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.
Dave Eggers discusses his latest novel, “The Parade” with host Richard Wolinsky.T he author of several works of fiction and non-fiction, Dave Eggers is best known for the memoir “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius,” a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He is also the founder of McSweeney’s publishing house in San Francisco, and is an acclaimed journalist who writes for The Guardian and elsewhere.
George R.R. Martin, recorded in 1991, interviewed by Richard Wolinsky & Richard A. Lupoff. As Game of Thrones enters its final season, we can look back on the career of George R.R. Martin, to the days before his fantasy series was published, when he was best known as a writer for television, though he’d already written novels and short stories.
Tommy Orange is the author of the acclaimed novel “There There,” set in the Native American community in Oakland. He is interviewed by 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.
