Showing results by author "Kurt Andersen" in All Categories

A razor-sharp thinker offers a new understanding of our post-truth world and explains the American instinct to believe in make-believe, from the Pilgrims to P. T. Barnum to Disneyland to zealots of every stripe...to Donald Trump. In this sweeping, eloquent history of America, Kurt Andersen demonstrates that what's happening in our country today - this strange, post-factual, "fake news" moment we're all living through - is not something entirely new, but rather the ultimate expression of our national character and path.

Until Donald Trump publishes the ultimate account of his entire four or eight or one and a half years in the White House, the definitive chronicle will be You Can't Spell America Without Me. Trump was elected because he was the most frank presidential candidate in history, a man eager to tell the unvarnished truth about others' flaws and tout his own amazing excellence. Now he levels his refreshingly compulsive, un-PC candor at his landslide election victory as well as his role as commander in chief and leader of the free world.

When Malcolm X was assassinated at 39, his book nearly died with him. Today The Autobiography of Malcolm X — a favorite of President Obama and Justice Clarence Thomas alike — stands as a milestone in America’s struggle with race. The Autobiography is also a Horatio Alger tale, following a man’s journey from poverty to crime to militancy to wisdom.

Studio 360 explores F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and finds out how this compact novel became the great American story of our age. Novelist Jonathan Franzen tells Kurt Andersen why he still reads it every year or two, and writer Patricia Hampl explains why its lightness is deceptive. We’ll drive around the tony Long Island suburbs where Gatsby was set, and we’ll hear from Andrew Lauren about his film G, which sets Gatsby among the hip-hop moguls. And Azar Nafisi describes the power of teaching the book to university students in Tehran. Readings come courtesy of Scott Shepherd, an actor who sometimes performs the entire book from memory.

This week, William Shatner tells Kurt Andersen how he’s fine-tuned playing the role of William Shatner and why he likes going at warp speed. And we hear about another actor named William — last name Shakespeare — who may or may not have written some plays. The new film Anonymous buys the line that Shakespeare’s plays were ghost-written by a political insider at Queen Elizabeth’s court.

Chinua Achebe has been called the father of a generation of writers. First published at the dawn of Nigeria's independence, Things Fall Apart has been translated into 50 languages, has sold 10 million copies, and is required reading in countless schools. Kurt Andersen asks Achebe if his novel foreshadowed his country's difficulties.

How did a poor kid from Brooklyn escape life as a shipping clerk and instead become Mel Brooks? Even Mel Brooks isn’t too sure, but “If you’ve got your mother’s love,” he tells Kurt Andersen, “you can’t go wrong.” Meanwhile, jazz composer Darcy James Argue conjures another, imaginary Brooklyn in an epic work for big band that’s a “total sensory overload.” And we’ll see how architects have tried to heal the memory of trauma at buildings like Sandy Hook Elementary School.

One of the most famous choreographers working today, Twyla Tharp is the person you call when you want to turn Billy Joel songs into Broadway catnip or get horses dancing in Central Park. Also, we hear what made The X-Files such a good fit for the conspiracy-minded 1990s, and why we’re primed for it to come back now. And the director Sebastian Schipper explains how he shot a feature-length thriller over the course of two hours in Berlin - in just one take.

Kurt Andersen talks with the writer and musician James McBride, whose novel The Good Lord Bird recently won the National Book Award. McBride also brings his gospel quintet into the studio for a live performance. Kate Manning tells the story of one of 19th century New York’s most infamous, and perhaps misunderstood, women. Plus, we’ll hear about how the debut recording by soprano Leontyne Price set the bar for generations of singers.

Ken Kesey had worked in a mental hospital, but his first novel was really a parable of what happens when you stand up to the Man — a counterculture fable that doesn’t end well. Despite his far-reaching influence, Kesey was shut out by filmmakers who turned the story into an Oscar-sweeping phenomenon. Cuckoo’s Nest changed how many people thought about mental illness and institutions. Sherman Alexie debunks the myth of the silent Indian; we visit Oregon State Hospital, where the director played himself on screen; a psychiatrist explains how the movie gave mental hospitals a bad name, with tragic consequences; and actress Louise Fletcher takes us into the mind of one of the most fearsome movie villains, the sweet-faced Nurse Ratched. “She doesn’t see her behavior as it really is. Who does? Who sees that they’re really evil?”

This week, Studio 360 gets weird. For one thing, there’s "Weird Al," playing a totally normal cover version of an Elvis Costello hit. Carl Hiaasen tries, once again, to convince America to revile Florida as much as he does. And we get an exclusive preview of Jack Handey’s tropical adventure, The Stench of Honolulu. Plus, rocker Thao Nguyen checks out some listener submissions in the Battle of the High School Bands contest, and we talk NSA leaks with Walter Kirn, who says we’re more 2001 than 1984.

"Weird Al" Yankovic has parodied generations of pop stars — and outlasted most of them. Now he’s scored his first Billboard #1 with Mandatory Fun. He plays his first hit, "Eat It," live, mashing up Michael Jackson and Eric Clapton. Kurt talks with actor Tony Hale, who name playing desperately co-dependent man-children on Arrested Development and now on Veep. And a live performance from tUnE-yArDs.

Kurt Andersen talks with Paul Rudd, king of the bromance. In the new play Grace, he tries to shed his lovable screen persona in the role of an evangelical Christian motel owner. In a new movie about FDR, the fate of Europe is decided over a hot dog. And at Art Basel Miami Beach, an exhibition makes high art of the supremely annoying GIF.

Hilary Mantel explains why we’re still so interested in Henry VIII: he was a real-life “monster-king.” Juliette Binoche stars as an aging actress in Clouds of Sils Maria opposite Kristen Stewart’s undermining upstart. And Dwight Yoakam plays his gritty, gorgeous country music live, in-studio.

It’s the ultimate matchup of human vs. machine: IBM developed a supercomputer named Watson, and to prove the processor’s mettle, it’s going to compete against human champions on Jeopardy. Elizabeth Gilbert describes how an officer from the Department of Homeland Security transformed her from a marriage skeptic into a true believer. And listeners tell Kurt how they get creative with unlikely materials like icicles and coffee grounds.

When Malcolm X was assassinated at 39, his life story nearly died with him. Today The Autobiography of Malcolm X — a favorite of President Obama and Justice Clarence Thomas alike — stands as a milestone in America's struggle with race. The autobiography is also a Horatio Alger tale, following a man's journey from poverty to crime to militancy to wisdom. Muslims look to Malcolm as a figure of tolerance; a tea party activist claims him for the political right; Public Enemy's Chuck D tells us, "This book is like food. It ain't McDonald's — it's sit down at the table and say grace".

Linda Ronstadt's career spanned decades and musical styles from country-rock to operetta. Parkinson's disease has taken away her ability to sing, but she explains that she's not ready to leave music behind yet. And Herb Alpert became famous by turning the sounds of a Mexican bullfight into mainstream pop. But his career in music far outlasted the Tijuana Brass sound. Also, novelist and jazz musician James McBride explains how he turned John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry into kind of a funny story.

How did Richard Ford's cat influence his work as a novelist? Creativity is an elusive subject. We enjoy its fruits - movies, novels, paintings, songs - but rarely are we privy to what happens in the creative process. In Spark, Julie Burstein traces the roots of some of the twenty-first century's most influential and creative thinkers, including Joyce Carol Oates, Yo-Yo Ma, David Milch, Isabel Allende, and Joshua Redman. Burstein pulls back the curtain to reveal the sources of these artists' inspiration and the processes that bring their work into being.

Elizabeth Gilbert's huge bestseller was created with lots of hard work and a little bit of fairy dust — which she's happy to sprinkle in your direction. Also, James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem wants to make the New York City subway a more pleasant place by giving it a new soundtrack. And for the writer William T. Vollmann, research isn't about spending a sedate afternoon at the library — it involves hopping trains, getting shot at, and nearly freezing to death at the North Pole.

Walt Whitman loved America — so much so that it got a little creepy sometimes. But he accomplished his goal, writing a new Bible for American poetry to reflect the democracy and diversity at the heart of this country, and we explore Leaves of Grass in an episode of American Icons. Kurt talks with Linda Ronstadt about being a generation’s most beloved singer, and the disease that made her retire. Plus, we’ll get creative with drones that don’t spy or kill: they dance.