{"title":"Michael Krasny","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into the insightful world of Michael Krasny, where literature, culture, and ideas converge. Explore thought-provoking discussions and gain new perspectives on the world around you. Start browsing now.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"let-there-be-laughter-book-michael-krasny-9780062422040","title":"Let There Be Laughter","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrom the host of NPR affiliate's Forum with Michael Krasny, a compendium of Jewish jokes that packs the punches with hilarious riff after riff and also offers a window into Jewish culture.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMichael Krasny has been telling Jewish jokes since his bar mitzvah, and it's been said that he knows more of them than anyone on the planet. He certainly states his case in this wise, enlightening, and hilarious book that not only collects the best of Jewish humor passed down from generation to generation, but explains the cultural expressions and anxieties behind the laughs.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"What's Jewish Alzheimer's?\"\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \"You forget everything but the grudges.\"\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"You must be so proud. Your daughter is the President of the United States!\"\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \"Yes. But her brother is a doctor!\"\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Isn't Jewish humor masochistic?\"\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \"No. And if I hear that one more time I am going to kill myself.\"\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWith his background as a scholar and public-radio host, Krasny delves deeply into the themes, topics, and form of Jewish humor: chauvinism undercut by irony and self-mockery, the fear of losing cultural identity through assimilation, the importance of vocal inflection in joke-telling, and calls to communal memory, including the use of Yiddish.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBorrowing from traditional humor and such Jewish comedy legends as Jackie Mason, Mel Brooks, and Joan Rivers, Larry David, Sarah Silverman, Jerry Seinfeld and Amy Schumer, Let There Be Laughter is an absolute pleasure for the chosen and goyim alike.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49566207115537,"sku":"GOR011870577","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49569065042193,"sku":"GOR009950423","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49692353364241,"sku":"CIN0062422049G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50343454474513,"sku":"CIN0062422049A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52102674350353,"sku":"CIN0062422049VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0062422049.jpg?v=1751430819"},{"product_id":"spiritual-envy-book-michael-krasny-9781577319122","title":"Spiritual Envy","description":"As the host of one of National Public Radio s most popular interview programs, Michael Krasny has spent decades leading conversations on every imaginable topic and discussing life s most important questions with the foremost thinkers of our time. Now he brings his wide-ranging knowledge and perceptive intelligence to a thoughtful and thought-provoking exploration of belief and lack of belief. \u003cbr\u003eMany books and pundits advocate for a specific God, while others adamantly declare there is no God. Yet these strident viewpoints often speak right past each other, rarely convincing anyone but the already convinced. In \u003ci\u003eSpiritual Envy\u003c\/i\u003e, Krasny helps believers and nonbelievers alike understand their own questions about faith and religion, about God and human responsibility. \u003cbr\u003eKrasny challenges each of us to look closely at faith and its power, and to examine the positive and negative aspects of religion as expressed in culture, literature, and human relationships. Personal and universal, timely and timeless, this is a deeply wise yet warmly welcoming conversation, an invitation to ask one s own questions no matter how inconclusive the answers.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49573824069905,"sku":"GOR005349412","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49934557380881,"sku":"CIN1577319125G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50491832893713,"sku":"CIN1577319125VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1577319125.jpg?v=1751056745"},{"product_id":"masterpieces-of-short-fiction-cd-9781598034394","title":"Masterpieces of Short Fiction","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49796546494737,"sku":"CIN1598034391VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50262517940497,"sku":"CIN1598034391G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1598034391.jpg?v=1751342032"},{"product_id":"spiritual-envy-book-michael-krasny-9781608680696","title":"Spiritual Envy","description":"As the host of one of National Public Radio s most popular interview programs, Michael Krasny has spent decades leading conversations on every imaginable topic and discussing life s most important questions with the foremost thinkers of our time. Now he brings his wide-ranging knowledge and perceptive intelligence to a thoughtful and thought-provoking exploration of belief and lack of belief. \u003cbr\u003eMany books and pundits advocate for a specific God, while others adamantly declare there is no God. Yet these strident viewpoints often speak right past each other, rarely convincing anyone but the already convinced. In \u003ci\u003eSpiritual Envy\u003c\/i\u003e, Krasny helps believers and nonbelievers alike understand their own questions about faith and religion, about God and human responsibility. \u003cbr\u003eKrasny challenges each of us to look closely at faith and its power, and to examine the positive and negative aspects of religion as expressed in culture, literature, and human relationships. Personal and universal, timely and timeless, this is a deeply wise yet warmly welcoming conversation, an invitation to ask one s own questions no matter how inconclusive the answers.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49853064872209,"sku":"CIN160868069XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50766681800977,"sku":"GOR014063095","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/160868069X.jpg?v=1751408620"},{"product_id":"masterpieces-of-short-fiction-dvd-9781598034400","title":"Masterpieces of Short Fiction","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50033914937617,"sku":"CIN1598034405G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1598034405.jpg?v=1751213890"},{"product_id":"off-mike-book-michael-krasny-9780804756716","title":"Off Mike","description":"KQED Radio's Michael Krasny is one of the country's leading interviewers of literary luminaries, a maestro for educated listeners who prefer their discourse high and civil. He is a writer's interviewer.   But it didn't start out that way.   In Off Mike, Krasny, host of one of public radio's most popular and intellectually compelling programs, talks of his strong desire to become a novelist in the footsteps of Bellow and Philip Roth, and then discovering his real talent as a communicator—a deft ability to draw others out as an interlocutor.    In a mix of memoir and reportage, Krasny takes readers inside his world. He gives an account of the polarizing transformation of talk radio, from his early days at KGO commercial radio, through to his current role at NPR, where he manages to keep the flow of talk in his San Francisco based show animated and politically balanced.   Forum fans and lovers of literature will be riveted by the insightful and amusing vignettes and behind the scenes accounts. They will get a taste of the sharp commentary from his encounters with panels of experts, and interviews with cultural and political personalities as well as writers.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50272812826897,"sku":"CIN0804756716VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52816413982993,"sku":"CIN0804756716G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0804756716.jpg?v=1757417210"},{"product_id":"sound-ideas-book-michael-krasny-9780073533254","title":"Sound Ideas","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50343760363793,"sku":"CIN0073533254G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0077724755.jpg?v=1750972710"},{"product_id":"sound-ideas-book-michael-krasny-m-e-sokolik-9780077724757","title":"Sound Ideas","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50466390180113,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50466390933777,"sku":"CINB017OVD6QCG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/B017OVD6QC.jpg?v=1750779027"},{"product_id":"off-mike-book-michael-krasny-9780804763370","title":"Off Mike","description":"KQED Radio's Michael Krasny is one of the country's leading interviewers of literary luminaries, a maestro for educated listeners who prefer their discourse high and civil. He is a writer's interviewer.   But it didn't start out that way.   In Off Mike, Krasny, host of one of public radio's most popular and intellectually compelling programs, talks of his strong desire to become a novelist in the footsteps of Bellow and Philip Roth, and then discovering his real talent as a communicator—a deft ability to draw others out as an interlocutor.    In a mix of memoir and reportage, Krasny takes readers inside his world. He gives an account of the polarizing transformation of talk radio, from his early days at KGO commercial radio, through to his current role at NPR, where he manages to keep the flow of talk in his San Francisco based show animated and politically balanced.   Forum fans and lovers of literature will be riveted by the insightful and amusing vignettes and behind the scenes accounts. They will get a taste of the sharp commentary from his encounters with panels of experts, and interviews with cultural and political personalities as well as writers.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51090915524881,"sku":"NIN9780804763370","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51334603538705,"sku":"CIN0804763372VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0804763372.jpg?v=1757413986"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-michael-krasny.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}