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.
Margot Livesey discusses her latest novel, “Mercury,” with host Richard Wolinsky. Margot Livesey is known for writing literary psychological thrillers. Born and raised in Britain, she’s lived in the United States for several years, and “Mercury,” a tale of obsession and misunderstanding, is her first set in America.
Richard Adams (1920-2016) interviewed in 1978 by Richard Wolinsky. Richard Adams, the author of “Watership Down,” “Plague Dogs” “Shardik” and other novels, died on Christmas Eve, 2016 at the age of 96. It was on tour for “The Plague Dogs” upon its American publication in the spring of 1978 that Richard Wolinsky interviewed Richard Adams. Though he’d conducted a handful of interviews with a co-host, this was Richard Wolinsky’s first solo shot in what would be a long career as literary interviewer.
Rabih Alameddine, author of “The Angel of History” is interviewed by Richard Wolinsky. Born in Kuwait and now living in San Francisco and Beirut, Rabih Alameddine is the atuhor of several novels, including “The Hakawati” and “An Unnecessary Woman.” His latest novel deals with memory and forgetting, as a poet remembers his lover and others who died of AIDS during the ’80s in the context of both the real world and a fantasy dialogue between Satan and Death.
Jonathan Safran Foer, author of the novel “Here I Am” is interviewed by Richard Wolinsky In his latest novel, the author of “Everything is Illuminated” and “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” focuses on the question of what it means to be a secular Jew in America today. “Here I Am” was named as one of the 100 notable books of 2016 by the New York Times.
Theater critic John Lahr discusses his two most recent books, “Joy Ride,” which includes criticism and profiles from his years with the New Yorker magazine, and his recent biography of Tennessee Williams, along with his notions about criticism, reviewing, movies vs. theater, and most relevantly, political theater.
Arthur Laurents (1917-2011), interviewed on April 7, 2000 by Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff, during the tour for his memoir, Original Story By … Arthur Laurents was one of the giants of American culture. A playwright, librettist and director, he was one of the collaborators on two of the greatest musicals in the history of Broadway, West Side Story and Gypsy. In Hollywood, he was best known for the screenplays to The Way We Were and The Turning Point.
James Gleick, whose latest book is Time Travel, is interviewed by Richard Wolinsky. The author of The Information returns with Time Travel, which focuses on the history of time travel in literature and physics, and on the various paradoxes and possibilities of the idea.
Marisa Silver, author of the novel Little Nothing is interviewed by Richard Wolinsky. Marisa Silver, who began her artistic career in her twenties as a film director (Permanent Record, He Said She Said), and then turned to novels (The God of War, Mary Coin), discusses her latest novel, Little Nothing, a fantasy set in Eastern Europe in the early years of the twentieth century, and involves a girl who changes form and identity as the world becomes modern. Marisa Silver is the daughter of noted film director Joan Micklin Silver.
Jacqueline Woodson, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky.
One of the leading writers of children’s and young adult fiction, Jacqueline Woodson’s latest adult novel, “Another Brooklyn,” tells the story of four African American girls growing up in Brooklyn during the 1970s, and is a finalist for the 2016 National Book Award.
