Sample Interview Questions for Pagan Kennedy on The Dangerous Joy of Dr. Sex
Pagan's specialized subjects:
General Interest. Features. Technology. Psychology. Women's. Sex. Books.
Pagan's Availability:
Nationwide by telephone. Travel by arrangement. Pagan is centered in Boston. Please email sfwppublicty@gmail.com if you are outside of the US or Canada.
“Kennedy excels at making the complex compelling...a stylish and wholly original triumph.”
—Publisher's Weekly Starred Review for The Dangerous Joy of Dr. Sex and Other True Stories
Sample Interview Questions for Pagan Kennedy:
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In a few months, a new edition of The Joy of Sex will appear in stores. How did the original edition change sex in America? How did its author transform himself from a nerdy virgin into an orgy king?
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You are a novelist and a journalist. Is your new book fiction or nonfiction? Why do you call it true stories?
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What kind of people do you profile in your book? What drew you to them?
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Two of the people you wrote about went on to receive MacArthur "genius" awards after you wrote about them. Discuss.
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What did you learn about innovation and invention from the stories of the people you profiled?
Notable facts from The Dangerous Joy of Dr. Sex and Other True Stories
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The Joy of Sex author, Dr. Alex Comfort, was, like Edgar Allen Poe and Lewis Carroll, an expert on snails. And he was a virgin throughout college. ("The Dangerous Joy of Dr. Sex")
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The "real" models for The Joy of Sex happened to be the paunchy middle-aged biologist author himself and his wife's close friend, a college librarian. ("The Dangerous Joy of Dr. Sex")
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Dr. Comfort was an avowed anarchist who sparred in the Tribune on the merits of war, in rhyming verse, with George Orwell -- when he was just twenty-two. ("The Dangerous Joy of Dr. Sex")
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MIT professor Amy Smith has developed a machine that grounds sorghum using air. Women in developing nations will be able to make their own hammer mills using materials readily available to them. ("Genius on Two dollars a day")
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A day after Pagan Kennedy's profile of her appeared in The New York Times, Professor Amy Smith received a phone call from Kofi Annan -- and a few weeks after that she was awarded a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant. ("Genius on Two dollars a day")
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Tiny electric waves to the brain -- called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) -- can make you smarter. Someday people might be able to carry a simple iPodlike device in their hands that they can attach to their heads to ease depression. ("Battery Powered Brain")
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Dr. Gordon Sato -- a survivor of the Japanese internment camp at Manzanar in California during WWII -- is turning the badlands of Eritrea into wetlands by drilling holes into the ground and planting mangroves. Once barren land now provides Eritrean coasts with a stabilizing force that contributes to the biodiversity of the region -- and gives Eritreans a steady source of food. ("The Chemist in the Desert")
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After Pagan Kennedy's article appeared in The Boston Globe Magazine, Sato won a $500,000 Blue Planet Prize to help him continue his work. He has now planted over one million trees worldwide. ("The Chemist in the Desert")
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There exist over one hundred "brain banks" in the United States alone. By researching human brain tissue, scientists hope to find cures for such illnesses as schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease. At the brain banks, the brains are kept at 80 degrees below freezing. You too can donate your brain to science -- as Pagan Kennedy has donated hers! ("One Room, Three Thousand Brains")
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Mahmood RezaeiKamalabad -- a mystic, artist, and auto mechanic -- has spent $90,000 on a Sense of Unity Machine that is designed to bring "harmony" and "cure diabetes." ("The Mystic Mechanic")
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Musician Conor Oberst has been soloing at clubs since he was thirteen. ("The Ballad of Conor Oberst")
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Neil Gershenfeld, an MIT professor, has developed "personal fabrication machines" that allow us to "mold anything from plastic to computer chips." ("How to Make (almost) anything")
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Using this personal fabrication machine technology, Saul Griffith, an MIT graduate, has created a device that makes eyeglasses for poor people in developing nations right on the spot -- instead of relying on finding exact matches among donated glasses. ("How to Make (almost) anything")
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Together with his friend Joost Bonsen, a graduate researcher at MIT, Saul Griffith has developed a cartoon strip for kids that teaches the science of inventing things. Called “Howtoons,” you can find them on the web at Howtoons.com. The goal is to get kids thinking about how to build stuff. ("How to Make (almost) anything")
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Like Professor Smith, Saul Griffith won the MacArthur "genius" grant, in 2007. ("How to Make (almost) anything")