"From one of our most admired and visible young writers, a superb new novel about the collision between the forces of faith and an overstimulated, overfed, spiritually overextended America.

Walter Kirn is one of the most acute observers of contemporary American life that we have. In Mission to America, he harnesses that gift to a satirical yet moving tale of a stranger in a strange land that just happens to be our own."

-Quote taken from Random House b/c they said it perfectly.

Kirn is also the author of Thumbsucker which has been adapted into a film.

In our interview we talk about his book as well as his Mormon background, masturbation (seems to be a re-occurring theme here) and how Walter was discovered as a writer.

Here are the segments that were broadcast on the show:

Segment 1
Segment 2
Segment 3
Segment 4

Here's the entire two hour show:

The playlist

November 27, 2005, hour #1
November 27, 2005, hour #2

If you can't stream the above segments, right mouse click on the links, save them to your hard drive and then play them from there.