Talking pirates and Blackbeard with New Hampshire Public Radio

The double-header finale of NBC's "Crossbones" airs on Saturday, and in anticipation I was the guest on New Hampshire Public Radio's "Word of Mouth" this afternoon.

My third book, The Republic of Pirates, was the inspiration for the NBC series, which stars John Malkovich as Blackbeard, but our discussion was more broad, asking the question: why has Blackbeard's pirate cohort had such a hold on the popular culture and imagination? Just in the past year, after all, there's been "Black Sails" and Ubisoft's Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag, and news of another Pirates of the Caribbean film en route.

Find the answers by listening to the clip at NHPR's website.

Also, for those of you in easternmost Maine and the Canadian province of New Brunswick, I'll be your CBC radio guest on Tuesday morning, 8:15 Atlantic, talking about my 29-part newspaper series, Unsettled, which just wrapped up at the Portland Press Herald.