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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Robin Black (BSS #333)
Robin Black is most recently the author of If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This. Condition of Mr. Segundo: If he could tell you, he’d have to love you. Author: Robin Black Subjects Discussed: Writing ten stories over eight years, rumination time and writing, Black discarding 75% of what she writes, the importance […]
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 53:51 — 49.3MB)
MoreEthan Canin (BSS #228)
Ethan Canin is most recently the author of America America. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Examining his miserable relationship with America. Author: Ethan Canin Subjects Discussed: Neil Diamond’s “America,” the stuttering titular impulse, the Corvair, journalists as heroes, intentional vs. unintentional symbols, the reporter’s instinct, “the ingenuity of the working man,” ideology, the politics of generosity, […]
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 42:52 — 39.3MB)
MoreTobias Wolff (BSS #208)
Tobias Wolff is most recently the author of Our Story Begins. Condition of the Show: Speculating upon Mr. Wolff’s unknown powers. Author: Tobias Wolff Subjects Discussed: Writing first-person stories that don’t seem like first-person stories, the use of the word “I,” contemporary short stories and therapy sessions, fiction and narcissism, William Trevor, knowing the lay […]
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 35:03 — 32.1MB)
MoreElizabeth Crane II (BSS #195)
Elizabeth Crane is most recently the author of You Must Be This Happy to Enter. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Failing to understand why so many people are happy. Author: Elizabeth Crane Subjects Discussed: The unwarranted stigma behind the exclamation mark, what it means to be happy, zombies and reality TV, Max Brooks’s World War Z, […]
Listen: Play in new window | Download (Running Time: 31:15 — 28.6MB)
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