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.
Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007), interviewed in 1991 by Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff. In 1991, while on tour for his collection of essays, “Fates Worse Than Death,” Kurt Vonnegut Jr. stopped in the KPFA studios to speak with the hosts of the “Probabilities” program about his work, his career, and his feelings about life and politics. March 2019 marked the 50th anniversary of the publication of :”Slaughterhouse-Five.”
Barry Eisler, whose latest novel is “The Killer Collective,” is interviewed by Richard Wolinsky. Barry Eisler spent three years in the CIA before leaving to become a lawyer and novelist. Bringing together his protagonists, an assassin named John Rain and a detective named Livia Lone in one book, he examines the relationship of government to mercenary outsourcing, along with governmental cover-ups.
Brian Garfield, who died on December 29, 2018, one month shy of his eightieth birthday, wrote at least sixty-five novels, most of them westerns, three collections of short stories, three books of non-fiction and several works for film and television. Though writing mostly in the western genre, he is best known for the revenge novel Death Wish, which became a hit movie starring Charles Bronson in 1974. Recorded in 1983 with interviewers Richard Wolinsky, Richard A. Lupoff and Lawrence Davidson.
Francine du Plessix Gray, who died on January 13, 2019 at the age of 88, was a writer of both fiction and non-fiction, and frequent contributor to the New Yorker Magazine. Her most notable book, “Them,” is the story of her parents’ lives, and Richard Wolinsky had a chance to speak with Francine du Plessix Gray about that book and about her career on May 22, 2005.
Ursula K. Le Guin, who broke the artificial wall between science fiction and literature, died on January 22nd, 2018 at the age of 88. An essayist and poet along with being a fiction writer, she transcended all genres with the quality of her prose and the allegorical nature of her work. On September 29th, 2000, Richard Wolinsky and his then co-host Richard A. Lupoff spoke with Ursula K. Le Guin about her career as a writer and about her latest novel, a political and social science fiction allegory, “The Telling.”
Peter Carey, whose latest novel is “A Long Way from Home,” in conversation with Richard Wolinsky. Two-time winner of the prestigious Booker Prize, Peter Carey is Australia’s most distinguished author. Among his works are Oscar and Lucinda, The True History of the Kelly Gang, Jack Maggs and Parrott and Olivier in America. A Long Way From Home delves into the story of racism in Australia and the oppression of the indigenous aboriginal peoples who inhabited the continent for two centuries before the white man and colonialism arrived.
Carol Channing (1921-2019), in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded during the tour of her memoir, “Just Lucky I Guess,” recorded on October 18, 2002. The great Broadway star Carol Channing died on January15, 2019 at the age of 97. An iconic performer, she was best known for “Hello Dolly” and for her appearances on television and stage.
Amos Oz (1939-2018), author of “A Tale of Love and Darkness” and other books, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded in San Francisco in November, 2004. Amos Oz, the noted Israeli novelist, short story writer, essayist and peace activist, and perennial Nobel Prize candidate, died on December 28th, 2018 at the age of 79. The author of forty books, he was a firm believer in the two-state solution as the only option for the region.
Larry Kirwan, creator of the new musical “Paradise Square” at Berkeley Rep, the author of five books, and the lead vocalist and guitarist for the legendary New York Irish American band Black 47, in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky.
Katya Cengel, whose latest book is “Exiled: From the Killing Fields of Cambodia to California and Back” is interviewed by host Richard Wolinsky. She discusses the plight of Southeast Asian refugees, from their lives under the genocidal watch of the Khmer Rouge to their difficult times in the United States, to the fear and possibility of deportation under ICE.
