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.
Novelist, essayist, screenwriter and master of the novella Jim Harrison died on March 26, 2016 at the age of 78. His best known works include “Legends of the Fall” and “Wolf.” Richard Wolinsky interviewed Jim Harrison in 2007 for his novel, “Returning to Earth.” The conversation was wide-ranging, touching on not only his work but also life in New York after 9/11, the columnist David Brooks, the education system, and life in Hollywood in the ’90s.
Don Winslow is the author of several successful novels. His most recent work, The Cartel, a follow-up to his earlier novel The Power of the Dog, is a thinly disguised history of the Mexican drug wars. In this interview recorded July 23rd, 2015, Winslow discusses the drug wars and their relationship to American politics and economics.
Radio Wolinsky 10: A conversation with Hanya Yanagihara, author of the best-selling novel, A Little Life.
Hanya Yanagihara’s 2015 novel, A Little Life, has made a huge splash in the literary world. This story of a group of friends in New York , this long narrative received terrific reviews and was one of six finalists for the prestigious Man Booker Prize. A former editor for Conde Nast Traveler, Hanya Yanagihara is currently an editor for T, the style magazine of the New York Times.
Yann Martel became an international figure with the publication of his novel, Life of Pi, and the subsequent award-winning film by director Ang Lee. His follow-up novel, Beatrice and Virgil, hit the best seller lists in 2010. In this 43-minute interview, Canadian author Yann Martel discusses the themes in his works, particularly in his latest book, The High Mountains of Portugal, the film version of Life of Pi, and his strange correspondence with Stephen Harper, the former Prime Minister of Canada.
A conversation with Tim Kang, hosted by C.S. Soong, sitting in for Richard Wolinsky.
Aubergine, a play by Julia Cho about family, food, and forgiveness, is having its world premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Tim Kang, who plays the lead character discusses the play and also his perspective as an Asian American actor.
Jon Beavers, Ian Merrigan, Ramiz Monsef and Casey Lee Hurt, co-creators of The Unfortunates, a theatrical piece at A.C.T.’s Strand Theatre through April 10, 2016, join Richard Wolinsky for an in-depth look at the creation, content, and themes of this musical play,
Umberto Eco, who died on February 19, 2016 at the age of 84, was one of the world’s leading semiologists, studying the relationship of signs and symbols to meaning and language. He was also a well-known and well respected novelist. The Name of the Rose, a detective novel set in the middle ages, became a surprise best-seller, and he followed it up with Foucault’s Pendulum, which dealt with world conspiracies, and five later novels. In 2005, Richard Wolinsky sat down with Umberto Eco in the KPFA studios while the Italian writer was on tour for his most recent novel, The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana.
Paul Kantner, who died on January 28, 2016 at the age of 74, was one of the founding members of the great San Francisco band, Jefferson Airplane, and later one of the founders of Jefferson Starship. A legendary vocalist and songwriter, Kantner was known for his melding of rock and roll and science fiction in his lyrics. On February 9th, 1984, Richard A. Lupoff and Richard Wolinsky spoke with Paul Kantner in an interview never meant to be aired.
Radio Wolinsky 8: David Gans and Blair Jackson, co-authors of This Was All a Dream We Dreamed: An Oral History of the Grateful Dead, talk with Richard Wolinsky, whose own history with the Dead go back to his college paper review of the May 1970 Harpur College concert.
Armistead Maupin is the author of the legendary “Tales of the City Series.” The final book in the series, “The Days of Anna Madrigal” was published in 2014. In this interview, Maupin talks about the entire Tales series, about the musical version that played in San Francisco, about the TV series, and about the various characters.
