~ Politics-Social Affairs-International Affairs ~
- Paul Kagame (president of Rwanda)
- Romeo Dallaire (former head of U.N. in Rwanda)
- Condoleezza Rice (before her position as Secretary of State)
- Jimmy Carter (podcast interview)
- Noam Chomsky (MIT professor)
- Edward Said (Columbia university professor)
- Nawal El Saadawi (Egyptian activist-author)
- Boutros Boutros-Ghali (former U.N. Secretary-General)
- Jose Maria Aznar (then-Spanish Prime Minister)
- John Dean (Watergate figure)
- George Shultz (Secretary of State under Ronald Reagan)
- Robert McNamara (Secretary of Defense under John F. Kennedy)
- John Kerry (U.S. Senator; email interview for the United Nations Development Programme)
- Col. Peter Mansoor (U.S. commander in Iraq war, and former advisor to Gen. David Petraeus; onstage interview at Commonwealth Club)
- Nabil Shaath (Palestinian foreign minister)
- Hanan Ashrawi (Palestinian Legislative Council)
- Leila Khaled (former Palestinian hijacker; interviewed in Amman, Jordan)
- Queen Noor of Jordan
- Benazir Bhutto (former Pakistan prime minister -- podcast interview)
- (listen to the interview with Benazir Bhutto)
- Jehan Sadat (widow of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat)
- Ehud Barak (Israel's former prime minister)
- Natan Sharansky (Israeli official, former Soviet dissident)
- Yossi Beilin (Israel's former justice minister)
- Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah (former spiritual leader of Hezbollah; interviewed in Beirut)
- Aaron David Miller (Scholar, advisor to Secretaries of State on the Middle East, author of "The Much Too Promised Land"; interviewed at the Commonwealth Club; link is to YouTube video of event)
- Wangari Maathai (2004 winner of Nobel Peace Prize)
- Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (Africa’s first elected woman president)
- Kavita Ramdas (Head of Global Fund for Women)
- Jeffrey Sachs (Columbia University economics professor)
- Willie Brown (San Francisco mayor)
- Judea Pearl (father of slain reporter Daniel Pearl)
- Scott Ritter (former U.N. arms inspector)
- Daniel Ellsberg (Pentagon Papers)
- Helen Caldicott (anti-nuclear activist)
- Kenneth Roth (executive director of Human Rights Watch)
- Peter Singer (bioethics professor at Princeton University)
- Francis Fukuyama ("End of History" professor)
- Shirin Ebadi (Iranian activist, Nobel Prize winner)
- Cindy Sheehan (peace activist)
- Howard Zinn (professor, "A People's History of the United States")
- Shibley Telhami (University of Maryland professor) - one of several pre-Iraq War articles -- see story links above with Scott Ritter and Daniel Ellsberg -- that were critical of Washington's plans for war.
- Judith Kipper (Center for Strategic and International Studies)
- Kanan Makiya (Iraqi professor at Brandeis University)
- Bernard Lewis (Princeton emeritus professor, author of "What Went Wrong?")
- Julian Bond (chairman of NAACP)
- Jerry Brown (California governor)
- Gary Hart (former U.S. Senator)
- Ralph Nader (activist, presidential candidate)
- Craig Newmark ("Craigslist" founder)
- Farah Pahlavi (former queen of Iran, married to the Shah)
- Prince Turki al-Faisal (then-Saudi Ambassador to the United States)
- Sediqullah Rahi (brother of former Afghan president Mohammed Najibullah; one of the first articles anywhere to profile Fremont's Afghan community)
- Rashid Khalidi (Columbia University professor, author of “The Iron Cage”)
- Marwan Muasher (Jordan’s ex-deputy prime minister; onstage interview at Commonwealth Club, recorded for fora.tv)
- Hamza Yusuf (Muslim scholar)
- Azhar Usman (stand-up comic)
- Dean Obeidallah (stand up comic)
- Sakeena Yacoobi (Afghan women's leader)
- Kristen Breitweiser (9/11 activist, one of the "Jersey Girls")
- Peter Singer (Australian moral philosopher)
- Thomas Schelling (Nobel laureate in Economics)
- Sebastiao Salgado (photographer)
- Giles Duley (photojournalist and activist for Syrian refugees; interviewed on-stage at the Commonwealth Club)
~ Authors-Writers-Journalists ~
- Gore Vidal (novelist)
- Isabel Allende (Chilean American novelist)
- Orhan Pamuk (Turkish novelist)
- Terry Gross (NPR radio host; interviewed for a UC Berkeley Extension class about the subject of interviewing)
- Naguib Mahfouz (Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988; interviewed in Cairo)
- Irshad Manji (Toronto writer-broadcaster)
- Robert Fisk (Middle East correspondent)
- Sayed Kashua (writer, “Palestinian Seinfeld”)
- Jamal Dajani (senior director of Middle East programming at Link TV; onstage interview at Commonwealth Club as part of panel discussion about the prospects for a state of Palestine; recorded by FORA.tv)
- Ahmed Rashid (Central Asia correspondent, author of "Taliban")
- Hamid Mir (Pakistani journalist who met three times with Osama bin Laden; onstage interview at Commonwealth Club, recorded by FORA.tv)
- Houshang Asadi (Iranian author of "Letters to My Torturer")
- Nawar Bulbul and Ramez Alaswad (Syrian playwrights-actors)
- Thomas Ricks (Washington Post military correspondent, author of “Fiasco” and “The Gamble”; onstage interview at Commonwealth Club, recorded by FORA.tv)
- Robert Baer (former CIA agent whose memoir inspired the movie “Syriana”; onstage interview at Commonwealth Club)
- Mariane Pearl (widow of Daniel Pearl)
- Ishmael Reed (novelist poet-playwright)
- Bernard-Henri Lévy (French author)
- Ha Jin (Chinese-American author)
- Arundhati Roy ("The God of Small Things," "An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire")
- Diana Abu-Jaber (novelist, "Arabian Jazz," "Crescent")
- Azar Nafisi (professor, author of "Reading Lolita in Tehran")
- Rabih Alameddine (novelist, author of "The Hakawati")
- Mahmoud Darwish (poet)
- Naif al-Mutawa (Kuwaiti creator of “The 99” comic superheroes; written for GlobalPost)
- Lewis Lapham (editor of Harper's Magazine)
- Josef Skvorecky (Czech novelist)
- Martin Amis (British novelist)
- Studs Terkel (books include "Working")
- Amy Tan (author, "The Joy Luck Club")
- David Halberstam (author-journalist, "The Best and the Brightest")
- Deborah Tannen (linguist, "You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation")
- Jamling Tenzing Norgay (author "The sherpa's son also rises")
- Tobias Schneebaum (author, "Keep the River on Your Right")
- F.X. Toole (author of "Rope Burns," which begat the movie "Million Dollar Baby")
- Robert Mankoff (New Yorker cartoon editor)
- John Perkins (author of “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man”; onstage interview at Commonwealth Club)
- Jonathan Schell (writer on nuclear arms race)
- Richard North Patterson (novelist; interviewed on-stage at the Commonwealth Club, filmed by C-SPAN's Book TV)
- Marjane Satrapi (Iranian author of “Persepolis” graphic novels)
- Robert Mankoff (New Yorker cartoon editor)
- Fran Lebowitz (author)
- Minna Dubin (writer-performer-artist)
- Simon Schama (Columbia University professor of history and art history; interviewed on-stage at the Commonwealth Club about his book and TV documentary series, The Story of the Jews)
- Jack Shaheen (Arab-American scholar, author of “Reel Bad Arabs”)
~ Film ~
- (Click here to read reviews of such movies as “Bowling for Columbine,” “Machuca,” “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room,” “Crimson Gold,” “Rabbit-Proof Fence,” “Saving Marriage” and “Waltz With Bashir”)
- Michael Moore ("Fahrenheit 9/11")
- Omar Sharif (actor best known for "Lawrence of Arabia")
- Shohreh Aghdashloo (Oscar-nominated actress from "House of Sand and Fog")
- Mira Sorvino (actress)
- Jackie Chan (actor)
- Warren Beatty (actor)
- Steve Martin (writer-actor)
- Ben Kingsley (actor)
- Jennifer Aniston (actress)
- Chris Nolan (director, "Memento," "Insomnia")
- Sherman Alexie (director-author, "The Business of Fancydancing")
- Mira Nair (filmmaker, "Monsoon Wedding,", "Salaam Bombay")
- Gurinder Chadha (filmmaker, "Bend It Like Bekham")
- Shekhar Kapur (director-India, "Bandit Queen")
- Chen Kaige (filmmaker-China, "Farwewell My Concubine")
- John Woo (director, "Face/Off," "Broken Arrow")
- Zhang Yimou (filmmaker-China, "Raise the Red Lantern," "Ju Dou")
- Amos Gitai (Israeli filmmaker, "Kedma," "Kadosh")
- Eytan Fox (Israeli filmmaker, "Walk on Water," "Yossi & Jagger")
- Nir Bergman (Israeli filmmaker, "Broken Wings")
- Yoav Shamir (Israeli documentarian, "Defamation")
- Yisrael Campbell (Israeli stand-up comic, subject of documentary “Circumcise Me”)
- Walter Salles (Brazilian filmmaker, "Central Station," "The Motorcycle Diaries")
- Jehane Noujaim (documentarian, "Control Room")
- Volker Schlondorff (German director, "Circle of Deceit," "The Tin Drum")
- Sandra Nettelbeck (German director, "Mostly Martha")
- Siddiq Barmak (Afghan director, "Osama")
- Cheick Oumar Sissoko (Malian filmmaker, "Guimba")
- Gillo Pontecorvo (Italian filmmaker, "Battle of Algiers")
- Sylvain Chomet (French filmmaker, "The Triplets of Belleville")
- Fabian Bielinsky (Argentine filmmaker, "Nine Queens")
- Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Mexican director, "Amores Perros")
- Niki Caro (New Zealand filmmaker, "The Whale Rider")
- Takeshi Kitano (Japanese director)
- Majid Majidi (Iranian director, "The Color of Paradise," "Children of Heaven")
- Elia Suleiman (Israeli-Palestinian filmmaker, "Divine Intervention")
- Bahman Ghobadi (Iranian director, "Marooned in Iraq")
- Babak Payami (Iranian director, "Secret Ballot")
- Mohsen Makhmalbaf (Iranian director, "Kandahar," "The Cyclist")
- Jafar Panahi (Iranian director, "Crimson Gold," "The Circle")
- Abbas Kiarostami (Iranian director, "Ten," "A Taste of Cherry")
- Lyes Salem (Algerian director, actor)
- Ken Loach (British filmmaker)
- Laura Poitras (documentary filmmaker, "The Oath")
- Michael Mann (director, "The Insider") Armando Iannucci (British writer-director “In the Loop,” “The Thick of It”)
- Paul Greengrass (British director, “Bourne,” “Bloody Sunday”)
- James Nesbitt (Irish actor)
- Costa Gavras (Greek-French filmmaker, "Missing")
- Hogir Hirori (Swedish-Kurdish filmmaker, "Sabaya")
- Joe Swanberg (filmmaker)
- Jem Cohen (filmmaker)
- Giancarlo Esposito (actor)
- Maryam Keshavarz (Director, "Circumstance")
- Albert Maysles (documentarian,"Gimme Shelter," "The Love We Make")
- Tuan Andrew Nguyen (Vietnamese filmmaker, "The Specter of Ancestors Becoming")
- Kim Nguyen (director, Oscar-nominated "War Witch")
~ Music ~
- Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (Pakistan qawwali singer)
- Ravi Shankar (Indian sitarist) (see also here)
- Ali Akbar Khan (Indian sarodist)
- Zakir Hussain (tabla player)
- Ali Farka Toure (Mali)
- Vieux Farka Toure (Mali)
- Oumou Sangare (Mali)
- Boubacar Traore (Mali)
- Issa Bagayogo (Mali)
- Habib Koite (Mali)
- Rokia Traore (Mali)
- Toumani Diabate (Mail kora player)
- Youssou N'Dour (Senegal)
- Baaba Maal (Senegal)
- Orchestra Baobab (Senegal)
- Marco Senghor (Senegalese-American DJ and restaurateur)
- Angelique Kidjo (Benin-U.S.)
- Alpha Blondy (Ivory Coast)
- Narcisse "Goude" Sadoua (singer in Ivory Coast group Magic System)
- Thomas Mapfumo (Zimbabwe)
- Oliver Mtukudzi (Zimbabwe)
- Fela Kuti (Nigerian superstar; a feature on the 10th anniversary of his death, for Obit magazine)
- Soweto Gospel Choir ( South Africa)
- Khaled (French Algerian)
- Cheikha Rimitti (Algeria)
- Rachid Taha (French Algerian)
- Souad Massi (French Algerian)
- Tinariwen (Touareg-Mali)
- Kayhan Kalhor (Iran)
- Googoosh (Iran)
- Hassan Hakmoun (Moroccan American)
- David Harrington (Kronos Quartet violinist)
- McCoy Tyner (jazz pianist from John Coltrane's quartet)
- Julian Lage (jazz guitarist)
- Bela Fleck (banjo player)
- John Adams (Pulitzer Prize-winning composer)
- Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin)
- Ray Manzarek (keyboardist of The Doors; interviewed for "Al' America," and on-stage at an event sponsored by the California Institute of Integral Studies)
- Paul Simon (review of documentary about him for KQED)
- Paul McCartney (review of documentary about him for KQED)
- Glen Campbell (review of documentary about him for KQED)
- G.E. Smith (guitarist, former “Saturday Night Live” bandleader; interviewed for “Al’ America”)
- Dick Dale (singer-guitarist, best known for “Miserlou,” which anchored Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction”; interviewed for “Al’ America”)
- Wanda Jackson (rock singer who performed with Elvis Presley in the 1950s)
- Gillian Welch (Nashville singer)
- Warren Hellman (founder of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival)
- Jerry Martini (saxophonist, co-founder of Sly and The Family Stone)
- Marcel Khalife (Lebanese oudist, composer)
- Kazem al-Sahir (Iraqi singer)
- Ustad Farida Mahwash (Afghan singer)
- Joshua Nelson (“Kosher Gospel” singer)
- Chava Alberstein (Israeli singer)
- Daniel Barenboim (international conductor)
- Peter Sellars (theater/music director)
- George Crumb (Pulitzer Prize-winning composer)
- Herb Alpert (trumpeter; group interview with UCLA students)
- Inbar Bakal (Israeli singer; written for GlobalPost)
- Natacha Atlas (Egyptian-British singer)
- Bill T. Jones (choreographer/dancer/creator of Broadway show "Fela!" about Nigerian Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti)
- Sellassie (San Francisco rapper)
- Kiran Ahluwalia (Indian-Canadian singer)
- Randy Weston (jazz pianist)
- Pharoah Sanders (jazz saxophonist)
- Meklit Hadero (singer)
- Cheb i Sabbah (DJ, producer)
- Rami Khalife (Lebanese-French pianist-composer)
- Emel Mathlouthi (Arab Spring singer from Tunisia; 2016 interview-profile)
- Emel Mathlouthi (Arab Spring singer from Tunisia; 2012 interview-profile)
~ Art ~
- El Anatsui (African sculptor)
- Sophie Calle (French photographer)
- Larry Sultan (photographer)
- Rex Ray (graphic design artist)
- Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries (Seoul-based web group)
- Julian Schnabel (painter-sculptor-filmmaker)
- Bill Fontana (sound artist)
- Carlos Villa (artist and educator)
- Alice Neel (painter)
- Anoka Faruqee (painter)
- Tania Bruguera (Cuban artist)
- Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller (Leonard Cohen "Poetry Machine" organ)
- Trevor Paglen (government surveillance artist)
- Robert Rauschenberg (painter-sculptor-collagist)
- Deborah Roberts (collagist)
- Lonnie Holley (outsider artist from the American south)
- Roz Chast (New Yorker cartoonist)
- William T. Wiley (multimedia artist; first interview with him)
- William T. Wiley (second interview, when he had Parkinson's and two years before his death)
- Lee Friedlander (photographer)
- Mika Rottenberg (video artist, "Tropical Breeze," "Mary's Cherries")
- Roy De Forest (painter)
- Eileen David (painter)
- Greg Gossel (collagist)
- Teo Gonzalez (painter)
- Danae Anderson (painter)
- Jennifer Karady (photographer)
- Christopher Sims (photographer)
- Lawrence Ferlinghetti (poet and painter)
- David Buckingham (word sculptor)
- Andy Diaz Hope (sculptor)
- Katherine Sherwood (abstract painter)
- Miguel Farias and Allison Reilly (photographers)
- Judy Pfaff (mixed-media artist)
- Augustine Kofie (mixed-media artist)
- Henri Cartier-Bresson (photographer)
- Takeshi Shikama (photographer)
- Fritz Liedtke (photographer)
- Max Cole (painter)
- Alexis Manheim (painter)
- Steven Albert (painter)
- Koki Tanaka (video artist)
- Dan Witz (street artist)
- Pablo Picasso
- Gertrude Stein
- Leonardo Drew review (sculptor)
- Leonardo Drew interview
- Romare Bearden (collagist, painter)
- Faith Ringgold (multimedia artist)
- Richard Learoyd (photographer)
- Sandow Birk ("American Qur'an" illustrator)
- David Maisel (photographer; first interview)
- David Maisel (second interview)
- Martin Wong ("Human Instamatic" artist)
- Eddie Colla (street artist)
- Jeremy Novy (street artist)
- Marco Breuer (abstract photographer)
- Hassan Elahi (self-surveillance artist)
- Blek le Rat (French street artist)
- Charles Gatewood (photographer of Bob Dylan, underground scenes)
- Taha Belal (Egyptian artist)
- Michael Dweck (photographer, ｡ｰHabana Libre")
- Mark Bradford (collage artist)
- Susan Burnstine (photographer)
- Stephen De Staebler (sculptor)
- Jean Paul Gaultier (fashion designer)
- Richard Serra (sculptor and painter)
- Cindy Sherman (photographer)
- Mary Ellen Mark (photographer, best known for "Indian Circus")
- Camille Seaman (photographer who specializes in Arctic and Antarctic icebergs)
- Apex (street artist)
- Wayne Thiebaud (painter)
- Jay DeFeo (painter)
- Lee Miller (photographer who worked with Man Ray)
- Mark Ulriksen (New Yorker magazine artist)
- Camille Seaman (photographer)
- Eleanor Coppola (visual artist, matriarch of Coppola family)
- Gordon Parks (photographer)
- Peter Max (1960s poster artist)
- Chuck Close (grid painter)
- Carrie Mae Weems (MacArthur Grant winner for photography and other work)
- Sana Mazinani (Iranian-American artist)
- Robbie Conal (street artist)
- Katy Grannan (photographer)
- Zanele Muholi (South African photographer)
- Zio Ziegler (street artist)
- Jim Campbell (LED artist)
- Seward Johnson (sculptor)
- Nina Katchadourian (self-portrait artist)
- Second Nina Katchadourian piece
- Margaret Keane ("Big Eyes" painter)
- Wayne White ("word painter" and former set designer for Pee-wee's Playhouse)
- Ai Weiwei (a review of his Alcatraz exhibit)
- Keith Haring (a review of a major posthumous retrospective in San Francisco)
- Lalla Essaydi (U.S.-Moroccan photographer)
- Neil Gaiman (British graphic novelist/screenwriter)
- Diane Arbus (photographer)
- Alice Neel (painter; review of her major retrospective)
- Sohei Nishino (Japanese photographer-map maker)
- Tomás Saraceno (Argentine sculptor)
- Lynn Hershman Leeson (pioneering feminist artist)
- McArthur Binion (African-American grid painter)
- Manuel Neri (member of the Bay Area Figurative Movement)
- Bruce Conner (influential artist in many genres, including the music video)
- Annie Leibovitz (seminal photographer, in an appearance she made with Gloria Steinem)
- Alex Katz (New York painter)
- René Magritte (Surrealist painter)
- John Chiara (photographer)
- Fran Lebowitz (writer; interviewed for review of exhibit on photographer Peter Hujar)
- Susan Meiselas (war photographer)
- John Akomfrah (British artist, filmmaker)
- Andy Warhol (review of retrospective "Andy Warhol – From A to B and Back Again”)
- Hans Hofmann (abstract painter)
- JR (French artist)
- Mildred Howard (Oakland artist)
- Chris Dorley-Brown (British photographer)
- Raymond Saunders (mixed-media artist)
- Nam June Paik (media artist)
- Wangechi Mutu (Kenyan-American artist)
- Isaac Julien (British multimedia artist)
- David Park (review of his 2020 SFMOMA exhibit)
- David Park (for the exhibit of his "Woman with Coffeepot" painting
- Joan Mitchell (abstract painter)
- Judy Chicago (groundbreaking feminist artist, "The Dinner Party")
- Martin Wang (Chinese-Latino painter)
- Emily Jacir (Palestinian-American visual artist)
- Ajlan Gharem (Saudi photographer-sculptor)
Other Articles Of Note
A panoramic view of Le Puy-en-Velay, a hilltop town in France. Photo from Wikimedia Commons.
- An essay that revisits research done on Islamic architecture and its influence on a major cathedral in Le Puy, France
- A report from the Sahara Desert, near Timbuktu, Mali, on the Festival in the Desert
- Article from Tehran about Iran's biggest film festival
- From Iran, a reported essay on the city of Tehran
- Feature on touring exhibit of Afghan treasures that were saved from warfare
- News feature on the “Little Kabul” community of Afghan Americans – published in March of 2001, it was one of the first U.S. articles to profile this Afghan community
- Article on the United Nations, timed to its 60th anniversary
- Analysis of U.N. report that said Darfur violence wasn't genocide
- Analysis of Rwandan president’s role in his country’s genocide
- Essay on the importance of Somalia
- Essay from 2002 on how dictators like Saddam Hussein can be removed from power by forcing them into exile
- Book review of works on journalist Daniel Pearl
- Celebrities who advocate social causes
- Feature on how the U.S. government kept tabs on John Lennon, Pete Seeger, Lenny Bruce and other celebrity activists
- Story, headlined “The Last Days of Privacy,” on increased tracking of people’s information
- Review of SFMOMA exhibit, "Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance, and the Camera Since 1870"
- Interview with dance choreographer Bill T. Jones about his play "Fela!"
- Interview with dance choreographer Alonzo King
- Article on Hurricane Katrina and complaints that the government's response was racist
- Analysis on how George Bush’s response to Katrina sank his presidency
- Profile of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il
- Profile of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah
- Story about Iraqi bloggers risking their lives to get their views across
- How war images from Iraq compare to those from Vietnam
- Article on U.S. prison, “enemy combatants,” at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
- Article on "Made in Palestine" art exhibit
- Feature on photo exhibit of Arab women
- Feature story on “Arab Labor,” Israeli TV series
- Article on Al Jazeera's new English-language network
- Feature on Omar ibn Said, a U.S. slave from the 19th century, who wrote his autobiography in Arabic
- Opinion piece on the future of newspapers, translated into Dutch, for the Amsterdam daily Trouw
- Story on newspapers' increasing reliance on celebrity coverage and the like
- Story on U.S. veterans of Iraq War who became homeless
- Examination of San Francisco's homeless problem, which entailed spending the night in a homeless shelter
- An essay that considers the music of John and Alice Coltrane
- A music posting that considers the 50-year legacy of John Coltrane's A Love Supreme
- Essay on "musical repeatism" - or the value of listening to the same song over and over again
- Essay on how to listen to songs in a language you don't understand
- Cover story in SF Weekly on the 50th anniversary of the Black Panthers Party, featuring exclusive interviews with Black Panthers Party members
