Listen

Naomi Wolf

MP3: original broadcast

Naomi Wolf became famous because of her first book the international bestseller, The Beauty Myth (1991), which criticized the fashion and beauty industries for exploiting women. Talking about her new book, The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot, she explains how the events of the last six years in the United States parallel steps taken in the early 20th century’s worst dictatorships such as Germany, Russia, China, and Chile.

Michael Capozzola

MP3: original broadcast

By night, Michael Capozzola is a comedian; by day, he’s a cartoonist with his strip “Cheap City” running weekly in the San Francisco Chronicle. How hard is it to be funny? Listen and find out.

John Truby

MP3: original broadcast

What makes a good story? Leading Hollywood script doctor John Truby shares his insight and discusses his In his new book The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller.

Al Young

MP3: original broadcast

Al Young was named Poet Laureate of California in 2005. Something About The Blues is his new book of poetry that includes an audio CD with Al reading more than 20 poems. Here he talks about the influence of music on his work.

Colin Finlay

MP3: original broadcast

Colin Finlay, one of the foremost documentary photographers and a five-time Picture of the Year Award winner, has covered war, genocide, famine, the environment, and disappearing cultures. He talks about his motivation, how he cops with the tragedies he photographs, and his new book, 12º N x 23º E, 64º S x 60º E : Sudan, Antarctica with Marta Salas Porras.

Mike Maunder

MP3: original broadcast

Mike Maunder, PhD. is the head of the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Miami, Florida. He reveals the history of the botanically garden as an art form, and how the glass art of Dale Chihuly and the sculptures of Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein were brought to the Fairchild.

Neal Benezra

MP3: original broadcast

Neal Benezra is the Director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He talks about his long time connection with the museum, his curatorial vision, and the challenges of running a world-class art institution.

Art Basel

MP3: original broadcast

Art Basel Miami Beach is the most important art show in the United States. Hear from Sam Keller, in his last year as Director and from Simon Lamunière, Curator of the Art Supernova section.

Margaret Jenkings

MP3: original broadcast

For more than 30 years, choreographer Margaret Jenkins has been expanding the physical and conceptual boundaries of modern dance in the Bay Area. Her dance company has spawned an entire generation of experimental dancers and artists. She talks about her collaborative style, her influences, and her new work Other Suns.

Kal Spelletich

MP3: original broadcast

Machine artist Kal Spelletich uses his work to provoke a response in his audience: wonder, awe and even fear. Here he talks about the transformative power of art, robots and his new work with leaches.

Stephen Marshall

MP3: original broadcast

Stephen Marshall is a writer and award-winning filmmaker. He is the director of the feature film This Revolution, documentary features such as Battleground: 21 Days on the Empire’s Edge, and controversial, politicized music videos for the Beastie Boys, Eminem and 50 Cents. A founder of Guerrilla News Network, he talks here about his new book Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing: The New Liberal Menace in America.

Rex Ray

MP3: original broadcast

Rex Ray is a San Francisco based fine artist and a celebrated graphic designer. He talks about how he became an artist, his 100 Bill Graham Presents rock and roll tour posters, and his designs for David Bowie.

Mike Gray

MP3: original broadcast

Michael Joaquin Grey is an American artist, inventor, and toy designer. For the past twenty years, he’s been creating work that extends and plays with the boundaries of art, science and media.

Dan Das Mann

MP3: original broadcast

Dan Das Mann & Karen Cusulito, a husband and wife artist team who focus is on the spiritual aspects of humanity and the environment. Here they talk about the message behind their most recent installation Crude Awakening. With the centerpiece a 99-foot-tall wooden oil derrick, it’s the highest structure ever built at Burning Man and produced the tallest fire ever seen there.

Andy Diaz Hope

MP3: original broadcast

Andy Diaz Hope is a San Francisco based artist whose insightful photography and installations provoke thoughts about our surroundings. Among the issues he addresses are terrorism and the use of drugs, legal and illegal, in our culture.

Alice Walker

MP3: original broadcast

Alice Walker is best know for her Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Color Purple. She talks about her new children’s book Why War Is Never a Good Idea, the impact of meditation on her work and what she’s doing next.

Karol Armitage

MP3: original broadcast

Dubbed the "punk ballerina," Karole Armitage is the Artistic Director of Armitage Gone! Dance, based in New York City. Karole talks about her move back to the U.S., her new touring piece, and working with Madonna.

Ben Ratliff

MP3: original broadcast

Why is saxophonist John Coltrane the most celebrated and mythologized musicians of his generation? New York Times jazz critic Ben Ratliff answers this question in his new book Coltrane: The Story of a Sound and gives insight into where jazz is going next.

Robin Swicord

MP3: original broadcast

After penning scripts for films like Little Women and  Memoirs of a Geisha, Robin Swicord tries her hand at directing her own script with the "Jane Austen Book Club." Robin talks about the challenges of being a woman in Hollywood and of directing her first feature film.

John Buchanan

MP3: original broadcast

What is art? John Buchanan, the new director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, which include the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum and the Legion of Honor, tackles this question looking at his museums permanent collections for answers.

Peter Max

MP3: original broadcast

Pop art icon, Peter Max, is one of the most prolific artists of our time and is celebrated in the San Francisco De Young Museum Summer of Love exhibition. Peter talks about his formative years, his process and the influence of the 60s.

Bill Viola

MP3: original broadcast

Bill Viola is a pioneer of video art and is internationally recognized as one of today's leading artists. Bill talks about the influence of his spiritual beliefs on his work and the role of the artist in society.

Julie Delpy

MP3: original broadcast

French actress Julie Delpy talks about making her new film Two Days In Paris that she wrote, directed, and starred in.

(Photo: imaginingourselves.imow.org)

Jill Manton

MP3: original broadcast

Jill Manton is the Director of Public Art for the San Francisco Art Commission and has worked in the public art field for more than 20 years. Jill discusses the challenges of working with the city and the public, the trend of temporary public art, and her ideas for improving the system.

Brenda Way

MP3: original broadcast

Brenda Way is the founder and artistic director of ODC in San Francisco, which includes a contemporary dance company and community arts center with a theater, training school, and two children's performing companies. Brenda shares with us her views on community, dance and the creative process.

(Photo: www.theatrebayarea.org)

Catharine Clark

MP3: original broadcast

Catharine Clark first opened her San Francisco art gallery in 1995. She is a pioneer in the presentation of new media art and represents local, national and international emerging and mid-career contemporary artists. Catharine shares her thinking around regionalism, art fairs and her gallery move.

John O'Keefe

MP3: original broadcast

John O'keefe is an internationally acclaimed playwright, director, and solo performer. His most recent work is a one-man show based on Walt Whitman's poem Song Of Myself. John talks about his inspiration, his process and the role of the artist.
(Photo: www.theatrebayarea.org)

Nancy Spector

MP3: original broadcast

Curator of Contemporary Art at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City, Nancy Spector organized the Felix Gonzalez-Torres exhibition at the Unites States pavilion in the 2007 Venice Biennale. Nancy explains why she picked Gonzalez-Torres, the nature of his art and how a previously unrealized work was created.

Aldo Billingslea

MP3: original broadcast

The Chair of Santa Clara University's Department of Theatre and Dance, Aldo Billingslea is also a successful actor. He is currently starring in the TheatreWorks revival of the 1977 drama, The Elephant Man. Aldo talks about how he prepared for the role, why the play is important today and the challenges of being an African American actor.

Bill Viola

MP3: original broadcast

Pioneer video artist Bill Viola represented the U.S. at the 1995 Venice Biennale. He returns there this June with his new video triptych "Ocean Without a Shore." Bill provides insight on his reasons for creating this piece, his spiritual influences, and the role of the artist.

Ann Hamilton

MP3: original broadcast

'MacArthur Genius' Ann Hamilton is best known for her installations, textile art, and sculptures; and in 1999, she was the U.S. representative to the Venice Biennale. Ann talks about her newly unveiled Acoustic Tower Project at the Steve Oliver Ranch in Northern California and about collaborating with composer and performer Meredith Monk.

Edward Burtynsky

MP3: original broadcast

Canadian photographer Edward Burtinsky's work focuses on nature that's been transformed by humans and industry. He is the subject of the award winning documentary, Manufactured Landscapes, which is opening in theaters in July.  Burtinsky gives insight into his recent photographs from China of the Three Gorges Dam, factories and e-waste, and the role of the artist. (Photo: www.edwardburtynsky.com)

Veronica Krausas

MP3: original broadcast

Composer Veronica Krausas' classical and new music compositions have been performed all over the world. She also produces multi-media presentations that incorporate her works with dance, acrobatics and video presentations. Veronika talks about her new cds, collaborating across mediums, and if there is anything really new in music.

(Photo: www.composersforum.org)

Tierney Gearon

MP3: original broadcast
Photographer Tierney Gearon became infamous because of a picture she took of her two children naked except for wild beast masks that showed at the Saatchi Gallery in London. She has since gone on to complete a series on her mother who is a manic depressive schizophrenic, which was documented in the recently released film, Tierney Gearon: the Mother Project.  Tierney openly discussed her relationship with her children and her mother, and being the focus of the documentary.(Photo: www.channel4.com)

Heidi Jacobson

MP3: original broadcast

As one of the youngest museum directors in America, Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson has been instrumental in creating the Aspen Art Museum's reputation for having world-class shows of contemporary art from around the globe. Heidi gives her perspective on the role of the museum, the benefits of a kunstala, and art after 9/11.

(Photo: photo.net)

Sasha Lazard

MP3: original broadcast

Sasha Lazard is one of the most innovative talents on the international music scene pioneering a fusion of classical art songs, Russian folk tunes and opera arias with contemporary rock and electronic beats. She talks about her sources of inspiration, her new album "Sirens" and being a woman in the music world.

Todd Traina

MP3: original broadcast

Has punk rock been taken over BY corporations? Wondering what the difference is between ska and punk? Find out the answer to these questions and more from Todd Traina, the producer of the documentary "Punks Not Dead" coming to a theater near you this summer.
(Photo: www.punksnotdeadthemovie.com)

Brice Marden

MP3: original broadcast

American abstract artist Brice Marden talks about the influence of the East on his work, how he relates to color and what he's up to next. A retrospective of more than a hundred of his paintings and drawings can be seen at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

(Photo: www.maryboongallery.com)

Gilberto Gil

MP3: original broadcast

Brazilian musician Gilberto Gil is one of the founders of the Tropicalismo movement and his country's Minister of Culture. Gilberto gives insight into his new album "Gil Luminoso," getting older and the Creative Commons.(Photo: www.polarmusicprize.com)

John Jeffcoat

MP3: original broadcast

Up and coming director John Jeffcoat talks about his first feature film Outsourced, a comedy about an American salesman who has to go to India to train his replacements. Jeff shares stories of his own cultural clashes, the trials of filming in Bollywood, and the art of collaborating. (Photo: Courtesy of the artist)

Maura Reilly

MP3: original broadcast

The New Elizabeth A. Sackler Center at the Brooklyn Museum in New York is the first space in a museum in the world dedicated to feminist art. Dr. Maura Reilly, the curator, talks about their inaugural exhibition, Global Feminisms.

Joseph Gordon Levitt

MP3: original broadcast

Rising star Joseph Gordon-Levitt started acting at six and has been in numerous TV shows, and feature and independent films. Jason talks about his new crime thriller The Lookout, the role of the audience and working with first time director and academy award nominated screenwriter Scott Frank.(Photo: www.luxography.ca)

Connie Nielsen

MP3: original broadcast

Danish actress Connie Nielsen has had leading roles in "Gladiator," "Mission To Mars," and "One Hour Photo." Playing an American journalist, she recently starred in "The Situation", which is based on real life events in U.S. occupied Iraq. Connie is outspoken as she share her opinions about Iraq and being a woman in the film industry.

(Photo: www.luxography.ca)

Vivienne Westwood

MP3: original broadcast

Knighted in 2006, Dame Vivienne Westwood is both an iconoclast and global icon. More than 150 of her outfits- from punk to couture- can be seen in the exhibition "Vivienne Westwood: 36 Years in Fashion" at the De Young Museum in San Francisco until June 10, 2007. Here, she speaks about her inspiration, fashion and politics.
(Photo: artofswatch.free.fr)

Rachel Viselli

MP3: original broadcast

San Francisco Ballet dancer Rachel Viselli was promoted to soloist in 2005. She talks about the joys and difficulties of being a prima ballerina.(Photo: SFBallet.com )

Michele Pred

MP3: original broadcast

Wonder where all those scissors, pocketknives, and clippers go to that are confiscated at airport security checkpoints? Bay Area painter and sculpture Michele Pred talks about why she uses them in her work. Her show, Predilections, just opened at the Nancy Hoffman Gallery in New York City. (Photo: www.artbusiness.com)

Marianne Stockebrand

MP3: original broadcast

In 1995 artist Donald Judd bough 340 acres of land which used to be fort Russell in Marfa, Texas as a place where he and his friends could create. Marianne Stockebrand, the executive director of the Chinati Foundation, talks about Judd's legacy, his influences and the expanding collection.

Vendela Vida

MP3: original broadcast

Editor of the literary magazine, The Believer's, and author Vendela Vida shares with us her reasons for writing her new book, Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name. It's the second in a trilogy about violence and forgiveness. (Photo: SanFrancisco Gate)

Fernando Botero

MP3: original broadcast

Columbian artist Fernando Botero speaks about his exhibition, Botero: Abu Ghraib, on view in the Main Library at the University of California, Berkeley until March 23. While renown for the exaggerated proportions of the humans and animals in his paintings and sculptures, no United States museum has agreed to show the series he created in response to the Iraqi Abu Ghraib prison scandal.
(Photo:Fernando Botero.com )

Robert Moses

MP3: original broadcast

Robert Moses' Kin is a nationally renowned dance company, recognized for its artistic excellence and choreographic innovation. Founder, dancer and choreographer Robert Moses talks about the language of dance, whether a man can choreograph a woman, and his three world premieres that will be part of the performance celebrating Black History month at the San Francisco Jewish Community Center February 8-18. (Photo: Robert Moses Kin Dance Company )

Janice Mirikitani

MP3: original broadcast

Japanese-American Janice Mirikitani is a poet, choreographer, and activist. She is the President of Glide Foundation where she's been creating programs for over thirty-five years and is San Francisco's second poet laureate. Janice talks about the influence of her abusive childhood, of the Japanese American internment camps, and of her community on her art. (Photo: Glide )

Alan Deutschman ~ January 21, 2007

MP3: original broadcast

Change or die. What if you were given that choice? Statistics that show 9 out of 10 people don't change their habits even when faced with death. Alan Deutschman talks about his book Change or Die: Three Keys to Change at Work and in Life where he debunks age-old myths about change and empowers us to transform our lives. (Photo: Fresh Fiction )

Marcus Shelby

MP3: original broadcast
Nationally recognized for his commitment to using jazz to tell the history of African Americans, bassist and composer Marcus Shelby is the leader of the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra and Trio, and has ten cds to his name. He talks about his current commission, Bound For the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, and his recently released cd, Port Chicago. (Photo: Marcus Shelby )

Stanlee Gatti

MP3: original broadcast

Stanlee Gatti This is the first time the conservatory has asked an outside artist to do a show, How did this happen. I am not sure how this happened, the only thing that I know is that I received a phone call and it was actually intriguing. I am always ready to do something different and when they asked me that then it took me a couple months to think about it. Basically they asked me to come up with something to do with the earth and plants. (Photo: Mister San Francisco )

Alfonso Cuaron

MP3: original broadcast

Alfonso Cuaron is best know as the Director of the blockbuster Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and the Academy Award nominated film Y Tu Mama Tambien. Alfonso talks about making his new movie Children of God, a film set in the future but really about the most pressing issues of our day. (Photo: The Snitch )

Jennifer Gilmore

MP3: original broadcast

Jennifer Gilmore reinvents the Jewish American novel with her first and highly acclaimed book Golden Country that follows the lives of three immigrant families who all begin their American journeys in shtetl-like Brooklyn and end up somewhere unexpected. What is a Jewish American novel? Are there really Jewish gangsters? And who invented the two-in-one household cleaner? Find out from Jennifer. (Photo: Simon Says )

Steven Platzman

MP3: original broadcast

Steven Platzman is one of the most highly regarded art advisors and art dealers on the West Coast. He moved from New York in 1999 and opened up Addison Fine Arts in San Francisco. He earned his PhD at one of the top think-tanks on art, the Institute of Fine Arts in New York, and is considered a leading specialist on Cezanne. (Photo: San Francisco Chronicle)

Paul Grey

MP3: original broadcast

Paul Grey is one of the leading and most respected dealers in modern and contemporary American and European art, and has museum and private clients from around the world.

Gottfried Helnwein

MP3: original broadcast | full interview

Conceptual artist Gottfried Helnwein grew up in Vienna after World War II and was deeply influence by the Holocaust, Donald Duck, Elvis, and the Rolling Stones. His art constantly questions society by looking at its impact on the most innocent - the children. (Photo: www.gottfried-helnwein.org)

Joyce Scott

MP3: original broadcast

Joyce Scott creates art that is both beautiful and biting with social commentary. Often called "The Queen of Beadwork", she's celebrated for her bead and mixed-media sculpture and jewelry, but she's also a quilter, printmaker, performance and installation artist, and a singer. (Photo: Museum of Glass)

Wangari Maathai

MP3: original broadcast | full interview

Wangari Maathai is the first environmentalist and the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace prize. In Kenya, she is the founder of the Green Belt Movement, a Member of Parliament and the Assistant Minister for the Environment. Wangari shares stories from her new memoir Unbowed, her vision for creating democratic spaces and her plans for the future.

Judith Smith

MP3: original broadcast

Judith Smith is the artistic director of the cutting-edge Oakland-based Axis Dance Company, that creates works for dancers with and without disabilities.

 

Ann Wolfe

MP3: original broadcast

Ann Wolfe is the curator of Suburban Escape: The Art of California Sprawl, at the San Jose Museum of Art. (Photo: Reno News & Review)

 

Ellen Seeling

MP3: original broadcast

Montclair Women's Big Band Director and veteran trumpeter Ellen Seeling is a consummate performer equally adept at jazz, R&B, Latin and pop/rock. Ellen speaks about being the first woman to earn a degree in Jazz Studies, the history of women's big bands, and the differences with women and men musicians.

Larry Rinder

MP3: original broadcast | full interview

For the last twenty years, Larry Rinder has been a pioneering curator of contemporary art and is currently the Dean of Graduate Studies at the California College of the Arts. Larry talks about his new book Art Life, the impetus behind his groundbreaking shows and why he left the Whitney Museum in New York.

David Amram

MP3: original broadcast

David Amram is a living music legend. He's played with every jazz great, created jazz poetry with Jack Kerouac, composed over 100 orchestra and chamber works, written operas and scores for theatre and film, and isn't stopping at 75. David brings us back to his days of playing with Charlie Parker and Dizzie Gillespie, improvising with Jack, and being the first in-house composer for the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein.

Keith Knight

MP3: original broadcast

Keith Knight is an award-winning cartoonist and rapper. You can find his two weekly comic strips, the k chronicles and (th)ink in more than 35 newspapers including the SF Chronicle, Mad Magazine and Salon.com. Keith chats about his seventh book "Are We Feeling Safer Yet?," being censored, and the relationship between music and comics. (Photo: Ohio State University)

Al Franken

MP3: original broadcast | full interview

God Spoke, opening October 6 in Bay Area theaters, shows Al Franken's transformation from a Saturday Night Live comic to a best selling author and radio host to a potential contender in the political arena. Al shares his reasons for starting Air America, how being a comedian prepares him for a career in politics and some of his embarrassing moments in the film.

David Parker

MP3: original broadcast

Photographer David Parker explores our human desire to find meaning in our surroundings through his large-scale, black and white landscape photography. Sirens, his new show of mysterious, minimalist seascapes is at the Koch Gallery in SF until October 28. In from London for the opening, David speaks about art's vital purpose in creating metaphysical connections with the world around us.

 

Francis Jue

MP3: original broadcast | full interview

Award winning actor Francis Jue returns from Broadway to the Bay Area to play Lillian Sing, the female lead, in Theaterworks revival of the Tony award wining play M Butterfly at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts until September 23. Francis talks about the challenges of being a Chinese American actor and of being a man who plays woman. (Photo: AsianWeek)

Jonathan Moscone

MP3: original broadcast

Son of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, Jonathan Moscone has been the Artistic Director of the California Shakespeare Theater in Orinda for the last seven years. Jonathan shares with us the joys and difficulties of producing Shakespeare and why he's picked As You Like It to direct this year. (Photo: CalShakes)

Marianne Weems

MP3: original broadcast

Artistic director Marianne Weems is the founder of the Builder's Association, a New York based performance company that brings new technology together with theater. Find out from Marianne how technology plays into the future of theater and how she and her cast explore its impact on our lives.

Larry Harvey

MP3: original broadcast | full interview

Since its inception in 1986 on Baker Beach in San Francisco, Burning Man has grown into a 30,000 person experimental community created each year for a week in Black Rock Desert, Nevada. Its founder, Larry Harvey, enlightens us on his vision for Burning Man and its relationship to art, transcendence, politics and the future. (Photo: Marc Goldchstein.)

Alan Kaufman

MP3: original broadcast | full interview

Award winning author Alan Kaufman's new novel MATCHES is the only book that portrays the Israeli/Palestinian conflict from an Israeli soldier's point of view. Alan will talk about how his own experiences as a young American Jew serving in the Israeli Army influenced the book and will give his perspective of the current Israeli/Palestinian situation.

Jonathan Keats

MP3: original broadcast | full interview

Conceptual artist Jonathan Keats converses about the ultimate outsider art - extra terrestrial art. He'll tell us how he discovered it, and about his own artwork that he is sending back out into deep space. You can see it all at The First Intergalactic Art Exposition, which opens on July 31, 2006 at the Magnes Museum in Berkeley.

Cheech Marin

MP3: original broadcast

Comedian and actor, Cheech Marin, of the irreverent duo "Cheech & Chong", talks about his vision of Chicano art. His collection, which is the largest in the world, can be seen in the Chicano Visions exhibition opening at the San Francisco De Young Museum on July 22, 2006.

Matthew Barney

MP3: original broadcast

In his only Bay Area radio interview, Matthew Barney speaks about his collaboration with Bjork and his new film and installation, Drawing Restraint #9, which just opened at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The New York Times calls him "the most crucial artist of our time."

Jack Hirschman

MP3: original broadcast | full interview

Jack Hirschman, San Francisco's new poet laureate, in conversation about the artist's role in social transformation, his friendship with Allen Ginsberg, and reading some of his poetry.