Michael Jay Krasny (born September 22, 1944) is a professor and retired American radio host of Forum, a news and public affairs program on San Francisco public radio station KQED-FM, covering current events, politics, and culture from 1993 to 2021. Additionally, Krasny is currently a professor of English literature at San Francisco State University.
Early life
Born in Cleveland and raised in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and his father worked at an ice cream factory. Krasny is a second-generation American whose grandparents immigrated from Russia and Lithuania. He grew up in a Jewish household.
Krasny is among the graduates of Cleveland Heights High School (class of 1962) featured in the book Every Tiger Has a Tale. Despite his intellectual reputation today, Krasny admits to having had a "bad boy" reputation while growing up in Cleveland Heights.
Career
In the late 1970s, Krasny hosted a weekly Marin County talk show called "Beyond the Hot Tub" on low-power rock radio station KTIM-FM. He went on to host a popular radio program on KGO (AM) from 1984 to December 1992. He became the host of Forum in 1993, expanding the focus of the program to more national themes. On November 9, 2020, Krasny announced that he would retire from Forum on February 15, 2021. His last Forum broadcast was on February 12, 2021.
Krasny is a professor of English at San Francisco State University where he has taught primarily American literature since 1970.
In his 2010 book, Spiritual Envy, Krasny revealed that he became agnostic later in life.