New radio conversations with Eleanor Catton, Paul Harding, Samira Kawash, J. Michael Lennon, and Terry Teachout

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Eleanor Catton

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What if a 900 page novel incorporated Zeno’s dichotomy paradox, the golden ratio, set its action in 1865 and 1866 while aligning character temperament to astrological signs and planets, and incorporated massive strands of storytelling? We talk with Booker Award-winning novelist Eleanor Catton about the benefits of an overly planned structure, Douglas Hofstadter’s Gödel, Escher, Bach, how old newspapers reveal history Shakespeare, and eccentric forms of tax evasion. (71 mins.)

Terry Teachout

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Duke Ellington was a composer who ranked alongside George Gershwin, influencing everyone from Jimi Hendrix to Thelonious Monk. We talk with biographer Terry Teachout about Duke's legacy, his sexiness, his philandering, his politics, the way in which he exploited poor Billy Strayhorn, and his indelible hold on American music.. (50 mins.)

Catton, Biographers, Candy

The Bat Segundo Show, the long-running cultural radio program devoted to informed, in-person, and in-depth conversations with today's authors and idiosyncratic thinkers, has five new shows that you can listen to for free!

This latest quintet includes a rare 72 minute conversation with Booker Prize-winning author Eleanor Catton that covers her highly ambitious 900 page novel, The Luminaries, and her first book, The Rehearsal.

Terry Teachout, longlisted for the National Book Award, returns to our program to discuss Duke Ellington, including her own brother, informed her own life. Pultizer Prize-winning author Paul Harding also returns to discuss his latest novel, Enon, candlepin bowling, religiosity, and grief.

We spent an hour discussing the history of sweets with Samira Kawash, who goes by the moniker, "The Candy Professor."

And then there's Norman Mailer's strange and controversial legacy. How do you deal with a impetuous and wildly original writer who stabbed his wife and allowed Jack Henry Abbott into the streets? We hash it out with biographer J. Michael Lennon, discussing Mailer's conflicts and contraditions.

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And if these five shows aren't enough for you, there are also more than 500 additional conversations with some of the sharpest and sexiest minds alive that you can enjoy in our archive!

J. Michael Lennon

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It’s easy to dog on Norman Mailer for his indiscretions, which include stabbing his wife and Jack Henry Abbott. But he was also one of the most fiercely impetuous, wildly original, and unapologetically emotional writers the 20th century has ever known. We talk with Mailer’s biographer, J. Michael Lennon, to discuss the conflicts and contradictions within Mailer’s legacy. (62 mins.)

Paul Harding

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Over a few centuries, prayers for the dead have transformed into less uptight celebrations. We discuss this American relationship to grief and impermanence with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Paul Harding. The talk gets into candlepin bowling, the oneiric morass inside the skull, our national history of religiosity, and John Cheever (62 mins.)

Samira Kawash

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Did you know that there was once a chocolate bar called the Chicken Dinner? That cigarette companies once considered candy to be a threat to discretionary spending? Or that candy was used by the military for safety purposes? We didn’t either, until we read Samira Kawash’s Candy: A Century of Panic and Pleasure. (58 mins.)

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