A Novel Idea Suzanne M. Lang

Depression, panic attacks, mania are all forms of mental dis-order. Therapy, medication, and strong support systems can help restore a bit of balance. Suzanne Lang talks with Anastasia Zadeik about her novel of art, philosophy, and people searching for love, stability, and fulfillment while experiencing mental distress, The Other Side of Nothing. Also featured is Julie Chavez, who at the age 38 experienced her first ever panic attack. Her journey back to herself is told in her often funny and always hopeful memoir Everyone But Myself. A Novel Idea gets a grip with Suzanne Lang. Streaming and podcasting at krcb.org .

When fiction is grounded in scientific fact, our world opens up. Suzanne Lang talks with novelist Elizabeth Reed Aden on her medical thriller The Goldilocks Genome, which uses the science behind pharmaceuticals and the human body to create a taut story of terrorism and the geeks who pursue the terrorist. Also featured is award winning writer Nell Freudenberger with her latest work of fiction, The Limits, a novel of family and culture, the survival of the coral reefs, and the social challenges of living during the early days of COVID. It’s A Novel Idea with Suzanne Lang. Streaming and podcasting at krcb.org .

It’s all about water. Suzanne Lang talks with author, photographer, and conservationist Tim Palmer on his book Seek Higher Ground, the Natural Solution to our Urgent Flooding Crisis . Tim explores the legacy of flooding in America and the climatic, economic, and ecological realities of our rivers and communities. Also featured is another visit with Julene Bair whose memoir is The Ogallala Road, a Story of Love, Family, and the Fight to Keep the Great Plains from Running Dry. It’s A Novel Idea with Suzanne Lang!

A dancer on Everest and a queen of high climbing mountaineers are featured. Suzanne Lang talks with Mimi Zieman, doctor and author of “The Post Roe Monologues” whose latest book is Tap Dancing on Everest —a Young Doctor’s Unlikely Adventure , a chronicle of her life and serving as the team doctor on a dicey ascent from Tibet up the east side of Mt. Everest. Also featured is journalist Cathryn J. Prince, on her book Queen of the Mountaineers, the Trailblazing Life of Fanny Bullock Workman , a story of a remarkable woman, explorer and climber of high peaks in the Alps and the Himalaya at the turn of the Twentieth Century. It’s a Novel Idea with Suzanne Lang, Sunday, April 21 st at 10am PT. Streaming and podcasting at norcalpublicmedia.org .

Stories from the devastating times in Europe during World War II, —told to us by the people who lived through them, speak loudly to us in our current moment of brutal wars and suffering people. Suzanne Lang talks with Alfred J. Lakritz on his book Adieu: A Memoir of Holocaust Survival . His warm and moving tale relates his separation from his parents, and then the many people and experiences that kept Alfred and his brother safe from the Nazis in occupied France, including stays on remote farms and even in Lourdes. In 1950, at the age of 16, Alfred, miraculously reunited with his mother, emigrates to Oakland California where he learns English, and despite not having much formal education, excels in school, attends Berkeley and eventually becomes a successful lawyer in Los Angeles. Also featured is Katrin Ciaffa, translator of Hannelore Krollpfeiffer’s autobiographical novel We Lived in Berlin: A Story About the End of the War. First published in German in 1947, re-issued in 2007, and now translated into English, it’s the story of two sisters in their early twenties making their way in Berlin near the end of the war, who live in a bombed out building amidst daily air raids. More concerned with the fate of their prized record collection and their romantic flings than the fact that their Jewish neighbors disappear overnight, they are not Nazi’s, they are skeptical, at times cynical, but they are utterly complacent. Suzanne also talks with Peter Bromberg, Associate Director of EveryLibrary (everylibrary.org), an organization that supports and defends libraries nationwide, including efforts against book banning and illicit political interference in public, school, and college libraries.

We go above and below, at every depth. Tessa Hill joins Suzanne Lang in conversation on At Every Depth, Our Growing Knowledge of the Changing Oceans, the book she wrote with science writer Eric Simons that takes readers from the shore to the ocean depths, from the tropics to polar regions, and introduces us to people who are working hard to save our oceans and the habitats that host so much life. Also featured is a conversation with Marianna Leuschel and Josie Iselin, co-directors of Above/Below, an ocean literacy campaign that has created a webstory, The Mysterious World of Bull Kelp , online at https://bullkelp.info . It's A Novel Idea with Suzanne M. Lang. Streaming and podcasting at KRCB.org .