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.
Robert Olen Butler, author of the novel “Perfume River,” in conversation with Richard Wolinsky. Robert Olen Butler is the author of several novels and short story collections. His collection, “A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain” won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The author of sixteen novels and six collections of short stories, his best-known works focus on the legacy of Vietnam, either looking at the war itself or on its aftermath in Vietnam and in America.
Ashley Judd, interviewed by Richard Wolinsky on April 25,2011 On Saturday, January 21, 2017, Ashley Judd captivated the crowd at the Women’s March in Washington with her presentation as a “Nasty Woman”. While most people simply know her as an actor in films and television, her real center lies as an activist for health and social justice. Richard Wolinsky had a chance to interview Ashley Judd when she was on tour in 2011 for her memoir, “All That Is Bitter and Sweet,”
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.
