The Bat Segundo Show was a long-running cultural radio program devoted to quirky and very thorough long-form interviews with contemporary authors, idiosyncratic thinkers, and other assorted artists. Guests included David Lynch, Octavia Butler, John Waters, John Updike, Stephen Fry, Marilynne Robinson, Karen Russell, Weird Al Yankovic, Robert A. Caro, and more than 500 others. There was also a program called Follow Your Ears, which was a thematic investigative counterpart, in which I pursued a specific subject through several angles. The entire archive of what I did from 2005 to 2014 is included here.
Errol Morris is most recently the director of Standard Operating Procedure, which opens on April 25, 2008. (There is also an accompanying book written by Philip Gourevitch.) Guest: Errol Morris Subjects Discussed: Susan Sontag’s “Regarding the Torture of Others,” the American cycle of photographing physical abuse, finding out what we’re looking at before drawing conclusions, […]
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MoreNew York ComicCon is a rather insane event featuring all manner of comic artists and other assorted individuals. Many thanks to Eric Rosenfield for interview assistance and his laconic pal Phil for moral support and a shoulder to cry on. 1. Mike Pellerito — In this somewhat naughty conversation, Archie Comic Publications, Inc. Managing Editor […]
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MoreChen Shi-Zheng is the director of Dark Matter. Liu Ye is the star. The film is now out in theaters. Condition of the Show: Adopting a theoretical construct. Guests: Chen Shi-Zheng and Liu Ye Subjects Discussed: The visual emphasis on stairwells, metallic college environments, the relationship between character and environment, string theory, researching cosmology, comparisons […]
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MoreBrad and John Hennegan are the filmmakers behind First Saturday in May, which opens in theaters on April 17, 2008. Condition of the Show: Racing to the finish line. Guests: Brad Hennegan and John Hennegan Subjects Discussed: Why the Hennegans chose six horse trainers, cutting the film down from a three hour epic, Pop-Up Video-style […]
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MoreMark Sarvas is the author of Harry, Revised. Condition of Show: Concerned with revision. Author: Mark Sarvas Subjects Discussed: Harry Rent and Arthur Dent, James Wood’s How Fiction Works, character names, Jean Cocteau, Tod Goldberg and fucktard, serendipitous phone calls, Harry’s level of hypocrisy, Deconstructing Harry, how screenplay experience tied into novel writing, human inconsistencies, […]
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MoreNicholson Baker is most recently the author of Human Smoke. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Deceased. Author: Nicholson Baker Subjects Discussed: Baker’s antipathy for placing the date at the top of an entry, the blogginess of A Box of Matches and Human Smoke, the discrepancy between what Baker remembered and what Updike wrote in U & […]
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MoreRichard Price is most recently the author of Lush Life. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Caught in a crime scene. Author: Richard Price Subjects Discussed: Setting a novel on the Lower East Side, tenement houses turned into tenement museums, juxtaposing a struggling Boho actor against the Old World, real estate as violence, gentrification, people who don’t […]
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MoreJennifer Weiner is most recently the author of Certain Girls. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Avoiding literary desegregation. Author: Jennifer Weiner Subjects Discussed: The similarities between Good in Bed and Certain Girls, how to quantify the past, text as a responsive medium, an embedded critique of chick lit, being embarrassed by your mother, making Cannie more […]
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MoreMichio Kaku is most recently the author of Physics of the Impossible. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Dreaming the impossible dream. Author: Michio Kaku Subjects Discussed: Maximum caps on bandying about theory in physics, relativity and string theory, the Theory of Everything, decoherence and the wave function of the universe, the Large Hadron Collider, detecting sparticles, […]
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MoreJennifer 8. Lee is the author of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Indignant towards the ungrateful. Author: Jennifer 8. Lee Subjects Discussed: Comparisons between Chinese restaurants and open source software, General Tso’s chicken, fortune cookies and Analects, how frequently fortune cookie companies rotate fortunes, melon patches, making a living as a fortune […]
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MoreElizabeth Crane is most recently the author of You Must Be This Happy to Enter. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Failing to understand why so many people are happy. Author: Elizabeth Crane Subjects Discussed: The unwarranted stigma behind the exclamation mark, what it means to be happy, zombies and reality TV, Max Brooks’s World War Z, […]
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MoreLydia Millet is most recently the author of How the Dead Dream. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Battling upholders of decency. Author: Lydia Millet Subjects Discussed: The “nation” of ideology, empathy as an endangered species, graying hair color compared against graying landscape, obnoxious cell phones, subconsciousness vs. the innate design of a novel, the life cycle […]
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