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A Novel Idea Non-fiction to pulp fiction, host Suzanne M. Lang explores the world of books featuring conversations with writers, academics, and readers. We all have a story to tell. It's A Novel Idea.
A Novel Idea

Podcast Directory
A Novel Idea

A Novel Idea

From KRCB-FM

Non-fiction to pulp fiction, host Suzanne M. Lang explores the world of books featuring conversations with writers, academics, and readers. We all have a story to tell. It's A Novel Idea.

Most Recent Episodes

Dale Tafoya and Mark Shrager join Suzanne on A Novel Idea (Aired: May 7, 2023)

Baseball and horseracing are two sports that have been with us since before the Civil War and we still enjoy them in one way or another today. Suzanne Lang is joined by sportswriter Dale Tafoya to talk about Billy Ball: Billy Martin and the Resurrection of the Oakland A's. Then, it's prolific turfwriter Mark Shrager with his book The First Kentucky Derby: Thirteen Black Jockeys, One Shady Owner, and the Little Red Horse that Wasn't Supposed to Win. A Novel Idea airs every first and fifth Sunday at 10:00 am PT on KRCB 104.9. Streaming at krcb.org. Click the icon below to listen.

Dale Tafoya and Mark Shrager join Suzanne on A Novel Idea (Aired: May 7, 2023)

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Beth Ann Mathews and Skye Blaine on A Novel Idea (Aired: April 30th, 2023)

Suzanne M. Lang is joined by Beth Ann Mathews, Marine biologist and author of Deep Waters, A Memoir of Loss, Alaska Adventure, and Love Rekindled. When her active and energetic husband suffers a rare type of stroke, his idea of recovery -through sailing in the ocean waters off Alaska- challenges Beth's notions of sense and safety. Her story is frank, intimate, and filled with an honesty and verve that are gripping. Also featured in conversation with Suzanne is award winning author Skye Blaine who is a mentor and writing coach to many. Skye talks about the safe critical place needed by authors when writing memoirs. A Novel Idea airs every first and fifth Sunday at 10am PT on 104.9 FM in Sonoma County, streaming at krcb.org. Click the icon below to listen.

Beth Ann Mathews and Skye Blaine on A Novel Idea (Aired: April 30th, 2023)

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Author Joan Frank on A Novel Idea (Aired: April 2, 2023)

Joan Frank is simply a master of language and expression, and she has two new books to prove it: a novel, Juniper Street, and a book of essays, Late Work, a Literary Autobiography of Love, Loss, and What I Was Reading. Joan joins Suzanne Lang in a freewheeling conversation on her work and the writer's life. It's A Novel Idea every first and fifth Sunday at 10am on KRCB 104.9. Click the icon below to listen.

Author Joan Frank on A Novel Idea (Aired: April 2, 2023)

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Donnaldson Brown and Samuel W. Gailey on A Novel Idea (Aired: March 5, 2023)

Absorbing literary fiction comes from Donnaldson Brown with her decades spanning epic novel Because I Loved You and Samuel W. Gailey with Come Away from Her, his bold mystery set in the cold of Eastern Pennsylvania. Both authors are in conversation with Suzanne M. Lang on A Novel Idea, heard first and fifth Sundays at 10:00 am PT on KRCB 104.9 Sonoma County's NPR station. Click the icon below to listen.

Donnaldson Brown and Samuel W. Gailey on A Novel Idea (Aired: March 5, 2023)

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Candi Milo and Loren Niemi on A Novel Idea (Aired: February 5, 2023)

Actor, singer, and Warner Brothers voice artist for many animated characters, Candi Milo, tells the story of her unusual upbringing in her memoir Surviving the Odd. Her father was entertainer Tony Milo, and when he gave up show business to run a half-way house for mentally ill and emotionally disturbed adults and bring his family into the house, the course of her childhood was changed forever. The book is funny, irreverent, and heartbreaking. Candi joins Suzanne Lang in conversation. Also featured is award winning storyteller Loren Niemi with his memoir A Breviary for the Lost, Poems from the During and After. Click the icon below to listen.

Candi Milo and Loren Niemi on A Novel Idea (Aired: February 5, 2023)

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Marylee MacDonald and Elisa Stancil Levine on A Novel Idea (Aired: January 29, 2023)

What happens in our youth ripples through our entire lives. Authors Marylee MacDonald and Elisa Stancil Levine join Suzanne M. Lang in conversation on their memoirs of resilience and courage. MacDonald's Surrender, a Memoir of Nature, Nurture, and Love explores the double circumstance of her being adopted as an infant and then her giving up her first child to adoption; she eventually reunites with both her birth mother and her son. Stancil Levine's This or Something Better, a Memoir of Resilience starts with the firestorm of 2017 that had her fleeing Sonoma Mountain and takes us to her troubled youth along the American River. Click the icon below to listen.

Marylee MacDonald and Elisa Stancil Levine on A Novel Idea (Aired: January 29, 2023)

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Shugri Salh and Hemu Aggarwal on A Novel Idea (Aired: Sunday, January 1, 2022)

Shugri Salh was born in the Somalia desert and lived with her grandmother as a desert nomad herding goats before landing in an orphanage and the streets of Mogadishu during the Somali Civil War, and eventually making her way to North America. The Last Nomad, Coming of Age in the Somali Desert is her eye-opening memoir, and she joins Suzanne Lang in conversation. Also featured is Hemu Aggarwal with her book The Forbidden Letters, a True Story. Hemu is an artist and graphic designer whose discovery of century old love letters written by her parents, set her on a mission to translate them into English from Gujarati. They represent an intimate look into the lives of two young people in an arranged marriage, very much in love but subject to customs and taboos challenged. It's A Novel Idea, every first, third, and fifth Sundays at 10am on KRCB 104.9 FM, streaming at krcb.org. Click the icon below to listen.

Shugri Salh and Hemu Aggarwal on A Novel Idea (Aired: Sunday, January 1, 2022)

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Brennan Matthews and Brad Herzog on A Novel Idea (Aired: December 4, 2022) (2)

Road trips seem to be uniquely American and Suzanne Lang talks with two authors about their unique takes on traveling the country. Miles to Go, an African Family in Search of America Along Route 66 is Brennen Matthews' travelogue of his family's emersion into America on its "Mother Road." Brad Herzog goes a different direction with Detour 2020, a Cross-country Drive through America's Wrong Turns, trying to get a bead on just what that year brought to us. It's A Novel Idea, first and fifth Sundays at 10 a.m. PT, on KRCB 104.9 FM - Sonoma County's NPR station. Streaming and podcasting at krcb.org. Click the icon below to listen.

Brennan Matthews and Brad Herzog on A Novel Idea (Aired: December 4, 2022) (2)

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Lissa Bachner and Amy Turner on A Novel Idea (Aired: November 6th, 2022)

Suzanne Lang talks with equestrian Lissa Bachner. When Lissa became blind, it was the healing partnership with her horse Milo that physically guided her to become a show jumping champion and emotionally provided Lissa the love and confidence she needed to define herself outside of blindness. The book is Milo's Eyes, How a Blind Equestrian and Her Seeing Eye Horse Rescued Each Other. Suzanne also talks with Amy Turner about her memoir On the Ledge. Nearly being killed when a truck ran over her while crossing a street, triggered the deeper trauma of her childhood self, living in the shadow of her suicidal Dad. When she was just 4 years old the media captured him standing high on the ledge of a hotel window, about to jump. He lived a long life, but it took her own near-death trauma to finally understand and shake her lifelong insecurity brought on by his suicide attempt. Click the icon below to listen.

Lissa Bachner and Amy Turner on A Novel Idea (Aired: November 6th, 2022)

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A Novel Idea goes Way out West (Aired: October 30, 2022)

Way out West. Biographer of scrappy women, Theresa Kaminski talks about her book Queen of the West, The Life and Times of Dale Evans. Then, author and long-time archivist for the Levi Strauss Company, Lynn Downey, brings her book American Dude Ranch: A Touch of the Cowboy and the Thrill of the West. A Novel Idea with Suzanne Lang, Sunday, October 30th at 10 a.m. KRCB 104.9, streaming at krcb.org. Click the icon below to listen.

A Novel Idea goes Way out West (Aired: October 30, 2022)

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A Novel Idea

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