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A lifelong Southern Californian, Nathan Callahan was born in Hollywood, raised in the Valley in the glow of Rocketdyne and ripened in Orange County during the days of John Schmitz and Larry Agran. When not writing, Callahan is a public affairs radio host at KUCI 88.9 fm — located on the campus of the University of California at Irvine, his alma mater. The SoCal Byte, his audio essay program, broadcasts every Friday at 8:50 am Pacific Time. Callahan can also be heard Fridays on the news-in-review program Weekly Signals at 8:00 am with co-host Mike Kaspar. "By far, the two most interesting, insightful voices on Southern California commercial-free radio belong to Mike Kaspar and Nathan Callahan on Weekly Signals," according to the OC Weekly. In addition to commentary, Callahan and Kaspar have interviewed some of the world's most fascinating people including Seymour Hersh, Barbara Ehrenreich, Arianna Huffington, Joseph Wilson, Daniel Ellsberg, Errol Morris, Garrison Keillor, Helen Thomas, John Sayles, Lewis Lapham, Philip Glass, Paul Krugman, Terry Jones, Susan Jacoby, Anne Lamott, and George McGovern. From 2006 until 2010, Callahan was the co-host with Kaspar on KUCI's filmschool. Outside the airwaves, Callahan has written Suburban Manners: An Irreverent View of Politics, Wealth and Culture in Orange County, California and Interviews. He is currently at work on Mixed Nuts: Sketches of Mortality, Love, and Dysfunction in the Human Family with illustrator Louis Netter and The Open Air Museum, a psycho-journey in Carl Diedrich's transcendental Volkswagon van with artist Michael Woodcock. On Sundays and holidays, Callahan collaborates with Bob Aul on the Sixth Street Bridge, as well as the darkly humorous, internationally notorious comic strip Pet President. A contributing writer for the OC Weekly beginning with its premier issue in 1995, Callahan was recognized by The New York Times for helping break through Orange County's conservative media stranglehold. In 2005, after an intense migraine, he left the Weekly. Responsible
for the initial creation of the Orange
County Great Park, Callahan has inadvertently earned a reputation
as a cynic, clairvoyant
journalist, and traitor.
According to Congressman, actor, talk show host and U.S. presidential
candidate "B-1" Bob
Dornan, Nathan Callahan is a cowardly pseudonym for a Marxist
Democratic Party Congresional campaign manager.
In the real world, Callahan has been employed as a cook, an auto worker,
a graphic
designer,
a
musician, a municipal adminstrative aide, a xeriscaper, a window
dresser, a bookseller, a political consultant, and a writer. In the early 1990s, Callahan co-wrote and edited "Shut Up, Fag!": Quotations from the Files of Congressman Bob Dornan with William Payton. With its unsettling title and contemptible subject matter, the book became a B-list cult success. TV and radio interviews followed. So did Dornan. An urban hiker, gardener, and corvid enthusiast, Callahan lives and works in Irvine, California. |