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.
Paul Harding is most recently the author of Tinkers. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Tinging with Mingus and tinkering with Tinkers. Author: Paul Harding Subjects Discussed: [List forthcoming] EXCERPT FROM SHOW: Correspondent: We were talking before all this about the idea of novels and whether or not they can actually serve as a handbook for life. […]
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MoreDavid Rakoff is most recently the author of Half-Empty. He previously appeared on The Bat Segundo Show #167 and The Bat Segundo Show #168. PROGRAM NOTE: This show contains many unusual moments: the unanswered phone calls ringing in Mr. Rakoff’s apartment, the race to the Internet to look up the word “vitiate,” the efforts by […]
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MoreNeal Pollack is most recently the author of Stretch. He previously appeared on The Bat Segundo Show #96. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Stretching for owls. Author: Neal Pollack Subjects Discussed: [List forthcoming] EXCERPT FROM SHOW: Correspondent: This book isn’t, to me, just about your own personal experience with yoga. I got the sense in reading […]
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MoreMatthew Sharpe is most recently the author of You Were Wrong. He previously appeared on The Bat Segundo Show #132. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Abandoning the animal experiment. Author: Matthew Sharpe Subjects Discussed: [The truth of the matter is that there doesn’t appear to be enough time in the day for me to summarize subjects […]
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MoreMary Robinette Kowal is most recently the author of Shades of Milk and Honey. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Confusing magic with milkshakes. Author: Mary Robinette Kowal Subjects Discussed: [List forthcoming] EXCERPT FROM SHOW: Correspondent: I wanted to start with the specific language in this book. The specific Jane Austen template that you laid out. You […]
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MoreAdam Ross recently appeared on The Bat Segundo Show #349. Mr. Ross is most recently the author of Mr. Peanut. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Caught within the vertiginous sensation of a Mobius strip. Author: Adam Ross Subjects Discussed: [List forthcoming] EXCERPT FROM SHOW: Ross: I think that what keeps us going day in and day […]
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MoreDan Chaon is most recently the author of Await Your Reply. [PROGRAM NOTES: This conversation, conducted in May, was almost lost when a Seagate drive bit the dust. Considerable gratitude to data recovery specialist Wayman Ng, who managed to resuscitate this conversation from the grave. My apologies also to the very kind and patient Dan […]
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MoreMarcy Dermansky is most recently the author of Bad Marie. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Misidentifying French landmarks and attempting to make peace with copy editors in sketchy motel rooms. Author: Marcy Dermansky Subjects Discussed: [List forthcoming] EXCERPT FROM SHOW: Correspondent: I want to touch upon coincidence. Because it does create possibly a problem for a […]
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MoreJohn Waters is most recently the author of Role Models. (Considerable gratitude to Wayman Ng, who resuscitated this conversation from the data grave.) Condition of Mr. Segundo: Comparing himself to unspecified reference groups in Mertonian social situations. Author: John Waters Subjects Discussed: [List forthcoming] EXCERPT FROM SHOW: Correspondent: You observe that listening to what Tennessee […]
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MoreGary Rivlin is most recently the author of Broke USA: From Pawnshop to Poverty, Inc. — How the Working Poor Became Big Business. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Considering the advances of a seductive loan shark. Author: Gary Rivlin Subjects Discussed: [List forthcoming] EXCERPT FROM SHOW: Rivlin: One in every five customers is taking twenty or […]
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MoreKathryn Schulz is most recently the author of Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Feeling wrong about whether or not he’s right. Author: Kathryn Schulz Subjects Discussed: [List forthcoming] EXCERPT FROM SHOW: Correspondent: I wanted to first of all start off with Thomas Kuhn, who you bring up a […]
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MoreDaniel Okrent is most recently the author of Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Bombarded by too much bathtub gin and too many over-the-top movie trailers. Author: Daniel Okrent Subjects Discussed: [List forthcoming] EXCERPT FROM SHOW: Correspondent: I wanted to ask you about Walgreen’s. You point out that it […]
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