Michael Krasny

In conversation with Isabel Allende

While still an undergraduate in southern Ohio, Michael Krasny hitchhiked to Chicago to interview one of his heroes, the novelist Saul Bellow. At the time, Kransy was following in the footsteps of Bellow, hoping to become a novelist himself. Instead, Krasny found his great talent for communicating, and for the last fourteen years has hosted one the most listened-to public radio programs in the country. An estimated sixty-five thousand listeners in Northern California tune in each weekday morning to KQED-FM's award-winning Forum with Michael Krasny. The program covers a plethora of subjects, from news and public affairs to popular culture, the arts, health, politics, business and technology. As host and senior editor of Forum, Krasny has interviewed a wide range of guests, including Cesar Chavez, Robert Redford, Salman Rushdie, former President Jimmy Carter, Rosa Parks, and Susan Sontag. When not on-air, Michael Krasny is a Professor of English at San Francisco State University, where he has taught since 1970. Krasny has recently chronicled his diverse and fascinating career in Off Mike: A Memoir of Talk Radio & Literary Life.