Merle Kessler is a writer, humorist, and performer, best known perhaps by his pen name, Ian Shoales. As Ian Shoales he has been churning out cranky yet strangely humorous commentaries since 1979. First heard on NPR's All Things Considered, he has been featured on Morning Edition, ABC's Nightline, and the online magazine, Salon. In addition, his pieces have been published in the New York Times, LA Times, the San Francisco Examiner, USA Today, the Washington Post, and the Minneapolis Tribune, among other publications. Merle (as Ian Shoales) recently co-starred in, and co-wrote (with composer partner J. Raoul Brody) Slouching Towards Disneyland, a wild story of the history of the world. Kessler is also a founding member of Duck's Breath Mystery Theatre, the legendary yet obscure sketch comedy group. He co-created, with Dan Coffey, the character of Dr. Science, he of Ask Dr. Science. He is the author or co-author of five books. Despite this, he was actively employed in the nineties at various videogame and dotcom industries - until everything went kerflooey. He is thrilled to be working in radio again, because it is more fun than anything. As a bonus, on the radio nobody knows if you've shaved or not. He is also writing a web-based comedy series, called KollegeTV, which should baffle many when it launches, and writing the scripts for a video documentary series called Great Libraries of the World. Look for it next year on a public radio station near you. He is married to Amy Kessler, who likes bad movies almost as much as he does. He speaks no languages. None.