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.
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Sara Levine (BSS #437)
Sara Levine is most recently the author of Treasure Island!!! Condition of Mr. Segundo: Seeking elusive parrot memoirs. Author: Sara Levine Subjects Discussed: Ways to state exclamation marks in conversation, unreliable narrators, verbal flair, taking qualities away from a character to create a voice, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, on Levine not […]
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Marisa Meltzer (BSS #328)
Marisa Meltzer is most recently the author of Girl Power. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Wondering why Liz Phair is running away. Author: Marisa Meltzer Subjects Discussed: Mapping out what it means to be a woman, leveling patriarchal playing fields, identity and feminist consciousness, siblinghood fantasies, Sassy Magazine, riot grrls, Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Pavement, relying too […]
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MorePercival Everett (BSS #295)
Percival Everett is most recently the author of I Am Not Sidney Poitier. [For related links, check out Percival Everett Week over at Emerging Writers Network, as well as my specific thoughts about Everett’s most recent novel.] Condition of Mr. Segundo: He is not Percival Everett. Subjects Discussed: Name-related jokes, puns and internal metaphors, the […]
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MoreHal Niedzviecki II (BSS #294)
Hal Niedzviecki is most recently the author of The Peep Diaries. He previously appeared on The Bat Segundo Show #47. [PROGRAM NOTE: At the 24:03 mark, a woman with a laptop demanded that Our Correspondent talk with less vivacity, suggesting that Our Correspondent was talking in a “disturbing” manner. Never mind that people sitting closer […]
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MoreLaila Lalami II (BSS #291)
Laila Lalami is most recently the author of Secret Son. She previously appeared on The Bat Segundo Show #11. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Unpersuaded by fictive convictions. Author: Laila Lalami Subjects Discussed: Interviewing enthusiasm, similarities between Secret Son and Richard Wright’s Native Son, Invisible Man, the original title of The Outsider, Ayelet Waldman’s similar title, […]
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More2008 National Book Awards (BSS #252)
So far as we know, the National Book Awards has not authored anything aside from programs and informational pamphlets. The people that Our Young, Roving Correspondent talked with on that fateful night, however, have authored a few books. Or at least, this is what they have told us. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Deeply suspicious of […]
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MoreChristian Bauman (BSS #215)
Christian Bauman is most recently the author of In Hoboken. Condition of the Show: Contending with contentious Midtown diners. Author: Christian Bauman Subjects Discussed: Defining a rock and roll novel, writing an ensemble novel with Hoboken as a character, references to paper storms and 9/11, chronological foreshadowing, using real-life Hoboken locations vs. invented locations, the […]
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MoreEd Park (BSS #211)
Ed Park is most recently the author of Personal Days. Condition of the Show: Plagued by brutal downsizing. Author: Ed Park Subjects Discussed: Literary people named Ed, writing Personal Days and using vacation days while employed at the Voice, counting words written per day, B.S. Johnson, Jonathan Coe’s Like a Fiery Elephant, Harry Stephen Keeler, […]
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MoreMarshall Klimasewiski II (BSS #193)
Marshall Klimasewiski is most recently the author of Tyrants. This conversation was conducted in front of an audience at McNally Robinson on February 28, 2008. Many thanks to Jessica Stockton Bagnulo for arranging this! Condition of Mr. Segundo: At loggerheads with his master. Author: Marshall Klimasewiski Subjects Discussed: Ballooning as a “fight or flight” impulse, […]
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MoreSteve Erickson (BSS #180)
Steve Erickson is most recently the author of Zeroville. He returned to the program for a second conversation with The Bat Segundo Show #447. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Confused by floating point integers. Author: Steve Erickson Subjects Discussed: Approaching a novel with fewer fantastical elements, following the narrative laws of movies, Peter Biskind’s Easy Riders, […]
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 37:18 — 34.2MB)
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