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.
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Ross Raisin (BSS #229)
Ross Raisin is the author of God’s Own Country (UK title)/Out Backward. (Please note: This discussion deals at length with many of the Yorkshire terms that Mr. Raisin uses within his novel. Please consult this lexicon if you’d like to know more.) Condition of Mr. Segundo: Abdicating to a helium-impaired fill-in host. Author: Ross Raisin […]
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 49:32 — 45.4MB)
MoreStewart O’Nan (BSS #161)
Stewart O’Nan is the author of Last Night at the Lobster. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Permitting authors to depict his sad quotidian life. Author: Stewart O’Nan Subjects Discussed: The anonymous perception of the service sector, avoiding legal clearances from the Red Lobster, personal loyalty and honor vs. corporations, High Noon, the advantages of a setting […]
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 38:01 — 34.8MB)
MoreWill Self (BSS #160)
Will Self is the author of Psychogeography and The Book of Dave. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Frightened by walking and crosswalk signals. Author: Will Self Subjects Discussed: The overlapping relationship between The Book of Dave and Psychogeography, topographical narrative, Nicholson Baker, Nabokov’s rule about topographical necessity and novels, John Updike’s Brazil, the Post-It notes in […]
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 42:33 — 39.0MB)
MoreSteven Pinker (BSS #147)
Steven Pinker is most recently the author of The Stuff of Thought. Condition of Mr. Segundo: He knows his first name is not Steven. Author: Steven Pinker Subjects Discussed: The Starbucks coffee cup size hierarchy, L.A. Story, “divorce project” and unusual noun phrase connotations, perceptive illusions in language, connotation and denotation, polysemy, campus slang and […]
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 54:21 — 49.8MB)
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