All You Have to Do is Call sounds like easy advice. But for women in late 1960’s Chicago it is a suggestion filled with deeply conflicted emotions in the days before Roe vs. Wade became law. And again now. Best selling novelist Kerri Maher began researching and writing All You Have To Do Is Call several years before the Supreme Court overthrew Roe vs. Wade last year. She brings to life the voices of women friends grappling with their differing convictions, when one of them founds the Jane Collective to help women find safe and secret care. Brilliantly written historical fiction, profoundly relevant for now, this interview and book brings essential insights. Click here to visit her website.

A fascinating insight into the Western United States with historian Betsy Gaines Quammen in her new book True West: Myth and Mending on The Far Side of America. Her extensive travels and conversations with people on all sides of the political spectrum and of all the different cultures that make up the West bring much needed clarity and integrity to our sometimes distorted images of this magnificent land and it’s peoples. Meet Betsy at Collected Works Bookstore on Tuesday, November 7 at 6:00 and learn more about her observations at betsygainesquammen.com

It’s my fourth anniversary hosting The Last Word and celebrating with me are intrepid travel journalists Judith Fein and Paul Ross, aka Cowboy Poet PJ Ross. Judie is back with more stories from her very popular book How to Communicate with Dead and How Cultures Do It Around The World. She meets a realGhost during a ceremony in Brazil and honors the beautiful rituals of our Mexican neighbors for whom a conversation with a deceased beloved relative is often part of everyday life. Keep your mind and heart open as you listen and discover Judie and Paul at globaladventure.us

A fascinating insight into writing and researching a historical novel, Leaving Lissadell, with Helen Molanphy, KSFR Board Vice-President. Helen’s Irish roots and admiration of Irish revolutionary Constance Gore-Booth Markiewicz have inspired her for decades and nurtured the creative seeds of Leaving Lissadell. As a Professor Emeritus in Political Science and author of The American Penal System, Helen is well placed to note the injustices faced by Constance and the Irish people leading up to and after the 1916 Easter Rising. Helen also speaks about her search for a publisher for Leaving Lissadell which we sincerely hope will be rewarded soon. Contact Helen Molanphy through KSFR.

Imagine yourself in the excitement at NASA’s manned space center in Houston in the time leading up to the first moon launch in 1969. In elegant and evocative prose Isa Arsen takes us there in her debut novel, Shoot The Moon, described as “deep, bold and crackling smart” we travel backwards and forwards and backwards time and again with Isa’s protagonist Annie from her childhood in Santa Fe’s east side to her dream on the launch team. An interview that may raise the hairs on the back of your neck as we explore how a writer brings the mysterious equations of soul love and the anomalies of physics to the page. Meet Isa Arsen at Collected Works Bookstore on Sunday, October 22nd at 4:00. www.inarsen.com

A treat for animal lovers today from multi award-winning Junkyard Girl author Carlyn Montes de Oca.

An insight into one of this country’s appalling injustices, the life imprisonment in adult penitentiaries of teenagers as young as 13 who have been convicted of murder. Author, activist and retired pediatrician Bettye Kearse joins me to speak about an upcoming local event to help to bring awareness that may change young people’s lives, to be tried in juvenile courts and given a real chance to understand their crime. Bettye Kearse is the author of The Other Madisons: The Lost History of A President’s Black Family. Join her to hear wonderful soul music and dance at Gathering Up: The Gospel of Community. Saturday, October 7, 2:00 pm at United Church of Santa Fe on Arroyo Chamiso and Sunday 8th, 2:00 pm at the Railyard Performance Center. Come prepared to dance! Full details at inspiritstudio.com/gathering-up

Fourteen months out from the next general election is it possible to break big money’s stranglehold on our electoral system ? Former Santa Fe attorney and social justice activist for more than 40 years, Bruce Berlin joins me with his critically acclaimed book, Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America. With lobbyists and super PACs soliciting seemingly unlimited funds from corporations and individuals how can we break the cycle ? A fascinating and important conversation that we all need to hear, understand and learn effective ways to take action. More in Bruce Berlin’s topical weekly blogs at breakingbigmoneysgrip.com

A priceless interview for all animal lovers with Santa Fe’s Hersch Wilson, recently retired volunteer firefighter after 33 years, soccer coach, organizational consultant, master storyteller, former dancer, author of the acclaimed Firefighter Zen and today’s newly released Dog Lessons: Learning the Important Stuff from Our Best Friends.

Mary L. Grow’s beautifully rendered story Night Train to Odessa is set 100 years ago in Ukraine as it is torn apart by civil war and the Bolshevik revolution. Yet events could be mirror images of Ukraine now, of loss of all that is loved and familiar and the desperate need to flee certain death and horror overnight. I ask the author how she creates a novel so immersive, suspenseful and intimate and yet to bring lightness to even the most dire experiences the characters suffer. Mary L. Grow will be reading from Night Train to Odessa at Santa Fe’s Collected Works bookstore at 6:00 on Thursday, September 14th. Learn more about her now at marylgrow.com