Radio

To call Larry Mantle a radio talk show personality is an anemic description of his 20-year position as host of KPCC’s daily interview/call-in program ‘Air Talk’ on National Public Radio station 89.3. Nothing about ‘Air Talk’ resembles what we have come to conjure as a radio talk show. Mantle is not doctrinaire, didactic nor self-promoting. Rather he uses the luxurious two-hour time slot ‘to dig beneath the conventional arguments to a place where we can talk about underlying assumptions, comparative measurement and even the history of a perspective.’ Mantle will share details of some of his interviews over the past two decades, many of them contained in his recently published ‘This is Air Talk’ (Angel City Press) on Tuesday, April 26, 7:30 p.m. at Village Books. In ‘This Is Air Talk,’ Mantle includes conversations with 21 men and women on a wide array of local, national and international topics. Guests have included Jimmy Carter, George Foremen, Frank Gehry, and Jack Welch. His prodigious preparation (four hours a night for research), plus his authentic curiosity, with no stain of gossip or pandering, results in fascinating and informative conversations. Mantle is particularly adroit at arriving at a fresh, unplowed level of discussion with the more practiced famous people, who so often slide through interviews on autopilot. In talking with former General Electric CEO Jack Welch, for example, he was able to build a report that stimulated Welch into thinking about his personality and how he navigated his career to accommodate it. Mantle’s conversation with Alexa Albert, who wrote an insider’s view of the prostitutes at the Mustang Ranch in Nevada (‘Brothel’) results in a sensitive, human portrayal of what is often thought of as a dehumanizing, humiliating profession. A native of Los Angeles, Mantle was raised by his very young parents, who were 15 and 16 at his birth. His grandfather was a physician with an open mind, who would invite Larry to accompany him on house calls and would engage the young man in a wide range of conversation topics. ‘I grew up surrounded by intense family discussions about politics, science, religion, race, the nature of fulfillment and how best to relate to others,’ Mantle writes in the forward of his book. ‘I loved being with my parents and grandparents, talking with them about the world. This probably explains why I’m an expert at nothing, but interested in everything.’ Mantle carries his enthusiasm and critical thinking into his interviews and creates an intimate relationship with the listeners all over California, and real conversation.