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.
Maureen Gosling, filmmaker and film editor, discusses the films of noted documentary director Les Blank (1935-2013), which whom she collaborated for several years, along with her own career, in this interview with host Richard Wolinsky. A Retrospective of the films of Les Blank can be seen at Pacific Film Archive June 7 to July 27, 2024. Photo: BAMPFA
Aya de Leon, the Interim Program Director of the Tenth Annual Bay Area Book Festival, June 1-2 in various locations in Berkeley, talks about this year’s festival with host Richard Wolinsky. She is the current Poet Laureate of Berkeley, is the author of ten books, and is a climate and social justice activist.
Paul Auster (1947-2024), in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky, recorded October 2, 2002 while on tour for his novel “The Book of Illusions.” Paul Auster, who died on April 30th, 2024 was a world-renowned novelist, memoirist, and film-maker whose works were translated into forty languages.
Helen Benedict, author of the novel “The Good Deed,” in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky. The novel focuses on the life of refugees in the Greek island of Samos. In the interview, Helen Benedict, Professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, also discusses the protests at Columbia as well as her view of journalism about the 2024 election.
Trina Robbins (1938-2024), who died of a stroke on April 10, 2024, discusses her memoir, “Last Girl Standing,” and her career in an interview recorded February 6, 2018. A legend in comic book circles, an artist at a time when hardly any women drew comics, Trina Robbins was an artist, author, and clothing designer.
Joan Baez, legendary singer, songwriter and activist, in connversation with host Richard Wolinsky, recorded while on remote tour for her book of poetry, “When You See My Mother, Ask Her to Dance.” Recorded April 26, 2024 via zencastr. Photo courtesy Joan Baez.
A conversation with Viet Thanh Nguyen, winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his novel, “The Sympathizer,” which has now been adapted into a high-profile television miniseries. Recorded May 5, 2016 and originally posted June 21, 2016 Hosted by Richard Wolinsky
Don Winslow, author of “City in Ruins,” final volume of a modern gangster trilogy based on The Aenid, the Iliad and the Odyssey, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded via zencastr on April 10, 2024. In the interview, he talks about the thirty year journey to complete the trilogy, as well as upcoming adaptations of his work, and his current videos aimed at avoiding a fascist America, on X (Twitter).
Margot Livesey, author of the novel, “The Road from Belhaven,” in conversation with Richard Wolinsky. Recorded March 19, 2024 at Book Passage Bookstore in Corte Madera, California. Born in Scotland, Margot Livesey is the author of ten novels, including “The Missing World” and “Mercury.”
Susan Oxtoby, curator of a retrospective of filmmaker Agnes Varda (1928-2019) at BAMPFA through May 5th, discusses the career of the great Belgian-French director, focusing in on her most important films as well as a new documentary about Varda, “Viva Varda”. Photo of Susan Oxtoby and Agnes Varda in Berkeley, 2013, by Mariana Lopez, courtesy BAMPFA.
