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.
Berkeley Breathed is the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist of Bloom County, Opus, and the author of many children’s books. This is the second part of a two-part interview. The second part is available here. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Jittery of Gittis. Author Interview: Berkeley Breathed Subjects Discussed: The disparity between illustrating a daily strip and audience […]
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MoreAustin Grossman is most recently the author of Soon I Will Be Invincible. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Scared of Larry. Author: Austin Grossman Subjects Discussed: Retconned culture, the human qualities of superheroes, origin stories, the postmodernist trappings of comic book continuity constructs, grad school vs. superheroes, writing while driving, how Grossman’s work on video games […]
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MoreScarlett Thomas is most recently the author of The End of Mr. Y. Author: Scarlett Thomas Condition of Mr. Segundo: Recovering from Scarlett fever. Subjects Discussed: Prodigious fiction authors, pursuing the novel of ideas, Neuromancer, moving away from families to loner characters, striving for authenticity in a middle-class literary culture, smart women characters and sex, […]
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MoreAlan DeNiro is most recently the author of Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Procrastinating at the last minute. Guests: Carolyn Kellogg and Alan DeNiro Subjects Discussed: Small Beer Press, genres, Jim Monroe, on being a post-science fiction author, picking from years of fabulism, on being a genre agnostic, […]
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MoreAM Homes is most recently the author of The Mistress’s Daughter. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Remarkably terse. Author: A.M. Homes Subjects Discussed: Expanding the New Yorker piece to book form, the rules of memoir, inventing deposition testimony, being “dished up” by the Roiphe sisters, the false connection between Homes’ novels and the memoir, Joan Didion, […]
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MoreMarshall Klimasewiski is most recently the author of The Cottagers. > Condition of Mr. Segundo: Vacating from vacations. Guests: C. Max Magee and Marshall Klimasewiski Subjects Discussed: Drawing upon compartmentalized personal experience, writing unpleasant characters, sabbaticals, maintaining an ever-shifting narrative, writing short stories vs. novels, characters stuck in environments, protracted scenes, human connection vs. work, […]
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MoreMark Binelli is most recently the author of Sacco and Vanzetti Must Die. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Avoiding pie-throwing Bolsheviks. Guests: Jessica Stockton and Mark Binelli Subjects Discussed: What’s real and what’s not real in Sacco and Vanzetti Must Die, anarchism, 20th century film references, the Coen brothers, Upton Sinclair, extemporaneous speeches, on not writing […]
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MoreLionel Shriver is most recently the author of The Post-Birthday World. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Abdicating his duties for an advertising campaign. Author: Lionel Shriver Subjects Discussed: Devising a dual narrative, snooker, film references, the relationship between The Bad Seed and Sliding Doors and Shriver’s novels, dialect and transcribed speech, sports in Shriver’s books, contrasting […]
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MoreJohn Sheppard is most recently the author of Small Town Punk Condition of Mr. Segundo: Avoiding Sheppard tones. Author: John Sheppard Subjects Discussed: Responding to Dan Green’s post, on being rejected by publishers and self-publishing, writing without a plot, on doing things twice, the connection between the conscious and subconscious thematics, getting out of the […]
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MoreTao Lin is most recently the author of EEEEE EEE EEEE and Bed. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Rattled by interlopers. Author: Tao Lin Subjects Discussed: Murakami meets Less Than Zero, the violent impulses of animals, Elijah Wood, Gmail chat as muse, Instant Messenger, one-sentence poetry, figuring out things and calming down, Ann Beattie, Tao Lin’s […]
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MoreWilliam T. Vollmann is most recently the author of Poor People. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Distancing himself from emus. Author: William T. Vollmann Subjects Discussed: The relationship between The Atlas and Poor People, the dimensions of poverty vs. the moral compass, I.A. Richards’ poetic experiments, photographs, the problems with objective solutions to poverty, “More aid, […]
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MoreEllen Klages is most recently the author of Portable Childhoods. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Affirming his miserable status. Author: Ellen Klages Subjects Discussed: On being approached by Sharon November at a convention to write a children’s book, writing fiction from a child’s perspective vs. an adult’s perspective, conducting research for a story, the 1950s, how […]
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