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.
Maggie Estep is most recently the author of Alice Fantastic. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Hoping to see Alice at the next opportunity. Author: Maggie Estep Subjects Discussed: Efforts to determine if it’s good to be happy, animals throughout Estep’s work, how love for animals is directly proportional to love for human beings, Of Mice and […]
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MoreLizzie Skurnick is most recently the author of Shelf Discovery. She previously appeared on The Bat Segundo Show #13. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Sacrificing his manhood to fight the patriarchal overlords. Author: Lizzie Skurnick Subjects Discussed: Bridge to Terabithia and class distinctions, the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary, issues surrounding mothers working, reader perceptions vs. […]
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MoreRichard Russo is most recently the author of That Old Cape Magic. He previously appeared on The Bat Segundo Show #152. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Shoving Cape Cod mackerel down his throat. Author: Richard Russo Subjects Discussed: Signs with unusual spacing, drawing from the sign at The Silver Lounge Restaurant in North Falmouth, MA for […]
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MoreJ. Robert Lennon is most recently the author of Castle and Pieces for the Left Hand. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Contemplating his surprising longevity after 300 shows. Author: J. Robert Lennon Subjects Discussed: Ending sentences with nouns, how location affects character description, objects and places as the territory of a story, how the land in […]
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MoreChina Mieville is most recently the author of The City & The City. He previously appeared on The Bat Segundo Show #105. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Searching for the Mieville and the Mieville. Author: China Mieville Subjects Discussed: When The City & The City was written, speculating on the novel’s setting, ratty technology and shambolic […]
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MoreSarah Wendell and Candy Tan appeared on The Bat Segundo Show #296. Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan are most recently the authors of Beyond Heaving Bosoms. They are also the proprietors of Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. Subjects Discussed; Kathleen Woodwiss’s The Flame and the Flower, the beginnings of original paperback romance, genre respectability, romance’s profitability, […]
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MorePercival Everett is most recently the author of I Am Not Sidney Poitier. [For related links, check out Percival Everett Week over at Emerging Writers Network, as well as my specific thoughts about Everett’s most recent novel.] Condition of Mr. Segundo: He is not Percival Everett. Subjects Discussed: Name-related jokes, puns and internal metaphors, the […]
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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, […]
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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 […]
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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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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 […]
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 44:58 — 41.2MB)
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