A podcast posted every Sunday featuring extended interviews and discussions from Bookwaves, Art-Waves, and Bookwaves Artwaves Hour programs on KPFA, and newly digitized and edited archive interviews from the pre-digital Probabilities series dating back to 1977. Literature, theater, film, the visual arts: in-depth interviews from a progressive and artistic viewpoint, with long-time KPFA/Pacifica host Richard Wolinsky.
Wil Haygood, author of Colorization: One Hundred Years of Black Films in a White World, in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky. In the interview, he discusses the origins of the book, the careers of some of the Black pioneers in Hollywood film, and the way television and streaming has changed the race equation in our culture.
Janis Ian, singer/songwriter, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded June 14, 2008 in the KPFA studios while she was on tour for her memoir, “Society’s Child.”
Joseph Hansen (1923-2004) was a pioneer of private eye fiction, whose main character, Dave Brandstetter, an insurance investigator, was the first gay protagonist in the detective field published by a mainstream house. At the time his first Brandstetter book was published, in 1970, being gay was illegal in forty-nine of the fifty states. Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff interviewed Joseph Hansen on June 14, 1990 upon publication of the eleventh novel in the series. This interview has not been heard since its initial airing thirty years ago, and has never seen the light of day in its entirety.
Art Spiegelman, author of MAUS, and other graphic novels, and editor of “Little Lit,” a three-volume collection of fairy tales rewritten as comics, talks with the late Richard A. Lupoff, originally aired December 7, 2000.
Kathy Geritz, film curator at Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive, discusses the films of Senegalese director Djibril Diop Mambety with host Richard Wolinsky
Itamar Moses, playwright and librettist for “The Band’s Visit,” a new musical now on a national tour, in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky, recorded January 10, 2022.
Andrew Vachss (1942-December 27, 2021), author of several noir novels that focus on child abuse and child sexual abuse, in conversation for Probabilities with hosts Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff, recorded June 27, 1991 in the KPFA studios while he was on tour for his novel “Sacrifice.” This extended version of the interview has never before seen the light of day.
Jan Morris (1926-November 20, 2020), in conversation with Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff, recorded November 16, 2001 while she was on tour for “Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere.”
Jan Morris was a noted travel writer and historian, and a leading figure in the trans world. As James Morris, she accompanied Edmund Hillary on the first expedition to the summit of Mount Everest. Before and after her transition in 1964 to the time of her death, Jan Morris had published 18 travel books, six history books including a three volume history of the British Empire, eight memoirs including the best-selling “Conundrum,” two novels and twelve collections of essays.
Joan Didion (1934- December 23, 2021), noted essayist, novelist, screenwriter social critic and journalist, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded in the KPFA studios on October 21, 2003 while on tour for her book, “Where I Was From.”
Noted gothic and ghost story writer Susan Hill, in conversation by phone with host Richard Wolinsky. An adaptation of Susan Hill’s novel, “The Woman in Black” runs at ACT’s Strand Theater through January 16, 2021. It is also running in both New York and London (where it has been running since 1987).
