James R. Spring - ProfilesArchive

About Me

JAMES R. SPRING : has lived much of his adult life in Latin America. From slumming as a charter boat captain, to running contraband across borders, his careers have taken him to some of the most remote pockets on the planet. He has contributed to This American Life, heard on National Public Radio, and has been featured in radio expeditions for Atlantic Public Media on NPR. His radio assignments have ranged from 'embedding' with the Minutemen at the border, to covering the Baja 1000 off-road race - to motorcycling solo through Mexico's Sierra Madre where he recorded his experiences with Tarahumara drug traffickers. He previously served as a foreign correspondent for Cox Newspapers.James resides in San Diego and does monthly readings at First Friday Prose - www.FirstFridayProse.com. (Represented by Sterling Lord Literistic) See - and hear - more at JamesRSpring.com /www.JamesRSpring.com

My Interests

Click the arrow beside the reel to forward to James Spring's next story. (It takes a moment to load.)

Writing, travel, offroad motorcycling/racing, surf kayaking, SCUBA, anthropology, rupestrian art, marine biology, Baja, smart public radio.

I'd like to meet:

Scott Carrier, Dave Eggers, George Saunders, Cormac McCarthy, J.D. Salinger, and a whole lot o' dead people...

Music:

Really weird... ready? Steely Dan, Nick Drake, Ben Folds, the Eagles, Nirvana, Sublime, James Taylor, the Police, Foo Fighters, Paris coffee house jazz, Amos Lee, Damien Rice, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Tiromancino

Movies:

Good Will Hunting, Garden State, Dust to Glory, Crash, Little Miss Sunshine, The Squid and the Whale, The Constant Gardener, most anything by Almodovar...

Television:

TiVo has made TV bearable. This American Life (Showtime), The Office, The Daily Show, I Shouldn't Be Alive. Deadliest Catch.

Books:

I could fill pages here. Here's an incomprehensive list of top-of-minders right now: The Road (Cormac McCarthy), The Sun Also Rises (Hemingway), Pastoralia (George Saunders), Church of Dead Girls (Stephen Dobyns). I like Hunter S. Thompson and Don Winslow and Charles Bukowski. Other great reads include: Under the Banner of Heaven (Jon Krakauer), The Perfect Storm (Sebastian Junger), Shadow Divers (Robert Kurston), Hot Zone (Richard Preston), The Last Season (Eric Blehm), The Things They Carried (Tim O'Brien). Add in books by J. Maarten Troost, Ayun Halliday, Edward Marriott, Charles Bowden, Peter Matthiessen, Rory Stewart, Mark Bowden, Allan C. Weisbecker, Tim Cahill. This American Life alumni: Don't Get Too Comfortable (David Rakoff), Take the Cannoli (Sarah Vowell), Beware of God (Shalom Auslander) - and my pal who wrote I Am Not Myself These Days (Josh Kilmer Purcell). Lit-dork shout-out to my writer pals: MoonPies and Movie Stars (Amy Wallen), The Writers Book of Days (and lots more by Judy Reeves), and watch for good stuff coming soon from New York writer Susan Henderson...

Heroes:

Joseph Campbell (even posthumously). Ira Glass (a man who follows his vision and doesn't compromise). Al Gore (for resurrecting himself... What! He wasn't dead?)

My Blog

The Intersection of a Kidnapping & Turning 40: 2 Girls rescued by reporter James Spring in Baja

Viana Carelli and Faith Carelli rescued by reporter in Baja, returned to family Fugitive parents wanted for murder in custody By Jennifer Squires - Sentinel staff writerSanta Cruz Sentinel See more vi...
Posted by James R. Spring on Thu, 10 Apr 2008 01:06:00 PST

Elizabeth Crane is so good that it makes me angry.

There aren't enough hours in the month to get through the books I'm supposed to read, but that doesn't stop me from buying new ones. It's like a sickness. I've been reading a ton of short storie...
Posted by James R. Spring on Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:54:00 PST

"Mix-Tape" stories include: THIS AMERICAN LIFE, The Bed Story, Big Wheel Deprivation, and more.

To forward to a different MP3 story, click on the arrow beside the right reel of the "mix tape" on the homepage......
Posted by James R. Spring on Wed, 11 Apr 2007 10:03:00 PST