A podcast featuring extended interviews and discussions from the Bookwaves and Arts-Waves programs on KPFA, interviews and discussions with KPFA producers and hosts, and extended archive interviews from the Probabilities series over the past thirty years. Literature, theater, film, the visual arts: in-depth interviews from a progressive and artistic viewpoint, with long-time KPFA/Pacifica host Richard Wolinsky. New podcasts are generally weekly, though not always.
Octavia Butler (1947-2006) in conversation with Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff, recorded in 1983. Octavia Butler, who died in 2006 at the age of 58, was one of the giants of modern science fiction. Winner of multiple awards for her short fiction and novels, her work explored issues involving gender, race, and power and featured protagonists often at odds with their societies.
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.
Jonathan Allen, co-author of “Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton’s Doomed Campaign” in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky. Nobody expected Hillary Clinton to lose the 2016 presidential election. Jonathan Allen and his co-host Amie Parnes followed the campaign from the beginning to the dreadful night in November when Donald Trump was elected president.
Peter Brook, visionary director, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky. Peter Brook is one of the greatest theatrical directors of the twentieth century. Artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company for twenty years from 1962-1982, he transformed how the English speaking world looked at the plays of William Shakespeare. Now, at the age of 92, he and his collaborator Marie Helene Estienne have gone back to the Mahabharata with a short theatrical piece, “Battlefield,” which is playing at ACT’s Geary Theater through May 21st.
Ian Rankin, whose latest novel is “Rather Be The Devil,” in conversation with Richard Wolinsky. Ian Rankin has carved a name for himself as the premier Scottish writer of noir fiction. His series detective, John Rebus, has appeared in most of his over 25 books. Focusing on police procedure in Edinburgh, these books capture Scotland, his people and politics, in a way that few others have.
Ariel Levy, author of the memoir “The Rules Do Not Apply” in coversation with Richard Wolinsky. A staff writer for the New Yorker magazine since 2008, Ariel Levy first began her tenure focusing on issues involving sexuality and gender. She’s since expanded her reach, with stories about Silvio Berlusconi, Mike Huckabee, the hip drug ayuhuaska and the photographer Catherine Opie. While on assignment in Mongolia, she developed a miscarriage and, within two weeks, saw her relationship go south. Her memoir talks about both events, her career in journalism, and coping with loss.
Bill Pronzini has written over eighty books, including several in the Nameless Detective series of noir novels, as well as many stand-alone novels and short story collections. His most recent novel, “The Violated” is the story of how a series of rapes affects a small Northern California city. His next Nameless Detective novel, “End Game,” comes out in June 2017. He is interviewed by Richard Wolinsky.
Paul Auster, whose latest novel is “4 3 2 1” in conversation with Richard Wolinsky. The author of several novels, screenplays, books of poetry and film director, Paul Auster’s latest novel is an epic 850 page story of how circumstance changes us. In the interview, he also talks about his film-making career and about how his life relates to this novel.
Otessa Moshfegh, whose short story collection, “Homesick for Another World,” has just been published, is interviewed by host Richard Wolinsky. The author of the highly acclaimed novel, “Eileen,” recently out in trade paperback, Otessa Moshfegh is the daughter of an Iranian father and Croatian mother, both forced out of Iran following the 1979 revolution. Her stories are filled with dark humor, focusing on how we feel about our bodies and our lives in this physical universe.
Steven Bach (1938-2009) author of the biography “Leni: The Life and Work of Leni Riefenstahl”, interviewed in 2007 by Richard Wolinsky. The play “Leni” by Sarah Greenman plays at Aurora Theatre Company in Berkeley through May 7, 2017. Leni Riefenstahl was the film maker behind the Nazi propaganda films Triumph of the Will and Olympia. Reifenstahl, who died in 2003 at the age of a hundred and one, to the end of her life denied her work was political, that she was an artist.
