http://www.npr.org/podcasts/510075/kqed-s-forum
(I think you need to go to Audio Archives Search to find it.)
I'm not sure how to make it "live" so that you can just click on it, but if you copy and paste it I'm sure it will come up. Just scroll down to June 10th.
It was an interesting experience which made me more aware that there is a huge difference between doing an interview by telephone, and sitting with a warm and engaged interviewer in a live encounter. This was a wonderful opportunity to be involved in a conversation about something that means a great deal to me, and speaking face-to-face makes all the difference.
The experience bears some resemblance to the fact that I insist upon the lights in our little theater being at full tilt when I'm speaking. I hate to be presenting under a spotlight that prevents my ability to see into the faces and the eyes of those with whom I'm speaking. In one case some time ago, I was serving on a panel at the Berkeley Black Repertory theater where it was impossible to see the audience due to the lighting. We were sitting under a spot with the audience breathing somewhere in front of us, with the spot preventing them from materializing into human form.
When it was my time to speak, I remember asking that the house lights be turned up and found that it was impossible for some reason. I found myself doing my few minutes on stage trying to somehow walk out of the spotlight all during my talk, totally frustrated! I was shading my eyes with my hand, and trying to peer into the void hoping to connect with a face or two ... it was pret-ty awkward, I'll tell you. The audience must have viewed it as pretty strange.
This interview was so comfortable, despite the obvious signs of technology with its multiple mikes and cords and wires, but the setting was about as non-obtrusive as it was possible to make it. Mr. Krasny was so warm and welcoming. The time went by so quickly that -- in the blink of an eye it was all over.
It was even possible to later listen to my raspy voice at home later in the evening, and to lose myself in my own words; a strange experience ... but it happened.
The stories of that era are so engrossing that I, too, am captured by them.
The power in that narrative is so compelling ... .
