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.
Katya Cengel, whose latest book is a memoir, “From Chernobyl with Love: Reporting from the Ruins of the Soviet Union,” is interviewed by host Richard Wolinsky. She talks about her life in Ukraine and Latvia as a reporter in the years just before and after 9/11, and how these countries were affected by the fall of the Soviet Union.
Salman Rushdie discusses his latest novel, “Quichotte,” along with other topics, with host Richard Wolinsky.
Jim Lehrer, who co-anchored the MacNeill Lehrer News Hour on PBS from 1975 to 1995 and was the sole anchor until his retirement in 2009, died at the age of 85 on January 23, 2020. He was interviewed by Richard Wolinsky & Richard A. Lupoff on October 19, 1998 at the height of the Cinton/Lewinsky scandal, while on tour for his novel “Purple Dots.”
Susan Oxtoby, curator of the “Federico Fellini at 100” retrospective at Berkeley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive, through May 21, 2020, in which all the films directed by Fellini, along with the films he wrote prior to becoming a director, will be shown in mostly new digitized restorations, talks about Fellini and the films with Richard Wolinsky.
Jeanette Winterson, whose latest novel is “Frankissstein: A Love Story,” in conversation with Richard Wolinsky. “Frankissstein: A Love Story” concerns Mary Shelley, modern A.I., Alcor life extension and gender issues. Jeanette Winterson is the author of several novels, including Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, and the memoir, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
Michael Nava, whose latest novel in the Henry Rios mystery series is titled “Carved in Bone,” is interviewed by host Richard Wolinsky. When Michael Nava began writing his Henry Rios mysteries in the late 1980s, the only other mystery writer with a gay male detective was Joseph Hansen. But Henry Rios is more: one of the first Latino noir detectives in American literature. He is also the author of “Lay Your Sleeping Head.”
Alla Kovgan, director and writer of the film “Cunningham,” about the choreographer and dancer Merce Cunningham, is interviewed by host Richard Wolinsky. “Cunningham” takes us from the 1940s to early 1970s in the work and career of Merce Cunningham (1919-2009), with many of his dances recreated in 3D. In this discussion, Alla Kovgan talks about … Continued
Nick Tosches (1949- October 20, 2019) in conversation with Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff, recorded October 19, 1994, during the tour for his novel “Trinities.” An essayist and novelist who got his start as a music journalist with Creem and Rolling Stone, Nick Tosches also wrote definitive biographies of Jerry Lee Lewis, Dean Martin and Sonny Liston, among others.
A.E. Van Vogt, born April 26th, 1912, died January 28, 2000 at the age of 87, was a science fiction writer who had his heyday from the mid 1940s through the 1960s. In this rare radio interview from the Probabilities archive, Richard A. Lupoff and Lawrence Davidson talk with Van Vogt about his career and his writing process, recorded on Feb. 23, 1980. Digitized, remastered & re-edited by Richard Wolinsky, December 2019.
Tea Obreht, author of the magic realist western “Inland,” in conversation with Richard Wolinsky. The author of “The Tiger’s Wife” turns her attention to the American west in a tale that encompasses ghosts and camels, and the hardscrabble life of frontier families.
