Franken's at it again. After launching his bestselling Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them (Dutton, Aug. 29, 2003), with a knock-down, drag-out BEA fight with Bill O'Reilly that spurred a high-profile lawsuit and enough media coverage to move close to a million copies, he's stepped up to a new media platform in order to better goad his conservative adversaries. On March 31, Franken will begin hosting a radio show called The O'Franken Factor, in the noon to 3 p.m. slot at Air America Radio, the new liberal talk radio network owned by Progress Media. Featuring a mix of sketch comedy, interviews and call-ins, the show is already scheduled to air in Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco, while stations in other major media markets are finalizing deals with the broadcaster. Listeners will also be able to tune into www.airamericaradio.com to hear live and archived shows. By going head-to-head with Franken's longtime nemesis, Rush Limbaugh, Franken and Progress chairman Evan Cohn are showing their commitment to defeating the conservative radio goliath.

PW: Are you planning to interview authors on your show?

Al Franken: If I were on right now, I'd be having Ron Suskind, Paul Krugman, Molly Ivins and Michael Moore. I'll probably have those people on anyway when I'm on the air. Not just to promote the books, though. We'd also talk about what's going on [in the news]. We're already starting to do interviews. We just did one with Michael Massing [author of a recent New York Review of Books article about how the press was misled about weapons of mass destruction and Iraq.]

PW: Most of those potential guests are big names. Do you see your show as a launching pad for less well-known liberal authors from small- to mid-sized publishers?

AF: Oh, absolutely. Michael Massing isn't a household name. I don't think people tune into radio because of the name of the guest. I don't think they excitedly go, "Oh, Krugman's on." But I do think they will excitedly listen to Krugman or Suskind because of what they have to say. It doesn't matter to me whether someone's on the bestseller list or whether they're #12,803, as long as the content is going to be fascinating to people. My co-host, Katherine Lanpher, once told me that soon we're going to be dividing the world into "good talkers" and "bad talkers." I'd like to have on authors who are good talkers.

PW: Do you have anyone on staff looking for books that might not otherwise catch your attention?

AF: Well, if you'd call us, that would be helpful. Seriously, we're going to have somebody whose job is to find authors and go beyond looking at catalogues.

PW: Do you see yourself as clarifying or refocusing the issues?

AF: We'll be looking at what the right wing is saying and analyze that. So I'll be having right-wing authors on as well. I mean, we want to take people to task for things they've written if they're not true.

PW: What conservative authors would you have?

AF: Someone like [National Review editor] Rich Lowry. We have a very odd relationship, but I would love to have Rich on. I'd have [Sean] Hannity on, but I don't think that's going to happen. I've been asked twice in the past month to go on his show and each time I said, "I'll do your show if you guarantee to do mine." But that hasn't happened.

PW: What about the format?

AF: Well, I think we're reinventing the wheel a little bit, at least tonally. This is going to be advocacy journalism. And there's going to be a lot of comedy. That's the point of this thing.