Blip

About this episode

Yale goes one-on-one with author Larry Baker ("Flamingo Rising", "Athens America", "A Good Man") Larry Baker was raised an air force brat and spent much of his childhood traveling with his family all over the country and then overseas. Baker, who holds degrees in English from the University of Oklahoma and a doctorate from the University of Iowa, put himself through college by managing movie theaters. He once ran the Admiral Drive-in in Tulsa, Oklahoma, one of the worlds largest outdoor theaters and the inspiration for the Flamingo Drive-in Theater in his book. During his "movie" career Baker was robbed four times, shot at once, stabbed once, beat up by a motorcycle gang, sold sex education books at intermission, found a dead woman sitting on a toilet at his drive-in, and caused a thirteen-car pileup on an interstate highway nearby with windblown fireworks. Baker’s other jobs have included time as a sportswriter, pizza restaurant manager, security guard, ad agency writer, twice-elected and twice-defeated politician, and a short stint as master-of-ceremonies at a burlesque/strip club. Join Yale and Larry for a entertaining half-hour chat about Iowa City politics and the art of writing a good story.

• Release Date

  Jan 11, 2012

• Runtime

  29:54