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.
Markos Moulitsas is most recently the author of Taking on the System. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Refusing to cut and run from Kenny Loggins and company. Author: Markos Moulitsas Subjects Discussed: Speculation on the effectiveness of protests, influencing the gatekeepers, Amy Goodman and other journalists arrested in St. Paul, small-time bloggers, Cindy Sheehan, “Free Mumia” […]
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MoreBrent Spiner is most recently a producer and performer on the album, Dreamland. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Ducking his head and dodging paranoid crooners. Guest: Brent Spiner Subjects Discussed: Natural reverb, conversational limitations, co-owning a recording studio with Dave Way, being a control freak, the shaky profitability of the music industry, self-distributing a CD through […]
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MoreSarah Manguso is most recently the author of The Two Kinds of Decay. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Contemplating fifty-five additional states of decay. Author: Sarah Manguso Subjects Discussed: David Markson, sentences that originate in other formats, fan mail, whether a paragraph is truly a paragraph, problems with typesetting nomenclature, remembering personal moments at 1,000 words […]
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MoreKathryn Harrison is most recently the author of While They Slept. Condition of Mr. Segundo:: Grappling with death and emergencies. Author: Kathryn Harrison Subjects Discussed: Opening the novel with a stark transcript of a 9/11 call, exchange incongruities, differences between text and spoken word, lack of annotation, true crime as a writing choice, the Keddie […]
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MoreMike Edison is the author of I Have Fun Everywhere I Go. Condition of the Show: Reinvestigating the purported death of Bat Segundo. (See also Show #199.) Author: Mike Edison Subjects Discussed: Writing a memoir predicated upon shit-talking, sticking with the details, the lack of composite characters, compressed chronology, Heeb editor Josh Neuman vs. Screw […]
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MoreSenator Mike Gravel and Joe Lauria are the co-authors of A Political Odyssey. Gravel was a candidate for the 2008 U.S. presidential race. Lauria is an investigative journalist who writes for The Sunday Times. Condition of the Show: Delving into the complexities of the military industrial complex. Authors: Senator Mike Gravel and Joe Lauria. Subjects […]
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MoreFaye Flam is most recently the author of The Score. Condition of the Show: Attempting to contend with gender generalizations. Author: Faye Flam Subjects Discussed: Boot Seduction Camp as the prism with which to approach evolutionary science, the Mystery Method, crude philosophical rules vs. scientific rules, the SRY gene, masculinity’s backup gene, genetics and the […]
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MoreGrandmaster Flash is most recently the author of The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash (with David Ritz). Karen Abbott is most recently the author of Sin in the Second City. Condition of the Show: Marinating in urban culture. Authors: Grandmaster Flash and Karen Abbott SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Using “adventures” in a book title, cutting, rubbing and scratching, […]
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MoreRachel Shukert is the author of Have You No Shame? Condition of the Show: Contending with tenuous widows and the mysterious circumstances of Mr. Segundo’s death. Author: Rachel Shukert Subjects Discussed: Whether Ms. Shukert is still on the Viacom blacklist, the soul-crushing aspects of temping, working odd jobs in Amsterdam, Anne Frank as a constant […]
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MoreMort Walker is the creator of Beetle Bailey. A forthcoming volume of the first two years of Beetle Bailey is coming next month. Condition of the Show: Observing fifty years of development. Author: Mort Walker Subjects Discussed: Walker’s drawing pace, the Beetle Bailey production cycle, filtering through the gags, rejected strips sent to Sweden, Beetle’s […]
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MoreSloane Crosley is the author of I Was Told There’d Be Cake. Condition of the Show: Placing the authors and book titles under too much scrutiny. Author: Sloane Crosley Subjects Discussed: Marie Antoinette, caring about perception, Veganism, the personal essay as a series of impersonations and observations, on being perceived as “nice,” the text as […]
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MoreWill Leitch is most recently the author of God Save the Fan. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Running away from the spirit of Red Smith. Author: Will Leitch Subjects Discussed: The inspirational force of Van Halen, music in hockey arenas, speculation on why Kenny Loggins’s “Danger Zone” is continuously played at football games, special interests in […]
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