We – OK, I – look askance at those who claim to need an emotional-support animal to board an airplane, but we don’t mock those who take Prozac. What’s the difference? Patricia Marx, a staff writer at the New Yorker who has travelled with a support pig (research, not therapy), took up this question … Continue reading »
Monthly Archives: October 2016
Episode 144: Maria Popova
Her blog “Brain Pickings” ranges across the past and present, the arts and sciences, steering her cohort to unexpected delights. In our conversation at the Brooklyn Historical Society, she talked about a nineteenth century astronomer, a twentieth century elm tree, and a twenty-first century blight: people who walk down the street staring at their devices. … Continue reading »
Episode 143: Andy Borowitz
After creating the TV series Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, he did something radical: left TV, came back east, and returned to writing prose, to the delight of the fans of The Borowitz Report. In this episode, taped at JCC Manhattan, he riffs on Donald Trump, ponders why Cleveland produces great comics and bad ball clubs, and reads … Continue reading »
Episode 142: A. R. Gurney
This sly anthropologist of WASP ways is much admired for his plays The Dining Room, Love Letters, Sylvia, and more. We talked at the Flea Theater about fathers and sons, students and teachers, and most emotion-charged of all: dogs versus cats. Drama is conflict. Plus music from Duncan Wickel and Lily Henley, who got … Continue reading »
Episode 141: Paul Giamatti and Maggie Siff
When we spoke at Wave Hill, these fine actors, colleagues on the TV series Billions, suggested that Sadaharu Oh is the Vanessa Redgrave of Japanese baseball. Or is Redgrave the Oh of actors? Either way, why are we inspired by such titans rather than intimidated by their inimitable brilliance? Plus a few jokes about Ibsen … Continue reading »