New York Interviews: First Thoughts is a wise and exciting collection of interviews from a variety of artists and writers, scholars and scientists - people such as Jane Goodall (chimp-human connection), Huston Smith (world religion), Allen Ginsberg (creativity and Buddhism), Salima Ikram (mummies), James Carse (Gnostic Gospels), E. L. Doctorow (history and fiction) and many others. The collection represents the wisdom of the ages and powerful issues of our time. It is representative of the author's interests and time spent in and around New York City. The interviews were done at New York University, the Open Center, Omega Institute, Rutgers University - exceptions being Paul Ehrlich (author of The Population Bomb) at the University of Nevada, Reno, where the author also taught, along with Losang Samten, the Tibetan scholar and artist, who was in the movie Kundun.