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.
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.
Ian Rankin, whose latest novel is “Rather Be The Devil,” in conversation with Richard Wolinsky. Ian Rankin has carved a name for himself as the premier Scottish writer of noir fiction. His series detective, John Rebus, has appeared in most of his over 25 books. Focusing on police procedure in Edinburgh, these books capture Scotland, his people and politics, in a way that few others have.
Bill Pronzini has written over eighty books, including several in the Nameless Detective series of noir novels, as well as many stand-alone novels and short story collections. His most recent novel, “The Violated” is the story of how a series of rapes affects a small Northern California city. His next Nameless Detective novel, “End Game,” comes out in June 2017. He is interviewed by Richard Wolinsky.
Paul Auster, whose latest novel is “4 3 2 1” in conversation with Richard Wolinsky. The author of several novels, screenplays, books of poetry and film director, Paul Auster’s latest novel is an epic 850 page story of how circumstance changes us. In the interview, he also talks about his film-making career and about how his life relates to this novel. (photo: creative commons, 2007 Brooklyn Book Festival)
Otessa Moshfegh, whose short story collection, “Homesick for Another World,” has just been published, is interviewed by host Richard Wolinsky. The author of the highly acclaimed novel, “Eileen,” recently out in trade paperback, Otessa Moshfegh is the daughter of an Iranian father and Croatian mother, both forced out of Iran following the 1979 revolution. Her stories are filled with dark humor, focusing on how we feel about our bodies and our lives in this physical universe.
Josh Kornbluth and Jacob Kornbluth, creators of the film “Love and Taxes,” in conversation with Richard Wolinsky.
Douglas Preston, author of “The Lost City of the Monkey God” is interviewed by Richard Wolinsky. Douglas Preston has written several works of fiction and non-fiction, including a best-selling series of thrillers co-written with Lincoln Child (the Agent Pendergast series). In his latest work of non-fiction, Preston delves into the story of a lost city in Honduras, in Mosquitia, and a civilization that vanished after the Spanish came to the Americas.
