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.
Colm Toibin, author of “House of Names,” in conversation with Richard Wolinsky. “House of Names” is a retelling of the story of the House of Atreus, the classic Greek tragedy of Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, Electra and Orestes, which formed the basis of plays by Sophocles, Euripedes and Aeschylus, as well as influenced playwrights from Shakespeare to Eugene O’Neill.
Gore Vidal, in conversation on March 11, 1998 with Richard Wolinsky and Richard A Lupoff while he was on tour for his novel “The Smithsonian Institution.” In the wide ranging interview he talks about the demonization of the Clintons, health care in America, United States history, his own biography and his work in stage and film.
Andrew McCarthy, author of the young adult novel “Just Fly Away,” travel writer and actor/director, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky. Andrew McCarthy has had a long career, starting out as an actor in such films as “Pretty in Pink,” “Less Than Zero” and “Weekend at Bernie’s”, and went on to become a noted travel writer and successful television director,
Donna Seaman, author of “Identity Unknown: Rediscovering Seven American Women Artists” in conversation with Richard Wolinsky.
Radio Wolinsky 3: A Conversation with Gore Vidal, 1990. This encore podcast originally was posted on November 18, 2015; a shorter version aired as a Arts-Waves program/podcast on October 31, 2016. Gore Vidal (1925-2012) was the author of such novels as Burr, 1976, Julian and Myra Breckinridge, as well as one of America’s greatest essayists. On … Continued
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.
Steven Bach (1938-2009) author of the biography “Leni: The Life and Work of Leni Riefenstahl”, interviewed in 2007 by Richard Wolinsky. 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.
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.
