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.
Terry Sanders is most recently the director of Fighting for Life, which opens in New York and Los Angeles on March 7th. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Convinced that he is fighting for his life. Guest: Terry Sanders Subjects Discussed: Maintaining an apolitical tone, whether being a military doctor involves politics, apolitical semiotics, how much reality […]
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 31:36 — 28.9MB)
MoreWayne Shannon is a legendary broadcast commentator. This particular conversation relates to this 2006 post from Return of the Reluctant. You can find a 1980 clip of Shannon’s work here. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Absent. Guest: Wayne Shannon Subjects Discussed: Reading teleprompter from thirty feet away, being a “troubleshooter,” the proprietary address of “Our Wayne […]
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 35:18 — 32.3MB)
MoreChip Kidd is a book designer and most recently the author of The Learners. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Contending with form vs. function. Author: Chip Kidd Subjects Discussed: The origins of the nickname Happy, Death of a Salesman, laundry list homages to White Noise, Daredevil, Himillsy Dodd’s ability to see into the future, lexical blending, […]
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 45:28 — 41.6MB)
MorePaulo Morelli is the director of City of Men. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Contemplating a movie scenario with Brazilian filmmakers. Guest: Paulo Morelli Subjects Discussed: Using close-ups, visual obstructions for sexual activity, violence and emotion, the relationship between City of God and City of Men, possible confusion between the television series and the movie, color […]
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 32:41 — 29.9MB)
MoreSamantha Hunt is most recently the author of The Invention of Everything Else. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Pining for chambermaids. Author: Samantha Hunt Subjects Discussed: Managing multiple perspectives, working within the limitations of 1943, helpful historical endnotes, Tesla’s tendency to divide things by three, pleasantly misleading metafictional names, using abandoned New York topography in a […]
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 51:15 — 46.9MB)
MoreDavid Bruckner, Jacob Gentry, and Dan Bush are the writer-directors of The Signal. AJ Bowen played exterminator Lewis Denton, Scott Poythress played Clark, and Chad McKnight played Jim Parsons. The film opens on February 22, 2008. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Resisting the suggestions of broadcast signals. Guests: Cast and crew members from The Signal: Writer-directors […]
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 33:40 — 30.8MB)
MoreToby Barlow is the author of Sharp Teeth. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Distrusting of certain types of poetry. Author: Toby Barlow Subjects Discussed: The appeal of free verse, genre distinctions, the concern for lycanthropic physiology, Terry Pratchett, deviating from the rules in the werewolf canon, Brian Francis Slattery’s Spaceman Blues, a hyper-giddy version of the […]
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 33:52 — 31.0MB)
MoreSteve 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)
MoreCharles Baxter is most recently the author of The Soul Thief. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Vengeful towards literary ransackers. Author: Charles Baxter Subjects Discussed: Nathaniel Branden, Ayn Rand, intellectualism and the academic community, reductionist dialogue, being a grad student in the 1970s, Baxter’s recurrent water motif, placing a novel in Buffalo, getting the setting right, […]
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 33:50 — 31.0MB)
MoreCharles Bock is the author of Beautiful Children. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Reconsidering the last eleven years of his life. Author: Charles Bock Subjects Discussed: Setting a novel in Vegas, writing about a city when living there vs. a more distant approach to learning about the location, Las Vegas and its suburbs as the fastest […]
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MoreCharles Burns is the author and illustrator of Black Hole. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Avoiding conspiracy theorists. Author: Charles Burns Subjects Discussed: Responding to Vanessa Raney’s comparison between Black Hole and Sartre’s No Exit, anatomical closeups, World War II venereal disease films, intuitive artistic choices, the influence of postwar culture vs. personal experience, half-naked girls […]
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 44:05 — 40.4MB)
MoreEran Kolirin is the writer and director of The Band’s Visit, now playing in theaters. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Contending with the inflexible language demands of the Academy. Guest: Eran Kolirin Subjects Discussed: Using a great deal of static shots, Antonioni, the influence of comic books, creating a cinematic fable, contending with too many extras […]
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 21:15 — 19.5MB)
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