Blog

Journey Toward Everest: Trekking with the son of Tenzing Norgay to Everest Base Camp, Saturday Evening Post, Jan-Feb 2024

In 2018, my wife Jackie and I had the privilege and pleasure of trekking with Jamling Tenzing to Nepal's Mustang region near Tibet. In 2023, Jamling invited us to share in the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the 1953 ascent of...

River Rights Gone Wrong, California water resources a source of conflict, Sierra magazine, Spring 2023

Sierra, the country's leading environmental magazine, has a front-of-the-book section called Notes from Here and There that's akin to the New Yorker's Talk of the Town. It's an ideal venue for spotlighting personal views on the...

Hell’s Backbone Grill: An unexpected culinary oasis in southern Utah, The Traveler’s Table, Fall 2022

When I heard from a writer friend that her sister and cooking partner, both former chefs on whitewater rivers trips, had opened a restaurant in southern Utah, I vowed to get there someday. In summer of 2021, after a raft trip on the Green...

Old Crow Medicine Show’s catalog goes deeper than ‘Wagon Wheel’ – Press Democrat, July 8, 2022

Most editors don't mind if you write a bit longer than assigned. I was asked to write 900 to 1,000 words about Old Crow Medicine Show for The Press Democrat, so it would have been fine, for example, to submit 1,100 words. Yet my interview...

Fran Lebowitz doesn’t care what you think, Press Democrat, Feb. 10, 2022

As I prepared to interview Fran Lebowitz, my friend and colleague Tim Cahill told me that she'd appeared on the cover of Outside magazine. This surprised me so I did a bit of digging and ended up writing this sidebar to accompany my story...

National Geographic, September 2021: Jane Goodall joins campaign to plant a trillion trees by 2030

In 2021, a colleague asked if I’d like to interview Goodall about her Trees for Jane initiative and I leapt at the chance. The best part of this interview may have been hearing about a tree Jane loved when she was a child. She spoke to me...

Sierra magazine: Gas leaf blowers are shrill. They pollute. Does it have to be this way?

As a teenager, I awoke every Friday morning at 7am to the shattering sound of our next-door neighbor's leaf blowers, robbing me of those last precious moments of sleep before school started. I've long despised these unnecessary machines...

National Geographic, December 2020: In remote Nepal, new roads bring opportunity and perils

In October, 2018, my wife and I joined a group of trekkers led by Jamling Tenzing Norgay, the son of Tenzing Norgay, who in 1953 was the first person (along with Ed Hillary) to reach the top of Mount Everest. For our trek in the Kingdom...

Bluesman Robert Cray says ‘goodbye old friend’ to Eric Clapton, Press Democrat, Dec. 3, 2021

After a decade of honing his craft and playing gritty clubs, Robert Cray burst onto the blues scene in the mid-1980s and became a global sensation. None other than B.B. King anointed him as the great blues hope who could carry the torch...

Michael Shapiro 2017 Sonoma County TEDx talk in Santa Rosa, Calif.

Travel writer and photographer Michael Shapiro takes you from Ireland to Guatemala, from Kenya to Ecuador, and talks about how meeting people all over the world helps build bridges and shatter expectations. This talk was given at the 2017...

Boys of Winter: Playing baseball with my heroes at SF Giants fantasy camp, Lexus magazine

Back in 2008, I received a dream assignment from a gorgeously designed magazine called Lexus that's read by more than 1 million Lexus drivers in North America. The editor asked if I'd spend a week in January playing baseball at San...

Once in a Lifetime: Visiting Bruegel in Vienna with my mom, Perceptive Travel, Feb. 2019

In November 2018, my mom saw a story in Art News about the first true Pieter Bruegel the Elder exhibtion ever, to be held at the Kunsthistoriches art museum in Vienna. She asked if I wanted to make a trip to Austria and I said I'd love to...

A Farming Renaissance in Puerto Rico, Inspirato magazine, Winter 2019

Last September, a year after Hurricane Maria devastated the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, I was sent to the island to report a story about how some farmers were shifting from export crops to growing food for local people. I met some...

Interview: Oceanographer Sylvia Earle, The Sun, July 2018

Dr. Sylvia Earle has been one of my heroes since I saw the 2014 documentary "Mission Blue" about her tireless work on behalf of the oceans that sustain us. I had the privilege of interviewing her for my Saturday Evening Post story,...

Washington Post: Dylan Thomas’s Wales

I've long felt a kinship with Wales, perhaps because it's where one of my favorite writers, Jan Morris, lives. Recently I had the chance to stay overnight and tour Dylan Thomas's boyhood home in Swansea. Then I visited his other homes in...

Man stricken with ALS finds new voice in singing partner; June 12, 2018

Sometimes a story comes along that breaks your heart before you start interviewing. And then when you get to know the subjects it becomes even more wrenching yet at the same time uplifting. The story of aspiring musician Bernie Dalton,...

Portland: A food tour, Virtuoso, April 2018

There's nothing better than an editor asking you to go to a city you love and find the best places for food, wine, beer and chocolate. I traveled there last year, stopped briefly (for 2 hours, which is fast) at Powell's City of Books,...

SingleThread restaurant shines in Healdsburg, Spring 2018

Last fall I had the pleasure of spending 90 minutes with SingleThread chef and owner Kyle Connaughton at the outstanding Healdsburg restaurant he and his wife Katina Connaughton opened just over a year ago. Three weeks after the...

Oceans on the Edge, Saturday Evening Post, Jan-Feb, 2018

The opportunity to write for the oldest magazine in the USA about a topic I'm passionate about came together in the following story about the state of our oceans. Appallingly we treat as oceans mostly as sources of food, transport and...

Tuscany tastes better, a food tour with Frances Mayes, Inspirato, Summer 2017

I first interviewed Frances Mayes at her home in Tuscany in 2003 for my book of interviews with travel writers, A Sense of Place. It was a pleasure to speak with Mayes again in autumn 2016 for a story about the cuisine of this region of...

Turning junk into the art of the possible, Sierra magazine, August 2017

It's been about 16 years since Patrick Amiot began transforming his street, and eventually much of Sebastopol, into an outdoor art gallery. About a decade ago we became neighbors and we'd hang out on his porch talking about life, art and...

Nat Geo: Top 10 Secrets of the Maya

People often ask me what my favorite destination is - I don't have just one but I always include Guatemala, the hub of the Maya world, in my top 5. When National Geographic asked me to share some secrets I leapt at the opportunity. Here's...

Napa Valley’s most unlikely grape spirit

In Napa's Oxbow Public Market, near the Napa River, we came upon the tasting room for the Napa Valley Distillery. I'd heard good things about their spirits, but what first caught my eye was the table crowded with hundred of little bottles...

Shapiro wins 2016 Explore Canada Award of Excellence for fish story

My story about sustainable seafood in Vancouver won the 2016 Explore Canada Award of Excellence last fall which was gratifying because it was one of those stories I did in hopes of making a difference. Our oceans have been overhunted and...

Tracking elusive pumas in Patagonia, Summer 2016

Typically when traveling overseas I like to stay a while. But when an editor emailed and asked if I'd be willilng to travel to Patagonia to track pumas for a week in the dead of the southern hemisphere's winter, I leapt at the chance even...

Kauai still a Dream Trip, ISLANDS magazine

Islands magazine sent me to the Garden Isle of Kauai to write a feature for its Dream Trips issue which marked the magazine's 25th anniversary. I was honored to have my essay appear among stories written by Pico Iyer, Don George, Patricia...

Vancouver leads Canada’s sustainable seafood movement, Spring 2016

Though most of humanity doesn't realize it, our survival depends on our oceans. During the past couple of centuries we overfished and polluted oceans to the point where many species are on the verge of collapse. But most of us love wild...

Seeing Yosemite through a blind man’s vision, Alaska Beyond, April 2016

"Close your eyes and you'll see what I mean," says my skiing companion Walt as we traverse the 10-mile trail to Yosemite's Glacier Point. My friend Walt is legally blind, unable to see the grandeur of Half Dome and the park's other...

Global Soul: Chilean author Isabel Allende at home in SF Bay Area, 2016

Ever since I read The House of the Spirits in the 1980s I've adored Isabel Allende. She's a natural-born storyteller, warm-hearted and insightful with a wicked sense of fun. I had the opportunity to interview her for my 2004 book of...

Good Call: Las Vegas with Antonio Esfandiari, Inspirato, Winter 2016

In 2012, the World Series of Poker held its most expensive tournament ever: it cost $1 million to buy into it and the top prize was more than $18 million. Antonio Esfandiari, who emigrated from Iran to the U.S. when he was a boy, finished...

Esalen: Retreat on Big Sur Coast, Press Democrat, Jan. 2016

After failing to get through the gates to paradise years ago, I finally made it to Esalen. To see the story on The Press Democrat's site with some pictures, click here. By MICHAEL SHAPIRO I couldn’t wait to get to Esalen on the Big...

Science writing tips for California Academy of Sciences workshop

Tips for Science Writing, Nov. 29, 2016 California Academy of Sciences workshop Omit needless words: And make every word count – ask what it adds. Do flight attendants need to say “at this time”? Does anyone need to say “obviously”?...

Kayaking to see bears at Alaska’s Pack Creek, Alaska magazine, Aug. 2015

There are a number of places in Alaska where you can see bears, but when I heard that Admiralty Island near Juneau has a protected bear reserve and that the best way to get there is by paddling a kayak for a couple of days, I couldn't...

Winged Wonders: Great migrations of sandhill cranes, Horizons, March 2014

One of the most remarkable migrations on our planet is the journey of the sandhill cranes. Some fly all the way from Siberia to Texas. And they're remarkable for all sorts of other reasons. This is one of the stories I most enjoyed...

Yosemite with Ansel Adams, Press Democrat (Aug. 2015)

Went to Yosemite in July with my wife to visit a photographer friend who introduced me to Evan Russel, the curator of the Ansel Adams gallery. Our visit with Russel and the gallery became the centerpiece of my story about Yosemite's 125th...

The Art of the Interview, Book Passage, Aug. 2016

Easy Listening: The Interviewer’s Art By Michael Shapiro Introduction: Interviewing is something most writers do, yet doing it well is challenging. A successful interview combines thoughtful questions, rapt attention, and deft...

Paul Theroux’s Cape Cod, Inspirato, Summer 2015

I first interviewed Paul Theroux in 2004 for my book, A Sense of Place, a collection of interviews with the world's leading travel writers. Though some consider him brusque, blunt and -- this irritates him the most -- curmudgeonly, I...

Sweet home Chicago: Blues, baseball and barbecue, Inspirato, Summer 2015

Sometimes, if you've worked with an editor for a while, she approaches you with an assignment. And occasionally she opens the door to your dream story. When my editor at Inspirato suddenly had an opening for a feature and asked me to...

Boz Scaggs still smooth after all these years (May 2015)

As a kid in the '70s, I enjoyed Boz Scaggs' hits, such as "Lido." But it wasn't until I heard his blues classic "Loan Me a Dime" that I realized what a masterful musician he is. It was a pleasure to interview the easygoing and gracious...

Guess who’s slicing your sturgeon, NYC’s ethnic food, Inspirato, Spring 2015

It's no secret that many of the cooks making New York City's best ethnic food didn't grow up eating smoked salmon or corned beef sandwiches. On the upper east side I found two Chinese brothers selling fantastic sturgeon and the guys...

Anti-cyclist rant by Adam Parks of Victorian Farmstead Meat in Sebastopol

Below are excerpts from the recent "I hate cyclists" blog post by Sebastopol meat company owner Adam Parks. I read this on his site on Saturday. It's no longer up, but I can post excerpts and my responses to this despicable rant in which...

NY Times: Vineyards with Vistas

My first New York Times story was a piece about Wine Country real estate: Destination Guide | Napa and Sonoma Vineyards With Vistas By MICHAEL P. SHAPIRO Published: July 26, 2006 An hour to 90 minutes north of San Francisco,...

Patrick Amiot’s magical carousel, Sonoma magazine, July-Aug. 2014

Patrick Amiot's carousel in Sebastopol, Calif., where he built it in during late 2013 and early 2014. He recently dismantled it for shipping to a suburb of Toronto. Photo courtesy of Sonoma magazine.[/caption] I met Patrick Amiot in 2002,...

What to do when poker table gets unruly, SF Chronicle

I co-write the gambling column for the SF Chronicle, and every so often I get to relate first-hand experiences while playing poker. This column documents one of the most memorable sessions, a night of utter chaos at Petaluma's 101 Casino....

Islands magazine: Last of the Moken, June 2014

En route to Thailand last year, I saw a short video about the Moken, a Polynesian who traditionally have drifted among the islands and coasts of Thailand and Burma. Inspired to see them, we found a group that arranged visits and provided...

CritBit wins top prize on ‘Top Inventor’ reality show

CritBit wins top prize on Top Inventor reality show BY FRANK FARKAKTE DISASSOCIATED PRESS SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A wearable device called the CritBit has earned Petaluma inventor Michael Shapiro $1 million on the Turner reality show...

Dodgers’ broadcaster Vin Scully suspended for PEDs

LOS ANGELES -- Veteran Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully was suspended today by Major League Baseball for 50 games after performance enhancing drugs were found in the announcer's booth at the Dodgers' spring training stadium in...

Art collector Jack Leissring: Eyes need to see this stuff

One thing I love about my job is that sometimes I have no idea where my day will lead. In early 2014 an editor emailed me on a chilly morning and that afternoon I was surrounded by the spirit-lifting art-filled warehouse of collector Jack...

Michael Shapiro among authors featured in Best Travel Writing, appears at Book Passage on March 1, 2015, at 4pm

Michael Shapiro will appear as part of a panel of writers whose work is featured in The Best Travel Writing, Vol. 10, published by Travelers' Tales. Among the other authors speaking are Jeff Greenwald, Lavinia Spalding and Don George. The...

Pete Seeger: 3 stories you’ve never heard

By Michael Shapiro Was sad to hear about the death of folk legend Pete Seeger today - here are three stories you won't read in his obits. 1. Decades ago, Warren Hellman, then a NY investment banker (he was head of Lehman Bros.), asked...

Adriena Daunt Leaving Single Malt Curlers

NEW ZEALAND HERALD STAFF REPORT AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- On the eve of the Single Malt Curlers sold-out show this Sunday at Auckland's Vector Arena, singer and tambourine player Adriena Daunt announced she's leaving the band. Daunt gave...

SF Chronicle: Holding on to a travel companion who wouldn’t let go

Exactly 10 years ago today my mother, brother and I sat with my father as he drew his last breath. He'd been battling pancreatic cancer for eight months; I'd been on assignment in England, interviewing travel writers for my book, A Sense...

Gambling column: NBA title futures

Here's my latest Gambling column from the San Francisco Chronicle, on odds to win the NBA title. As expected, Miami is the favorite, but Golden State has it's best odds in more than a decade. Read it on sfgate.com using the link above or...

Making a living as a freelancer

Every June, I mark the anniversary of leaving my last full-time job, at CNET in SF. It's been 15 years with lots of highs and lows, but I've never regretted the decision to walk away from the rigidity of full-time work and hang my virtual...

The Bird Men of Mazatlan: Cliff divers wait for tide to come in, Mariner

In the fall of 2009, Mariner magazine asked if I'd go to Mazatlan to write about the cliff divers there. I'd watched cliff divers in Acapulco during the '70s on ABC's Wide World of Sports but didn't know they were still plunging into the...

Cowboy Junkies keep it fresh

In the early 1990s, Cowboy Junkies lead vocalist Margo Timmins performed just for me. I sat about 30 feet away from her and she sang one of her favorites, "Misguided Angel" to an audience of one. But I'm not sure she even noticed me. I...

Riding the Rails in Wales, American Way

One of the best ways to see a country is on a slow train. Perhaps the most enjoyable of these are the 19th-century railways of Wales. In 1996, I came across a site called The Great Little Trains of Wales as I was researching my first book...

New gay-friendly Vegas resort to be called Fellahtio

LAS VEGAS -- MGM's newest mega-resort, a gay-friendly hotel which starts construction this spring and will open in late 2015, will be called the Fellahtio, said spokesman Richard Johnson. The building will be a high arcing tower he said,...

Abolish the one-game playoff in baseball

Well the playoffs worked out beautifully for our SF Giants, but I still think a one-game playoff cheapens the season - here's my comment for The Press Democrat - it's short, a 2-minute read. October 3, 2012 These are golden times for Bay...

Rick Smith’s luck-fueled journey to World Series of Poker

One of my poker buddies had an amazing route to the WSOP a few years ago, outlasting about 100 players to win his entry into the most popular tournament in the world. Here's my story for my gambling column in the SF Chronicle. Click here...

Fed ruling may clear path for legal poker

A bunch of guys in a big room playing poker: a typical scene but one that could have led to jail time for its operator. Until a federal judge said game on - here's the story I wrote for the SF Chronicle. -- By Michael Shapiro, Sept. 6,...

‘Holy Rollers’ documentary about card-counting Christians

It's amazing the lengths these young devout Christians will go to gamble. Yet the players revel in their trips to casinos. When Ben gets kicked out for card counting, he starts wearing costumes, ranging from a goth ensemble to, of all...

Review of Sarah Vowell’s “Unfamiliar Fishes”

Last year I reviewed Sarah Vowell's book "Unfamiliar Fishes" for the San Francisco Chronicle. It's an uneven book, but recently I've learned of a book by Julia Flynn Siler that appears much more promising: Lost Kingdom. I look forward to...

Rejection slip, rejection slip

A friend passed this on to me years ago, still as appropriate as ever: Dear Editor, Thank you for your recent rejection slip. As it does not quite fit my present requirements, I am returning it. This in no way reflects upon its merits....

Self-publishing tips

I'm on a panel at Book Passage today on self-publishing. The two main ways to go about this are: produce a print book or publishing an e-book. Both have their advantages. For an art or photography book, there's no substitute for print....

Wild About Kenya: Safari story for Private Clubs magazine

When an editor asks if you'd be "willing" to go to Kenya on a safari led by Micato, an outfitter known as among the best -- if not the best -- in Africa, it doesn't take long to blurt out "Yes!" And that's how I ended up celebrating my...

Somewhere Beyond Time: Jan Morris’s Wales in National Geographic Traveler

Michael Shapiro first met Jan Morris in 1992 at a travel writing seminar near San Francisco. “When I first met Jan she seemed like a visitor from another time,” Shapiro says. He interviewed Morris in Llanystumdwy for his book A Sense of...

Amazon cruising: A Ride in the Wild

I always thought if I ever floated down the Amazon it'd be in a dugout canoe on a shoestring adventure. But when the editor of a magazine for country club members asked me to join a luxe cruise, of course I went and had a fabulous time....

River a Mile Deep: An unguided Grand Canyon rafting adventure, WorldHum

It's not easy to find the right home for a 6,000-word story about rafting the Colorado River in the wake of John Wesley Powell. A civil war vet, Cpt. Powell and his party made the first descent of the Colorado through the Grand Canyon in...

Frank Lloyd Wright’s humble experiment in Scottsdale, Ariz.

After seeing what FLW did with the Guggenheim, I expected his desert home to be outrageous and astonishing. Of course it wasn't - the low-slung building fit perfectly with their desert surroundings. Following is my story on the witty and...

Hugh Laurie’s in the house: concert preview for The Press Democrat

Usually when an actor takes the stage to play music it's mediocre at best. But Hugh Laurie can really play piano and has assembled a top-shelf band from New Orleans. I profiled Laurie in advance of last Tuesday's show in Napa, which was...

Lily Tomlin rocks the house

These days Lily Tomlin’s character Ernestine, the gossipy telephone operator who used to parody the AT&T monopoly, works for an insurance firm, “denying health care to everybody.” She told me this during a phone interview in March,...

Was Pat Tillman murdered? SF Chron.

Ballistics evidence suggests the bullets that killed NFL-player-turned-soldier Pat Tillman were fired from just 10 yards away. We know it was friendly fire -- his mother believes it may not have been an accident. Here's a review I wrote...

Sumptuous cuisine in Lima, Peru

Sometimes dream assignments get even dreamier. After asking "if I'd be willing" to go to Peru and take a cruise down the Amazon, my editor said something like: As long as you'll be in Lima, try a few top restaurants and we'll run a...

Heavenly voices: How Ladysmith Black Mambazo went from dream to fame

I recently interviewed a founding member of the South African vocal group Ladysmith Black Mambazo who told me the band started as a dream - see excerpt below. The band plays March 2 at Napa's Uptown Theater - here's the excerpt: Mambazo’s...

Leo Kottke: How the guitar saved my life

Leo Kottke is a quirky and genuine as you'd guess from his music - here's an excerpt from our interview which ends with him talking about music being a type of home for him: Renowned acoustic guitarist Leo Kottke says the guitar...

Interview with Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson

I spoke with the genius behind the Beach Boys, Brian Wilson, in August 2011. The man who penned hits such as "California Girls" and "Wouldn't It Be Nice" has suffered terribly from mental illness but is back on the road and performing...

Ballad of Pat Tillman, Metro newspapers

The football star–turned–soldier became the Pentagon's poster boy, and when he was shot dead by U.S. Army Rangers, the military said he was killed by enemy fire. The deception, it turns out, was not an isolated incident, but part of a...

Unfortunate headline spotted in SLC

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