Wayne Coyne & Rocky and Bullwinkle

Kurt Andersen talks with Wayne Coyne, the mastermind of the Flaming Lips, about a near-death experience. Rocky and Bullwinkle make the Cold War kid-friendly. And Whoopi Goldberg inspires a young woman to try stand-up.

Wayne Coyne’s Lips Are On Fire

Back in the 1980s, the Flaming Lips were just an alternative rock band from Oklahoma. They toured for a decade before finally hitting it big in 1993 with their song “She Don’t Use Jelly.” But the Flaming Lips didn’t go all Hollywood. “It never occurred to us to move to Los Angeles or New York,” says the band’s main songwriter, Wayne Coyne. Kurt Andersen talks with Coyne about the group’s evolving sound, the inspiration behind the band’s biggest hit (“Do You Realize??”), and his well-publicized dis of fellow indie rockers The Arcade Fire. Coyne is defiant: “Who cares? This is music, this is art — we’re supposed to have opinions, we’re supposed to be weirdos.” (Originally aired: July 29, 2011)

Rocky and Bullwinkle & the Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cold War was terrifying, but we have to admit: it made for some great entertainment, from Dr. No to Dr. Strangelove. Parodying the space race and the arms race between the US and the Soviets, Rocky and Bullwinkle also took its share of digs at the American government and military — never before had an animated cartoon carried such political currency. With its bungling Soviets failing to salvage a ruined economy, it looks strangely prescient in retrospect. “It was like the Simpsons of its time,” says Keith Scott, the official voice of Bullwinkle and author of The Moose That Roared, “except that The Simpsons came at the right time whereas Rocky and Bullwinkle came 30 years too early.” (Originally aired: October 12, 2012)

Aha Moment: Whoopi Goldberg

WNYC listener Julie Bayley grew up watching daytime talk shows to catch comics like Rodney Dangerfield. But there weren’t any comedians like her: female and black. Then Bayley saw Whoopi Goldberg in her one-woman show on Broadway (it ran for 156 sold-out performances in 1984-85). She transformed into a variety of characters — from a surfer chick to a caustic junkie — talking about everything from race to abortion to patriotism. “People around me were laughing and I couldn’t even laugh,” she remembers. “I was mesmerized. There was this woman who was unashamed of how she looked and who she was. And she was up there not just saying funny things, but saying true things.” (Originally aired: June 1, 2012)