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.
Margaret Atwood discusses her novel, “Alias Grace,” in this 1997 archive interview hosted by Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff. “Alias Grace” deals with an 1943 murder in Canada near Toronto, and its aftermath, a subject that intrigued Margaret Atwood for many years prior to the writing of the book. Originally a screenplay she expanded into a novel, it is one of the few works by Margaret Atwood based on historical events.
From the Probabilities Archive: Roger Zelazny (1937-1995), in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, Richard A. Lupoff and Lawrence Davidson, recorded December 7, 1979. Digitized, remastered and edited in August 2020 by Richard Wolinsky. One of the great sf/fantasy writers of the final quarter of the twentieth century, and a leading light of sf’s New Wave, Roger Zelazny was best know for his novel “Lord of Light” and his ten-volume “Chronicles of Amber.”
Nancy MacLean, in this 2017 interview about her book, “Democracy in Chains,” lays out the plan by the Koch brothers and their fellow oligarchs to gain control the United States, a plan which this week may well have come to fruition, and the origins of that plan. Hosted by Richard Wolinsky.
Historian Heather Cox Richardson discusses her book, “How the South Won the Civil War,” her Facebook column, “Letters from an American,” her origins as an historian, and current events. She is interviewed by Richard Wolinsky.
Octavia Butler died at the age of 58 in 2006. At the time of her death, she’d published 16 books, with another volume of uncollected stories published posthumously. Her reputation since her death has only grown, and after fourteen years, in 2020, her book “Parable of the Sower” made the New York Times bestseller list (trade paperback fiction) for the first time. This encore podcast was first posted on December 2, 2018.
Gail Sheehy, one of America’s most distinguished journalists, known for her incisive profiles in the New Yorker and other magazines, died on August 24, 2020 of complications from pneumonia, possibly brought on by Covid-19. She was 83. In this September 2014 interview with host Richard Wolinsky, she talks about her career and about her views on journalism.
Roger Kahn, who died on February 6, 2020 at the age of 92, was one of the icons in the world of baseball writing. In this 70-minute interview recorded on October 13, 1993, he discusses racism in baseball, his friendship with Jackie Robinson, the glory days of baseball in New York in the 1950s, and several other topics, and reads excerpts from his writing. He is interviewed by Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff. Digitized,remastered and re-edited in August 2020 by Richard Wolinsky
Mavis Gallant, who died in 2014 at the age of 91, was a Canadian short story writer who spent most of her life in France. During her lifetime, she had 118 stories in the New Yorker, which made her one of that magazine’s most published writers. Along the way she did write two novels, but it was because of her shorter fiction that she was very much a writers’ writer. Interviewed in October, 1993 by Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff while on tour for her collection, “Across the Bridge.”
Robert K. Massie was an historian and journalist, with a focus on the Romanov dynasty. His book on Peter The Great won a Pulitzer Prize, and “Nicholas and Alexandra” became a film in the 1960s. Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff interviewed him on November 4, 1995 about his book “The Romanovs: The Final Chapter,” which dealt with the bones of Czar Nicholas’s family and with the various people claiming to be either the children of the Czar or their descendents.
John Irving in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky, recorded in November 2009 while on tour for the novel “Last Night in Twisted River.” John irving is the author of “The World According to Garp,” “The Hotel New Hampshire,” “Cider House Rules” and other novels.
