Carl Hiaasen

Carl Hiaasen is a best-selling, award-winning novelist, a columnist for the Miami Herald, and our pre-eminent articulator of all things Florida — that most confounding and fascinating of states, both politically and culturally. His new young adult novel "Chomp" focuses on Wahoo Cray, who lives in a zoo and whose animal wrangler father gets a job on the survivalist reality TV show "Expedition Survival!," hosted by an overzealous and incompetent danger-seeker.

Best selling author Carl Hiaasen has made a living shamelessly stealing outrageous stories from the headlines of Florida's newspapers. He rips them from the headlines because their real flavor lends a sense of realism to his satire. Hiaasen's latest novel, "Star Island," is no exception.

Novelist Carl Hiaasen came on The Leonard Lopate Show to discuss some of his favorite picks.

Journalist, columnist, and novelist Carl Hiaasen discusses his latest novel, Star Island, about a 22-year-old pop star about to attempt a comeback from her latest drug-and-alcohol disaster, and her “undercover stunt double,” who is kidnapped from a South Beach hotel by an obsessed paparazzo. He’ll also talk about the weekly column he’s been writing in the Miami Herald and his take on the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

It may be a swing state, but Miami Herald columnist and author Carl Hiaasen says that if the nation's politics follow the same path as his home state of Florida, we all might as well move to the Bahamas. It's hard to argue against the assertion that Florida's political climate is getting weird — just this week, Governor Charlie Crist took a swipe at his competitor for senate Marco Rubio by accusing him of back-waxing. Hiaasen explains why Florida is on the cutting edge of political innovation when it comes to gall, graft and gripes.