Salon.com: Facing death on the mountain: What my father taught me on his last great climb

[Facing death on the mountain]( Facing death on the mountain: What my father taught me on his last great climb Signe Pike [Pundits worry: Nuclear threat reduced!]( Mainstream pundits worry: Threat of nuclear war may be reduced, and we can’t have that Gregory Shupak --------------------------------------------------------------- [Married at 15, or How he met my mother]( Married at 15, or How he met my mother Erin Keane --------------------------------------------------------------- [Metallica’s unlikely origin story]( Metallica’s unlikely origin story: Injecting Americana into the metal universe David Masciotra --------------------------------------------------------------- [Does CBS care about #MeToo?]( Does CBS care about #MeToo? The saga of “NCIS: New Orleans” producer Brad Kern continues Melanie McFarland --------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------- [“Simpsons” lifer reveals show’s secrets]( Mike Reiss, a writer and producer on the longest-running animated sitcom of all time, “The Simpsons,” gives Salon an exclusive look at how Homer, Marge, Lisa, Bart and the crew stay relevant after 30 years on the air. Reiss, a “Simpsons” lifer, has been with the show since its first episode in 1989 and says he could keep writing the show “forever.” His new book “Springfield Confidential: Jokes, Secrets, and Outright Lies from a Lifetime Writing for The Simpsons,” is a behind-the-scenes look at the beloved characters and how the writers’ room has evolved over 29 seasons. Donald Trump’s presidency has had a positive influence on the “show about human stupidity,” as Reiss calls it. “The Trump years have been a shot in the arm for the show. They've really been great for us,” Reiss told SalonTV. The show's quality or its creativity have always pegged to how weird the news is and how crazy society has gotten and it's never been better. The proof of this is—Donald Trump was elected President on November 8, 2016, on November 9th Fox called us and said, ‘You're picked up for two more years.’ He really is a job creator.” Watch the full episode above to hear which Simpsons character the writers most identifies with, and where exactly Springfield is located. Tune in for SalonTV's live shows, ["Salon Talks"]( and ["Salon Stage"]( , daily at noon ET / 9 a.m. PT and 4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT, streaming live on [Salon]( , [Facebook]( and [Periscope]( . [Mulder made David Duchovny an author]( Playing Fox Mulder on “The X-Files” taught two-time Golden Globe Award-winning actor and author David Duchovny more about being a good writer than his English literature degree from Yale. On “Salon Talks,” Duchovny explains to Salon’s executive editor Andrew O’Hehir how the ‘90s supernatural show, above all, taught him storytelling. Duchovny's first book “Holy Cow: A Modern-Day Dairy Tale” is New York Times best-seller and his most recent book, “Miss Subways,” is loosely based on the dark, comedic story around the Irish mythology-inspired Yeats play, “The Only Jealousy of Elmer.” Duchovny, who was always destined for a writing career of some sort, emphasizes his time on “The X-Files” set for helping form his writing style. “Any kind of drama better be plot heavy, especially television. It has to be plot-heavy,” Duchovny told SalonTV. “It stripped away that pretension of art for art's sake or language for language’s sake or a novel is a language experiment or some kind of Wittgenstein conception of language. They were like ‘F’ you David, give us a f**king good story! I’m gonna write stories and I’m gonna bring my love of language into it for sure, but I’m gonna make sure that I’m telling a story that’s worthwhile.” Watch the clip above to learn more about how Duchovny wanted to write a page-turner with “Miss Subways.” And watch the [full interview]( to hear more on how Duchovny wrote from a woman’s perspective. Tune in for SalonTV's live shows, ["Salon Talks"]( and ["Salon Stage"]( , daily at noon ET / 9 a.m. PT and 4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT, streaming live on [Salon]( , [Facebook]( and [Periscope]( . --------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------- [Ryan savaged for Father’s Day tweet]( Paul Ryan savaged for “tone-deaf” Father’s Day message Taylor Link --------------------------------------------------------------- [Cartoonist fired for anti-Trump drawings]( Award-winning cartoonist fired by major newspaper that is shifting to the right Taylor Link --------------------------------------------------------------- [These earbuds sound like a movie theater]( Save over 50% on total surround-sound earbuds Salon Marketplace --------------------------------------------------------------- [Mika: Trump is “obsessed” with sex!]( MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski delivers the truth about Donald Trump: “He’s obsessed with money and sex!” Travis Gettys --------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------- [Michael K. Williams]( The Emmy-nominated actor, who played Omar on HBO’s “The Wire,” talks about how he came into his latest role in the action thriller “SuperFly” with Salon’s D. Watkins. In the film, Williams plays Scatter, the wise mentor of the street game, not unlike the old school teachers he’s played on-screen—Omar, Chalky White in HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire” and Freddie Knight in HBO’s “The Night Of.” “I grew up idolizing brothers like that. I saw a lot of OGs and a lot of potential that got wasted," he said. No matter the character's circumstances, Williams' strategy is bringing humanity. “All my characters are a sum of all my experiences growing up in Brooklyn,” Williams said. “The main ingredient I bring in is compassion and empathy and the human being aspect… because I grew [up] in the hood, I got to see the other side of those people than how they were made to be depicted on the news in their cases.” Williams also opens up about another recent role, Leonard, the gay, cowboy hat-wearing Republican he plays in SundanceTV’s series “Hap and Leonard.” “For Leonard, all I saw was a black man who’s been oppressed. A black man who was bucking against tradition,” Williams said. The role speaks to Williams’ greater life’s goal as an actor. “I believe underneath all the prettiness, this nice suit, the nice haircut, and all that shit, I’m a fucking mess inside. I believe we’re all just one big mess underneath. It’s the messiness, it’s the ugliness that I’m most interested in because that’s where, hopefully through my work, I can give somebody freedom.” Watch the full episode above to hear about the project that’s near and dear to Williams, which he calls “my message to young people from my heart.” His VICE documentary on HBO “Raised in the System” explores America’s prisons through the lens of the systemic problems within the juvenile system’s school to prison pipeline. Tune in for SalonTV's live shows, ["Salon Talks"]( and ["Salon Stage"]( , daily at noon ET / 9 a.m. PT and 4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT, streaming live on [Salon]( , [Facebook]( and [Periscope]( . [Salon Talks: Edie Falco]( Whether it’s with her smile or her voice or, most indelibly, her expressive eyes, Edie Falco has a unique ability to draw audiences in. She did it, most famously, as Carmela Soprano, in HBO’s “The Sopranos,” and when that show ended, she kept it coming, first as the title character in Showtime’s “Nurse Jackie,” and then in a series of independent films, the latest being “Outside In,” which premieres in New York and Los Angeles on March 30. On “Salon Tallks,” Falco spoke with Salon’s Tom Roston about her character in “Outside In,” a teacher in a troubled marriage who finds purpose by helping one of her students, played by Jay Duplass, get out of jail. Falco says she values how the film covers “the gray areas of existence.” She discusses her animal rights activism, the similarities between Carmela Soprano and Ivanka Trump and what she says may be the best acting she’s ever done: It was on the night of Donald Trump’s election and she put on a good face for her middle school-aged son. “This is what you call democracy,” she recalls saying. “He kind of bought that. And since then, I haven’t stopped cursing,” the Emmy and Golden Globe Award winner joked. Check out the full interview to hear more from Falco about acting, the MeToo movement and “Outside In.” Tune in for SalonTV's live shows, ["Salon Talks"]( and ["Salon Stage"]( , daily at noon ET / 9 a.m. PT and 4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT, streaming live on [Salon]( , [Facebook]( and [Periscope]( . --------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------- [Cut Trump supporters out of your life]( Cut Trump supporters off: The horror of migrant kids taken from parents demands personal action Chauncey DeVega --------------------------------------------------------------- [Health care threatened for 130 million]( Trump administration threatens health care for 130 million people with pre-existing conditions Lis Power --------------------------------------------------------------- [Big biz shrugs at wage theft penalties]( For big corporations, wage theft penalties are the price of doing business Sasha Kramer --------------------------------------------------------------- [American identity in crisis]( America’s patriotic fervor is a epidemic problem, supported by the GOP Jeremy Sherman --------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------- [Get it on Google Play]( [Help]( | [Advertising Information]( Copyright ©2018 Salon Media Group, Inc. 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