Thursday, December 27, 2012
Moonwalking with Einstein/Joshua Foer
Rebroadcast.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky.
Thursday, December 20, 2012
The Entertainer/Margaret Talbot
The New Yorker staff writer tells the story of her father, actor Lyle Talbot, in the context of entertainment history during the Twentieth Century, shedding light on early theatre, Hollywood, and life as an actor.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Friday, December 14
Open Book: Mary Zimmerman, director and author of The White Snake at Berkeley Rep through December 30th. (17 min).
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
The Black Count/Tom Reiss
The Orientalist/Tom Reiss
Tom Reiss delves into the lives of people forgotten by history and the world they inhabited. The Orientalist is about a writer who lived between the wars in Europe. The Black Count is about Alexandre Dumas, a former Haitian slave who rose to be a leading general during the French Revolution. Both books are fascinating.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Thursday, December 6, 2012
This Is How You Lose Her./Junot Diaz
Abbreviated fund-drive program
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Have You Seen Marie?/Sandra Cisneros
The great Mexican-American poet and novelist 's latest book is an extended and illustrated poet/meditation on the nature of grief.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky.
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Gods Like Us/Ty Burr
The movie critic for the Boston Globe gives the history of celebrity in America, from the days of the great movie stars to the reality television of today, putting it in a new context. An interesting take on the subject.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Pre-empted for fund-raising
Friday, November 9, 2012
Open Book: Henry Woronicz, star of An Iliad, playing at Berkeley Rep through November 18.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Oddly Normal/John Schwartz
The noted New York Times reporter tells the story of raising his gay son, Joseph, in an environment both loving (at home) and difficult (at school). Schwartz also investigates gay suicides, growing up gay in America and other side-trips in this excellent memoir.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinky
Thursday, November 1, 2012
May We Be Forgiven/A.M. Homes
A dark comedy about doom and redemption, the novel tells the story of a man who loses almost everything but eventually regains his soul. Riveting for the most part and often laugh out loud funny, but very very dark.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Lionel Asbo: State of England/Martin Amis
Martin Amis's novel is a satire of England today, focusing on a housing project and its denizens, including an extremely repulsive character named Lionel Asbo.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
This Is How You Lose Her/Junot Diaz
The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao/Junot Diaz
The winner of the Pulitzer for Oscar Wao returns with a collection of stories about the life of Yunior, narrator of Oscar Wao, nominated for the National Book Award
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Pre-empted.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Joseph Anton/Salman Rushdie
Rushdie's memoir about his early life and about life during the fatwa is both dense and engrossing, some of his best writing to date.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Thursday, September 27, 2012
The Long Walk/Brian Castner
Brian Castner, an Iraqi vet and member of the bomb disposal unit, has written an extraordinary memoir about life in country and life afterwards.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Ray Bradbury, 1992 interview.
Interviewers: Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff
Thursday, September 13, 2012
And When She Was Good/Laura Lippman
One of the best mystery writers around, Lippman's latest concerns a suburban madam whose past catches up with her.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Savages/Don Winslow
Kings of Cool/Don Winslow
These two novels about the marijuana trade in Southern California have, at their center, a unique and distinctive voice, cynical and political. Savages deals with three young people in the mileau in 2008, and Kings of Cool tells of their past, and the past of those around them.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Thursday, August 30, 2012
The Newlyweds/Nell Freudenberger
A young Bengali woman comes to America after meeting a man on-line. The story of their relationship, told through her eyes, as they try to make it work.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Dirt/David Vann
A strange novel about a young man seeing everything in New Age terms and his psychotic family. It builds and builds.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Thursday, August 16, 2012
The Lion Is In/Delia Ephron
The noted screenwriter tells the story of three women, a lion, and the joys of sisterhood. Fast-paced and fun.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Beautiful Ruins/Jess Walter
The Financial Lives of the Poets/Jess Walter
Beautiful Ruins is a gorgeous kaleidoscope of a novel, stretching fifty years and dealing with themes of romance, age, celebrity culture, and personal tragedy. The Financial Lives of the Poets is a funny and careening novel about a man making one bad choice after another. Jess Walter is a novelist to be watched.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Radio Chronicles: Ray Bradbury.
Interview recorded February 7, 2012
Digitized, remastered and re-edited by Richard Wolinsky.
Interviewers: Richard Wolinsky/Richard A. Lupoff
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Twilight of the Elites/Christopher Hayes
The host of the MSNBC program Up with Christopher Hayes writes about the nature of elites in America and how the "fail decade" has led to a distrust of American institutions. Fascinating.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Forgotten Country/Catherine Chung
A Korean family who emigrated to the United States returns to Korea and deals with their issues, set against the backdrop of Korean folk tales. A bravura first novel by a rising talent.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Thursday, July 12, 2012
My Happy Days in Hollywood/Garry Marshall
The producer and director discusses his life and career in this engaging memoir. Not much depth, but a lot of fun anecdotes.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky.
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Nora Ephron, 1941-2012
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Recorded November 21, 2010
Thursday, June 28, 2012
The Chemistry of Tears/Peter Carey
The two-time Booker Prize winner returns with a novel set in 2010 about a grieving museum worker putting together a mechanical swan, and in the 1840s, about the creation of the swan. Carey intertwines the two stories to ponder the nature of life and machine life.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Thursday, June 21, 2012
I Am An Emotional Creature/Eve Ensler
Emotional Creature/Eve Ensler
Playwright Eve Ensler has taken her book, I Am An Emotional Creature, and turned it into a 6-woman play, which runs at Berkeley Rep in Berkeley from June 14-July 15, 2012
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky. Recorded at Berkeley Rep.
Thursday, June 14, 2012
The Cove/Ron Rash
Serena/Ron Rash
Called the "Bard of Appalachia," Ron Rash is a gorgeous stylist and The Cove is a beautifully written novel set in Appalachia during the first World War.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Friday, June 8, 2012
Open Book: Tony Taccone, Artistic Director of Berkeley Rep Theatre Company in Berkeley.
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake/Anna Quindlen
This thought-provoking collection of essays by the Pulitzer Prize winning columnist discusses the new generation of young-old boomers, and examines the nature of aging in our society
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Thursday, May 31, 2012
The Vanishers/Heidi Julavits
Psychic attacks, people who use plastic surgery to replace other people, people who vanish and are never heard from again, and past regressions all play into this novel about a young woman dealing with the loss of her mother and various other issues.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Friday, May 25, 2012
Open Book: Carey Perloff, Artistic Director of A.C.T. (American Conservatory Theatre) in San Francisco
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Moonwalking with Einstein/Joshua Foer
An entertaining look at memory, how we remember, the history of memory, and the art of memory palaces and memory contests.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild, abbreviated fund drive program
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Katherine Boo, author of beneath the beautiful forevers. abbreviated fund drive program
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Eminent Outlaws/Christopher Bram
Father of FrankensteinChristopher Bram
Christopher Bram (whose superb novel Father of Frankenstein became the film Gods and Monsters) has written a history of gay literature from the post-war era to today, focusing on a select few writers. The first book of its kind, it tells several different narratives, the only flaw being its limited scope. But an important book and a major book in the gay canon.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail/Cheryl Strayed
This memoir of a 1995 hike along the Pacific Crest Trail is the fascinating story of a young woman finding out who she is by hiking alone through hundreds of miles of wilderness.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Friday, April 13,2012
Gods Without Men/Hari Kunzru
A brilliantly written and complex work, set in several times through history dealing with characters coming upon the strange and ineffable and coping and believing (or not believing). An extraordinary tour de force.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Thursday, April 5, 2012
The Science of Yoga/William J. Broad
The senior science reporter for the New York Times and longtime yoga practitioner looks at yoga through the lens of science, finding its benefits and its dangers. Fascinating
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Open Book Interview:
Some Assembly Required/Anne Lamott (with Sam Lamott)
A diary of Lamott's first year as a grandmother, including her trips to India and Scandinavia, and of course, her spiritual and political life as well.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
The Flame Alphabet/Ben Marcus
A challenging novel about a time when language itself is toxic, Marcus stretches the bounds and asks serious questions about the nature of humanity and the nature of words.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
behind the beautiful forevers/Katherine Boo.
A staff writer for the New Yorker, Katherine Boo spent four years in a slum near Mumbai's luxury hotels to learn about life in India's underclass. The result is a masterpiece of reportage and one of the most important books of the past decade.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Thursday March 15, 2012
Jack Holmes and His Friend/Edmund White
City Boy/Edmund White
City Boy is an engrossing memoir of White's life in New York in the '70s, with portraits of people he knew then. Jack Holmes tells the story of the friendship between a gay and straight man during the same period, in the same place, and the two books form matching bookends into a specific life and culture.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Friday, March 9, 2012
Open Book: Nick Olivero, Artistic Director of Boxcar Theatre in San Francisco
Thursday, March 8, 2012
The World We Found/Thrity Umrigar
Four Indian women try to reconnect when one finds herself with an incurable illness. A fascinating novel about the nature of memory and change, woven into a fast-paced narrative.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Hope: A Tragedy/Shalom Auslander
Foreskin's Lament/Shalom Auslander
Foreskin's Lament is a laugh out loud memoir about growing up in a religious Jewish enclave in upstate New York, and Hope: A Tragedy is another funny book, this one a novel about a Job-like character and his family coping with Jewish guilt.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Pre-empted
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Dreams of Joy/Lisa See
Rebroadcast.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Distrust That Particular Flavor/William Gibson.
Essays by the author of such novels as Neuromancer and Zero History. Gibson is a fine writer and highlights include essays on Japan and Singapore, and on the nature of futurism.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Pity the Billionaire/Thomas Frank
A lively look at how the Right Wing took over the national conversation following the 2008 election, and what Democrats and progressives need to do to regain control of the message. Recorded on January 25, 2012 at the Hillside Club in Berkeley as a benefit for KPFA-FM. The DVD and/or the audio recording of the entire event can be obtained by subscribing to KPFA-FM.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Open Book: Lorenzo Pisoni, co-author and star of Humor Abuse, at A.C.T. through Feb. 5, 2012.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Thursday, January 26, 2012
The Tiger's Wife/Tea Obreht
National Book Award winning novel about life in the former Yugoslavia and a young woman's search for the truth about her grandfather's death.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Thursday, January 19, 2012
The Stranger's Child/Alan Hollinghurst
The Booker Prize winning author of The Line of Beauty returns with a rewarding and complex novel about memory, biography, memoir and the changes in life and culture of the past century as shown through the life and reputation of a poet killed during the First World War.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Friday, January 13, 2012
Open Book: Tony Taccone, author of the play Ghost Light, at Berkeley Rep thru February 19th.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Spencer Tracy: A Biography/James Curtis
A long and complete biography of the actor which takes us through every play, every film, and his entire life. Curtis is non-judgmental and enters a biography without an agenda, which is refreshing in an age where pre-formed opinions rule the day.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness, Only More
So/Mark Vonnegut
A memoir that's difficult to put down, about Vonnegut's life with bipolar disorder, his work as a pediatrician, and his relationship to his famous father, Kurt Vonnegut.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
