Stories

Climber with colon cancer seeks to summit Half Dome to raise awareness for screening, Press Democrat, Aug. 1, 2024

I met Kirk Keeler in the mid-90s through friends and though we've only seen one another occasionally over the years I've been impressed by his spirit and commitment to his goals. He's a dedicated cyclist (we share that) and a talented...

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...

Lukas Nelson: Don’t ask him about his famous father, Press Democrat, Feb 2024

Most stories about Lukas Nelson start with referencing his popular pop, Willie. So when I interviewed Lukas in advance of his Santa Rosa appearance in early 2024, I made a point to ask a series of questions about his own work, then later...

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...

AFAR, June 2022: I Love Debauching People: The Trailblazing Ways of Ireland’s Greatest Travel Writer, Dervla Murphy

“Come over for lunch. You can help me get a few things done ’round the house. Ever since I hurt my shoulder, I haven’t been able to do any hoovering,” said Dervla Murphy, Ireland’s most intrepid travel writer, when I let her know I was...

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...

Press Democrat, Feb. 3, 2022, Actor Peter Coyote explores Zen wisdom and self-criticism in new book

I may not have chosen a lucrative career but there's no one better than Peter Coyote to help me see that there are far more valuable riches than money. Bottom line: I didn't earn much for this story but got to spend nearly three hours...

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...

National Geographic: How the mystique of Wales gave strength to legendary writer Jan Morris

My editors at National Geographic made it clear to me that they did not want a personal reminiscence about Jan Morris after she died on November 20, 2020. They wanted a piece about Jan’s deep and abiding connection to her adopted home,...

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...

Essay: A Month of Sundays, The Bold Italic, June 11, 2020

This essay began forming as I took long walks in April 2020, after being diagnosed with Covid the month before. I focused on the silver linings of the pandemic and how this terrible wave of disease might lead to a more humane future....

The Press Democrat, Feb. 20, 2020: Sarah McLachlan reflects on making music and giving back

I first heard Sarah McLachlan’s voice in 1990. I was teaching at an outdoor education school in the Santa Cruz Mountains and my housemate had a cassette tape of her first album. It was love at first blush. Her work was raw then; it...

Kauai Garden Island, Jan. 2, 2020: Surviving a Rogue Wave

As a whitewater raft guide for 30 years, I’m very familiar with the power of moving water, and I have a tremendous respect for it. On Dec. 30, 2019, my wife and I, while hiking the Kalalau trail along Kauai’s Napali Coast, stopped for...

Sierra magazine, June 2020: The Case Against Cruising. Proposed legislation seeks to clean up an environmental pariah

The Covid-19 pandemic has shown how risky it is for people to go cruising. But even after the pandemic eases, there are reasons to reconsider cruising due to the damage ships do to oceans and their inhabitants, including colliding with...

The Press Democrat, July 1, 2020: ‘California Rocks’ at Sonoma Valley Museum of Art shows the heyday of rock ’n’ roll

How could anyone possibly capture the intensity, passion and emotion of rock and roll in a photo? It seems impossible, but talented photographers catch moments that speak volumes. For a story about an exhibition at the Sonoma Valley...

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 remains a treasure of knowledge and...

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...

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...

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...

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 SHAPIRO FOR THE PRESS DEMOCRAT If you...

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...

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....

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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....

Guatemala’s Devil Burning Marks Triumph of Good over Evil, American Way magazine

To spark the holiday season, Guatemalans roast an effigy of the devil. I wrote about the spectacle for American Way, the inflight magazine of American Airlines. Here's how the story starts: The flames rise 30 feet into the air, casting a...

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...

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...

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...

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 comments. I work with disabled people but...

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...

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...

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...

Southern Ireland with Dervla Murphy

"Trying to interview Dervla Murphy is like trying to open an oyster … with a wet bus ticket." That line came from the 2010 documentary, Who is Dervla Murphy, about the intrepid Irish travel writer. In 2003, I'd hoped to go to Ireland to...

BookTV telecast with Jan Morris, Tim Cahill, Isabel Allende 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...

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...

Mongolia’s Nadaam Games, Washington Post

When President Nixon visited China in 1972, he said that it takes a great people to build a Great Wall. In Mongolia they countered: It takes an even greater people to make them want to build it. That warrior pride is on full display at...

Nevada City’s enviro film fest

A certain magic happens when the right event is held in a town that embraces it. Setting an environmental film fest in Nevada City is an alchemical pairing that brings out the best in the Gold Country town. With its rich prospecting...

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