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.
science
Kathryn Schulz (BSS #339)
Kathryn 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 […]
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 52:04 — 47.7MB)
MoreNeil deGrasse Tyson (BSS #265)
Neil deGrasse Tyson is most recently the author of The Pluto Files. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Reconfiguring his planetary paradigm, with the aid of minatory electrodes. Author: Neil deGrasse Tyson Subjects Discussed: The Great Planet Debate, sensible classification systems, “reorganizing” the solar system, why the International Astronomical Union wasn’t approached before the Rose Center display […]
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 26:39 — 24.4MB)
MoreDaniel Levitin (BSS #235)
Daniel Levitin is most recently the author of The World in Six Songs. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Recalling a traumatic musical episode from his marriage. Author: Daniel Levitin Subjects Discussed: Songs that straddle multiple categories within Levitin’s taxonomy, neurological response vs. societal perception of a song, the original eight categories, oxytocin, “I Walk the Line,” […]
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 28:28 — 26.1MB)
MoreCourtney Humphries (BSS #234)
Courtney Humphries is the author of Superdove Condition of Mr. Segundo: Severely underestimating the carnivorous impulses of pigeons. Author: Courtney Humphries Subjects Discussed: Eating squab, pigeon dining options in restaurants, Robert Dunn’s pigeon paradox, urban forms of nature, pigeons as an ineluctable aspect of the city, people’s attitudes towards wildlife, the pigeon’s place in the […]
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 43:04 — 39.4MB)
MoreFaye Flam (BSS #223)
Faye Flam is most recently the author of The Score. Condition of the Show: Attempting to contend with gender generalizations. Author: Faye Flam Subjects Discussed: Boot Seduction Camp as the prism with which to approach evolutionary science, the Mystery Method, crude philosophical rules vs. scientific rules, the SRY gene, masculinity’s backup gene, genetics and the […]
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 43:05 — 39.4MB)
MoreMichio Kaku (BSS #197)
Michio Kaku is most recently the author of Physics of the Impossible. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Dreaming the impossible dream. Author: Michio Kaku Subjects Discussed: Maximum caps on bandying about theory in physics, relativity and string theory, the Theory of Everything, decoherence and the wave function of the universe, the Large Hadron Collider, detecting sparticles, […]
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 26:48 — 24.5MB)
MoreAndrea Barrett (BSS #156)
Andrea Barret is most recently the author of The Air We Breathe. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Praising the smell of authors. Author: Andrea Barrett Subjects Discussed: The similarities between pre-World War I and contemporary environments, stumbling upon 1916, sanatoriums, The Magic Mountain, ethnic backgrounds, dwelling upon immigrants and working class backgrounds, blowhard intellectuals, cure cottages, […]
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 37:57 — 34.7MB)
More