The choreographer of Hadestown and an all-around theater guy, he grew up in a house designed by his father – not an architect, a member of Mabou Mines. “It pointed me toward a creative proces which is partially planned and partially improvised.” And away from the words “beneath a heap of rubble.” A conversation at the Baryshnikov … Continue reading »
Monthly Archives: November 2019
Episode 280: Leslie Vosshall
This neurogeneticist esteems Rita Levi-Montalcini, who won a Nobel Prize for her work on human growth factor. She experimented with eggs, and then she ate the eggs. Science during wartime. In hiding. In a basement lab. Great stories at KGB’s Red Room, produced with Lori Schwarz. Music from Leslie Goshko. Continue reading »
Episode 279: Tobias Frere-Jones
The designer of widely-used typefaces, including Surveyor, Tungsten, and Retina, he draws on the history of his native Brooklyn: old subway signs, old newspapers. More surprising, his fonts are also inspired by Walt Whitman. A conversation at the New York Transit Museum. Music from Rahiem and Amiri Taylor. Continue reading »
Episode 278: Mary Darling
This Canadian producer, celebrated for Little Mosque on the Prairie, wanted to do a show about death, too often “depicted as this morbid sad thing. We wanted to do a comedy about death.” The Hollywood (Toronto?) suits rejected her. A merry chat about mortality at the New York Baha’i Center. Music from Gloria Thomas Gassaway and the … Continue reading »
Episode 277: Massimo Pigliucci
The author of How to be a Stoic describes that philosophy’s central precept: “We should live according to nature.” Happily, this demands less involvement with squirrels than you might think. A conversation at the Society for Ethical Culture, with music from David Gracia, Margaret Determann, and Barbara Carlsen. Continue reading »