From Chautauqua, the historic summer retreat in southwestern New York state, 61-year-old Ken Burns – the Emmy-winning and Academy Award-nominated producer and director of popular documentary films such as “The Civil War,” “The Central Park Five,” “Baseball,” and “The Brooklyn Bridge” – opens up about how he picks his subjects, his true feelings about “the Ken Burns Effect,” his harrowing childhood, and his much-anticipated PBS documentary “The Roosevelts: An Intimate History,” an epic, seven-part TV series chronicling the lives of one of the most powerful American families of the 20th century. In this illuminating, in-depth Q & A, “America’s storyteller” lets readers in on his philosophical approach to understanding our nation’s past, as well as a little family secret for overcoming your fears. Tom Roston is a veteran journalist who began his career at The Nation and Vanity Fair magazines, before working at Premiere magazine as a senior editor. He writes a regular blog about nonfiction filmmaking on PBS.org and he is a frequent contributor to The New York Times. He lives with his wife and their two daughters in New York City. Cover design by Adil Dara.