April 04, 2008
This West Coast hip-hopper hit stardom when he rapped on “Clint Eastwood” –- a mega pop hit from 2001 by the Gorillaz. But he's also carved out a niche as hip-hop’s oddball, rapping about science fiction and comics. Kurt talks to Del about his new record Eleventh Hour and how his path diverged from that of his cousin, gangsta pioneer Ice Cube.
"Workin It" from Del the Funky Homosapien's Eleventh Hour (Definitive Jux).
Fifty years ago, a pianist from Texas named Van Cliburn won the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. It was the height of the Cold War and when he returned to the States, he was honored with a ticker tape parade down Broadway’s “Canyon of Heroes.” Produced by WNYC’s Sara Fishko.
34-year-old pianist Simone Dinnerstein scraped together the cash to record Bach’s "Goldberg Variations." The album was picked up by a major label, and reached #1 on the Billboard classical charts. She performs live and tells Kurt why that piece never goes out of style.
Photographer Taryn Simon spent five years quietly gaining access to all sorts of secret hazardous places across the U.S., including a munitions test site, a nuclear waste storage facility, and a wildlife refuge. The images are collected An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar. Produced by Matthew Cavnar.
The post-ABBA generation of Swedish pop stars is taking over international airwaves and iPods. Studio 360’s Leital Molad connects the dots with singer-songwriter José González and band members of the Shout Out Louds and Peter Bjorn and John.
Studio 360 is a co-production of
Public
Radio International and
WNYC New York Public Radio, and is funded in part by
Ken and Lucy Lehman, the
National Endowment for the Arts, the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, and
DK Eyewitness Travel. Studio 360's American Icons series is supported in part by the
National Endowment for the Humanities. Our series on creativity and science is supported in part by the
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Our series on Underground Heroes is supported in part by the New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. 
