Word by Word

You might remember the jump-rope rhyme “Rich man, poor man beggar man thief, doctor lawyer, indian chief” and regular listeners to Word By Word: Conversations With Writers know that host Gil Mansergh has interviewed writers who who are rich and poor, who beg and steal, heal people, defend people and serve as Chairman of a local Native American tribe.

But, Gil has never had a celebrity chef as his guest… Until today.

The conversation is with Cat Cora the first (and only) female Iron Chef, America and author of her very frank autobiography Cooking As Fast As I Can: A Chef’s Story of Family, Food and Forgiveness.

Cat and Gil discuss an amazingly varied array of topics centered around the world famous chef’s life including what the world was like growing up in the south in the 70’s and 80’s, kissing a girl (and liking it), coping with sexual urges by keeping “overly busy,” “coming out” to you mom and dad, reconnecting with your birth mother, having Julia Child change your life at a book signing, discovering your career path on a Greek island, battling inner demons, what the constant challenge of being the first female Iron Chef.

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Gil Mansergh welcomes Christina Goulart, Susan E. Gunter, and Susanna Solomon, three of the talented writers featured in a special 10th anniversary writers anthology collected, edited and published by Redwood Writers. With over 150 members, our local Redwood Writers branch is the largest and arguably the most active of the 21 branches in the California Writers Club.

The anthology project began as a labor of love by editors Catherine Farrell, Karen Batchelor and Linda C. McCabe when they found an on-demand publishing house and collected and edited the 2005 anthology entitled Vintage Voices: A Sonoma County Writers Club Harvest.

Today’s show begins with readings from the new, 10th Anniversary Edition entitled Journeys: On the Road and Off the Map edited by Amber Lee Starfire, Helen Sedgwick, Kate Farrell, and Michelle Wing.

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This month, it’s a news-worthy “What Are They Up To Now?” version of Word By Word, Conversations With Writers, as host Gil Mansergh reprises conversations with guests who are in the news. Late breaking new stories includes the just-released movie starring Billy Cruddup playing Stanford psychologist emeritus Philip Zimbardo, and new books and honors for Word By Word guests Adam Johnson, Steve Hockensmith, Amanda McTigue, Matthew Pearl, Joan Price and YiYun Li.

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Listeners to Word By Word: Conversations With Writers host Gil Mansergh wants listeners to know they have a great opportunity to hear two conversations with award-winning advocates for radical forms of entrepreneurism on July’s show.

“Find your voice,” says KIVA co-founder Jessica Jackley. “This means expressing something about you and what you believe. It is the first step toward doing valuable action in the world.” While her micro-lending organization continues to change the face of poverty across the globe, this social entrepreneur with a Stanford MBA has also started ProFounder to help U.S. startups through crowd funding, and is a venture partner at the Collaborative Fund. Her new book is Clay Water, Brick: Finding Inspiration From Entrepreneurs Who Do the Most With the Least.

“Listen carefully and learn from what your customers tell you,” says Barefoot Wines co-founders Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey when they talk with many of the same audiences as Jessica Jackley to share the practical yet universal lessons they learned while developing America’s best-selling wine brand.Their books are The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand, and The Entreprenurial Culture: 23 Ways to Engage and Empower You People.

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Gil Mansergh hosts a special Grateful Dead version of Word By Word Conversations With Writers on North Bay Public Media KRCB-FM. His guest is librarian and cultural historian David Dodd, author of a massive book with the rather long title: The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics: The Collected Lyrics of Robert Hunter and John Barlow, Lyrics to All Original Songs With Selected Traditional and Cover Songs.

In addition to being a Dead Head, David is also the Collections Manager for the Sonoma County Library System and is especially interested in identifying and collecting the work of Sonoma County writers, musicians and visual artists.

The conversation is enhanced with snippets of music from some of David’s favorite songs and tales of the Dead to which “only David Dodd has approved access.”

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This month’s Word By Word:Conversations With Writers is one of the show’s signature round-table discussions where four guests share microphones, and host Gil Mansergh tries to make sure listeners know whose voice is filling the airwaves.

This conversation is even more fun than usual, because the room is populated by four of the six prize-winning playwrights from the 6th Street Theater’s and Redwood Writers New Voices on the Vine Wine Country Play Festival. Which runs from May 21st to 31st at the 6th Street Playhouse.

Their names and plays are:

Malaaana Eljunmaily (The Call)

Scott Lummer (Love Her Madly)

Lynn Millar (Crossed Connections)

And a certain radio show host named Gil Mansergh (Felix the Cat and the Real Estate Guy)

Joining them is Lenni Dean the Festival Director and 6th Street Playhouse Education Coordinator.

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Internationally beloved bestselling author Alexander McCall Smith calls his hour-long chat with Word By Word host Gil Mansergh “something quite extraordinary…a real conversation.” The creator of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency has over 100 titles in print. A fabled raconteur, McCall-Smith shares anecdotes and advice for other writers while reading selected passages from his latest challenge – the updating of a classic Jane Austen novel in Emma: A Modern Retelling.

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This month, Word By Word host Gil Mansergh has a sparkling conversation with Laurie R. King, the winner of the John Creasy Memorial Award for The Beekeeper’s Apprentice – the first of a dozen historical mysteries featuring Mary Russell and her mentor (and eventual husband) Sherlock Holmes.

Laurie R. King was inducted into the prestigious Sherlock Holmes literary society, “The Baker Street Irregulars” in 2010. Her newest mystery novel, Dreaming Spies, debuted this week on The New York Times bestseller list.

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Since Valentine’s Day is fast approaching, KRCB-FM’s Word By Word: Conversations With Writers host Gil Mansergh invited the North Bay thearapist and bestselling author Susan Pease Gadoua and award-winning journalist Vicki Larson to help us reconsider our thoughts about love and marriage with their groundbreaking book, The New I Do: Reshaping Marriage for Skeptics, Realists and Rebels.

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January’s Word By Word: Conversation With Writers broadcast is a special tie-in with the Martin Luther King holiday. Host Gil Mansergh welcomes Birmingham, Alabama-born writer Waights Taylor Jr. and his award-winning historical memoir, Our Southern Home: Scottsboro to Montgomery to Birmingham–The Transformation of the South in the Twentieth Century. Waight’s newest book is the first of a mystery series set in the segregated South in the middle of the Twentieth Century. Featuring the “White” homicide detective Joe McGrath and the “Black” private eye, Sam Rucker, it is called Kiss of Salvation.

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