The Bat Segundo Show was a long-running cultural radio program devoted to quirky and very thorough long-form interviews with contemporary authors, idiosyncratic thinkers, and other assorted artists. Guests included David Lynch, Octavia Butler, John Waters, John Updike, Stephen Fry, Marilynne Robinson, Karen Russell, Weird Al Yankovic, Robert A. Caro, and more than 500 others. There was also a program called Follow Your Ears, which was a thematic investigative counterpart, in which I pursued a specific subject through several angles. The entire archive of what I did from 2005 to 2014 is included here.
Guy Maddin is most recently the author of My Winnipeg, a book version of the film of the same name. For listeners who are fans of reading and watching films, this conversation accounts for all experiences and contains more than a few prevarications. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Reconsidering the veracity of his topography. Guest: Guy […]
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MoreMark Kurlansky is most recently the translator of Emile Zola’s The Belly of Paris and the editor of The Food of a Younger Land. He previously appeared on The Bat Segundo Show #220. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Pushing past the patois of a forgotten linguistic formation. Author: Mark Kurlansky Subjects Discussed: Wanting to be Zola […]
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MoreLaila Lalami is most recently the author of Secret Son. She previously appeared on The Bat Segundo Show #11. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Unpersuaded by fictive convictions. Author: Laila Lalami Subjects Discussed: Interviewing enthusiasm, similarities between Secret Son and Richard Wright’s Native Son, Invisible Man, the original title of The Outsider, Ayelet Waldman’s similar title, […]
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 38:50 — 35.6MB)
MoreKathleen Collins is most recently the author of Watching What We Eat. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Contending with traumatic cooking show associations. Author: Kathleen Collins Subjects Discussed: Understandable fears of Rachael Ray, shifting from the extremes of quiet 1940s home economists to Food Network bombast, Graham Kerr and The Galloping Gourmet, Julia Child’s charisma, the […]
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MoreJavier Calvo is the author of Wonderful World. Mara Faye Lethem is the translator. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Considering the unseen cantaloupe. Guests: Javier Calvo and Mara Faye Lethem Subjects Discussed: The pleasures and challenges of having an in-house translator, Pandora in the Congo, the paucity of foreign writers published in America, the frequent use […]
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MoreArthur Phillips is most recently the author of The Song is You. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Reconsidering the playlists and those who play him. Author: Arthur Phillips Subjects Discussed: Characters who are enslaved to culture, partisan positions in relation to hoarding facts, being in denial about larger arguments within novels, Nabokov’s Lectures on Literature, aesthetic […]
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 49:46 — 45.6MB)
MoreSarah Waters is most recently the author of The Little Stranger. To listen to our previous interview with Sarah Waters, check out The Bat Segundo Show #37. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Creeping into the dark shadows of fabricated identities. Author: Sarah Waters Subjects Discussed: Research involving poltergeists, country doctors, and other topics, lingering interests from […]
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MoreMichelle Goldberg is most recently the author of The Means of Reproduction. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Wondering if there’s any fate in what we make. Author: Michelle Goldberg Subjects Discussed: Paul Ehrlich’s The Population Bomb, the proper response to reproductive rights issues, the damage of hyperbolic predictions, European birth rates, parental leave and working mothers, […]
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 49:12 — 45.1MB)
MoreNelson George is most recently the author of City Kid. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Drowning in the inevitable tide of gentrification. Author: Nelson George Subjects Discussed: George’s thoughts on Fort Greene, gentrification, black artists and real estate, the inevitable nature of change, finding a balance between the personal and the artistic, artistic arrogance, on not […]
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MoreBlake Bailey is most recently the author of Cheever and the editor of the two-volume John Cheever set recently issued by Library of America. Subjects Discussed: Eponymous titles, Cheever as a brand name, whether literary biographies are needed, contending with Updike’s review, the hard things that Cheever said about Updike, the literary biography as a […]
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MoreAtom Egoyan is most recently the writer and director of Adoration, which opens in limited release on May 8, 2009. He is also a very friendly and interesting Canadian who does not bite people, but who somehow frightens the MPAA. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Pondering whether he is adored. Guest: Atom Egoyan Subjects Discussed: Scenes […]
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 29:12 — 26.7MB)
MoreJohn Wray is most recently the author of Lowboy. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Searching for those who will listen to him in the subway. Author: John Wray Subjects Discussed: The ABAB narrative of Lowboy, mirroring schizophrenia within a narrative structure, a sane perspective that assists the reader, subway details, Franz Kafka’s Amerika, real vs. imaginary […]
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 34:14 — 31.3MB)
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