Professor Krasny Discusses Radio Career

THE INDEPENDENT (LIVERMORE) -- Michael Krasny, the entertaining and versatile host of National Public Radio’s “Forum” radio program for nearly two decades, will discuss life on and off the air when he speaks October 9 as part of the Rae Dorough Speaker Series. Krasny has been called the “thinking man’s talk show host.” He has a Ph.D. in American literature, a subject which he teaches at San Francisco State University. He converses with apparent ease on the air with such prominent authors such as Joan Didion, Philip Roth and Isabel Allende. Beyond literature, Krasny’s daily two-hour program covers a wide range of topics. To name only a few, discussions in recent weeks have focused on Scottish independence, high-fat diets, air strikes in Iraq, spending on college sports, new invasive species in California, leaky water pipes in the Bay Area, the need for earthquake insurance, Vietnamese cooking and malignant melanoma rates in Marin County.