Interviews

Michael Shapiro has interviewed music legends, film visionaries, and renowned authors. He’s also been interviewed by national TV and radio networks. Following are audio and video clips of his interviews as well as stories from some of his most memorable conversations; many of these appear in full in Shapiro’s book, The Creative Spark.

Michael Shapiro on KNBR with Murph and Mac

Dec. 17, 2019: I was on San Francisco’s KNBR-AM radio with Murph and Mac talking about The Creative Spark. We spoke about SF Giants announcer Mike Krukow who is profiled in the book as well as Smokey Robinson. It was just 5 minutes – the time flew by – fun to be on with Murph and Mac, the high-spirited hosts of the SF Bay Area’s top morning sports talk show.

Shapiro's BookTV panel discussion with Isabel Allende, Tim Cahill, Jan Morris and Jeff Greenwald

For the book launch of A Sense of Place, I set up a panel discussion with four of the leading literary lights of our time: Isabel Allende, Tim Cahill, Jan Morris, and Jeff Greenwald. The national cable network BookTV recorded and broadcast the 90-minute conversation, and you can see it here by clicking the link below. Here’s BookTV description of the event:
The panelists are featured in Shapiro’s latest book A Sense of Place, published by Travelers' Tales. The book includes conversations with these writers, including the details of their day-to-day lives, how they nurture their writing talents, and how they survive their adventures. All of the panelists answered questions from members of the audience following the discussion.

Morris spoke about why, in spite of and because of the fact that she is a travel writer, she always returns home to her native Wales. She also spoke about her experience as a reporter covering the first expedition to successfully climb Mt. Everest.

Allende spoke about her experience as a forced traveler and how her life as an emigrant shaped the way she has defined home. Forced to flee the military coup in Chile in which her father was killed, Allende discussed how her memory and concept of home has been centered on people rather than places and objects.

Cahill described his home in Montana and jokingly attributed his continued residence there to the fact that “they don’t have any warrants for my arrest.” He spoke about how the wisdom derived from travel is only gained through reflection afterward.

Greenwald talked about his love for his hometown of Oakland as well as his adoptive home in Katmandu. He spoke about how his travel writing has changed as he began to publish his work on the Internet rather than in print.

WATCH VIDEO HERE

Washington Post: Dylan Thomas’s Wales

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...

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Portland: A food tour, Virtuoso, April 2018

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,...

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Napa Valley’s most unlikely grape spirit

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...

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Tracking elusive pumas in Patagonia, Summer 2016

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...

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

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...

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Paul Theroux’s Cape Cod, Inspirato, Summer 2015

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...

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Islands magazine: Last of the Moken, June 2014

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...

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Pete Seeger: 3 stories you’ve never heard

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...

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Barbara Kingsolver interview, Press Democrat

Barbara Kingsolver interview, Press Democrat

I love interviewing authors because they have so much to say. I learned that the easy way when I put together my first literary book, "A Sense of Place" -- a collection of conversations with travel writers. Last fall I spoke with a hero...

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Cowboy Junkies keep it fresh

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...

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Anne Lamott on her baby having a baby

Anne Lamott on her baby having a baby

When my book A Sense of Place came out a few years ago I got compliments about being a good interviewer. But here's the secret: I interviewed people -- the world's leading travel writers -- who had something to say. I had a similarly...

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Lily Tomlin rocks the house

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,...

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Leo Kottke: How the guitar saved my life

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...

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Joan Rivers: Let’s tawk

Joan Rivers: Let’s tawk

Can we talk? I must admit I've never been drawn to Joan Rivers as I have to comics like George Carlin or Richard Pryor. But after interviewing, I came to appreciate her fierce honesty and incisive comments. I work with disabled people but...

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Interview with Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson

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...

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Jane Goodall interview

Jane Goodall interview

In 2007 I had the privilege of interviewing Dr. Jane Goodall. Excerpts from that interview have appeared O (Oprah's magazine), The Explorer's Journal and Earth Island Journal. Here's the Goodall interview from EIJ, click to read it or see...

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David Sedaris’ subversive charm

David Sedaris’ subversive charm

David Sedaris is not a rock star. He's an author, radio contributor, humorist, playwright, and essayist. Yet when he walks onstage Saturday night , October 30, at the Wells Fargo Center, he'll be greeted with as much effusive enthusiasm...

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