Foreword:
“An eye-opening peek into the world of butterfly collecting. From true crime to heated debates between butterfly conservationists and butterfly farmers, this book reads like a novel,” says the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette.
The continuing journalistic adventure of Peter Laufer has already resulted in thousands of hours of network reporting from the front lines of conflict and social change around the world, and a growing shelf of books dealing with social and political issues: from immigration (Wetback Nation) to talk radio (Inside Talk Radio) to the pleasures of an intriguing American art form: neon signs (Neon Nevada, with Sheila Swan Laufer). Laufer’s books include one that focuses on American soldiers who return from Iraq opposed to the war, Mission Rejected, and Hope Is a Tattered Flag, written with Markos Kounalakis, offering scenarios for recovery post-Bush. The Dangerous World of Butterflies, published by Lyons Press, is a direct result of Laufer’s speaking tour for Mission Rejected. As a follow-up to The Dangerous World of Butterflies, Laufer wrote Forbidden Creatures, a study of the so-called exotic pets and their “owners.” The third book in this natural history trilogy is No Animals Were Harmed, published in 2011.
Peter Laufer is the James Wallace Chair in Journalism at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication.
Radio work by Peter Laufer includes the creation of a magazine show from around the world for the National Geographic Society and a radio adaption of its investigative reporting for Mother Jones magazine. He co-anchored a Washington Monthly magazine weekly radio talk show, and provides coaching and program consulting for talk radio shows and stations worldwide. In the past, he was a news correspondent for NBC News, reported for CBS and ABC radio, and was the Berlin voice of the public radio program “Marketplace.” Peter Laufer’s years in radio work resulted in his winning virtually every major award available to broadcast journalists.
The articles and op-ed pieces by Peter Laufer appear in a wide variety of publications, from the San Francisco Chronicle to Mother Jones magazine, from the Washington Monthly to Penthouse.
On television, Peter Laufer has produced and directed an award winning documentary film on immigration in Europe (“Exodus to Berlin”), and anchored national television talk shows such as LinkTV’s “FAQs”. Laufer is a frequent lecturer on the role of talk radio in American society and the crisis on the U.S.-Mexican border.
Peter Laufer anchored the live Sunday morning KPFA (Berkeley) current affairs program which features guest interviews and interaction with the audience (listen to an excerpt here: KPFA), a show he first moved to Sunday mornings on KKGN in San Francisco (listen to past programs here: Green 960), and then to the same time on Sonoma County’s community radio radio station KOWS. It aired Saturday mornings on KPNW at 1120 AM in Eugene, hometown of the champion Ducks!
Read the Ben Fong-Torres San Francisco Chronicle “Radio Waves” column for more on Laufer’s talk radio work.
Watch Peter Laufer talk about his butterfly book with Jon Stewart on the Daily Show.
Read the Washington Post review of The Dangerous World of Butterflies, and the Los Angeles Times review.
Watch Peter Laufer discuss his book Wetback Nation with Fox TV’s Bill O’Reilly.
The dazzling Forbidden Creatures dust jacket, designed by Georgiana Goodwin:
