Gov. Cecil Andrus and Chris Carlson: A Mutual Respect
Release Date: 08/24/2025
Tim O'Brien: The Things We Carry
Dialogue with Marcia Franklin
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 the National Book Award for “Going After Cacciato,” a novel about a soldier who goes AWOL and the squad that tries to find him. O’Brien’s most well-known book is “The Things They Carried,” a work of linked stories about soldiers in the Vietnam War, published in...
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Richard Blanco: How to Love a Country
Dialogue with Marcia Franklin
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 themes of his work, and the power of poetry to change lives. Mr. Blanco was the keynote speaker at the Idaho Humanities Council’s annual event in 2019. Originally aired: 12/20/19
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Louisa Thomas: First Lady Louisa Adams
Dialogue with Marcia Franklin
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 woman, but also the political life of America in the 1800s. Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the for more conversations that matter. Originally Aired: 9/1/2017 The interview is part of Dialogue’s series Since 1995, the conference has...
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Lois Leveen: A Spy in the Confederate White House
Dialogue with Marcia Franklin
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 researches her ideas and what she hopes readers will glean from her works. Originally Aired: 02/13/15
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Doris Kearns Goodwin: Lessons from Lincoln
Dialogue with Marcia Franklin
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 we can learn from Lincoln, who was the rare president who asked his main rivals to be a part of his cabinet, and what it was like to spend so much time researching such an iconic person. Don’t forget to subscribe, and visit the for more conversations that...
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Rep. John Lewis: Last of the Big Six
Dialogue with Marcia Franklin
Marcia Franklin talks with Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), the last of the so-called "Big Six" leaders of the African-American civil rights movement. Lewis was the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) from 1963 to 1966, and played a seminal role in some of the 56 most important activities of the movement, including the Freedom Rides, the march from Selma to Montgomery and the March on Washington (at which he was the youngest speaker). He became a United States Representative in 1986. During their conversation, Lewis and Franklin discussed his emotions on the 50th...
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N. Scott Momaday: The West
Dialogue with Marcia Franklin
Pulitzer Prize-winning Kiowa author N. Scott Momaday has died. In this interview from 1996, host Marcia Franklin talks with Momaday about his role in commentating on Native American culture in the recently released Ken Burns documentary ‘The West.’ Momaday also talks about how to find your voice as an author, as well as the relationship between Native Americans and American society. Originally aired: 09/25/1996
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David Kennedy: Lessons from the Great Depression
Dialogue with Marcia Franklin
Host Marcia Franklin talks with historian David Kennedy about Depression-era policies and whether they have parallels to the modern financial crisis. Kennedy, professor emeritus at Stanford University, is known for integrating both economic and cultural analyses in his works about particular historical eras, as he did in Freedom from Fear, a book about the Great Depression in the United States. That book won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000. Kennedy is also the author of several other books, including Over Here: The First World War and American Society, which was nominated for a...
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Tim Egan: The Worst Hard Time
Dialogue with Marcia Franklin
Marcia Franklin interviews award-winning author and New York Times columnist Tim Egan. Egan, who was part of a team of New York Times reporters that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2001, has covered the American West for more than 20 years. He talks with Franklin about how the region is changing socially and politically. He also discusses the struggles of the Dust Bowl survivors of the 1930s, whose stories he chronicles in The Worst Hard Time. That work won a National Book Award in 2006. Originally aired: 11/23/2012
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Margaret Atwood: The Testaments
Dialogue with Marcia Franklin
Host Marcia Franklin talks with author Margaret Atwood about her work, which includes the bestselling novel, “The Handmaid’s Tale” and its sequel, “The Testaments.” Atwood also shares her thoughts on whether the United States could head towards totalitarianism. The conversation was recorded at the 2024 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference.
info_outlineMarcia Franklin talks with four-term Idaho Governor Cecil D. Andrus and one of his former press secretaries, Chris Carlson. Carlson has written a book about his experiences working for the governor entitled Idaho's Greatest Governor.
The two discuss Andrus' personal and political philosophies, as well as what they consider the highlights of his career. The governor also weighs in on current political issues, such as the partisanship in Congress, President Obama's performance, the Occupy movement, wilderness designation and salmon recovery.
Cecil Andrus, a Democrat, began his political career in 1960 as a state senator from Orofino, ID. After three terms in the statehouse, he lost his first election for governor in 1966, but won an unprecedented four terms in 1970, 1974, 1986 and 1990, a record which still stands.
From 1977 to 1981, Andrus served as Secretary of the Interior under President Jimmy Carter, the first Idahoan to serve in a presidential cabinet. In that position, he was known for helping pass the Alaska Lands Act, which set aside more than 100 million acres of land in that state as wilderness, including the Arctic national Wildlife Refuge. In 1995, Andrus founded the Andrus Center for Public Policy at Boise State University.
A Kellogg native and former reporter, Chris Carlson served as Andrus' press secretary for more than eight years, from 1972 to the end of Andrus' tenure at the Department of Interior. He served on the Northwest Power and Conservation Council and as government affairs director
for Kaiser Aluminum. Andrus and Carlson also worked together at Gallatin Public Affairs, a research and lobbying group of which Carlson is a co-founder. He is retired and lives in north Idaho.
Originally aired: 11/17/2011
