Original airdate: August 15, 2008

A conversation with New York Times bestselling author Eleanor Herman on her incredible true book about the secret female pope.

From www.mistressofthevatican.com:

The widowed sister-in-law of the indecisive Pope Innocent X (reigned 1644-1655), Olimpia was presumed to be the pope’s mistress.  Regardless of whether she was mistress of the pope, she certainly was mistress of the Vatican, appointing cardinals, negotiating with foreign powers, and raking in immense sums from the papal treasury.  In a church that firmly excludes women from officiating as priests, and even from marrying priests, Olimpia’s story is clearly an uncomfortable one for the Vatican.

Women camped for days in front of her house, hoping to catch a glimpse of the woman who, contrary to all social norms, ran a pope, a church, and a nation.  Envied, admired, and despised, Olimpia was a baroque rock star, belting out her song loudly on a stage of epic exaggeration.  But by the end of the seventeenth century, with new popes and new hopes, the scandal of Olimpia, which had gripped all Europe, faded and disappeared.  Long forgotten now is her bittersweet tale of power, greed, and the glory of God.

From Eleanor Herman:

“History is so fascinating that it never has to be presented in a boring way. These were flesh and blood people, just like you and me, facing war and plague, falling in love, living among splendid art and gut-wrenching poverty.  Sometimes people ask me if I plan to write novels.  And I say, with all the things that really happened, who needs to make stuff up?”

Thanks for listening.

Liz

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Mistress of the Vatican: The True Story of Olimpia Maidalchini: The Secret Female Pope

Original airdate: August 1, 2008

I knew I was in trouble before I stepped foot into that interview room. Women tend to respond to what they hear (or read) and I was composing flirtatious conversations with Jonathan Miles by about page four of his book. His book was fantastic and in between those hardbound covers were 150 pages of late night reading that got my interviewing psyche all juicy.

But I’m not unique. Miles seems to have that power over everyone. On-line interviews state that literary greats chisel his name on their tombstones. His first date with published writing was with the swoon-worthy “Oxford American.” Jon Hodgman talks about his mental physique in a recorded “welcome greeting” on the dearamericanairlines.com webpage. Miles turned me into a babbling mess on the microphone and I could not form a coherent sentence.

In his Cocktails Column for the New York Times he wrote:

“IDEALLY, a cocktail consumed at 4 a.m. should be transitional. It should serve as a bridge between the night that was and the morning to come, equally adept at picking you up and winding you down. It should gently prepare you for the startling pastel rays of dawn — since the sunrise, when you’ve been out all night, always seems to come as a surprise, like a pursuer you thought you had eluded. A drink at that hour should usher in thoughts of, say, pancakes. Ladies and gentlemen, crawlers of the urban predawn, I give you that cocktail…”

See what I mean? A chiseled and dreamy piece of good writing.

I’ll leave the rest of the mushy gushing to the interview. You can be embarrassed for me.

Thanks again,

Liz

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Dear American Airlines: A Novel

Original airdate: July 25, 2008

I met with Mr. Jones and his wife Alma near the front desk of the Jefferson hotel. They could have been anyone’s parents as they stood in faded blue jeans on the marble floors in the lobby. They were expecting to do the interview down there with all of the other touristy people and were taken aback when I asked to do it in their room.

They mumbled something about “a mess” as we entered the suite. It was usual hotel disorganization: pajamas on the floor, overflowing suitcases, newspapers- nothing a microphone stand couldn’t slide out of the way.

Jones’ eyes were remarkably blue and looked at me over the top of his socked feet pitched up on the coffee table. Alma announced that she was getting in the bed. She laughed lying supine as Mr. Jones told the remarkable story of who he is, how he almost died before becoming a famous mechanic and politician. He concluded the story with very kind words about her, the love of his life and how she was the reason he was a happy man today.

We talked for over an hour. They both repeatedly asked about me and my life. I could have told them all of my problems and climbed in a suitcase to follow them home, forever.

The rest of what happened is included below.

Thanks for tuning in,

Liz

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Redneck Boy in the Promised Land: The Confessions of “Crazy Cooter”

(with Alex Lorch)

Original airdate: July 11, 2008

“Lesbian and Gay Richmond” is a look at the histories and contributions of homosexual Richmonders . It begins with Richard Cornish, one of the original Jamestown settlers, who was sentenced to death for breaking the sodomy laws. It moves through the centuries of fear, anger and rebellion and remarks on the achievements that have shaped Richmond just as much as Thomas Jefferson’s design of the State Capitol Building.

Unfortunately, many of these remarkable people who helped create our city were not recognized as LGBT. So while we celebrate their contributions, a large part of the creator was censored and misrepresented.  The truth was, despite some adamant docent’s decrees, that Lewis Ginter was a homosexual… as were so many others who designed our capital city.

(Another appalling anecdote of LGBT history is that it was against the law to serve a homosexual person alcohol until the late 1970s!)

In my opinion, the people in this book are our great romantic heroes.  The people in “Lesbian and Gay Richmond” have been true to themselves and, in some cases, risked their fame, fortune and physical safety to be with the ones they loved.  

This is a good show. I hope you tune in.  

Sincerely,

Liz

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Lesbian and Gay Richmond (Images of America (Arcadia Publishing))

Original airdate: None

About one out of every eight interviews I’ve done has tanked. For whatever the reason–bad audio, boring guest or recoding error– I don’t run a show. Unfortunately, there is no audio associated with this post because of two out of the three reasons above. But the book was fantastic and it deserves some barefaced promotion.

‘Murketing’ is a term New York Times columnist Rob Walker coined to explain the fuzzy line advertisers are crossing to seep their products into our periphery… and then our pockets.

With the fast-forward freedom of DVR and daily newspapers breathing their last gasps, the advertising traditions of “yore” have gone flat. The way companies get our money is being reshaped and leeches into our lives in new and subtler ways. This goes way deeper than product placement in our favorite shows.

Rob Walker claims that we, as a culture, are more brand loyal than ever. We are not the intelligent, indignant, discriminating consumers we think we are. His book is filled with sociological examples of the evolution of products like Timberlands and Chuck Taylors. He states that we as a culture base large parts of our identity around commercial purchases, including ‘outsider’ purchases like PBR. He says that we are now doing  the promotion for corporate America and we’re taking pride in it… think about that Macintosh users. We are becoming the new marketing tool. Eeek.

I’m going to leave my adoration for this book here. You do your own work and read it.

Thanks for “tuning in.”

Liz

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Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are

Original airdate: June 27, 2008

Here is what Kinky Friedman said about this book, “Stephen Evans’ first novel, ‘The Marriage of True Minds,’ is a funny, poignant, oddly beautiful book about three divergent life forms-animals, people and lawyers. You will love it if you read it with a true mind.”

What more can I say? Look up Kinky Friedman if you won’t take his word for it.

The rest is best left to the audio. At the end of the show, Mr. Evans does a great job explaining the different types of laughs one gets on stage. It’s worth a listen…and a read. Oh… it’s short and fun too – great  for airports and train stations.

Thanks for tuning in.

Liz

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The Marriage of True Minds

Original airdate: July 4, 2008

Virginia’s gruesome history is reanimated again, but this time in the pages of Beth Brown’s book, “Haunted Battlefields: Virginia’s Civil War Ghosts.”

Beth visits thirteen of Virginia’s (presumably) most haunted Civil War battlefields with recording equipment and a digital camera. Her goal is to capture the truth behind the rumors… or explain life after death.  In the show you’ll hear two of the recordings she made during her escapades. You can form your own opinion.

“Haunted Battlefields” is a local book, published by a small press, but a worthy tool for the adventurous looking for a new way to scare the bejesus out of themselves.  

What I liked specifically about the book was the structure. Beth starts every chapter with a history lesson, explains her visit to the site and then summarizes what she determined about the haunting based on impressions and her recordings.

It’s a great show, but alas… the great mysteries of life were not solved here.

Thanks for tuning in.

Liz

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Haunted Battlefields: VirginiaÆs Civil War Ghosts

Original airdate: June 6, 2008

If your wondering how Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tony Horwitz ended up writing about Columbus and Ponce de Leon… wonder no more.

Here is the official “Story Behind the Book”…

On a New England road trip a few summers ago, I visited Plymouth Rock. The boulder’s surface was only five feet square, with a badly mended cleft in the middle. It looked like a fossilized potato. A park ranger told me that tourists often heaped scorn on the sacred stone. They also asked odd questions. Was it true the Mayflower crashed into the Rock? Did the Pilgrims serve Thanksgiving on top of it?

“Or they ask, ‘Is this where the three ships landed?’” the ranger said. “They mean the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. People think Columbus dropped off the Pilgrims and sailed home.”

She had to patiently explain that Columbus’s landing and the Pilgrims’ arrival occurred a thousand miles and 128 years apart. “Americans learn about 1492 and 1620 as kids, and that’s all they remember as adults,” she said. “The rest of the story is blank.”

Back on the road, winding past cranberry bogs, I scanned the data stored in my own brain about America’s founding by Europeans. In fourteen hundred and ninety two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue . . . John Smith and Jamestown . . . Pilgrims in funny hats . . . Of the Indians who greeted the newcomers, I of course knew Pocahontas, Squanto, and . . . Hiawatha?

That was the sum of what I dredged up. Scraps from elementary school and the Thanksgiving table. As for dates, I’d mislaid an entire century, the one between Columbus’s sail in 1492 and Jamestown’s founding in 16-0-something. Expensively educated at a private school and university—a history major, no less!—I’d matriculated to middle age with a third-grader’s grasp of early America.

Returning home, I undertook some remedial study. This revealed a world unknown to me, of conquistadors, castaways, and other adventurers who roamed America long before the Mayflower landed. What would it be like, I wondered, to explore this New World, not only in books but on the ground? To take a pre-Pilgrimage through early America that ended at Plymouth Rock instead of beginning there? To rediscover my native land, the U.S. continent? - from www.voyagelongandstrange.com

Thanks for tuning in.

Liz

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<A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World

Original airdate: May 30, 2008

The official description of “Free Food for Millionaires” goes something like this:

“Casey Han’s four years at Princeton gave her many things, “But no job and a number of bad habits.” Casey’s parents, who live in Queens, are Korean immigrants working in a dry cleaner, desperately trying to hold on to their culture and their identity. Their daughter, on the other hand, has entered into rarified American society via scholarships. But after graduation, Casey sees the reality of having expensive habits without the means to sustain them. As she navigates Manhattan, we see her life and the lives around her, culminating in a portrait of New York City and its world of haves and have-nots. “Free Food for Millionaires” offers up a fresh exploration of the complex layers we inhabit both in society and within ourselves. Inspired by 19th century novels such as “Vanity Fair” and “Middlemarch,” Min Jin Lee examines maintaining one’s identity within changing communities in what is her remarkably assured debut.”

Actually, it goes exactly like that. Forgive the cut and paste. Min Jin Lee was a great guest… listen for yourself.

Thanks for tuning in.

Liz

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Free Food for Millionaires

Original airdate: May 23, 2008

When Dan Ariely sat down on the couch to speak with me during the long day of interviewing the guests of the Junior League Book and Author Dinner I blurted. The first thing I said was, “How old are you?” To which he replied “42.”

He said he went to Burning Man for his 40th. Again blurting, I asked him if he did drugs while he was there. He said he “took pot.”

Extremely educated men unnerve me. I fumble, stammer and my throat clenches tight. I become the babbling female. What is it about them that dries up my verbosity? The only thing I could manage to respond to his comment about taking pot, was, “Dan- you don’t take pot, you smoke pot.”

I didn’t even get a smile. His credentials and long list of papers published is available on his website, http://web.mit.edu/ariely/www/MIT/. The rest of our conversation is posted below.

I cut most of my own comments out of this show because, true to the nature of the program, what he has to say is much more interesting that what I asked. I hope you find this true too.

Read the book, give it to your Dad for Father’s Day. I highly recommend it. It’s also available on audible.com

Thanks for tuning in.

Liz

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Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions