The Brian Lehrer Show
What if?
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Novelist Michael Chabon imagines what would have happened if a Jewish settlement took hold in Alaska instead of Israel. His book, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, uses this scenario to unfold a noir detective story. We ask him about the phenomenon of so-called “alternate history” fiction and if any of this has to do with his support for Barack Obama. Plus: analysis of the second Republican presidential debate and the next installment of our transportation series, Anything But The Car: Trains.
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Round Two
Eleanor Clift, contributing editor for Newsweek Magazine and Michael Maslansky, president of Luntz, Maslansky Strategic Research, a conservative communications and polling firm analyze the second Republican presidential debate.
Today in Alternate History
Novelist Michael Chabon, whose latest book, The Yiddish Policeman's Union (Ecco Books/Harper Collins 2007), is a murder mystery set in an alternate Jewish homeland in Alaska.
You can read the first few pages of the book at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
The Yiddish Policeman's Union is available for purchase at Amazon.com and as a thank-you gift for a pledge to WNYC.
Anything But The Car: Subways
Joseph D. Korman, train enthusiast, and retired transit worker, talks about his love for the rail system and New York subway.
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