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.
Juan José Campanella is most recently the co-writer and director of The Secret in Their Eyes, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film and opens in theaters on April 16, 2010. Allison Amend is most recently the author of Stations West and previously appeared on The Bat Segundo Show #256. Condition of Mr. […]
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MoreChang-Rae Lee is most recently the author of The Surrendered Condition of Mr. Segundo: Searching for the middle-ground between “beat” and “sweet.” Author: Chang-Rae Lee Subjects Discussed: The similarities and differences between writing in first-person vs. third-person, the advantages of sitting in the god’s seat, infinite choices within sentences, the difficulties in pursuing the “inner […]
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MoreDavid Shields is most recently the author of Reality Hunger. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Settling for a quesadilla or some reality for lunch. Author: David Shields Subjects Discussed: The origins of the novel and the pretense of actuality, Shields’s dismissal of Myla Goldberg’s forthcoming novel based solely on a catalog description, the creative possibilities that […]
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MoreSam Lipsyte recently appeared on The Bat Segundo Show #325. Mr. Lipsyte is most recently the author of The Ask. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Looking to ask someone for something. Author: Sam Lipsyte Subjects Discussed: Milo Burke as the obverse to Home Land‘s Lewis Miner (and common personality qualities), Lipsyte’s early draft of The Ask […]
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MoreJustin Taylor is most recently the author of Everything Here is the Best Thing Ever. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Fearful of sanguine book titles. Guest: Justin Taylor Subjects Discussed: Not naming protagonists until well into the stories, dissatisfaction with formality, how characters reveal themselves, gender confusion within “Weekend Away,” Taylor’s aversion to “bright neon signs” […]
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MoreSue Grafton is most recently the author of U is for Undertow. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Looking for a man named Snake to help him escape from Santa Teresa. Author: Sue Grafton Subjects Discussed: Kinsey Millhone’s early announcement to the readers regarding the bad guys, foreshadowing murder, not writing the same book twice, the ethics […]
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MoreGail Godwin is most recently the author of Unfinished Desires. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Combating an uncertain relationship with the faith. Author: Gail Godwin Subjects Discussed: A Mother and Two Daughters, allegorical personality change tied into a historical framework, characters who dictate into a tape recorder, sense of time and character motivation, saving up character […]
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MoreKatharine Weber is most recently the author of True Confections. She previously appeared on The Bat Segundo Show #130 with Levi Asher. Ms. Weber and Mr. Asher will be appearing at the Greenlight Bookstore on January 11, 2009 at 7:30 PM. (Please note: The Bat Segundo Show has discovered a rare and rather alarming remix […]
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MoreLaurel Snyder is most recently the author of Any Which Wall. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Concerned about walls and their failed sentience throughout the years. Author: Laurel Snyder Subjects Discussed: The extraordinary conditions in which Any Which Wall was written, the flexibility that comes from being a small fish, a writing identity tied to poetry […]
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MoreBrian Evenson is most recently the author of Fugue State and Last Days. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Latching onto toccata. Author: Brian Evenson Subjects Discussed: Knowing when a story concept has legs, ideas that never come to anything, the origins of “A Pursuit,” The Open Curtain, maintaining surprise, text sources vs. personal experience, writing fiction […]
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MoreLawrence Block is most recently the author of Step by Step. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Ruminating upon a life of exquisite indolence. Author: Lawrence Block Subjects Discussed: Step by Step as an anti-memoir, exploring childhood experience in print, randomness and finding connections, writing with a greater degree of freedom, Random Walk, concerns about a limited […]
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MoreMichael Muhammad Knight is most recently the author of Impossible Man and Osama Van Halen. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Expressing forceful words about his distinct identity. Author: Michael Muhammad Knight Subjects Discussed: Knight’s powers of prescience, Muslim punk, fictional suicide as a form of personal critique, the fictional character Mike Knight vs. the real Mike […]
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