He’s a (now former) member of The Washington Post’s editorial board, a commentator on the PBS NewsHour, anchor of The Weekend on MSNBC, author of Yet Here I Am. He is liberal in his politics, conservative in his dress. “Absolutely. I love a good, wild outfit, on someone else.”
When this drummer was a kid, his father introduced him to an array of music, from Tito Puente to Dobie Gray. “He bought himself a La-Z-Boy chair. He would sit there after dinner, smoke a cigarette, and zone out listening to music.” Bad for the lungs, great for the soul. The making of a musician. …
A writer for the New Yorker since 1992, Susan Orlean is particularly admired for her book The Orchid Thief, the basis of the movie Adaptation, in which she became the only New Yorker staffer to be played by Meryl Streep. Her latest book is a biography of the dog actor, Rin Tin Tin, who I … Continue reading »
It’s hard to overstate the importance of the Upright Citizens Brigade to comedy in New York. In their performances, at their theaters, and in their classes, they’ve influenced a generation of performers, particularly in improv and sketch comedy. These days, Matt Besser lives in Los Angeles and hosts the podcast Improv for Humans. Matt Walsh … Continue reading »
Randy encountered Norman Rush through his terrific first novel, Mating, winner of the 1991 National Book Award. It is, among other things, a novel of ideas that actually has some. Many. And it explores them with real insight into the human heart. His new novel, Subtle Bodies, was published on September 10th. He lives near … Continue reading »
A professor of psychology at Barnard, Alexandra Horowitz is the director of that school’s Dog Cognition Lab. What we particularly admire about her: she is one of a very few scientists who can write about current ideas in her field in a way that a lay audience finds not only comprehensible—dayanu—but intriguing, which she did … Continue reading »
On this episode there are two guests, brothers, an experiment in shared narrative, as they contradict but also deepen one other’s version of youthful events. Leonard Lopate is an institution on New York radio, but he didn’t plan to be. He studied painting with Mark Rothko and worked in advertising, hosting his first radio show … Continue reading »
Simon Doonan is the creative ambassador for Barneys and a columnist for Slate. First known as a potter, Jonathan Adler now has 20 stores worldwide offering beautiful things. His guideline: “If your heirs won’t fight over it, we won’t make it.” They are the first married couple to do the show. PERSON: Liberace PLACE: Hot tub … Continue reading »
Dr. Thomas Frieden is the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A specialist in infectious diseases, he has also served as health commissioner of New York City. PERSON: Karel Styblo, the “father of modern TB epidemiology” PLACE: Conference room at the CDC THING: Little paper dipstick, used in a quick, accurate, inexpensive … Continue reading »
Born in Brooklyn, Roz Chast is best known for her cartoons for The New Yorker, many other magazines, and more than a dozen books. We note with pleasure how much she sounds like a Roz Chast cartoon: smart, funny, just a bit fretful, and thoroughly appealing. Maybe that’s because her cartoons have taught us to … Continue reading »
August 9 marks the one-year anniversary of our friend David Rakoff’s death. We commemorate his life with a special two-part episode. Part 1 features his Person and Place; Part 2 his Thing, and a terrific bonus story—what he called, “the meanest thing I ever said about anyone… intentionally.” From Randy: Person Place Thing began as … Continue reading »
August 9 marks the one-year anniversary of our friend David Rakoff’s death. We commemorate his life with a special two-part episode. Part 1 features his Person and Place; Part 2 his Thing, and a terrific bonus story—”what he called, “the meanest thing I ever said about anyone… intentionally.” From Randy: Person Place Thing began as … Continue reading »
The executive director of the advocacy group NETWORK, Sister Simone Campbell is a passionate advocate for social justice whose work is an expression of her religious faith. It is good for one’s development as a person to be reminded that people can arrive at a similar place by very different routes. Randy first heard of … Continue reading »
An actor, writer, and comic, John Fugelsang is the host of pretty much the entire Current TV lineup during its transition to Al-Jazeera. His Off-Broadway solo show, “All The Wrong Reasons,” recounts the unusual courtship of his parents, a Franciscan brother and an ex-nun. For reasons too complicated to explain, John may be the single … Continue reading »