Book Smart

Radio has always served as an ideal vehicle for the Wisconsin Idea, pushing the boundaries of the university far beyond Madison. Jim Fleming recalls a colleague telling how, as a young mother from tiny Bayfield, Wisconsin Public Radio served as her connection to the world beyond her child-rearing life.

For 30 years, Fleming has spread words throughout the world with WPR. Dividing his time between the measured pages of “Chapter-a-Day,” the dulcet tones of “Morning Classics” and the insightful features of the nationally syndicated “To The Best Of Our Knowledge,” Fleming gets paid to do what he never thought possible: read books, listen to music and talk to (and about) interesting people.

Frank Lloyd Wright certainly falls into that final category, and “Death in a Prairie House” has proven a prime example of a Wisconsin story with global appeal. A slim yet thorough volume, it deftly explores one of the most mysterious facets of architect Wright’s life: the gruesome murders of seven people, including Wright’s mistress, Mamah Borthwick Cheney, and her children, that culminated with the fiery destruction of Wright’s home Taliesin in 1914. Though rarely discussed, the events had a profound effect on Wright’s already complex personal life and architectural designs.

“It’s no secret that all of these people were killed at Taliesin, but nobody had written or talked about it,” says Fleming. “Wright’s relationship with Mamah Cheney seems to have been the real thing; she seems his equal in passion and intellectualism. It’s such a shame that she was destroyed; nobody really knows why.”

Choosing and preparing a book for “Chapter-a-Day” does not always come easily. Some excellent prose lends itself poorly to reading aloud. Fleming and his colleagues must edit text and shape books into 10–20 segments of half an hour apiece, creating stories that stand on their own merits yet — like the best radio serials — entice listeners to tune in tomorrow.

“In the process of repackaging it as an audiobook, I had to listen and make sure it would work,” says Fleming. “It’s sometimes painful to listen to yourself, but in this case the story caught me. I found myself really enjoying it, and that says something about Bill Drennan and his work.”

Fleming is perhaps best known for his work with the Peabody Award-winning “To The Best Of Our Knowledge,” a “radio salon” bringing many voices in to discuss a single topic each week. Among “To The Best Of Our Knowledge”’s 300,000 weekly listeners, nearly a third tune in on downloaded podcasts. This new technology has only increased the show’s popularity; that’s good news for Wisconsin.

“Because ‘To The Best Of Our Knowledge’ is a national show, we can attract top-notch national guests. But it also means that Wisconsin achieves national and international recognition when we’re the source of a program like that,” says Fleming. “When you know your program plays from Seattle to Miami, Wisconsin’s intellectual integrity is demonstrated well outside the boundaries of the state.”