The End of Interviews July 6, 2016

This is a neglected passage that needs posting, as it belatedly marks the end of an important era for me.  For ten years (2005-2015), I conducted and wrote interviews for the open-access genetics journal PLoS Genetics.  What a rich and meaningful experience this has been!  The Journal’s editors gave me free rein to contact and interview anyone who happened to interest me and who had somehow impacted the world of genetics – scientists, writers, technical innovators, administrators, even an architect and a judge.  These interviews involved deep research, a bit of extra travel, transcription, editing, and negotiating, not to mention the joy of face-to-face encounter with so many fascinating subjects.  As a Buddhist acquaintance of mine, who was also conducted interviews, once commented, “To give someone else your full attention is a gift to them and to you.”  Indeed.

When I retired, I made a decision that I would continue this journey until its decadal anniversary in 2015.  To meet that goal, I struggled to re-write and publish a long languishing interview as well as meet with a local interviewee whom I had long held on the back burner.  These interviews saw the light of day a year ago.

But there were a few other loose ends that needed knotting.  First, I had in my hands the audio tapes that will be important archival material for future historians of science, and I knew I didn’t want them just to languish in my own study.  I contacted the American Philosophical Society who has a special interest in Genetics.  (They are the reservoir for audiotapes conducted by Horace Freeland Judson who wrote “The Eighth Day of Creation”, for example.)  Fortunately they seemed eager to archive my collection as well, and we completed that transfer this past spring. 

A second lingering project involved publishing the complete collection in a book format.  The first five years’ worth had been published by Cold Spring Harbor Press under the title “Speaking of Genetics”, but CSHP was not interested in a second volume.  As a budding designer, I decided to produce my own book, possibly under the title “Cross Talk” and found a local book designer who offered to take me under his wing.  Once I fell into the mode of taking it easy (see previous post), however, I let the ball drop, but I fully intend to pick it back up.

My editors, fondly referred to as “the Gregs”, tidied up the third loose end in writing a lovely piece for publication in PLoS Genetics to mark the end of my oeuvre, and it felt great.  It was another body of work nurtured, loved, and completed.  The end of an important chapter and one I cherish and am proud of.  Time to move on.