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.
Lillian Ross (1918-2017), interviewed in June, 2002 by host Richard Wolinsky. Lillian Ross spent seven decades as a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, known for her extended profiles of politicians and celebrities. Her book “Picture,” about the making of John Huston’s “The Red Badge of Courage” is seen as the prototype today of the “new journalism,” using fictional tropes to fully create non-fictional reportage.
Tom Perrotta, whose latest novel is “Mrs. Fletcher,” in conversation with Richard Wolinsky. The author of several best-sellers, Tom Perrotta is perhaps best known these days as the author of the novel “The Leftovers,” and one of the writers of the highly praised HBO show of the same name. He is also the author of other novels, including “Election” and “Little Children,” both of which became Oscar-nominated films. In this broad-ranging interview, he talks in depth about his newest novel, which deals with the problems of a divorced mother faced with empty-nest syndrome,
Hari Kunzru, whose latest novel is “White Tears,” in conversation with Richard Wolinsky. The author of several novels dealing with race and music, Hari Kunzru uses techniques of magic realism and fantasy to explore critical issues of our time. Born in London in 1969 of an Indian father and Englsh mother, he grew up in the suburb of Essex and went to university in Oxford and Warwick. He later worked as a travel journalist before turning to fiction.
Gore Vidal, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff, recorded on October 5, 2000 in San Francisco, California. Over a period of sixteen years from 1990 to 2006, Richard Wolinsky conducted four interviews with Gore Vidal, two of which involved co-host Richard A. Lupoff. This is the third chronologically of those interviews, conducted on October 5, 2000 while Gore Vidal was on tour for his novel The Golden Age, the final in his series of seven novels exploring American history and titled “Narratives of Empire.”
Encore podcast: Broadway legend Barbara Cook, who died on August 8, 2017, talks with host Richard Wolinsky about her memoir, Then & Now in an extended interview in which she discusses all of her major shows, her difficulty with alcoholism, and her triumph as a concert and cabaret performer.
Edward Abbey, who died at the age of 62 back in 1989 was a novelist, short story writer and non-fiction essayist who is now known as the father of the radical environmentalist movement and one of the great voices of America’s unfettered west. This podcast is drawn from a 1985 interview co-hosted by Richard Wolinsky and Lawrence Davidson. Written, hosted and produced by Richard Wolinsky.
Elmore Leonard (1925-2013) was a leading light in the field of crime and thriller fiction. In this documentary using material from interviews conducted in 1988 and 1989, host Richard Wolinsky lets Elmore speak, in his own words, about his career and his writing process.
Film critic Richard Schickel (1933-2017) in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded in 2003. Richard Schickel, who died on February 18, 2017 at the age of 84, spent forty-five years as film critic for Time Magazine. During his lifetime he wrote 36 books, most of them about film, and produced and directed thirty-four documentaries, all about film.This interview was recorded while he was publicizing his book, ““Good Morning Mr. Zip Zip Zip: Movies, Memory and World War II.”
David Shields, author of “Other People: Takes & Mistakes,” in coversation with Richard Wolinsky.
David Shields ia an essay, novelist, short story writer and film maker.Among his works are “Black Planet,” “How LIterature Saved My Life,” and “I Think You’re Totally Wrong: A Quarrel.: In his latest book, a collection of over thirty essays and stories, he examines what it means to know another person.
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.
