from JFK onwards have jaded our views towards presidents, making the American public all too ready to believe that conspiracies exist at all levels, now and in the past.
Tobin will speak at the Thurber House on June 17.
Listen in to learn more about FDR and how he learned to live with polio.
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All fourteen of Jeff Shaara’s novels have been New York Times bestsellers, starting with his first, Gods and Generals, in 1996.
It’s an impressive track record and he’s got an impressive family history, too. His father, Michael Shaara, won a Pulitzer Prize for Killer Angels, the source material for the film Gettysburg and the impetus for Jeff writing Gods and Generals, a prequel to Killer Angels.
Listen in to hear Shaara describe
Shaara will appear as part of the Thurber House’s Evenings with Authors on June 3.
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-Tyler Clementi
Do you believe in ghosts? First time and Thurber House guest author Janis Heaphy Durham does. Listen to our interview with her, and you might too.
Durham is the author of
the story of her husband’s passing, the seemingly impossible events that took place in the aftermath, and Durham’s journey to make sense of it all.
In May 2004, Durham’s husband Max died from esophageal cancer. Soon after his passing, a series of mysterious events occurred. Clocks stopped on his time of death, Durham heard her husband’s voice, and finally, a powdery hand print appeared on their bathroom mirror on the anniversary of Max’s death.
Durham was curious, but skeptical. Having spent her career in the heavily scrutinized newspaper industry, she approached these seeming attempts at supernatural communication with caution. To investigate the events that had occurred in her life, Durham began research into the afterlife.
Durham’s research visited upon several scientific fields and interests, ranging from consciousness studies to quantum physics. Her book attempts not only to share her story, but also to use her research to open up a larger conversation into the difficult subject of life after death.
Listen in to our interview with Janis Heaphy Durham to hear all about her adventure in detail.
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And here’s part three of my talk with improv performers from Columbus Unscripted.
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And here’s part two of my talk with improv performers from Columbus Unscripted. 
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Quick, give me three words:
Dog
Bicycle
Dandelion.
With input as limited as that, Columbus Unscripted improv performers can create a scene that will make you laugh. A few weeks ago, Barbara, Bill, Lamont, Lorinda and Kayla from Columbus Unscripted stopped by the WCBE studio to record an hour-long special for Craft, which was broadcast on May 2 at 3pm on the Mighty WCBE.
These performers are part of a weekly improv group called See You Thursday, and they have many events which are all highlighted on their website.
If you haven’t been to one of the shows, I recommend you give it a try and experience the fast-moving minds that spun my suggestion about hair loss into a story about a man shopping for a toupee being bedeviled by his back hair angel during his graduation from college.
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He’s killed 70+ people across 25 books, but that doesn’t mean he enjoys it.
“I’m going through what’s on that page. Even if someone is getting killed, maybe I’m getting killed, or maybe I’m feeling what occurs before I’m going to have to kill this person,” said John Lescroart.
Lescroart knows of what he speaks: he’s published 26 novels, which have collectively sold more than 10 million copies in 75 countries, and his legal thrillers frequently top New York Times bestseller lists. He’ll bring all of this experience and emotional investment to the Thurber House on May 11.
Listen in to our talk about the craft of writing and what surprising areas fans have been asking more about recently.
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