The Accidentals, violinist Sav Madigan and cellist Katie Larson, have been captivating audiences since a little after they met in a Traverse City, Michigan, high school. Their latest album, “Timeout 3,” is the most recent addition to their Timeout series of cowritten albums. Sav describes how the album was born during the pandemic, leveraging unexp…

Ohio musician David Wilcox has released over 20 albums, including his latest The Way I Tell the Story. Wilcox discusses his songwriting process as a form of emotional and traumatic event processing. He emphasizes the joy of exploring feelings through music, how songs evolve to offer new meanings, and the balance between playing new and old songs fo…

Columbus authors Diane Callahan and David Dixon discuss their new poetry collection, The Ship and the Storm. They employed a unique system of organization by putting their poems with similar themes and forms into conversation with each other on opposing pages. This impacted their collaborative process, altering how they experienced each other’s wri…

“ The most important part about life is living it” – Ernest Hemingway Brandy Gleason, chief writer at Gleason Family Adventure and the creator of the Ohio Road Trips Facebook group, follows this Hemingway quote in life and in her writing. Her recent book 100 Things to Do in Ohio Before You Die, explores the Buckeye State, recommending spots for fam…

Novelist Meg Cabot is more than just The Princess Diaries, although that’s an impressive accomplishment. She’s had an her extensive career, writing over 50 novels for young adults and adults. Next up, she will appear at a Meet the Author Talk at the Westerville Library on September 17th. Fans can attend to hear about the first book in the new Princ…

Singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Abby Posner has released four albums and won the 28th annual USA Songwriting Competition in 2023. She’ll be in town with the Six String Concert series on September 19. We discuss her multi-instrumental talents and her journey in learning music from a young age. Abby also answers my eternal question of wha…

Journalist and improv comic Bridjet Mendy will perform at the Columbus Comedy Festival, September 4th – 7th. Bridget discusses her comedy style, heavily influenced by her experiences as a 30-something first-generation American with family roots in the Soviet Union. Initially a journalist, Mendy transitioned to comedy after moving to Chicago and tak…

New York Times bestselling author Victoria Christopher Murray has written or cowritten more than 30 novels, including Stand Your Ground and The Personal Librarian. In our discussion, Murray discusses her latest book, Harlem Rhapsody, a historical fiction novel about Jesse Redmond Fauset, a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Murray shares her ext…

No insects were injured in comedian Steve Hofstetter’s new comedy special, “Kill the Butterflies.” Instead, Hofstetter combines stand-up comedy with documentary interviews exploring comedians’ experiences with anxiety and mental health. He discusses his own mental health journey, along with more than a dozen comics. His career has offered plenty of…

How do you ensure authenticity as a writer? Some authors do a lot of library research. Others write what they already know about life. Gregg Hurwitz “introduces [his] face to the training mat repeatedly and …gets choked out.” It’s all in the service of ensuring that he knows intimately what his characters endure. Hurwitz is the bestselling author o…

The award-winning fiction, poetry, and criticism of writer Amal El-Mohtar have appeared in publications ranging from Tor.com, Fireside Fiction, Lightspeed, Uncanny, and Strange Horizons, and in her own collection, The Honey Month. With Max Gladstone, she co-authored the multiple award-winning This is How You Lose the Time War. Her most recent book …

New York Times bestselling author Katherine Applegate has written or cowritten an impressive number of books from the 54-volume Animorph series to her latest, Odder. We discuss the inspiration behind Odder, the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s surrogate mother program for orphaned otters. Applegate co-wrote the Animorphs series with her husband, and we disc…

Singer-songwriter Iris Dement has released seven albums since 1990, including her latest, Workin’ on a World. Her songs sometimes juxtapose heavy lyrics with upbeat music, letting the listener feel energized while contemplating the difficulties of life. While she doesn’t see herself as a political singer songwriter, her lyrics engage with the polit…

Emmy-nominated producer, writer, and freelance journalist Nora Neus will visit the Columbus Metropolitan Library’s South High Branch on April 11 as part of the Authors at the Library series. Her most recent book is “Renegade Girls,” a young adult graphic novel that fictionalizes the 19th-century relationship between reporter Helena “Nell” Cusack an…

American writer, illustrator and filmmaker Vashti Harrison is the New York Times bestselling creator of Big, winner of the 2024 Caldecott Medal, both the Coretta Scott King Book Award Author and Book Award Illustrator Honor, and a National Book Award finalist. Big traces a child’s journey to self-love and shows the power of words to both hurt and h…

Mary Robinette Kowal, author of The Martian Contingency, will appear with John Scalzi, author of When the Moon Hits Your Eye, to celebrate the release of their books on Sunday, March 23 at 2:00pm at the Columbus Metropolitan Library. Mary Robinette Kowal’s Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Lady Astronaut series chronicles how courageous women become as…

The past few years have seen rising problems in the United States and increasingly divided citizenry. Conflict seems to be getting worse. So what can we do? Harvard negotiation expert Robert Bordone argues that conflict can be reframed as a positive force for stronger relationships and more authentic connections. Bordone and co author behavioral ne…

Scottish-born Canadian singer-songwriter David Francey has released 13 albums, including his latest, “The Breath Between.” He’ll perform selections from across his catalog on February 14 at Six String Concerts. He talks about “The Breath Between,” created during the COVID-19 pandemic; his solitary songwriting process; collaborations with musicians …

Identical twins Adam and David Moss perform as the Brother Brothers, and they’ll be in Columbus on January 10, 2024, with Six String Concerts. Their latest release is The January Album, so named because they recorded it in January 2021. Adam regards it as their “most collaborative effort yet,” with the brothers working closely throughout the record…

New York Times best-selling author Tod Goldberg has turned to editing for his latest work, Hanukkah Noir: Eight Very Bad Nights. The collection features 11 stories by critically acclaimed authors and explores the dark, noir side of Hanukkah. As Goldberg puts it:  Hanukkah is the perfect holiday for a noir setup because it’s eight nights. By about t…

Science writer Erika Engelhaupt, author of one of my favorite recent books, Gory Details: Adventures From the Dark Side of Science, joins me to discuss her new book Go to Hell: A Traveler’s Guide to Earth’s Most Otherworldly Destinations. It’s a travel bucket list with over 50 destinations worldwide that are linked to various interpretations of hel…

Columbus poet Darren C. Demaree makes his returns to Craft to discuss his latest poetry collection, his 23rd: So Much More. He explores death, fatherhood, nature, and empathy, along with other topics. Demaree discusses his approach to poetry, emphasizing the importance of the writing process over the final product. Demaree’s productivity may be par…

What does is take to be a successful comedian, like David Nihill? Practice. And a desire to tell people interesting facts, like Columbus used to have the oldest captive gorilla and currently has the longest span, single tower S-shaped suspension bridge in the world. Irish author, comedian, speaker, and coach David Nihill will be in Columbus on Nove…

Most scary Halloween stories work because evil creatures or people threaten the protagonist is threatened by. “Torture the women!” Hitchcock famously said. But this year’s halloween story considers the question of “Who’s the monster?” something worth considering at any time of year, but especially in the fall. Cast Students from Christopher Ray’s W…

The days are getting shorter, a chill is in the air, and pumpkins are attacked mercilessly by knife-wielding maniacs: it must be Halloween season. It’s also one of the favorite times of year of Maxwell I. Gold, a Columbus native, author, and executive director of the Horror Writers Association. We discussed his work in weird and cosmic fiction, inc…

Blogger and food writer Sarah Lohman won not one but two 2024Ohio Book Awards: the Ohio Book Award in Nonfiction and the Reader’s Choice Award for her book Endangered Eating: America’s Vanishing Food. The Ohioana Library will present the Ohio Book Awards at the 83rd Annual Ohio Book Awards Celebration on October 29th, where you can meet the award w…

Singer-songwriter Ruth Moody will be in Columbus on September 27 with Six String Concerts. We discussed her new solo album “Wanderer,” her first in a decade, which reflects on motherhood, grief, and love. The album, recorded in Nashville, is deeply personal and resonates with her audience through its emotional vulnerability. She details the challen…

Poet George Bilgere, aka, Our Man in Berlin, drops by to discuss his latest, Cheap Motels of My Youth, which began at a café in Berlin and won the Rattle Magazine chapbook contest. We talk about his writing process, family, and approach to poetry in the digital age. He reads several of his poems, providing a fascinating glimpse into his creative li…

​Violinist Savannah Buist, cellist Katie Larson, and percussionist Michael Dause make up The Accidentals, who will perform in Columbus on March 12 with Six String Concerts. I spoke with Sav and Katie about their time as musicians, how the pandemic changed their musical abilities (think: engineering), and how they got to cowrite with some of their m…

If you’re looking for a break from the various crises filling our lives right now, you might find some solace in reading up on a volatile moment in the United States’ past. This week we talk to Columbus author Karin Cecile Davidson on her first novel, Sybelia Drive, which released on October 6th from Braddock Avenue Books. Sybelia Drive is interwov…

My father was a school administrator for many years and I heard his enthusiasm for schools throughout my childhood. So I was intrigued by the title of Doris Caceres-Schumick’s book Public School Teaching Sucks, Period.: A Memoir of a Special Education/ESL Teacher . She’ll be an author with the virtual 2020 Ohioana Book Festival on August 28-30, but…

Ohioana 2020 author Jodi Andes has worked at the Columbus Dispatch and was a senior investigator at The Ohio Attorney General’s office, where she conducted an inquiry into the con artist Bobby Thompson, the subject of her book, Master of Deceit. Listen in to hear why this conman was able to get access to the top American politicians of the time, li…

Kiya Renea Currently a doctoral candidate at Xavier University, 2020 Ohioana Book Festival author Kiya Renae has written three books: Through Her Own Eyes: This is Only the Beginning; It’s Ok to Be Broken: Highs, Lows, and Happy Mediums; and an as-yet untitled third book. Listen in to hear Ms. Renea share some of her writing and her story ahead of …

Along with her four sisters, Columbus, Ohio, resident Gabrielle C. Burton make up Five Sisters productions. Their recent YouTube release Old Guy features their late father Roger Burton as a man re-entering the acting field after having been away from it since the 1950s. His agent is played by Fraiser’s Peri Gilpin. Listen in to find out about The L…

Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Connie Schultz published her first book Life Happens: And Other Unavoidable Truths, a collection of her columns for The Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper in 2006. She followed this in 2007 with a book about accompanying her husband Sherrod Brown on his senate campaign, … and His Lovely Wife: A Memoir from the Woman …

I don’t normally post the transcript of my interviews, but this episode makes sense to have it available. Doug Dangler From a secret location in room 100 of 540 jack Gibbs Boulevard, this is Craft. I’m your host Doug Dangler. Dr. Iahn Gonsenhauser, chief quality and patient safety officer for the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, has been dealing e…

While Ant-Man floats in the endless expanse of the Marvel Universe Quantum Realm, scientists like Professor Nadya Mason at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign work diligently to discover what the rules of quantum mechanics really are. Professor Mason’s January 13 Science Sundays talk at Ohio State is titled “Going Through the Quantum Tun…

Dino Tripodis started gracing Columbus radio nearly 25 years ago as part of the Dino and Stacy duo, and he’s transitioned to podcasting with Whiskey Business, more writing, and a return to stand up comedy. He dropped by WCBE recently to update me on his latest adventures.Craft: Exploring Creativity által

The universe is endlessly vast and can seem incomprehensible. However, it’s not as incomprehensible as you might think. In his book Your Place in the Universe: Understanding Our Big, Messy Existence, astrophysicist Paul M. Sutter explains a lot about what we know of the universe. In my interview with him, we discuss the Big Bang, the Singularity, t…

I find dystopian novels one of the most interesting forms of science fiction. From 1984 to Fahrenheit 451, authors have created futures that we fear may come to pass (if they haven’t already). Margaret Peterson Haddix is known for her juvenile and young adult series. In the Children of Exile series, she envisions a dystopian future that is still su…

Almost everyone has seen the hilarious comedy Monty Python and the Holy Grail. From the Black Knight, the Taunting Frenchman, and the importance of knowing the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow, the film’s many funny moments have a place in the hearts of multiple generations. Eric Idle’s musical comedy Spamalot adapts the movie for the stage …

“I never learned to do taxes at school but I know the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.” The phrase “the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell” has become a common punchline in a lot of jokes online, but how much do people really know about mitochondria? Michael W. Gray gives Craft the chance to learn about some of the theories surro…

It’s here again: Halloween, that time of year when Craft goes a little crazy and gives the world a variety of questionable stories and interviews. We cover all the greatest Halloween hits: cannibalism, zombies, serial killers, where to buy super science supplies, and the scariest of all – politics. My thanks to great help from Sam Bloch, J. Randall…

Ohio author Celeste Ng is the 2018 Ohioana Fiction Award winner for her book Little Fires Everywhere. Listen in as we discuss what it’s like to win an Ohioana award; how she ensured that she got the details right about the setting for her novel, Shaker Heights, Ohio; and how she deals with seeing her own books or those of her friends in a bookstore…

Did your school have mandatory square dancing lesson? Mine did, which may be why I’ll never wear western plaid again. Humorist and participatory journalist Henry Alford has not only written for The New York Times, The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, Vanity Fair, and the Paris Review but also survived elementary school square dancing lessons. His most rece…

Actor Billy Boyd One of my favorite exchanges in the first Lord of the Rings movie occurs after Aragorn tells the hobbits to stop eating and get walking: Aragorn: Gentlemen! We do not stop ’til nightfall. Pippin: But what about breakfast? Aragorn: You’ve already had it. Pippin: We’ve had one, yes. But what about second breakfast? Merry: Don’t think…

Actor Thomas Ian Nicholas has appeared in many films, starring in Rookie of the Year and playing Kevin Myers in the American Pie franchise. He’s also a musician, producer, and writer. His latest work in production involves magicians and vampires, as well as traveling the country meeting his fans at Comic Con. Listen in for his description of a life…

Steven Wright is one of a handful of comics I’ve paid to see perform live, although that says more about how cheap I am than it does about comics. At any rate, it was great to talk to him and find out how he found his comic voice, what makes him laugh and what the favorite joke he’s written is. Steven Wright will be in Columbus on May 19 with CAPA.…

CEO and founder of Geben Communications, Heather Whaling is a fan of social media, not a surprise given her occupation. So the recent news about the Facebook privacy problems were of particular interest to her. Listen in while she describes the best ways for you to stay safe online as well as who her favorite social media accounts to follow are. We…

For legendary singer-songwriter John Gorka’s new album, True in Time, he casts his mind back to the past, with songs that explore memories and those we’ve lost. Join us as we discuss his songs and his songwriting. John Gorka will perform in Columbus on Friday, April 20 at the Kings Art Complex with Six String Concerts.…