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Kentucky Author Forum Presents

Great Conversations

Several times each year, the Kentucky Author Forum brings a distinguished writer and interviewer to the Kentucky Center for the Arts. Their conversation is taped before a live audience to air on KET and on PBS stations nationwide as Great Conversations. (Some programs from previous seasons air in Kentucky as Kentucky Author Forum Presents: A Conversation With...) The series showcases a diverse and fascinating array of authors and interviewers from a wide range of fields—from politics, science, and education to public affairs, journalism, and the arts.

See a complete listing of upcoming programs.

Selected programs from Great Conversations are available for online viewing. Many are also available on DVD from KET; call (800) 945-9167 or e-mail for information.

For more information on past and upcoming programs, visit the Kentucky Author Forum Web site maintained by the University of Louisville.

Online Video

Click on a name to watch the video. Most of the hour-long programs are available in Windows Media® or RealVideo® format.

In alphabetical order:

• Madeleine Albright
  U.S. secretary of state during the Clinton administration and author of Madame Secretary. Interviewer: CNN correspondent Richard Roth (2003)
• R.W. Apple Jr.
  Associate editor of the New York Times and author of Apple’s America. Interviewer: journalist Tom Brokaw (2005)
• Karen Armstrong
  Author of a number of books on religion, including A History of God and Buddha. Interviewer: National Public Radio host Robert Siegel (2004)
• Margaret Atwood
  Acclaimed novelist, poet, and critic. Interviewer: National Public Radio host Ira Flatow (2004)
• James Baker III
  Former U.S. Secretary of State, co-chair of the Iraq Study Group appointed in March 2006, and author of Work Hard, Study ... and Keep Out of Politics! Interviewer: CNN national correspondent John King (2007)
• A. Scott Berg
  Author of Lindbergh, a critically acclaimed biography of aviator Charles Lindbergh. Interviewer: Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post (1998)
• David Boren
  President of the University of Oklahoma, former governor and U.S. senator, and author of A Letter to America. Interviewer: National Public Radio correspondent Neal Conan (2008)
• Stephen Breyer
  U.S. Supreme Court justice and author of Active Liberty: Interpreting Our Democratic Constitution. Interviewer: NBC News justice correspondent Pete Williams (2008)
• Tom Brokaw
  Former NBC News anchor and author of Boom! Voices of the Sixties: Personal Reflections on the ’60s and Today. Interviewer: Washington Post senior editor Rick Atkinson (2007)
• Gen. Wesley Clark
  Five-star general, former commander of NATO European Forces and NATO Air Campaign Kosovo, and author of Waging Modern War. Interviewer: Joe Klein, New Yorker correspondent and author (2001)
• E.L. Doctorow
  Novelist who has mixed fictional characters with real-life events in such books as Ragtime, World’s Fair, and The March. Interviewer: Christopher Lydon (2001)
• Ari Fleischer
  Primary spokesman for President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2003 and author of Taking Heat: The President, the Press, and My Years in the White House. Interviewer: CBS News White House correspondent Bill Plante (2005)
• Henry Louis Gates Jr.
  Chair of the Afro-American Studies Department at Harvard University and author of America Behind the Color Line: Dialogues with African Americans. Interviewer: National Public Radio correspondent Karen Grigsby Bates (2004)
• Malcolm Gladwell
  Author of The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers: The Story of Success. Interviewer: Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind and The Adventures of Johnny Bunko (2009)
• Jane Goodall
  Anthropologist and author of Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey. Interviewer: Richard Wrangham, chair of the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University (1999)
• David Halberstam
  Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and author of The Children, which recounts the remarkable stories of young people involved in the early days of the civil rights movement. Interviewer: Roger Wilkins, professor, George Mason University. (1998)
• Vernon Jordan
  Managing director, Lazard Freres & Co., past president of the National Urban League, and author of the memoir Vernon Can Read. Interviewer: Ronald Brownstein, senior Washington correspondent, The Los Angeles Times (2002)
• Robert Kagan
  Senior associate of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, contributing editor of The New Republic, and author of Paradise and Power. Interviewer: National Public Radio host Neal Conan (2004)
• Sue Monk Kidd
  Best-selling novelist and author of The Mermaid Chair. Interviewer: Dr. Jean Shinoda Bolen, professor of clinical psychiatry (2006)
• Arthur Levitt
  Former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and author of Take on the Street: What Wall Street and Corporate America Don’t Want You to Know; What You Can Do to Fight Back. Interviewer: Jane Bryant Quinn (2002)
• John McCain
  Four-term U.S. Senator (R-AZ), decorated Vietnam veteran, and author of Character Is Destiny. Interviewer: National Public Radio host Robert Siegel (2006)
• Bill McKibben
  Environmental journalist and author of Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future. Interviewer: Wendell Berry, Kentucky farmer, essayist, novelist, and poet (2007)
• Greg Mortenson
  Literacy advocate, Central Asia Institute and Pennies for Peace founder, and author of Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission To Promote Peace ... One School at a Time. Interviewer: Jacki Lyden, National Public Radio (2008)
• Azar Nafisi
  A former teacher of English literature at the University of Tehran, witness to the Iranian revolution that brought the Ayatollah Khomeini to power, and author of Reading Lolita in Tehran. Interviewer: civil rights reporter Karl Fleming (2005)
• Sandra Day O’Connor
  First woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court and author of The Majesty of the Law. Interviewer: Pete Williams (2003)
• Michael Pollan
  New York Times Magazine contributor, journalism teacher, and author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto. Interviewer: Michael Shnayerson, author of Coal River (2008)
• Sister Helen Prejean
  Counselor to death row inmates and author of Dead Man Walking. Interviewer: Stephen Bright, director of the Southern Center for Human Rights, native of Danville, Ky., University of Kentucky graduate, and Yale professor (1996)
• Ruth Reichl
  New York Times restaurant critic, editor of Gourmet magazine, and author of the memoir Tender at the Bone. Interviewer: Susan Stamberg, National Public Radio (1999)
• Dennis Ross
  Ambassador, chief Middle East peace negotiator under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, and author of The Missing Peace. Interviewer: National Public Radio foreign correspondent Jacki Lyden (2004)
• George Soros
  Holocaust survivor, international financier and philanthropist, and author of The Age of Fallibility: Consequences of the War on Terror. Interviewer: John D. Podesta, Center for American Progress (2006)
• Gene Sperling
  President Clinton’s national economic adviser, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a frequent columnist and commentator on economic issues, and author of The Pro-Growth Progressive: An Economic Strategy for Shared Prosperity. Interviewer: John Ydstie, National Public Radio (2006)
• Strobe Talbott
  Former deputy secretary of state and ambassador-at-large and author of The Russia Hand: A Memoir of Presidential Diplomacy. Interviewer: journalist David Halberstam (2002)
• John Updike
  The Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and author of Golf Dreams. Interviewer: Robert Siegel of National Public Radio (1996)
• Lawrence Wright
  Screenwriter, New Yorker staff writer, and author of The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. Interviewer: Peter Bergen, journalist and terrorism analyst (2006)

The Kentucky Author Forum is sponsored by the University of Louisville as part of its Challenge for Excellence, with support from Brown-Forman and the Humana Foundation. The series founder and producer is Mary Moss Greenebaum. The programs are produced for television by KET.