podcast

It set the model for the hit family sitcom. Lucy’s weekly antics and humiliation entered the DNA of TV comedy: from Desperate Housewives to 30 Rock — writers can’t live without Lucy.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Shakespeare — the Bard would be 450 this month. But after centuries dominating the world’s theaters, could you give anyone else a place on the stage? Could we try Marlowe in the Park, or an Oregon Centlivre Festival? Plus, another rapper goes on trial for lyrics that prosecutors say constitute evidence of […]

If Scarlett Johansson pulled up in a van, would you get in? Jonathan Glazer’s sci-fi film Under The Skin casts the starlet as an alien prowling the streets of Edinburgh for human flesh. A paper engineer takes pop-up books into new territory with a Game of Thrones book (but it’s actually safe for kids). And […]

This week, Kurt Andersen calls a listener named Ken in New Hampshire who turns out to be Ken Burns, the filmmaker. Burns has a few good words for our latest listener challenge, like “a reel of documentary filmmakers” and “a scratch of DJs.” We ask what a rebranding of marijuana for the age of legalization […]

This week, Kurt talks with Lois Lowry, the author of the YA classic The Giver, which is being turned into a movie starring Jeff Bridges this summer. We also hear from rising-star theater director Alex Timbers about his collaboration with David Byrne: a totally unironic disco musical about Imelda Marcos. And Talib Kweli talks about […]

Kurt Andersen talks with Kevin Spacey, who explains how Richard III — the baddest king Shakespeare ever put in a play — set the stage for Beltway backstabber Francis Underwood (D, South Carolina) in House of Cards. We also find out why you won’t hear the original racist lyric in “My Old Kentucky Home” at […]

Kurt Andersen talks with Seth Rogen, whose amiably foul-mouthed man-boy characters have transformed American comedy, about finally writing a decent role for a woman. (Hint: It helps to be married.) And a new study ranks movie critics from harsh to gushy; Kurt asks one of the hatingest critics why so many movies are overrated. Plus, […]

This week, a triple header from the series American Icons, which focuses on works of art that changed the way we think about America. More than 150 years ago, Nathaniel Hawthorne put his finger on how we ostracize women for their sexuality in The Scarlet Letter. Meanwhile, Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes” celebrates the opposite tendency […]

Producer Rick Rubin was a pioneer of hip-hop, and he’s worked with its biggest names. But he also reinvigorated the late careers of legends like Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond. His one rule in the studio: no talking about business. For indie songwriter Joan As Police Woman, the best lyrics are the ones that feel […]

After winning a Tony Award and starring as Disney’s first African-American heroine, Anika Noni Rose just wants to kick butt as a big-budget superhero. A young upstart who rocked Broadway in the 1930s is the subject of a new play by James Lapine, an upstart who rocked Broadway in the 1980s. At age 8, guitarist […]