Michael Shapiro has traveled to Nepal and Guatemala for National Geographic, to Mongolia and Cuba for The Washington Post, and to Wales for The Los Angeles Times. He covers environmental issues for Sierra magazine and writes about the performing arts for San Francisco area newspapers. A TEDx speaker, Shapiro is the author of The Creative Spark, which includes interviews with Smokey Robinson, Amy Tan, and Francis Ford Coppola; and A Sense of Place, a collection of conversations with travel writers, including Paul Theroux, Peter Matthiessen, Frances Mayes, and Bill Bryson. He lives with his wife in Sonoma County, California.