Season of the Witch (Interstitial Mix #4)
Just in time for Halloween, this is the fourth in a series of interstitial mixes. I recently worked a gig to provide a 50 minute Halloween AV mix for a party. The audio version can be enjoyed in the feed. Go to the main site to see the audiovisual version.
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 50:21 — 46.3MB)
Vibes, Liebe, Plucks, Horns, and Kazoos Yodeling in the Deep (Interstitial Mix #3)
This is the third of a series of interstitial mixes, this one very heavy on Germanic influence (although featuring many others!) and designed with the changing seasons, both in year and in life, in mind.
Listen: Play in new window | Download (22.9MB)
An Elemental Race Between a Nice Guy and a Duck (Interstitial Mix #2)
This is the second of a series of interstitial mixes, this time imagining a race between two very strange imaginary figures.
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 21:23 — 19.6MB)
Robert Smiths Slightly Mad Pop Pop Canon Cannon Bang Bang Wake (Interstitial Mix #1)
This is the first of a series of interstitial mixes that will be rolled out as I continue to develop some future projects. What follows is a descent into the contradictions of pop music, initiated by one Robert Smith trapped in the framework of a famous Lionel Richie composition. While the mix is enjoyable on its own terms, there are many hidden associations for those wishing to play along. Interpretations of this madness are, of course, quite welcome in the comments.
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 24:48 — 22.7MB)
Merritt Tierce (BSS #551)
There are 2.4 million waiters and waitresses now working in America. Why have our narratives failed to confront the realities of working in a restaurant? Merritt Pierce, author of LOVE ME BACK, joins us to discuss working-class narratives, the male gaze, abortion, and women as second-class citizens. This show also includes a strong critique of 2 BROKE GIRLS and one of the most startling on-air gaffes in Bat Segundo’s history.
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 47:26 — 43.6MB)
The Cultural Redemption of Stefan Zweig: Anthea Bell and George Prochnik (BSS #550)
This special two hour episode of The Bat Segundo Show details the life and work of Stefan Zweig in considerable detail. It may be the most epic radio program ever devoted to Stefan Zweig. It includes interviews with translator Anthea Bell and George Prochnik, author of THE IMPOSSIBLE EXILE.
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 1:47:54 — 99.0MB)
Amanda Vaill (BSS #549)
Martha Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway headed to Spain to help the Loyalists during the Civil War. Gellhorn was to transform into one of the 20th century’s best war correspondents. Hemingway needed to have his romanticism crushed to write a masterpiece. They are two figures in Amanda Vaill’s HOTEL FLORIDA. This conversation examines how the Civil War changed not only the trajectory of Spain, but the future of world culture.
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 54:24 — 50.0MB)
Mimi Pond (BSS #548)
Cartoonist Mimi Pond spent a good chunk of 1978 working as a dishwasher and a waitress in an Oakland diner. Thirty-six years later, she’s collected her experiences in the graphic novel, OVER EASY. This 40 minute conversation examines that experience, looking into the difficulties of accurately portraying that era in a politically correct age and how a crisp glimpse into working-class life is generally more reliable than nostalgia.
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 37:26 — 34.3MB)
Joanna Rakoff (BSS #547)
Joanna Rakoff spent 1996 working as an assistant for Harold Ober Associates, overhearing the likes of J.D. Salinger and Judy Blume talking shop. This 75 minute conversation, which discusses Rakoff’s memoir MY SALINGER YEAR, gets into some of the underlying privilege and protective family dynamics which led Rakoff to get a later start as an adult.
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 1:15:02 — 68.8MB)
Paula Bomer III (BSS #546)
Author Paula Bomer has dedicated her fiction career to staring inside the abyss and seeking the human. We discuss her new short story collection, INSIDE MADELEINE, and discuss everything from Flannery O’Connor’s notion of the grotesque, how sex defines relationships, boarding schools, how modest surrealism can reveal urban identity, and scatological moments in high literature. (The episode’s introduction includes some thoughts on the recent passing of Maya Angelou.)
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 1:04:25 — 59.1MB)
Porochista Khakpour II (BSS #545)
In this wide-ranging 79 minute conversation, Porochista Khakpour discusses how she fused the romantic with the grotesque for her second novel, THE LAST ILLUSION, birds as an inevitable cultural symbol, growing up as an Iranian immigrant, quirky and pragmatic attitudes to death, Kafka and Kierkegaard, and academics who misinterpret authenticity,
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 1:18:13 — 71.7MB)
Nikil Saval (BSS #544)
Was there ever an age in which the office provided reasonable security for the worker? Is it possible for the office worker to be given respect and adequate compensation in the 21st century? We talk with Nikil Saval, author of CUBED, to figure out how a system designed to pit office workers against each other went wrong. It turns out that misguided philosophy, austere architectural developments, and a carefully manufactured belief culture against organized labor are all part of a very complicated narrative we all take for granted.
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 58:41 — 53.9MB)