December 29, 2006 (Show #752)
Kurt Andersen follows the yellow brick road through America’s favorite story and discovers places in the land of Oz more wonderful, and weirder, than you ever imagined.
December 22, 2006 (Show #751)
Studio 360 redesigns Christmas. Why limit the holiday to Victorian sleigh rides and inflatable lawn Santas? We commissioned one of the country's most creative design firms to imagine a contemporary, 21st-century Christmas. Indie rock legend Robyn Hitchcock improvises a gory Christmas tune, and Kurt Andersen talks with country diva Dolly Parton, who was just honored for lifetime achievement at the Kennedy Center. And the guy who wrote the New Wave holiday classic "Christmas Wrapping" tells us how the song changed his life (hint: it has a happy ending).
December 15, 2006 (Show #750)
Studio 360 plays against type. Morgan Freeman has portrayed the President and God on film, so what drew him to his latest role as a has-been actor in the independent movie, Ten Items or Less? Milton Glaser, an authority in the design world, tells Kurt why he believes in challenging authority. We'll also hear some musical surprises: genre-busting jazz clarinetist Don Byron, and a folk singer who has befriended a marine in Iraq.
December 08, 2006 (Show #749)
Kurt Andersen talks with novelist Isabel Allende about a sweeping feminist movement in Chilean politics, and her own new novel Ines of My Soul. Tom Stoppard tells Kurt about his massive new play set in pre-Revolutionary Russia, The Coast of Utopia. We tag along with a bus load of poets on a grueling cross-country tour. And indy-film director Darren Aronofsky explains why he's left Brooklyn behind in favor the Mayan Empire and outer space in his new film The Fountain.
December 01, 2006 (Show #748)
Discover what modern biology can tell us about creativity. We wonder if there's truth in the stereotype of the mad genius. A professor explains how she maps the location of creativity within the brain. While a neuroscientist finds out we can learn a lot from an orchestra of elephants. Plus, cult-favorite Robyn Hitchcock and his band The Venus 3 drop the folk and turn up the rock, live in our studio.
November 24, 2006 (Show #747)
Video almost killed the radio star. Kurt Andersen barely survives a visit to a talk show that takes place entirely within the ultra-violent digital game world of Halo 2. And it’s an American Icons double header: we offer an appreciation of Charlie Chaplin’s character the Tramp, who may be the most endearing icon in the history of cinema, and then we journey back in time in search of the original steel driving man, John Henry. Plus, Kurt pays tribute to the innovative moviemaker Robert Altman, who died this week.
November 17, 2006 (Show #746)
Music superstar Moby explains how his tunes became ubiquitous, and why he doesn't equate selling them to advertisers with selling his soul. Dave Eggers talks to Kurt Andersen about his new book What is The What. Eggers became the ghost-writer for Valentino Achak Deng, a refugee from Sudan. And we'll talk to a graphic novelist who turned a news item about the Baghdad zoo at the start of the war into a contemporary Animal Farm.
November 10, 2006 (Show #745)
Studio 360's series on American Icons continues with a look at Gone With The Wind, the bestselling novel and blockbuster movie that made the cause of losing gloriously romantic. Richard Ford stops by to talk about his new novel Lay of the Land. Jerry Douglas, master of the dobro guitar, gives us a tutorial on the quintessentially rustic instrument. And we survive a visit from flamboyant rock diva Courtney Love.
November 03, 2006 (Show #744)
Studio 360 considers the bomb. With a second nuclear age at hand, Kurt Andersen and historian Richard Rhodes talk about how living with the threat of nuclear annihilation shaped our culture in the 20th century. And with election day around the corner, we wondered about a missed opportunity to make a candidate stand out-- just why do all campaign signs look alike?
October 27, 2006 (Show #743)
Boo. In honor of Halloween, we visit a Pennsylvania school where aspiring make-up artists learn how to give zombies that special glow of decomposition. We'll visit a Christian Evangelical haunted house that’s intended to scare folks out of sinning. And Jack Handey, of Saturday Night Live's "Deep Thoughts," offers tips for making your skeleton scarier. For example, "You don’t want to be discovered by a grave robber or an archeologist or a jogger and have the guy shrug and go, 'Well, here's another one.'"
October 20, 2006 (Show #742)
Pat Metheny and Brad Mehldau -- jazz legends of different generations -- explain why they've teamed up on an unusual record of guitar and piano duets. And writer-comedian Amy Sedaris gives Kurt Andersen pointers on how to throw a good party -- especially if the guests are grieving, drunk, or can't wait for the cupcakes to cool.
October 13, 2006 (Show #741 )
Studio 360 smells really really good. Kurt Andersen and Chandler Burr, the New York Times' new and first-ever perfume critic, explore the mysteries behind our sense of smell. And the director Douglas McGrath talks about his new Truman Capote biopic, Infamous, and how he's dealing with the movie's inevitable comparisons to last year's Capote.
October 06, 2006 (Show #740)
Studio 360 gets real. We hear about the divisive new play My Name is Rachel Corrie, which was scripted from the diaries of an American protester who was killed in the Gaza Strip. Ron Rosenbaum, author of The Shakespeare Wars tells Kurt Andersen why the Bard’s plays still spark controversy. And Sean Lennon stops by to talk about his new CD Friendly Fire and the pressures of being rock n’ roll royalty.
September 29, 2006 (Show #739)
You'll feel smarter just by listening. Studio 360 celebrates some of the winners of this year's prestigious MacArthur Foundation "genius grants," including the writer George Saunders and the painter Shahzia Sikander. And we offer an appreciation of the ground-breaking musician John Zorn.
September 22, 2006 (Show #738)
Filmmaker Anthony Minghella tells Kurt Andersen why he wanted to direct Puccini's classic opera Madame Butterfly at Metropolitan Opera in New York. Visionary director Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Science of Sleep) muses on unrequited love and time machines. And, the soul music legend Solomon Burke talks with Kurt about his new album Nashville, which brings the singer into a new musical genre.
September 14, 2006 (Show #737)
Kurt Andersen talks with Tori Amos about her new career-retrospective box set. We'll offer a left-brain approach to Betty Edwards' classic Drawing On The Right Side of The Brain. And Kurt visits David Byrne in his studio in downtown New York, where the former leader of Talking Heads explains his strange new book of diagrams called Arboretum.
September 07, 2006 (Show #736)
Kurt Andersen looks at how novelists, filmmakers, and photographers have tried to make sense of 9/11. The composer Ned Rorem tells us why he's fallen for French music. And we'll find out how an Italian Jew born in the 18th century became a Catholic priest, Mozart's librettist, and a greengrocer in New York City.
September 01, 2006 (Show #735)
Kurt Andersen talks with Marisha Pessl about why her debut novel Special Topics in Calamity Physics is worth all the hype. Singer Vashti Bunyan tells us why she took a 30 year retreat from the music business. And the artist William Christenberry tells Kurt why he photographs the slowly morphing landscape of rural Alabama year after year.
August 25, 2006 (Show #734)
We celebrate the 50th anniversary of free Shakespeare in the Park with a look back at Joseph Papp's Central Park festival. Kurt Andersen talks with actress Lili Taylor. And our series on American Icons continues with a look at the most famous little house in America: Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater.
August 18, 2006 (Show #733)
In this Peabody Award-winning show, Kurt Andersen sets sail in search of the Great White Whale -- with the help of Ray Bradbury, Laurie Anderson, Tony Kushner, Frank Stella and others.
August 11, 2006 (Show #732)
Kurt Andersen follows the yellow brick road through America’s favorite story and discovers places in the land of Oz more wonderful, and weirder, than you ever imagined.
August 04, 2006 (Show #731)
A special show recorded live at the Aspen Ideas Festival: Kurt Andersen chats with America’s most famous blogger Arianna Huffington, and digital visionary John Seely Brown. Rosanne Cash performs songs from her new album Black Cadillac. Plus, we hear from Shashi Tharoor, whose day job as Under-Secretary at the United Nations doesn’t stop him from being an expert on Bollywood musicals.
July 28, 2006 (Show #730)
Kurt Andersen talks with Woody Allen about Scoop, which reunites the New York filmmaker with Scarlett Johansson and the city of London. Singer and pianist Lisa Germano performs in the studio. And Jack Handey, the creator of Saturday Night Live’s “Deep Thoughts,” offers our listeners some sure-fire ideas for paintings.
July 21, 2006 (Show #729)
John Updike tells Kurt Andersen why he left his familiar terrain of middle-class sex and angst for the lure of violent fundamentalism. Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail, explains why the internet is changing the marketplace of culture for the better. In our American Icons series, we’ll explore the timeless appeal of Emily Dickinson, who liked to write from beyond the grave.
July 14, 2006 (Show #728)
Kurt Andersen and Slate contributor Clive Thompson, talk about how the multi-billion dollar industry of video games is changing the culture. We’ll check out the prototype for Urban Resolve, the military’s video game designed to teach soldiers how to wage urban warfare. We’ll hear about a young multimedia artist for whom reprogrammed old games is just another color on the palette. Plus, Richard Linklater stops by to talk about his new movie A Scanner Darkly.
July 07, 2006 (Show #727)
Kurt Andersen explores the history of Superman and why "The Man of Steel" remains as popular and elusive as ever.
June 30, 2006 (Show #726)
Kurt Andersen investigates what modern biology can tell us about creativity. We’ll look at whether there’s truth in the stereotype of the mad genius – and why. Kurt talks with a researcher who’s looking for where exactly creativity happens in the brain. And we'll lead an elephant to a percussion instrument and make him improvise.
June 23, 2006 (Show #725)
Kurt Andersen and Chris Elliott talk about the failures that inevitably shadow our triumphs. We’ll hear about Guns’n’Roses, which has been working on an infamous comeback record for longer than most bands exist. The playwright Austin Pendleton tells Kurt about the amazing rise and pathetic decline of Orson Welles. And we phone our listeners to hear about the bands, writers, and directors who let them down big time.
June 17, 2006 (Show #724)
Kurt Andersen talks with David Milch about how he went from being a professor of English literature at Yale to creating NYPD Blue and HBO’s verbose and raunchy Deadwood. Kevin Bacon stops by to talk about his new film, Loverboy. And our reporter takes his pit bull to sit (and stay) for a portrait by one of America’s most sought-after dog photographers.
June 09, 2006 (Show #723)
Kurt Andersen explores how the Lincoln Memorial became America's soapbox, and how our yearning to connect with Lincoln speaks to the better angels of our nature.
June 02, 2006 (Show #722)
Andy Warhol was the superstar who coined the phrase “superstar,” and changed our culture forever. Kurt Andersen and music pioneer John Cale talk about the lasting legacy of the Pop art legend. They'll discuss Warhol's influence on art, album covers, and a celebrity-obsessed culture he helped create. And Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal defends accusations that he's the cinema's biggest heartthrob.
May 26, 2006 (Show #721)
The devastation of Katrina has also created an historic opportunity to rebuild – but it blew open a long-simmering battle over how to design cities. Kurt talks with the urban planners who are offering competing visions of New Orleans' future. We’ll also hear from a photographer who reinvented the camera, and find out why the new play The Lieutenant of Inishmore needs 5 gallons of stage blood per show.
May 19, 2006 (Show #720)
Kurt Andersen -- with the help of novelist Anne Rice – searches for clues to how The Da Vinci Code became a worldwide phenomenon. We learn how to grow diamonds in a laboratory, and Kurt talks with George Saunders about his new volume of short stories, In Persuasion Nation.
May 12, 2006 (Show #719)
Filmmaker Terry Zwigoff and graphic novelist Daniel Clowes talk to Kurt Andersen about their new film Art School Confidential. Novelist Tony Hendra talks about new book . And we’ll travel back to the day when Bell Labs was like Paris in the 1920s – a hotbed of unfettered creativity that churned out inventions, patens and Nobel Prizes.
May 05, 2006 (Show #718)
Kurt Andersen talks with ultraviolent novelist Chuck Palahniuk about why we love watching gruesome things that we hope never happen to us. A Foley artist explains how she uses sound effects to make hurting seem nastier. Jack Handey – of Saturday Night Live “Deep Thoughts” fame -- talks tough to our enemies. Plus: Elvis Costello stops by to explain why he wanted to tinker with some of his classic hits.
April 28, 2006 (Show #717)
Kurt Andersen talks with novelist Colson Whitehead about the power of names and why he wanted the hero of his book to be an expert in product branding. We’ll hear from a filmmaker whose colossal self-absorption is actually fun to watch on screen. And Kurt talks with a listener who was inspired by Bruce Springsteen’s "Born to Run" to quit his job – and join the Army.
April 21, 2006 (Show #716)
Kurt Andersen and his guest, historian Gary Cross, examine our attraction, and occasional aversion to things that are cute. We’ll explore whether cuteness in Japanese art may be masking anxieties about the bomb. Plus: Kurt talks with novelist Walter Mosley about his new novel Fortunate Son.
April 14, 2006 (Show #715)
Studio 360 hunts the allure of vampires, and wonder why these ancient monsters have followed us into the 21st century. Kurt Andersen interviews Nicole Holofcener and Catherine Keener about their new movie Friends with Money. Plus, k.d. lang talks with Kurt Andersen about her early (and short-lived) career as a rebel country singer.
April 06, 2006 (Show #714)
Kurt Andersen talks with R.J. Cutler about why he teamed up with Ice Cube to create a reality show called Black.White, where two families go out into the world disguised in a different skin color. We look into the controversial history of colorblind casting in the plays of William Shakespeare. And we hear from the members of a great new band who met in a refugee camp.
March 30, 2006 (Show #713)
Kurt Andersen and novelist Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni talk about dreams. We’ll lie down in Marina Abramovic’s "Dream Bed," a sculpture that lets visitors take a nap. We’ll hear about jazz musician Rahsaan Roland Kirk, who dreamt he could play three horns at once and made it a reality. And we’ll look at an American Icon that has been adored, fetishized, and mutilated: the Barbie doll.
March 24, 2006 (Show #712)
Billy Bragg, veteran British rocker and activist, stops by to perform a few songs and chat with Kurt Andersen. We hear from the new Broadway show Grey Gardens. And Kevin Willmott, the director of The Confederate States of America, explains why he thinks the South really won the Civil War.
March 16, 2006 (Show #711)
Kurt Andersen talks with writer Bruce Stutz about his adventures following the cycle of the season across the country. Director Wim Wenders talks about his new movie, Don’t Come Knocking. Plus, tips on what to do when the spam in your inbox starts quoting T.S. Eliot.
March 10, 2006 (Show #710)
Kurt Andersen and historian Richard Rhodes talk about how living with the threat of nuclear annihilation changed our culture. We’ll explore how Robert Oppenheimer, the Manhattan Project’s lead scientist, became an American myth. And we’ll see how popular culture reflects optimism, anxiety, and ambivalence about the nuclear age.
March 02, 2006 (Show #709)
Kurt Andersen talks with Elvis Costello about a career that stretches from "Allison" to opera. We ask Paul Haggis whether his film Crash, and other movies set in Los Angeles, have given rise to a new genre of storytelling. And we hear songs from the highly acclaimed and wildly innovative revival of "Sweeney Todd."
February 23, 2006 (Show #708)
Kurt Andersen and Jon Ronson talk about the enduring appeal of conspiracy theories.
February 16, 2006 (Show #707)
Kurt Andersen and Oscar-winning composer Rachel Portman pull back the curtains on the usually invisible techniques artists use to make a scene or character or tune more powerful. We'll visit a master artist who spends her time repainting classic works with the key figures removed. And Kurt talks with Neil Young and filmmaker Jonathan Demme about their new concert film Heart of Gold.
February 09, 2006 (Show #706)
Kurt Andersen and Chuck Palahniuk explore the appeal of violence in entertainment.
February 04, 2006 (Show #705)
Today we’ll look at Sigmund Freud's long shadow on our culture. We'll experience a new videogame called Psychonauts, which sends players into the minds of patients at an insane asylum. The game's creator, Tim Shafer, is a legend in the gaming world, but he seems to have a fixation on bunnies. And we'll imagine a meeting that was planned but never took place between Dr. Freud and movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn.
January 28, 2006 (Show #704)
Kurt Andersen and editor Simon Dumenco compare stories of being fooled by "JT Leroy" -- a novelistic fraud perpetrated by several people. We'll hear from an art forger in England who did time for his crimes, and expert Thomas Hoving weighs in on why museum vaults are full of bad forgeries.
January 19, 2006 (Show #703)
This week in Studio 360, the novelist Nicholson Baker gets passionate about paper, and Robert Redford stops by to talk about acting, directing, and 25 years of Sundance.
January 12, 2006 (Show #702)
Kurt Andersen and astronomer Mario Livio discuss how the properties of symmetry link human life and creativity with universal principles that inform all the sciences. We hear how symmetry defines the works of M.C. Escher, Johann Sebastian Bach, Steve Reich, and others. And a beauty expert considers whether symmetry makes us sexier.
January 07, 2006 (Show #701)
Kurt Andersen and literature professor Azar Nafisi explore how the rest of the world sees America. Directors Lars von Trier and Niki Caro tell us what our country looks like through the lens. And we go behind the scenes of Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring.
