On Demand
Books
The Grand Armada
Studio 360: American Icons
November 27, 2009
Professor Elizabeth Schultz discusses her favorite passage from Moby-Dick, from the chapter titled "The Grand Armada." In it, Ishmael and his companions are dragged into the center of a huge pod of whales, and find peace in the midst of the bloody terror of whale-hunting.
He Rises
Studio 360: American Icons
November 27, 2009
The great fantasy and science fiction master Ray Bradbury was still relatively unknown when the director John Huston tapped him to adapt Moby-Dick for the big screen. He tells Kurt how he channeled Melville while writing the screenplay for the film, which starred Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab. Produced by Jonathan Mitchell.
Frank Stella
Studio 360: American Icons
November 27, 2009
In 1986, legendary sculptor and painter Frank Stella defied Melville's instruction not to paint the White Whale, and then spent the next twelve years chasing an artistic obsession that Stella says nearly destroyed him. Produced by Studio 360's Leital Molad and Edward Lifson.
Tony Kushner
Studio 360: American Icons
November 27, 2009
Playwright Tony Kushner ("Angels in America") tells us that Moby-Dick had the single greatest impact on his own writing.
Elizabeth Schultz
Studio 360: American Icons
November 27, 2009
Former University of Kansas Professor Elizabeth Schultz has been consumed both personally and professionally with her passion for Moby-Dick. According to Schultz, Melville would have appreciated David Ives's short play Moby-Dude -- Melville was something of a prankster himself.
Moby-Dude
Studio 360: American Icons
November 27, 2009
Studio 360 presents "Moby-Dude" from David Ives, the master of the short play. Mark Price plays a contemporary teenager who summarizes the great American novel for his English teacher...in two minutes flat. Produced by Jonathan Mitchell.
The Original Improvisor
Studio 360: American Icons
November 27, 2009
Music historian Stanley Crouch includes Moby-Dick in his lectures about jazz history at Juilliard, even though the novel was written over five decades before jazz developed. According to Crouch, Melville was an expert at improvisation. Produced by Ave Carrillo.
Call Me Ishmael
Studio 360: American Icons
November 27, 2009
The composer and performer Laurie Anderson was so taken with Moby-Dick, she composed a strange, cool, modern opera called Songs and Stories from Moby-Dick. Anderson tells us how Melville hooked her in the first few pages.
The Heart of the Matter
Selected Shorts
November 29, 2009
“Very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses—not destroyed—not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth…How then, am I mad?—Edgar Allan Poe, “The Tell-Tale Heart.”
Three hearts—haunting, foolish, and in love, in tales ranging from a horror classic to a contemporary miniature.
Adventures in London and the Wild West
Selected Shorts
November 22, 2009
“North by Northwest isn’t a film about what happens to Cary Grant, it’s about what happens to his suit. The suit has the adventures, a gorgeous New York suite threading its way through America.”—Todd McEwen, “Cary Grant’s Suit.”
An émigré wanders through London, looking for home, and Cary Grant’s suit travels America, pursued by villains, in “North by Northwest.”
Alpha
Studio 360
November 20, 2009
Acclaimed novelist Lydia Millet imagines a future where a genetic engineering accident has wiped out much of the earth's plant life. When a few blades of grass appear on a remote island, a scientist goes to investigate. Martha Plimpton reads the story. With production by John Delore.
Listen to Martha Plimpton read another Lydia Millet story here.
Darwin: A Life In Poems
Studio 360
November 20, 2009
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of On The Origin of Species. Charles Darwin's great-great-granddaughter, Ruth Padel, tells her famous ancestor's life story all in verse. One poem describes Darwin's awe at the sealife that washed up on the deck of the Beagle. Another tackles how Charles' scientific ideas did not square with his wife Emma's deep religious faith.
Independent Bookstores
The Brian Lehrer Show
November 17, 2009
Between the Kindle and Wal-Mart vs. Amazon price wars, what’s a bookstore to do? Three local independent booksellers talk about their business and the first Independent Bookstore Week NYC:
Where do you buy books? Comment below.
Check out the guests' book recommendations in The Scrapbook.
Rebel Yiddish Writers
Selected Shorts
November 15, 2009
“Ours is a tiny, dirty, lonely, frightened, neglected, and lovable village; it’s a blessing from God in the summer, and a curse from God in the winter. Why do I say a curse in the winter? Simply because it was in winter that my—or better said, our—first romance began.” –Moishe Nadir, “First Love”
Unusual stories from Yiddish writers, and a contemporary take on Job.
Aha Moment: Paper Airplanes
Studio 360
November 06, 2009
When Klara Hobza came upon a 40-year-old book of construction designs for paper airplanes, she had an epiphany, and the New Millennium Paper Airplane Contest was born. Now Hobza has her own paper airplane book. Jonathan Mitchell discovers how her designs took flight.
Tales from the Great Epics
Selected Shorts
November 01, 2009
“She said to me, ‘There’s no greater pain than remembering joy in a time of sorrow, as your teacher well knows. However, if you really want to hear the story of how our love took hold, I’ll tell you, weeping as I talk.”—Dante Aleghieri, “The Divine Comdy.”
Powerful stories drawn from classic epics, and Moby Dick from the whale’s point of view.
Gore Vidal
Studio 360
October 30, 2009
If anyone's life is worth recounting, it's Gore Vidal's. The celebrated writer not only made his mark on literature over the past six decades, he also had a front row seat to history. His father romanced Amelia Earhart; he feuded with Eleanor Roosevelt and William F. Buckley among many others; and he went shooting with John F. Kennedy. Kurt finds out that despite working on this chronicle of his life, Gore Vidal isn't thinking about posterity: "Who gives a damn about being remembered? That's really for amateurs."
People's Hall of Fame: James Hatch and Camille Billops
The Brian Lehrer Show
October 29, 2009
Five notable New Yorkers are inductees into the City Lore 2009 People's Hall of Fame. They join us as part of a week-long series.
Today:
Taxicab Confessions
The Brian Lehrer Show
October 28, 2009
Covering the best NYC taxicab stories since the 1970s,
Women on the Move
Selected Shorts
October 25, 2009
“They had been in England for three days but they knew no one here. This country was just a safe place. Now all the money they had could be lifted in the palm of a hand to a stranger in a toilet.”—Andrea Levy, “Loose Change.”
Three contemporary female authors, three splendid actresses and three rather different stories, each about women in transition—geographically, morally, or emotionally.
Richard Powers
Studio 360
October 23, 2009
For years Richard Powers has based his novels on challenging ideas and controversies from modern science. His latest is Generosity: An Enhancement -- Powers tells Kurt how he came to the story of an inexplicably happy young woman and the genetic engineer who wants her secret.
