The indomitable Christopher Gaze talks with Joseph Planta about the 17th season of Bard on the Beach, the plays they’re putting on (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Measure for Measure, The Winter’s Tale, and Troilus and Cressida), and other things Shakespeare.

Spirit of the West’s John Mann, opening tonight as the Emcee in Cabaret, talked with Joseph Planta about his starring role in the Arts Club Theatre Company’s latest. Mann discussed the Kander and Ebb musical, performing on the stage, his tour-de-force performance in last year’s Miss Saigon, and the legendary role that won Joel Grey a Tony and an Oscar.

Journalist Julian Sher recently spoke with Joseph Planta about his new book, Angels of Death: Inside the Bikers’ Global Crime Empire (Knopf, 2006), which he co-authored with William Marsden, a timely look at the Hells Angels, and other bikers who’ve met the attention of the public, not to mention law enforcement.

Film and television producer Brian O’Dea talked with Joseph Planta about his past, which includes prison stays for drug smuggling, cocaine addiction, and more, which he writes about in his new compelling book, High: Confessions of a Pot Smuggler (Random House, 2006), soon to be a major motion picture.

A couple of years ago, NBC News and Today Show correspondent Mike Leonard decided to take his elderly parents and his children on a RV trip across the United States. He talked with Joseph Planta about the journey, its foibles, hilarity, bonding, and more, which are recounted in his new book, The Ride of Our Lives: Roadside Lessons of an American Family (Ballantine, 2006), soon to be a major motion picture.

Political pundit and former bureaucrat Bob Plecas talked with Joseph Planta about his new book, Bill Bennett: A Mandarin’s View (Douglas & McIntyre, 2006), a memoir on the former premier of British Columbia (1975-1986).

Satirist and bestselling author Tony Hendra talked with Joseph Planta about his new novel, The Messiah of Morris Avenue (Henry Holt, 2006), a funny and insightful novel about what would happen if Christ came back to walk amongst a nation where the religious right dominates every aspect of American life. Hendra also offers his thoughts about the current political climate in the United States, and his previous memoir, Father Joe, is also discussed.

What are the issues that most concerns the world today? The gap between the rich and poor? Terrorism? Hunger? Jean-Marc Leger, President of Leger Marketing was on to talk with Joseph Planta about a new worldwide survey he’s directed, a remarkable poll of 53,749 citizens in 68 countries on what the world is concerned with. Accompanying the survey is a new book which reports on their findings, Voice of the People 2006: What the World Thinks on Today’s Global Issues (Transcontinental, 2006).

Michael Kwan talked cars and his new website, michaelkwan.com, with Joseph Planta.

Acclaimed journalist and conservationist Terry Glavin talked with Joseph Planta about his new book Waiting for the Macaws: And Other Stories from the Age of Extinctions (Viking, 2006), a fascinating and well-written book on his travels around the world encountering peoples attitudes toward plant and animal species, as well as languages that are seemingly fading away.

Political strategist Jonathan Ross, of TDH Strategies, talked with Joseph Planta about the current Liberal leadership race.

Former National Post film columnist, Katrina Onstad talked with Joseph Planta about her new book, How Happy to Be (McClelland and Stewart, 2006), an engaging book about an entertainment writer at a failing neo-con paper, who’s celebrity-obsessed and trying to find herself.

Author and journalist Heather Pringle joined Joseph Planta to discuss her new book, The Master Plan: Himmler’s Scholars and the Holocaust (Viking, 2006), an engrossing and fascinating look at Heinrich Himmler and the elite Nazi institute, the Ahnenerbe, which was responsible for manipulating science and re-writing pre-history during Hitler’s regime.

Leah McLaren from the Globe and Mail talked with Joseph Planta about her new bestselling novel, The Continuity Girl (HarperCollins, 2006). She discussed her book’s heroine, the ‘sperm bandit’ Meredith Moore, and the reaction that the book has had so far, including a rather savage review from Ryan Bigge.

Neil Simon’s Lost in Yonkers is running at the Metro Theatre until 11 February 2006. Its director Alison Schamberger talked with Joseph Planta about the production.