On Demand
The Next Big Thing
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Myth, Meet Reality
We look at the intersection of real lives with mythical ones. Novelist Meg Wolitzer imagines what her life would have been like had one of her many crushes been requited. Host Dean Olsher revisits the crossroads where blues master Robert Johnson is said to have made his pact with the devil. And we hear from a man who took the Cabbage Patch craze just a little too seriously.
Welcome to Camp Small Fry
In 1984, a New Jersey dentist found his practice disrupted by children who refused to show him their teeth until he examined their Cabbage Patch dolls. That was when he came up with a brilliant idea. Sort of. Sandy Stein and his wife Seena share with Next Big Thing producer Julie Subrin memories of their contribution to the Cabbage Patch craze.
Voice Travel
The cramped, stuffy upper reaches of St. Augustine’s Church on the Lower East Side were once officially designated the “slave gallery.” Accompanied by the church’s Deacon Edgar Hopper, Steve Zeitlin, director of City Lore, visits the gallery in search of echoes of its former congregants. Produced by Curtis Fox.
In Search of Robert Johnson
The story of blues master Robert Johnson trading in his soul at the crossroads has grown thin with re-telling. Next Big Thing host Dean Olsher goes to Clarksdale, Mississippi, to find out why so many Johnson fans continue to make the pilgrimage to the place where myth and reality intersect.
Ferry Man
We talk to Albert Mayetti, who's part of the expansion, in the aftermath of September 11th, of New York Waterway's ferry service. Morning and night, he offers assistance, spiritual and otherwise, to commuters from the shores of Hoboken, NJ and downtown Manhattan. Produced by Catherine Fenollosa.
Too Real
The entertainment world has discovered "real people," and is recruiting them to make TV and advertising more, well, "real." Next Big Thing contributor Henry Alford is pretty sure he's got what it takes, so he turns to casting director Jennifer Vendetti to help him break into the industry.
