Most musicians, even talented musicians, have no career at all. Hers has lasted, depending how you count, 40 years? 50 years? Or with my special math, 1000 years, dating to the middle ages. At 15, she was singing commercial jingles; while still in high school, she was a staff writer for Chappell Music. Her first hits, … Continue reading »
Author Archives: Randy Cohen
Episode 115: Melissa Manchester
Most musicians, even talented musicians, have no career at all. Hers has lasted, depending how you count, 40 years? 50 years? Or with my special math, 1000 years, dating to the middle ages. At 15, she was singing commercial jingles; while still in high school, she was a staff writer for Chappell Music. Her first hits, … Continue reading »
Episode 114: Mark Bittman
It is his core belief that food affects not only our personal but our political health, a principle he has expressed through cook books, cooking shows, and an op-ed column in the New York Times. During our conversation at JCC Manhattan, he cooked chili for the entire audience. Of course he didn’t. But he did … Continue reading »
Episode 113: Steve Israel
He represents New York City’s third congressional district, comprising much of both Nassau and Suffolk counties, as Long Islandian as you can get, and is the first member of Congress to be a guest on the show, so the stakes were pretty… actually, there was no pressure at all. He was amiable, I was attentive … Continue reading »
Episode 112: David Krakauer
If he is best known for klezmer music, he has only himself to blame: he plays it brilliantly, honoring its roots without making it a museum piece. And he leaps across genres, sometimes in a single work. He once recorded an album that charted top ten for Jewish music, funk, jazz and, for all … Continue reading »
Episode 111: Peter Singer
His book Animal Liberation constructed an ethical framework for the animal rights movement. His ideas about euthanasia, altruism and world poverty have inspired both protest and acclaim – overwhelmingly the latter when we spoke at the Princeton Public Library. Plus, for your dancing and philosophizing pleasure, music from Jefferson Hamer. PERSON: David Oppenheim PLACE: Balliol … Continue reading »
Episode 110: Jill Abramson
She joined the NY Times in 1997 and rose to executive editor, the first to hold that rank who has acknowledged her tattoos, as well as being our first guest to have written books about both a supreme court justice and her own puppy. Among her current activities, she is a guest lecturer at Harvard. … Continue reading »
Episode 109: Molly Haskell
She was a film critic for The Village Voice, New York and Vogue, and has written for the Times, the New York Review of Books and, well, everywhere. In this episode, she speaks insightfully about the tension between being an ambitious intellectual and a genteel southern gal: oh yes, she started out as a gal. … Continue reading »
Episode 108: Kurt Andersen
He came to public attention as a co-founder of Spy magazine and later as the editor-in-chief of New York magazine. The author of three novels, he is the host and co-creator of the public radio program Studio 360. Plus, music from Peter Gordon and Ned Sublette. Big doings at the Brooklyn Historical Society. PERSON: Gene Shallit … Continue reading »
Episode 107: Colm Tóibín
A journalist, playwright and essayist, he is perhaps best known in America for the novels The Master and Brooklyn. His 2012 novel, The Testament of Mary was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize and was adapted as a play, produced on Broadway with Fiona Shaw. His newest novel is Nora Webster. We were joined by … Continue reading »
Episode 106: Jessica Hecht & Sarah Ruhl
Actor Jessica Hecht has appeared on Broadway in Julius Caesar, Harvey and A View From the Bridge, for which she received a Tony nomination. Among her Off-Broadway work, Stage Kiss by Sarah Ruhl, whose other plays include In the Next Room, or the vibrator play; The Clean House; and Passion Play – productions swiftly followed by … Continue reading »
Episode 105: Emily Mann
She is in her 25th season as artistic director of the McCarter Theatre, and her work has been seen, well, everywhere. In 2012, she directed A Streetcar Named Desire on Broadway. Among her own plays: Still Life and Having Our Say. We convened at the Princeton Public Library along with our musical guest, fiddle player … Continue reading »