Chuckanut Radio Hour Featuring McKenzie Funk, The Hank Show

Join us in the Crystal Ballroom at the Hotel Leo for an evening of music, poetry, comedy, and literature. Local author McKenzie Funk will be discussing his mind-blowing narrative nonfiction book, The Hank Show! 

McKenzie Funk will be interviewed by Charlie Warzel, staff writer at The Atlantic!

Doors open and music begins at 6:30pm!

Spaces are limited and REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED to secure your spot so don't delay. 

CLICK HERE TO RESERVE YOUR SEAT*

The world we live in today, where everything is tracked by corporations and governments, originates with one manic, elusive, utterly unique man—as prone to bullying as he was to fits of surpassing generosity and surprising genius. His name was Hank Asher, and his life was a strange and spectacular show that changed the course of the future.

In The Hank Show: How a House-Painting, Drug-Running DEA Informant Built the Machine That Rules Our Lives, critically acclaimed author and journalist McKenzie Funk relates Asher's stranger-than-fiction story—he careened from drug-running pilot to alleged CIA asset, only to be reborn as the pioneering computer programmer known as the father of data fusion. Asher was the multimillionaire whose creations now power a new reality where our every move is tracked by police departments, intelligence agencies, political parties, and financial firms alike. But his success was not without setbacks. Asher truly lived nine lives, on top of the world one minute, only to be forced out of the companies he founded–which were eventually subsumed by information giants LexisNexis, Thomson Reuters, and TransUnion– and blamed for data breaches resulting in major lawsuits and market chaos.

In the vein of the blockbuster movie Catch Me if You Can, The Hank Show propels readers forward on a forty-year journey of intrigue and innovation, from Colombia to the White House and from Silicon Valley to the 2016 Trump campaign, focusing a lens on the dark side of American business and its impact on the everyday fabric of our modern lives.

"This is one of those rare and mind-blowing books that changes how you see the world. McKenzie Funk has pulled back the curtain on a global surveillance machine that watches all of us, every day, around the clock. The most fascinating part is the actual wizard behind the curtain, Hank Asher himself, whose unbelievable life becomes more wild and fascinating with each turn of the page. Funk is an absolute master of nonfiction narrative, and here he is telling the story for our age." —Christopher Leonard, New York Times Bestselling Author of Kochland and The Lords of Easy Money

McKenzie Funk is a reporter at ProPublica. He has also written for Rolling Stone, National Geographic, Outside, Harper's Magazine, Bloomberg Businessweek, London Review of Books, and The New York Times Magazine. His first book, Windfall, won a PEN Literary Award and was shortlisted for Orion and Rachel Carson awards. A National Magazine Award finalist and former MacDowell, Open Society, and Logan Nonfiction fellow, Funk was a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan, where he studied economics and systems thinking. He speaks five languages and is a native of the Pacific Northwest, where he lives with his wife and sons.

The Chuckanut Radio Hour, a recipient of Bellingham's prestigious Mayor's Arts Award, is a radio variety show that began in January 2007. Each Chuckanut Radio Hour includes guest authors, musicians, performance poet Kevin Murphy, and episodes of "As the Ham Turns" serial radio comedy performed by the Chuckanut Radio Players Les Campbell, Tonja Meyers, Lisa Colburn, Dee Robinson, and Robert Muzzy. Not to mention groaner jokes by hosts Paul Hanson, Kelly Evert, and announcer Rich Donnelly. The Chuckanut Radio Hour's first guest was Erik Larson and has since included, Tom Robbins, Maria Semple, Christopher McDougall, Erica Bauermeister, and Garrison Keillor, among many others. Tickets for the Chuckanut Radio Hour are $5 and are available on Eventbrite.The Radio Hour airs Sundays at 7pm on Community Powered KMRE at 88.3FM and kmre.org. Co-sponsored by 12th Street Shoes.

*Online registration closes two hours prior to the event. Tickets may be available at the door.