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.
Nora Ephron is most recently the author of I Feel Bad About My Neck. Author: Nora Ephron Condition of Mr. Segundo: Terse, but combative towards golden boys. Subjects Discussed: The side effects of eating cake, book tour provisos, Marie Antoinette, superthin models, anatomical parts as literary inspiration, ageism, hair dye, Botox, responding to the Cleveland […]
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MoreAuthor: Tommy Chong Condition of Mr. Segundo: Recovering from a medical mishap. Subjects Discussed: Examining Title 21, Section 863, whether Clinton was in power in the 1980s, salsa dancing, the requirements for being an FBI special agent, plea bargaining, prison life, bodyguards, the Bush family, the advantages of celebrity status vs. a common offender being […]
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MoreAuthor: Pamela Ribon Condition of Mr. Segundo: Ruminating upon a misinterpreted act of politeness. Subjects Discussed: The Weird books as a franchise, chick lit, unusual stabbings, Oryx & Crake, Downtown Press, Zane, heady and passionate men, managing narrative threads, remembering a time without blogs, the origin of pamie.com, selling Why Moms Are Weird, writing fiction […]
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MoreAuthor: Victor Navasky Condition of Mr. Segundo: Mystified by literary columnists. Subjects Discussed: The economics of opinion journal publishing, on running The Nation as an opinion journal that loses money, dividends vs. tax losses, the challenges of a burgeoning subscription base, Calvin Trillin, “no diddling,” responding to Matthew Rothschild’s review, Valerie Plame, The Nation as […]
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MoreAuthor: Alison Bechdel Condition of Mr. Segundo: Revealing his political idiosyncracies. Subjects Discussed: The meaning of “tragicomic,” Nabokov, Charles Addams, on how the funeral home component of Fun Home has been overlooked, on hitting a wall with words, the advantages of “visual writing,” Michael Lesy’s Time Frames: The Meaning of Family Pictures, Fun Home as […]
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MoreGuest: Carl Sheeler Condition of Mr. Segundo: Ejected due to the apparently “serious” nature of politics. Subjects Discussed: Running an unorthodox senatorial campaign, Howard Dean, the similarities and differences between Whitehouse and Sheeler’s platforms, problems with Sheldon Whitehouse, on Sheeler styling himself as “the next Ned Lamont,” more problems with Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island’s status […]
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MoreAuthors: Hillary Carlip and Annabelle Gurwitch Condition of Mr. Segundo: Recovering from an unfortunate incident involving a Motel 6 valet. Subjects Discussed: Clarifying the provenance of “queen of the oddballs,” Chuck Barris, Rex Reed’s appearance on Dick Cavett, journals and ephemera, Liesl Schillinger’s review, on balancing the serious with the comic, cultural context and memory, […]
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MoreAuthors: Dean Haspiel and Harvey Pekar Condition of Mr. Segundo: Feeling old age, pining for an old flame named Virginia. Subjects Discussed: How Haspiel hooked up with Pekar, the origin of the American Splendor movie, the origin of The Quitter, growing as a storyteller courtesy of “hieroglyphic rants,” paneling, DC Comics scripts vs. Pekar scripts, […]
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More[PRODUCER’S NOTE: Every effort has been made to preserve and process the audio. But keep in mind that the group was in a noisy bar and there were considerable microphones involved, which all picked up some background noise. So for those who protest the din, we note that the ambience clears out a little about […]
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MoreAuthor: Tom Tomorrow Condition of Mr. Segundo: Explaining his recent arrest for littering. Subjects Discussed: The relationship between text and image, Moebius strips, clip art, working in digital, color vs. black and white, blogging as help, Warren Ellis, Tom the Dancing Bug, New Yorker cartoons and captions, fonts, the influence of the 1950s, on becoming […]
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More[NOTE: This is the second of a three-part podcast which tackles Alternative Press Expo. Our Young, Roving Correspondent walked the floor and talked with people for the first two parts. The third part will feature the panel interview with Alex Robinson.] Authors: Anna Warren Boersig, Mel Smith and Clark Castillo, Shuji Karasawa, Neil Fitzpatrick, Jacob […]
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More[NOTE: This is the first of a three-part podcast which tackles Alternative Press Expo. Our Young, Roving Correspondent walked the floor and talked with people for the first two parts. The third part will feature the panel interview with Alex Robinson.] Authors: Doug Paszkiewicz, Daniel Davis, Shane White, Miriam Libicki, Keith Knight, Steve Notley, Jose […]
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