When I say something untrue on the air, I mean for it to be transparently untrue. I assume people know when I'm just saying something for effect. Or to be funny.

We're Jews, my family, and Jews break down into two distinct subcultures: book Jews and money Jews. We were money Jews.

One reason I do the live shows - and the monthly speeches at public radio stations - is to remind myself that people hear the show, that it has an audience, that it exists in the world. It's so easy to forget that.

You'd think that radio was around long enough that someone would have coined a word for staring into space.

It's not a terribly original thing to say, but I love Raymond Carver. For one thing, he's fun to read out loud.

Where radio is different than fiction is that even mediocre fiction needs purpose, a driving question.

But you can make good radio, interesting radio, great radio even, without an urgent question, a burning issue at stake.

I think good radio often uses the techniques of fiction: characters, scenes, a big urgent emotional question. And as in the best fiction, tone counts for a lot.

In some theoretical way I know that a half-million people hear the show. But in a day-to-day way, there's not much evidence of it.

Just when did I get to the point when staying at a hotel wasn't fun?

But sadly, one of the problems with being on public radio is that people tend to think you're being sincere all the time.