Stone Street is Back

After a regrettable hiatus of many months, the Stone Street podcast is back.  Check out the interview with Ambassador Robert M. Beecroft here, or click on the RSS feed to the right of this post.


Ambassador Beecroft has worked on virtually every major U.S. foreign policy question of the second half of the twentieth century. From the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) of the 1970s to Egypt-Israel relations, to the post-Warsaw Pact enlargement of NATO, to the Balkan wars of the 1990s, the Ambassador’s career encompasses some of the most complex global issues in history.  I caught up with him while he was in Vilnius as part of a Dept. of State inspection team conducting a review of the embassy.  One note: if you listen to the interview, you'll hear me referencing another interview he gave several years ago, in which he gives extraordinarily detailed accounts of the policies, events and personalities he's worked on, for and with over the years.  It's an extraordinary document, which you can read here.

Enjoy.

New Stone Street, Available Now

Just a note about the newest Stone Street: last week I spoke with some members of the Junior Professionals Program instituted by Invest Lithuania and the Lithuanian Ministry of Economics.  The program (known as JPP) brings young Lithuanians who've graduated from universities in North America, Europe and elsewhere, back to Vilnius to work in various ministries of the Lithuanian government for one year.  I met several of the program participants at an event in Vilnius during the summer, and was sufficiently impressed to invite some of them to a sort of panel discussion of their experiences prior to and at the outset of their year of government service.  The panel participants were +Paulius Vertelka, a recent graduate of the University of Illinois-Chicago, Gintarė Janulaitytė, who holds a master's degree from the University of Hawaii-Pacific, and +Milda Darguzaite, who lived in the U.S. for sixteen years before returning to Vilnius to work as a special adviser to the Minister of Economics, and who, in that capacity, essentially created the JPP program out of whole cloth.  All in all, an interviewer couldn't have asked for a funnier, more thoughtful, more exciting or dynamic panel.  Click here to listen or sign up for the Stone Street podcasts, or click to the right for an RSS feed of the show, and hear what the future sounds like.

Stone Street Conversation with Brent Glass

Just a note that, after an extended hiatus, Stone Street is back.  Last weekend we had the pleasure of spending some time with Dr. Brent Glsass, Director Emeritus of the +Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.  Dr. Glass was in Lithuania to discuss the challenges and opportunities faced by museums around the world in the 21st century.  After his final day of official visits, we had dinner with him in Vilnius, and let the recorder roll while we ate and talked.  The result is a little different from our earlier Stone Street Q and A sessions, but it should be a lot of fun.  As ever, subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, listen here, or click on the RSS feed to the right of this post.  Happy listening.

Stone Street interview with Mischa Iossel

Episode III of Stone Street available now.  In this episode I spoke to Mikhail Iossel, writer, professor of American literature, and founder of the Summer Literary Seminar series, which this year was held in Vilnius.  Professor Iossel was born in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad) and left the Soviet Union for Boston in 1986.  He later received a master's degree from the University of New Hampshire, and a Stegner fellowship from Standford.  He has taught at the University of Minnesota, NYU, and St. Lawrence College, and now teaches at Concordia University in Montreal.

So have a listen.  Professor Iossel has terrific stories and insights about his experiences which he shares in the free mode of a natural storyteller.  His memories are alternately powerful and hilarious (and occasionally both at the same time).  His book of short stories is titled, Every Hunter Wants to Know.

Stone Street, Pt. II

The second installment of Stone Street is now available.  For this hour I spoke with Jeannine Oppewall, the Oscar-nominated production designer of such films as The Bridges of Madison County, L.A. Confidential, Catch Me if You Can, and Seabiscuit.  Jeanine is a wise, wise woman who has spent an amazing life thinking seriously about big questions, and I only hope our interview here offers some sense of her great insight, wit and passion.  Enjoy.

Also, we think we've gotten a few things ironed out re: subscribing to the podcast via iTunes, so if you were frustrated in your attempts to sign up the first time, do give it another go.

In our next Stone Street podcast, I'll talk with Mikhail Iossel, founder of the Summer Literary Seminar series, currently taking place in Vilnius, about language, literature, and leaving St. Petersburg in the 80s.