Interviews
Michael Shapiro has interviewed music legends (Smokey Robinson), environmental champions (Jane Goodall), film visionaries (Francis Ford Coppola) and authors (Amy Tan). Following are stories from some of his most memorable interviews; many appear in full only in Shapiro’s book, The Creative Spark.
Michael Shapiro will talk about “The Creative Spark”
Thursday, Jan. 30, 2020, 7pm Copperfield’s Books138 N Main St, Sebastopol, Calif. "Michael Shapiro’s finely tuned, informed and intimate interviews strike to the heart of the matter.” ―Tim Cahill,...
Giant Among Giants: Mike Krukow, Alaska Beyond, August 2019
San Francisco Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow is one of baseball's best announcers, but for years has been battling a debilitating muscle disease. Yet he never complains, and for Giants fans he...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Grateful Dead documentary: North Bay has starring role (May 2015)
Martin Scorsese is the executive producer of a forthcoming doc about the Dead, but it may not be released for a while. To read the story on the Press Democrat's site, click here. BY MICHAEL...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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....
Somewhere Beyond Time: Jan Morris’s Wales in National Geographic Traveler
Jan Morris has been my mentor and a muse. When National Geographic Traveler asked me to travel to Wales to interview her and write about her corner of her beloved homeland, I leapt at the chance. I...
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....
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...
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...
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...
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...
Video: Yellowstone with Tim Cahill
A few years ago a producer asked Tim Cahill and me to record an interview at Yellowstone. Here's the 10-minute pilot that came from that weekend in the snow.
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...
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...
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...
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...
Lucinda Williams’ latest a blessing for all, Press Democrat
The Press Democrat, Santa Rosa June 17, 2011 Lucinda Williams' music a blessing for all By Michael Shapiro Lucinda Williams has struck a nerve. The title track of her new album “Blessed,” has...
Sea Shepherd’s Paul Watson: A Conversation in Earth Island Journal
Paul Watson doesn’t care what you think. The captain of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has been putting himself between whales and harpoon ships for more than 30 years, preventing the killing...
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