Parallax view

Doug DeSalles has tallied up an impressive list of guest interviews over the course of his years with Radio Parallax. Among others, he’s interviewed Lowell Bergman, Carol Channing, Will Durst, Bob Edwards, Ira Flatow, Al Franken, Ira Glass, Chris Hedges, Eugene McCarthy, Michael Moore, P.J. O’Rourke, Michael Pollan—the list goes on and on. Below are a few of his interchanges with notables.

Doug DeSalles: Is there one individual who you wish you had interviewed but did not?

Walter Cronkite: Hitler. I would have liked to probe what really made that man tick. We had Mein Kampf, of course, and that gave us some answers, but the question remains unanswered. I would have liked to sit down with him, grit my teeth perhaps, to see how any individual could come to such a disastrous philosophy.

DeSalles: There are some people interested in silencing you at PBS.

Bill Moyers: (Silence.)

DeSalles: Could you comment on the article in The New Yorker magazine on the goings-on at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting? Some there demand a more quote balanced unquote perspective.

Moyers: The [George W. Bush] White House has put some big Republican fundraisers on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which is supposed to be the heat shield for us in public broadcasting. It’s got a very conservative chairman of the board who … is a Republican. They haven’t liked some of the hard reporting that my weekly broadcast has done on corporate influence in Washington [D.C.].

DeSalles: Molly Ivins, welcome to Radio Parallax.

Molly Ivins: Oh, thank you. What a great name.

DeSalles: Wow, you’re the first person that got it!

Ivins: It’s one of my favorite metaphors.

DeSalles: Oh, excellent. … From what you’ve seen covering the 2004 presidential campaign, what do you think are the odds for Bush-Cheney getting re-elected?

Ivins: I think Bush is beatable—it’s very clear he’s beatable—but John Kerry will have to make a case for himself.

DeSalles: I’ve read that a Farenheit 451 [film] is again inproduction. They’re going to do a remake?

Ray Bradbury: Mel Gibson bought the rights from me eight years ago. There are 16 scripts on Farenheit 451, too! Each one is worse. You don’t need 16 scripts. You know what you do: You shoot the novel.