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.
Author: Jennifer Weiner Condition of Mr. Segundo: Concerned with time and elusive apocalypses. Subjects Discussed: Mysteries, Susan Isaacs, Zoe Heller, the specific details of murder, inexplicable shame and guilt among the Marina crowd, diapers vs. cloth, whether Matt Lauer should be peed on, the inversion of tough-guy dialogue, first-person voice, observational novels, chicklit, dismissive husbands, […]
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MoreAuthors: Lizzie Skurnick and Wendy Lesser Condition of Mr. Segundo: Slightly hoarse but nostalgic for trains. Subjects Discussed: The mania of poets, poetic meters, the prejudice against Spenserian stanza, the difficulties of getting a poetry collection published, writing while driving, husband poems, masturbation, clandestine encounters, educating a native Californian about Tyringham, Mass., Horace, the use […]
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MoreAuthor: Lydia Millet Condition of Mr. Segundo: Repentant, perpelxed and adjusting to a sudden change. Subjects Discussed: Beer at 11:30 AM, Richard Rhodes, Wold Newton, American Prometheus, getting biographical details wrong, the influence of fiction vs. nonfiction, the displacement of major historical figures, narrative juggling acts, freakishness in literature, Lynda Barry, obstacles in being a […]
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More[PRODUCER’S NOTE: Jorge was unavailable this week. So we were forced to enlist a man who claimed to have performed voiceover work for the 1970s incarnation of Battlestar Galactica to precede Mr. Segundo. Efforts are being made to coax Jorge back to the program, but it’s a little complicated. Mr. Segundo explains the problem in […]
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MoreAuthor: T.C. Boyle Condition of Mr. Segundo: Terse, conserving energies for a drink. Subjects Discussed: Boyle as one of the original bloggaz, how Boyle arranges his short stories for his collections, John Cheever, how Boyle got into the New Yorker, the current state of the short story market, the future of literature, country music, historical […]
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MoreApproximate Interview Date: Early September 2005 in a locked hotel conference room. Author: Bret Easton Ellis Condition of Mr. Segundo: Cold and impoverished. Subjects Discussed: The two Brets, finding the voice of Bret the narrator, “ten years on an outline,” metafiction, origins of Lunar Park, Stephen King, the use of brand name description in fiction, […]
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MoreApproximate Date: July 31, 2005 Authors: Amanda Filipacchi and Kevin Smokler Condition of Bat Segundo: In an unspecified condition of “pain.” More sober than usual, pining for scotch and merlot. Subjects Discussed: Stalking, dark comedy, intense behavior, Harriet Klausner, chick lit, keeping lists, sex, the politically incorrect, the menage a trois, class-based characters, free time, […]
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MoreThe first Bat Segundo program features David Mitchell, who talked with me by telephone on October 6, 2004 while on paperback tour for Cloud Atlas. Mitchell would appear again in a two part in-person interview on Show #54 and Show #55 to discuss Black Swan Green. And he would appear a third time on Show […]
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