Episodes
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Charles Yu, whose novel Interior Chinatown just won the 2020 National Book Award for fiction, is interviewed by host Richard Wolinsky.
Interior Chinatown takes place in a meta-world in which Hollywood’s Chinese stereotypes are portrayed by Asian immigrants and second-generation Asian Americans in films and TV shows. The book uses tropes from screenplays as well as prose fiction to illuminate these tropes, switching between narrative, entertainment history, and polemic in a highly original way.
Charles Yu is the author of two previous short-story collections and one novel, has worked as an attorney, and also has worked in the writers’ room of several television shows, most notably during the first season of HBO’s Westworld. Interior Chinatown is now a television miniseries streaming on Hulu and Disney+.
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Steven Bach (1938-2009) author of the biography “Leni: The Life and Work of Leni Riefenstahl”, interviewed in 2007 by Richard Wolinsky. This podcast was first posted May 5, 2017.
Leni Riefenstahl was the film maker behind the Nazi propaganda films Triumph of the Will and Olympia. Reifenstahl, who died in 2003 at the age of a hundred and one, to the end of her life denied her work was political, that she was an artist.
Stephen Bach, who died at the age of 70 in 2009, had been a studio executive and began writing books with “Final Cut”, his memoir about the making of the film Heaven’s Gate. He followed that with a biography of the playwright Moss Hart, and then a biography of actress Marlene Dietrich, which as he says, led him to Leni Riefenstahl. The interview was recorded in the KPFA studios on May 7, 2007. Guardian Obituary.
In an interview perhaps more timely today than the year it was recorded, Bach compares Reifenstahl’s work to right-wing propaganda in America, and the use of the Hitler playbook.
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Missing episodes?
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Richard Powers discusses his latest novel, “Playground” with host Richard Wolinsky, recorded in the KPFA studios October 31, 2024.
Richard Powers won the Pulitzer Prize i 2019 for “The Overstory,” and the National Book Award in 2006 for “The Echo Maker.” He is also the author of “The Time Of Our Singing,” “Orfeo,” and “Bewilderment.” He has been a Booker Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist multiple times.
“Playground” brings together the history of Silicon Valley and the growth of A.I. with a look at deep ocean diving and the notion of floating cities in a story that circles back on itself.
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Anne Hillerman discusses her latest novel, “Lost Birds,” and her career as a writer with host Richard Wolinsky.
Anne Hillerman has written nine books in a series of mysteries featuring the native detectives Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, created by her father, the legendary novelist, the late Tony Hillerman (1925-2008).
Previously a writer of travel books focusing on Santa Fe and environs, she began working on these novels following the death of her father and chose to increase the role of a minor character, Bernadette Manuelito, from Tony Hillerman’s books to one of primary protagonist. That change was later emulated in the “Dark Winds” television series.
The post Anne Hillerman: Continuing the Adventures of Leaphorn and Chee appeared first on KPFA. -
Francine du Plessix Gray, who died on January 13, 2019 at the age of 88, was a writer of both fiction and non-fiction, and frequent contributor to the New Yorker Magazine. Born in Poland, the daughter of a French diplomat and Russian émigré from the revolution, she was raised in Paris and came, with her mother, to the United States after the Germans took France. Her most notable book, “Them,” is the story of her parents’ lives, and Richard Wolinsky had a chance to speak with Francine du Plessix Gray about that book and about her career, recorded at KPFA on May 22, 2005.
Francine du Plessix Gray wrote one more book after the interview, a biography, of Madame Germain de Stall, a novelist and travel writer who lived during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Era. Them won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Memoir in 2005.
This interview was first posted on February 9, 2019.
The post Francine du Plessix Gray (1930-2019), “Them: A Memoir of Parents” appeared first on KPFA. -
Caleb Carr in 2002.
Caleb Carr (1955-2024), author of The Alienist and other works, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded in the KPFA studios October 15, 1997. Digitized, remastered and edited in September 2024, this interview has not been heard in over a quarter century.
Caleb Carr, who died on May 23, 2024 at the age of 68, was a military historian, a novelist, and a writer who examined the nature of violence in his fiction and non-fiction. He was perhaps best known for his best-selling novel The Alienist, which recently became a two-season streaming series. Over all, he wrote 11 books, several articles and reviews, worked on both seasons of the television series and two exorcist films. He was the son of Lucien Carr, a key member of the group that included Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. Lucien Carr went to prison for manslaughter for killing the sexual predator who had abused him as a youth. Kerouac helped him dispose of the knife.
This interview was recorded in the KPFA studios on October 15, 1997 while Caleb Carr was on tour for The Angel of Darkness, the sequel to The Alienist. The interview includes mention of a movie-length pilot for a science fiction series, directed by Joe Dante. That pilot, originally titled The Warlord, Battle for the Galaxy, was released on DVD as The Osiris Chronicles. It is not available for streaming. While he never came back directly to the character of Lasso Kreisler, the protagonist of The Alienist, Caleb Carr’s final novel, a contemporary mystery, Surrender, New York, featured as its protagonist an expert on the life and work of Kreisler. His next book following The Angel of Darkness was Killing Time, a dystopian science fiction novel.
The post Caleb Carr (1955-2024): “The Alienist” and “The Angel of Darkness,” 1997 appeared first on KPFA. -
John Lanchester, whose most recent novel to date is “The Wall,” is interviewed by Richard Wolinsky, recorded at KPFA on March 18, 2019. The interview was first posted on May 7, 2019.
The Wall takes place in a very possible future in which the world’s beaches have disappeared as the planet has warmed and oceans have grown. Taking place in an unnamed country, which is clearly England, a wall has been built not only to protect the land from the rising seas, but to keep out refugees fleeing no longer habitable countries. The protagonist is a young man who must guard the wall, and if it’s breached, he is forced out of the country.
John Lanchester is a novelist and essayist who has written for The London Review of Books, the Guardian and other publications. His latest book is Reality and Other Stories, published in 2020.
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Sue Grafton died on December 28, 2017 at the age of seventy-seven. Best known as the author of a series of mysteries featuring the detective Kinsey Millhone, Sue Grafton was at the forefront of the Sisters in Crime movement — women authors who wrote crime fiction – starting with her first mystery, A is for Alibi in 1982, and continuing the alphabet through Y is for Yesterday. The final book in the series, Z is for Zero, was never written.
On April 17, 1989, on a book tour for F is for Fugitive, and again on April 13, 1992, for I Is for Innocent, Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff spoke with Sue Grafton about the history of her career and her writing process. This program is taken from those two interviews. Originally posted on January 9, 2018.
Complete 1989 interview
Complete 1992 interview
The post Sue Grafton (1940-2017), G is for the Grafton Mysteries appeared first on KPFA. -
Noel Casler, blogger and You Tube influencer, developed a large following based on his violation of an NDA, revealing information about Donald Trump gleaned from his six years working on the Celebrity Apprentice program. In this interview recorded by computer on December 4, 2020 and posted on December 6, 2020, he talks about his work and his perceptions of Donald Trump and MAGA.
Noel Casler spent two decades working behind the scenes at live events as a celebrity handler, with such stars as Madonna, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen and many others. But it was in 2015, having experienced Donald Trump on multiple occasions, that he decided to forgo his career and speak on the record about what he knew, first with the Clinton campaign (which chose not to follow up because of hubris and overconfidence) and later on Twitter, where he has amassed close to 300,000 followers.
In this hour-long interview, he discusses his background, the difference between the fictional businessman created for the two Apprentice TV shows, and the real Donald Trump, and goes into some depth about Ivanka Trump, who was his primary charge during the last three years of Apprentice live finales. He also discusses the role producer Mark Burnett played in the Trump make-over, as well as the role of Jeff Zucker in that endeavor, in charge at NBC at the time (and later at CNN).
Noel Casler Twitter Feed
The post Noel Casler: Trump and “The Apprentice,” 2020 appeared first on KPFA. -
Francine Prose, author of “1974, A Personal History” in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky.
The author of twenty novels and ten books of non fiction, Francine Prose is best known for such novels as “Lovers at the Chameleon Club, 1932,” “The Vixen,” “Household Saints” and “Mister Monkey,” and non-fiction such as “Anne Frank: The Book, the Life, The Afterlife,” Francine Prose has also written two short story collections , and a picture book. Two of her novels have become films, and one, “The Glorious Ones,” became a Broadway musical.
In this book, she recalls her time hanging out with Anthony Russo, who along with Daniel Ellsberg, was responsible for The Pentagon Papers, in San Francisco in 1974 and then a few months later, in New York, capturing the vibe of what it was like to live in that time and place, and differences between then and now.
The post Francine Prose: “1974, A Personal History,” 2024 appeared first on KPFA. -
Kinky Friedman, who died at the age of 79 on June 27, 2024, was a noted country western musician (Kinky Friedman & The Texas Jewboys) author of 18 novels, most of them mysteries featuring a detective named Kinky Friedman, and political activist who ran for Governor of Texas in 2006, columnist for the Texas Monthly.
This interview was recorded on September 20, 1994 with Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff while on tour for the Kinky Friedman mystery, “Armadillos and Old Lace.” In the interview he talks about the death of country music, his view of the people of Texas, and how he became a novelist.
Digitized, remastered and edited in September 2024 by Richard Wolinsky, this interview has not been heard in over twenty years.
The post Kinky Friedman (1944-2024), Texas Satirist and Musician, 1994 appeared first on KPFA. -
Naomi Iizuka, playwright and screenwriter, “translator” of Shakespeare’s Richard II, at the Magic Theatre through September 8, 2024, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky,
Noted playwright Naomi Iizuka discusses her translation and adaptation of Shakespeare’s history play, Richard II, a play written in verse, into a theatrical piece in which the language is comprehensible to a modern audience while maintaining the essence of the story, the characterization, and the poetry. She goes on to talk about her work in television, and her work as a professor of theatre.
While known for plays such as Good Kids and Polaroid Stories, she has also worked in the writers’ rooms of several television shows, including Bosch: Legacy, The Terror, and The Sympathizer. She teaches drama and playwrighting at UC San Diego.
The post Naomi Iizuka, Playwright and Teleplay Writer, “Richard II” at the Magic. appeared first on KPFA. -
Josh Costello, the Artistic Director of Aurora Theatre in Berkeley since 2019, in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky.
Before taking on the role of Artistic Director at Aurora, Josh Costello was the founding Artistic Director of Impact Theatre and Artistic Director of Explanded Programs at Marin Theatre Company. He directed several plays at Aurora prior to becoming Artistic Director, and was Director of “Eureka Day,” which is opening on Broadway in a few months.
In this interview, he discusses the impact of the pandemic on Aurora’s finances (and the finances of all local theatres), along with a look at the upcoming season and other topics. Recorded August 22. 2024 in the KPFA studios.
The post Josh Costello, Aurora Theatre Artistic Director appeared first on KPFA. -
Erik Larson, author of “The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War, in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky, recorded at Book Passage Bookstre on May 31, 2024.
Erik Larson is the author of several bestsellers of non-fiction narrative, including The Devil in the White City, The Splendid and the Vile, and In The Garden of Beasts.
His latest book concerns the days and months preceding the start of the Civil War, focusing on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, along with what life was like in the antebellum South at the time, the march to war, the election of Abraham Lincoln, and the various triggers that led to the Civil War.
In this interview he discusses how he came to write the book, some of the more interesting facts about the time of the Civil War, and how he became an author of these best-sellling narratives.
Photos: Richard Wolinsky.
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The great Irish novelist and playwright Edna O’Brien died at the age of 93 on July 27, 2024 after a long illness. A controversial figure from the start, her first novel from 1960, The Country Girls, which dealt with sexual and social issues in Ireland following World War II, was banned in Ireland and denounced on the pulpit, and while she moved to London with her husband before publication, she never moved back to her native land.
This interview was conducted in the KPFA studios on April 28, 2000 while she was on tour for her novel, “Wild Decembers,” third in a thematic trilogy of novels set in the recent past in Ireland. It was later adapted for television in 2008..
Of Edna O’Brien, from Wikipedia, the novelist Andrew O’Hagan wrote, “She changed the nature of Irish fiction, she brought the woman’s experience and sex and internal lives of those people on to the page, and she did it with style, and she made those concerns international.” In her lifetime, Edna O’Brien wrote seventeen novels, several plays, eight short story collections, eight works of non-fiction, four children’s books and a collection of poems.
Edna O’Brien continued to write novels and plays well into her nineties. Her final novel, Girl, was published in 2019.
This interview was digitized, remastered and edited in August 2024 and is heard for the first time in its entirety. A second interview, recorded in 2003 while in San Francisco working on her play “Triptych” at the Magic Theatre will be posted on a later date.
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John Barth (1930-2024), who died on April 2, 2024 at the age of 93, was America’s leading writer of metafictional and post-modern fiction. This interview was conducted by Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff on November 12, 2001 in the KPFA studios, while on the book tour for the novel Coming Soon.
John Barth began to receive notice for his two earliest novels, The Floating Opera and End of the Road in the late 1950s, but burst on the scene with his epic comic novel about colonial life in Maryland, The Sot-Weed Factor, and his allegory of the Cold War, set on a university campus, Giles Goat-Boy. His short story collection, Lost in the Funhouse and novella collection Chimera cemented his reputation as a writer of meta-fiction, as the stories zoom back on themselves and on the writing of those stories.
From Wikipedia: “In his epistolary novel LETTERS (1979), Barth corresponds with characters from his other books. Later novels such as The Tidewater Tales (1987) and The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor (1991) continue in the metafictional vein, using writers as protagonists who interact with their own and other stories in elaborate ways. His 1994 Once Upon a Time: A Floating Opera casts Barth himself as the protagonist who on a sailing trip encounters characters and situations from previous works.”
After the 2001 interview, he continued to work in the same vein with a triptych of novellas, Where Three Roads Meet in 2005, interrelated short stories set in a retirement community, The Development: Nine Stories in 2008, and Every Third Thought: A Novel in Five Seasons in 2011. A, book of collected stories was released in 2015 and Postscripts (or Just Desserts): Some Final Scribbling came out in 2022.
This interview was both the last interview conducted with Richard Lupoff as co-host, and the final interview recorded and edited on analog tape. This program was digitized and edited in July 2024 by Richard Wolinsky.
The post John Barth (1930-2024), Master of Metafiction appeared first on KPFA. -
Jonathan Kellerman and Faye Kellerman discuss their careers as mystery writers with host Richard Wolinsky, recorded October 28, 2004 while they were on tour for their stand-alone book, Double Homicide: Boston and Santa Fe.
Jonathan Kellerman, as of summer 2024, has written 39 novels in the Alex Delaware series, the most recent of which is The Ghost Orchid, along with nineteen other novels, seven of which were in collaboration with their son, Jesse Kellerman.
Faye Kellerman has written 27 novels in the Peter Decker and Rena Lazarus series, along with nine other novels, including one collaboration with their daughter, Aliza Kellerman. This interview has not been posted as a podcast or aired in full until now.
The post Jonathan and Faye Kellerman, “Double Homicide,” 2004 appeared first on KPFA. -
Adam Gopnik discusses his book “At the Strangers’ Gate with host Richard Wolinsky, recorded September 12, 2017. First posted October 19, 2017.
Adam Gopnik has been a staff writer for the New Yorker magazine for over three decades. Among his best-selling books are “Paris to the Moon,” “At the Children’s Gate,” and “The Table Comes First.” He is currently the author of the magazine’s “Daily Comment” blog, and has written on several subjects, from politics to food to gun control. He is the winner of three National Magazine awards and has worked extensively in theater.
His book, “At The Strangers’ Gate” deals with his arrival in New York in the early 1980s, and focuses on changes in life and culture over the course of that decade. In this interview, he discusses his recent book, as well as his work for the New Yorker, his lecture series, and other projects.
Since 2017, Adam Gopnik has written two books, “A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism” in 2019 and “The Real Work: On the Mystery of Mastery” in 2023.
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Aya de Leon in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky.
Aya de Leon is the Poet Laureate of the City of Berkeley. She is a novelist and poet who currently teaches creative writing at U.C. Berkeley. She is the author of ten books, the most recent of which are the adult novel, “That Dangerous Energy,” and the young adult novel, “Untraceable.”
Originally a hip hop artist, Aya de Leon is also a noted local activist, and the acquiring editor of Fighting Chance Books, the climate justice fiction imprint of She Writes Press. She organizes with the Black Hive, the climate and environmental justice formation of the Movement for Black Lives.
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Nancy MacLean, author of “Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America” in conversation with Richard Wolinsky.
Nancy MacLean’s 2017 book, “Democracy in Chains,” deals with the long game of the Koch brothers and their ilk, which may now have finally come to fruition with the Supreme Court legalizing bribery as “gratuities,” the overthrow of administrative protections in the areas of safety and the environment, and legalizing crimes by the President. The idea was to create a constitutional convention, which would codify laws in such a way that progressive regimes would be unable to move their programs forward, thanks to the courts, and based on how the Pinochet regime was able to control Chile after giving up power. That convention idea didn’t work in this country, but thanks to Mitch McConnell and his refusal to bring Obama nominees to a vote, followed by the Trump Administration’s packing of all the courts, the Koch plan wound up working anyway. In this interview, Nancy MacLean goes back to the origins of the plan, and brings us forward.
Duke University Professor Nancy MacLean, in researching the life of libertarian professor James Buchanan, discovered the philosophical underpinnings of what Hillary Clinton (almost unknowingly) called the “vast right-wing conspiracy.” Funded by Charles Koch and other donors, they’ve taken over the GOP and have an agenda, she says, that ultimately will allow minority rule in the United States for the forseeable future.
In this interview, she discusses the role of Buchanan and the Mont Pelerin Society in the underpinnings of this gradual take-over of the state and federal government, and what the goals are, according to her research. Recorded in the KPFA studios October 20, 2017, and previously posted.
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