About

Nathan Callahan

A lifelong Southern Californian, Nathan Callahan was born in Aldous Huxley’s Hollywood, raised in Zappa’s San Fernando Valley, and ripened in Orange County during the days of The John Birch Society and The Brotherhood of Eternal Love.

In 1988, Callahan teamed with Will Swaim — future founding editor of the OC Weekly — to publish The County, a short-lived, yet influential zine of leftist political and social commentary. Soon thereafter, he co-wrote and edited, along with William Payton, “Shut Up, Fag!”: Quotations from the Files of Congressman Bob Dornan“. With its unsettling title and contemptible subject matter, the book became a B-list cult success. TV and radio interviews followed. In 1996, Dornan, a six-term congressman lost and never regained office.

As a contributing writer for the now defunct OC Weekly beginning with its premier issue in 1995, Callahan was run off the road and spat on by right-wing anti-semetic primitives, accused by the Irvine Company of being an “environmental extremist,” and recognized by The New York Times for helping dissolve Orange County’s conservative media stranglehold.

Bookwise, Callahan has written Suburban Manners: An Irreverent View of Politics, Wealth and Culture in Orange County, California and Interviews. He is currently at work on Bad Buddha, the story of how a boy and his dog outwitted God, with illustrator Louis Netter and The Open Air Museum, a crow-inspired journey with artist Michael Woodcock in Carl Diedrich’s transcendental Volkswagon van.

When he wasn’t busy irritating George Argyrous, Callahan conspired with illustrator, cartoonist, and tuba player Bob Aul on the darkly humorous, internationally notorious comic strip Pet President.

As of now, Callahan can be heard every Friday on KUCI 88.9 FM, Irvine, California on Weekly Signals, “a personal recollection of the last 168 hours of history,” with co-host Mike Kaspar. In addition to commentary, Callahan and Kaspar have interviewed some of the world’s most fascinating people including Seymour Hersh, Barbara Ehrenreich, Daniel Ellsberg, Errol Morris, Helen Thomas, John Sayles, Philip Glass, Paul Krugman, Terry Jones, Susan Jacoby, Anne Lamott, and George McGovern.

Having been employed as a cook, an auto worker, a graphic designer, a musician, a municipal adminstrative aide, a xeriscaper, a window dresser, a bookseller, a political consultant, and a writer, Callahan, a lumbering fool, gleefully hikes, gardens, talks to crows, and walks with his dogfriend where he lives and works in Irvine, California.