Originally broadcast at 1:00 p.m. ET Monday, July 26, 2021.

Michael Krasny Ph.D. is well-known and well-loved for his signature and captivating sense of humor, a gift that has defined and blessed his illustrious career. He is delighted to be leading the Interfaith Week’s focus on Laughter as Healing.

A scholar and Professor of English Language and Literature at San Francisco State University, he has also taught at Stanford, the University of San Francisco, and the University of California, as well as in the Fulbright International Institutes. A veteran interviewer for the nationally broadcast City Arts and Lectures, he is the author of three acclaimed books, Let There Be Laughter: A Treasury of Great Jewish Humor and What It All Means; Off Mike: A Memoir of Talk Radio; and Literary Life and Spiritual Envy: An Agnostic’s Search.

As an award-winning broadcast journalist and as host of KQED’s Forum with Michael Krasny, a role in which he has served since 1993, he has interviewed many of the world’s leading political, cultural, literary, science, and technology figures, as well as major figures from the world of entertainment.

Michael Krasny is the recipient of numerous awards for his broadcasting, writing and scholarship, including, most recently, a Silver SPUR Lifetime Achievement Award, the most prominent award for lifetime civic achievement in San Francisco, and a 2020 Simpsonista Prize for enabling writers and writing and readers and reading across generations. He has also been awarded the S.Y. Agnon Medal for Intellectual Achievement; The Eugene Block Award for Human Rights Journalism; the James Madison Freedom of Information Award; the Excellence in Journalism Award from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association; Career Achievement Award from the Society of Professional Journalists; and an award from the Radio and Television News Directors Association.

He holds a B.A. (cum laude) and M.A. from Ohio University and a PhD from the University of Wisconsin.

This program is made possible by the Eugene Ross McCarthy Memorial Fund.

About Chautauqua Institution: Chautauqua Institution is a community on the shores of Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York state that comes alive each summer with a unique mix of fine and performing arts, lectures, interfaith worship and programs, and recreational activities. As a community, we celebrate, encourage and study the arts and treat them as integral to all of learning, and we convene the critical conversations of the day to advance understanding through civil dialogue. CHQ Assembly is the online expression of Chautauqua Institution's mission.