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.
Author: 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: Daniel Handler Condition of Mr. Segundo: Petulant about people who use alter egos. Subjects Discussed: Aub Zam Zam and the legendary bartender Bruno Mooshei, writing in public places, Adverbs as a novel, Nicholas Monsarrat’s Depends What You Mean By Love, how dwelling upon the thematic use of love turned into a 1,000 page first […]
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MoreAuthor: Julia Glass Condition of Mr. Segundo: Concerned with economic developments at the Segundo Studio. Subjects Discussed: Hinging a narrative on a piece of cake, conversations in moving vehicles, the unintended continuation of the Bank Street universe, an urban Yoknapatawpha, family and pregnancies in narrative, whether The Whole World Over is female-centric, Jane Austen, omniscient […]
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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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MoreCurrent Podcasts Available Online: 63 Current Interviews in the Can: 8 MacArthur Genius Fellows Interviewed: 3 National Book Award Winners Interviewed: 4 Granta “Young British Novelists 2003” Interviewed: 2 Interview Subjects Sadly No Longer Living: 1 Age of Oldest Guest to Appear on Segundo: 74 Age of Youngest Guest to Appear on Segundo: 29 Most […]
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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MoreAuthor: Robert Birnbaum Condition of Mr. Segundo: Detached but amused by the pair-up. Subjects Discussed: The value of conducting interviews at a cemetery, Ed Champion’s arrest, the current state of the literary world, literary feuds, Richard Ford and Colson Whitehead, Stanley Crouch, Nicholson Baker, Leon Wieseltier, Anthony Burgess, US vs. UK journalism, Cynthia Ozick, the […]
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MoreAuthor: Jeff VanderMeer Condition of Mr. Segundo: Coming to terms with troubling generalizations. Subjects Discussed: Mushrooms as inspiration, writing “Dradin in Love” while suffering from mono, Steve Erickson, the writer as sadistic god, on being perceived as “difficult,” genre as revitilization device, the New Weird, China Miéville, the value of taxonomies, the use of parentheses […]
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MoreAuthor: A.M. Homes Condition of Mr. Segundo: Trying to remember last night’s conquest, relying upon Jorge’s import/export skills. Subjects Discussed: Taking on the “male menopause novel,” idioms appropriated by corporations, Kurt Vonnegut, vernacular, throwing the reader off guard, the dropping of letters, character names, donuts vs. bagels, burgers, on being provocative, novelists as ethicists, maintaining […]
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MoreAuthor: Jonathan Safran Foer Condition of Mr. Segundo: Dismissive of Michael Martone. Subjects Discussed: San Francisco vs. New York, time-shifting as style, invention as experimentalism, the importance of critics (James Wood, B.R. Myers, Sven Birkets), responding to John Updike’s review, visual elements, designing Extremely Loud in Word, the use of conceptual red ink, the post-9/11 […]
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