Category Archives: Fiction

Cory Doctorow: Picks and Shovels

Cory Doctorow is a multiple awards winning author, blogger, critic and activist. He has co-founded an open software company, been the European Affairs Coordinator for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and he helped establish their Open Rights Group.
When he left the blog site, Boing Boing after 19 years of co-ownership, MetaFilter called it “the equivalent of the Beatles breaking up for the blog world.” He metablogs currently at pluralistic.net.
Cory Doctorow popularized the term “metacrap” and created the neologism, “enshitification,” which the FCC does not allow us to use on the air, which we replaced with “enpoopification,” defined as “the process of degradation of an online environment caused by greed.”
He is a prolific author in many genres, fiction and nonfiction.
His nonfiction books include: THE INTERNET CON: HOW TO SEIZE THE MEANS OF COMPUTATON; CHOKEPOINT CAPITALISM: HOW BIG TECH AND BIG CONTENT CAPTURED CREATIVE LABOR MARKETS AND HOW WE’LL WIN THEM BACK (written with Rebecca Giblin); and HOW TO DESTROY SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM.

His most recent fiction books include THE LOST CAUSE, A NOVEL OF TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION IN OUR POLARIZED FUTURE, which has been described as “A solarpunk, hopepunk novel of the climate emergency, endorsed by Naomi Klein, Bill McKibben, Rebecca Solnit and Kim Stanley Robinson.” The first of his Martin Hench books, RED TEAM BLUES, which actually features Mendocino County in a small but crucial role, was published in 2023. This was followed by Bezzle, and the third book, which will be published on February 18, 2025, PICKS AND SHOVELS. We spoke with him about it via Skype on February 11, 2025.

Wired Portrait of Cody Doctorow above by Julia Galdo and Cody Cloud (JUCO) 5

Articles, etc. pertinent to this interview:

Picks and Shovels with Yanis Varoufakis (Jacobin/virtual), Feb 15 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkIDep7Z4LM

With Great Power Came No Responsibility: How Enshittification Conquered the 21st Century and How We Can Overthrow It (Indiana University/virtual), Mar 7 https://events.iu.edu/mediaiub/event/1783095-with-great-power-came-no-responsibility-how-enshitti

Capitulating to Trump: why people are warning about ‘Vichy’ America https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/31/vichy-france-trump-democrats

Who is helping Elon Musk gut the US government? https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/08/elon-musk-doge-team-staff

Russell Vought: Trump appointee who wants federal workers to be ‘in trauma’ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/10/who-is-russell-vought-trump-office-of-management-and-budget

Trump orders USDA to take down websites referencing climate crisis https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/31/trump-order-usda-websites-climate-crisis

To Obey or Not to Obey (Masha Gessen) https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/08/opinion/trump-power-surrender.html

Capitulating to Trump: why people are warning about ‘Vichy’ America https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/31/vichy-france-trump-democrats

I met the ‘godfathers of AI’ in Paris – here’s what they told me to really worry about https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/14/ai-godfathers-paris-industry-dangers-future

How the roots of the ‘PayPal mafia’ extend to apartheid South Africa https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/26/elon-musk-peter-thiel-apartheid-south-africa

Jesse Welles Black Hawks and DEI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xAswA556a8

Stephanie Dray BECOMING MADAM SECRETARY

We steer clear of works of fiction – not only do we want our conversations to be based in facts, but it’s a hassle to dance around spoilers. Maybe like me you vaguely know that Frances Perkins is an important person in Women’s History, mostly because she was the first female to serve in the United States Cabinet, and like me, you have a blurry visual in your mind of an unsmiling, rather severe older woman who had something to do with the New Deal and the Depression. Maybe you never wondered why Franklin Roosevelt appointed her as his Secretary of Labor, or what made her so effective in identifying social injustices and doing things to rectify them.

Stephanie Dray, explained what compelled her to tell Frances Perkins story – that so many of the things we take for granted today: weekends, food and fire safety regulations, unemployment insurance, social security and so much more. Her deep research has resulted in her latest book, BECOMING MADAM SECRETARY, just out from Berkley Books. Her earlier books, many of which were NYT bestsellers, include THE WOMEN OF CHATEAU LAFAYETTE, MY DEAR HAMILTON, AMERICA’S FIRST DAUGHTER, and THE NILE TRILOGY. In BECOMING MADAM SECRETARY she uncovers the forgotten history of the intellectually brilliant, politically pragmatic and physically courageous woman, who remains the longest serving cabinet member in US History, Frances Perkins.

We spoke with Stephanie Dray via Skype on the Vernal Equinox of 2024.

Long before she became part of New York or the federal governments, Frances Perkins was a “radical” activist to investigate and reform the most lethal aspects of corporate capitalism., as when she worked aas the Director of the NY Consumers’ League in 1909.

Just before the signing of the Social Security Act, Frances Perkins had been informed that her husband had escaped from the mental hospital in which he had been confined. Immediately after the signing, she had to rush to New York to try to find him for his own safety.

Not only has she been honored as a national hero with this stamp, but the Episcopal Church celebrates her as a saint in their liturgy on May 13th.

When Women Lost the Vote https://www.amrevmuseum.org/virtualexhibits/when-women-lost-the-vote-a-revolutionary-story

How Trump Ends Social Security https://hartmannreport.com/p/how-trump-ends-social-security-4bb

Trump Wants to Destroy Social Security, But Biden Plan Would Improve and Expand It https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/biden-vs-trump-on-social-security?utm_source=Common+Dreams&utm_campaign=fc4122f9bf-Top+News%3A+Mon.+3%2F18%2F2024&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-37878a46b5-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D

Richard Gray MURDER AT YELLOWSTONE CITY

Richard Gray has directed movies such as Robert the Bruce, Broken Ghost and Sugar Mountain. His latest film, MURDER AT YELLOWSTONE CITY, is the first feature length film to have been shot at the new Yellowstone Film Ranch outside of Pray, MT.

In this interview, we discuss the challenges of filming during Covid; his partnership with Livingston’s Carter Boehm and Chico Hot Spring proprietor, Colin Davis, in building the Yellowstone Film Ranch; their efforts to help pass The Montana Economic Development Industry Advancement (MEDIA) Act; and prospects for the Montana Film Industry after its passage.

The Bozeman Film Society will be premiering MURDER AT YELLOWSTONE RANCH on Friday, July 22 at the historic Ellen Theater. They post this at their website: The once peaceful and booming Yellowstone City has fallen on hard times, but when a local prospector strikes gold, things seem to be turning around. Any hope is soon shattered when the prospector is found dead and the Sheriff quickly arrests a mysterious newcomer. But nothing is so simple in this sleepy western town, and more than a few of the locals have secrets to keep and reasons to kill. As the brutal murders continue, pitting neighbor against neighbor, Yellowstone City goes down a bloody path to a final showdown that not all will survive. 123 minutes. NR. Starring: Gabriel Byrne, Thomas Jane, Isaiah Mustafa, Anna Camp, Aimee Garcia, Emma Kenney, with Nat Wolff, and Richard Dreyfuss.

We interviewed director/producer Richard Gray on July 11, 2022.

Articles pertinent to this interview:

https://bozemanfilmsociety.org/event/murder-at-yellowstone-city/

‘Murder at Yellowstone City’ Review: A Well-Crafted Mix of Traditional Western and Murder Mystery Elements https://variety.com/2022/film/reviews/murder-at-yellowstone-city-review-1235301280/

Yellowstone Film Ranch https://bigskyjournal.com/yellowstone-film-ranch/

Gillen D’Arcy Wood – TAMBORA: The Eruption That Changed the World

This interview with Gillen D’Arcy Wood was originally broadcast on June 10, 2015. His book, TAMBORA: THE ERUPTION THAT CHANGED THE WORLD, had just been published by Princeton University Press.

“Out of sight and out of mind, Tambora was the volcanic, stealth bomber of the early 19th century. Be it the retching cholera victim in Calcutta, the starving peasant children of Yunnan, China or County Tyrone, Ireland, the hopeful explorer of a North West Passage through the Arctic Ocean, or the bankrupt land speculator in Baltimore, the world’s residents were oblivious to the volcanic drivings of their fate.”

In 2015, it was 200 years after Tambora erupted cataclysmically with extremely dire global consequences. What can we learn from this event as we face our own challenges in a rapidly changing climate?

Gillen D’Arcy Wood is a professor of English and an environmental historian at the U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he directs The Sustainability Studies Initiative in the Humanities. Gillen D’Arcy Wood has written extensively on the cultural and environmental history of the 19th century, and is the author of The Shock of the Real: Romanticism and Visual Culture, 1760-1860 (Palgrave, 2001), Romanticism and Music Culture in Britain, 1770-1840: Virtue and Virtuosity (Cambridge UP, 2010), an historical novel, Hosack’s Folly (Other Press, 2005).

Jamie Harrison THE CENTER OF EVERYTHING

In this edition of Ecotones, award winning Livingston author, Jamie Harrison, discusses her latest book, THE CENTER OF EVERYTHING, published by Counterpoint Press.

It’s a multi-generational saga set in Livingston in 2002 and the north shore of Long Island in 1968. The main character, Polly, is recuperating from a serious head injury, as a long awaited family celebration for her Great-Aunt Maude’s 90th birthday and the annual fourth of July extended family get together is overshadowed by the disappearance of her young friend, Ariel Delgado, who was swept away in the flooded Yellowstone River under mysterious circumstances.

While maintaining suspense as the Livingston community comes together to search for Ariel, Jamie Harrison explores in mellifluous, spellbinding prose, the nature of memory, the complexities of family heritage and secrets, and how children see and understand the world. Above all, The Center of Everything is about the different kinds of love, interweaving idiosyncracies and experiences through her extended family and community.

Listeners who enjoyed her penultimate book, THE WIDOW NASH, will recognize a continuation of Dulcey’s tale down the generations from the 19th to 21st centuries.

Jamie Harrison is also the author of the Jules Clement/Blue Deer Mystery series, which are slated to be reissued this year by Counterpoint Press. We spoke with her on Jan. 8, 2021.

Parker Phillips – THE BYGONE

Brothers Parker and Graham Phillips co-wrote, co-directed, and co-produced a magnificent contemporary Western, THE BYGONE, which tackles difficult issues such as sex trafficking, missing and murdered Indigenous women, the decline of ranching, and the corrupting influence attending resource extraction.When a young rancher, Kip Summer, played by Graham Parker, crosses paths and falls in love with a Lakota girl, Waniya, from a nearby reservation, her mysterious disappearance sparks a search that uncovers a harrowing past and hints at a dire future.The awful realities of sex trafficking among the man camps and bars in fracking site boom towns, and the inability of overwhelmed local law enforcement to cope leads to a dramatic series of show downs and shoot-outs in the best Western tradition.The well researched screenplay is rich with symbols and informed with a sensitivity to historic and current inequities between Indigenous and Anglo cultures, as well as the conflicts between ranching and fracking. The ensemble cast was clearly dedicated to portraying each character’s role with utter conviction.The cinematography serves the action far better than the normal Western and is deserving of its own award.

The Bygone will be having its premiere at the BZN International Film Festival on Friday, June 7 at 8pm in the Rialto Black Box. The filmmakers expect to attend for a Q&A.

For more information or to purchase tickets: bozemanfilmcelebration.com

Graham DuBose & S.K. DuBose – THE LAST BEYOND

THE LAST BEYOND is an intimate western set in Montana during the Great Depression about death, love, and rebirth. It follows a rancher named Stratton Eiseley who loses his father to illness and his ranch to foreclosure setting him adrift. Shortly after he meets three people and they change each other’s lives. Joe Running Elk and his grandfather, Flying Bear, are Pend o’Reille Indians who like Stratton feel like they’re living in a world that has left them behind. They become fugitives from twentieth century America and take to the mountains to make whiskey and restore their connection to the land. Noah Watts, who plays Joe Running Elk, is a member of the Crow and Blackfeet tribes and grew up in Bozeman, MT. Stephen Small Salmon, who plays Flying Bear, is a Pend d’Oreille elder from the Salish-Kootenai Reservation. They converse in Salish with English subtitles.As Stratton falls in love with a writer named Gracie Loren it seems that their lives are improving, but trouble follows them.THE LAST BEYOND was filmed in Livingston, the Gallatin National Forest, Paradise Valley and other locations familiar to the Gallatin Valley community. Husband and wife filmmakers, writer/director, Graham DuBose, and editor/producer, S.K. DuBose, will be attending the screening of THE LAST BEYOND, which will be having its premiere at the upcoming BZN International Film Festival on June 7, 2019 at 3pm in the Rialto Black Box.

For more information or to purchase passes: bozemanfilmcelebration.com

Jana Brown – The Divide

Jana Brown is the award winning writer of The Divide. She spoke with us on May 7, 2019, about the upcoming screening on opening night of the BZN International Film Festival on June 6 in the Emerson’s Crawford Theater.

The Divide is a story about the drama of ordinary life, following Sam Kincaid, who is suffering from the onset of dementia in 1976, when Alzheimer’s did not yet have a formal name. Sam is supported by an unlikely ally in migrant ranch hand Luke, who summons Sam’s estranged daughter, Sarah, to help with Sam’s growing memory lapses. The film is set in one of the worst droughts in California history, a plight that mirrors the dry patches in the characters’ lives.

Jana Brown and actor/director, Perry King, whose make-up regime was to rub dirt from is pick-up truck on his face, partnered to create The Divide.

Jennifer Townsend: Catching Sight of Thelma & Louise

In in this edition of Radio Goes to the Movies, our guest is Jennifer Townsend. We speak about her film, CATCHING SIGHT OF THELMA AND LOUISE. It is screening at the BZN International Film Festival on Fri. June 8 | 2:15 PM Reynolds Auditorium | MSU Campus.

After first seeing the film in 1991, Jennifer Townsend’s life was changed forever. She wondered if others were also as affected by it. She created a survey, sought participants, got thoughtful replies, but left the project uncompleted for 2 decades.

CATCHING SIGHT OF THELMA AND LOUISE is the story of reconnecting and completing that project.

After the screening, there will be a discussion with Haven. Domestic violence has a long history of being seen as a private family matter, rather than the public health epidemic we know it is today. End the Silence, HAVEN’s survivor speakers’ bureau, shines a light on the darkness surrounding domestic and sexual violence. This group of empowered survivors is speaking publicly about their experiences with violence in order to educate others through the first person narrative. They are actively breaking the stigma around being a survivor and mobilizing our community to end domestic violence together.

Keith McCafferty

Part 1:

Part 2:

On July 18, 2017, award winning mystery and Field & Stream writer, Keith McCafferty, gave a lengthy interview, which is divided into two parts here, exploring the often lonely life of a writer – writing novels vs. magazine articles – as well as the ideas for his popular Sean Stranahan mystery series, the latest of which is COLD HEARTED RIVER.

Once again, Madison County, Montana Sheriff, Martha Ettinger, has a string of perplexing deaths – likely homicides – requiring her to pressure artist, and sometime investigator, Sean Stranahan to reluctantly get involved. This time with the added mystery of a trunk once lost or stolen from Ernest Hemingway seeming to be at the center of the deaths.

We began the interview with the psychological impacts of writing novels vs. Field & Stream articles, and his early years in Appalachian Ohio.