Mar 29, 2026
Host Marcia Franklin interviews one of the most esteemed writers
of the Vietnam War era, Tim
O’Brien. O’Brien, who served as an infantryman from 1969 to 1970,
wrote a memoir in 1972 called “If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up
and Ship Me Home.” It received excellent reviews, and in 1978,
O’Brien won...
Feb 22, 2026
Marcia Franklin talks with poet Richard Blanco, the first LatinX and gay inaugural poet. Blanco wrote a poem for President Obama’s second inaugural and read it at the ceremony. He discusses the process of writing the inaugural poem, “One Today,” how the piece reflected his life and his philosophy of writing, the...
Feb 15, 2026
Journalist Louisa Thomas talks about her book Louisa: The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. Adams, which examines the life and times of First Lady Louisa Catherine Adams, the wife of President John Quincy Adams and the first foreign-born First Lady of the United States. Thomas illuminates not only the life of this fascinating...
Feb 8, 2026
Dialogue host Marcia Franklin talks with historical novelist Lois Leveen about two of her works: The Secrets of Mary Bowser, about a former slave who was a spy in the Confederate White House, and Juliet's Nurse, which imagines the life of the nurse in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Franklin asks Leveen about how she...
Feb 1, 2026
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin talks about her book, Team of Rivals, which chronicles the sometimes fraught relationship between Abraham Lincoln and his cabinet members. The book was the basis for the 2012 movie, Lincoln, which was nominated for 12 Academy Awards.
Goodwin talks about the lessons...