Cormac McCarthy's The Road
Visions of a post-apocalyptic future have long been the province of science fiction. Cormac McCarthy, one of America’s finest novelists, ventures onto that horrifying terrain in his latest book, The...
View ArticleDestination: Omaha
Kurt heads back to his hometown. No longer just beef and Warren Buffett, Kurt finds a vibrant indie rock, film, and visual arts scene there. Artists, politicians and philanthropists – including...
View ArticleMiranda July
In 2005, if you were lucky enough to catch her quirky and beautiful indie movie called "Me and You and Everyone We Know," you know that Miranda July (who wrote, directed, and starred in the film) is a...
View ArticleBaghdad Gallery
The Madarat Gallery is one of the only remaining art galleries in Baghdad. We sent journalist David Enders to visit the gallery and talk with owner and artist Hasan Nassar, who does everything he can...
View ArticleIn Orbit Over Levittown
On the evening of October 4th 1957, when David Hoffman was 13 years old, his family and all their neighbors walked outside to peer up at the night sky. Now a filmmaker, he has made a documentary called...
View ArticleLaika's Dream
A month after Sputnik went up, the Soviets launched Sputnik 2, with a very famous passenger: Laika, a mutt from the streets of Moscow. She never made it home. The writer John Haskell has this tribute,...
View ArticleRemembering Sputnik
Where were you when Sputnik launched? Russian émigrés in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach conjure up their memories from 50 years ago. Produced by Pejk Malinovski.
View ArticleWill Self
Psychogeography is the newest work from English writer Will Self. It’s basically about walking, but not about pleasant strolls through the woods. His walks take him to overlooked and hazardous places...
View ArticleBirthmark
Miranda July has had critical and commercial success as a screenwriter, director, actor, and performance artist. This year, she published a powerful collection of short stories called No One Belongs...
View ArticleMy Poet / My Novelist
What’s it like to practice the same line of work as your spouse? What if you’re both writers, but one is a novelist -- in love with plot and character -- and one is a poet -- obsessed with words?...
View ArticleCoat Check Chimes
The Whitney Biennial exhibition features dozens of works. So the curators used every nook and cranny of the Whitney’s four floors -– even the coat check. Studio 360's Pejk Malinovski explored a sound...
View ArticleDestination: Omaha
Kurt heads back to his hometown. No longer just beef and Warren Buffett, Kurt finds a vibrant indie rock, film, and visual arts scene there. Artists, politicians and philanthropists –- including...
View ArticleThe Waterfalls
New York, NY — Today, 4 monumental, man-made waterfalls open to the public along the East River. They were created by the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson, in conjunction with the Public Art...
View ArticleCityside Waterfalls
Danish art star Olafur Eliasson wanted to reconnect New Yorkers with their waterfront. At a cost of $15 million, Eliasson has designed four massive waterfalls, ten stories high, in New York Harbor. He...
View ArticleBirthmark
Last year, the screenwriter/director/actress Miranda July published a collection of short stories called No One Belongs Here More Than You, and she joined us to read the story “Birthmark.” With...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The old poet and the radios
While the girls were hanging out in Golden Gai last night, I was picked up by William Elliott and Kazui Kawamura, the English translators of the poet Shuntaro Tanikawa and taken to an undisclosed...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Your life is a precious gift from your parents
The first view of Mount Fuji is like a blow to your stomach, utterly breathtaking. Towering Godzilla-like over everything it is perfect, like a children's drawing. Did someone just say all cliches are...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Revenge of the nerds
Holy Geekdom! The DENPA party Sunday night was euphoric. Two floors full of happy nerds, dressed up as their favorite manga/anime/computer game characters, dancing to extremely loud computer game...
View ArticleBe here now
Buddhist word of the day: On the overview map of Kyoto train station I noticed this funny thing, instead of saying 'You are here' it simply said 'Now'. I guess it comes to the same, except 'Now' would...
View ArticleHow to modernize your kimono
Last night Roland brought me along to his friend's kimono Party. Yes, you guessed it, a kimono party is a party with people dressed in kimonos. Of course it was somewhat tongue in cheek, but as most...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How long would you wait for your loved one?
10 years is how long Hachiko waited for his master at Shibuya station. Every day from 1925 to 1935, the dog would go to the station and wait for the afternoon train, the train that his master used to...
View ArticleSuicide Forest
Aokigahara is the name of the forest at the foot of Mount Fuji. It’s been mythologized in Japanese literature as a sacred place for people to end their lives – and every year close to a hundred...
View ArticleSuicide Forest
Aokigahara is the forest at the foot of Mount Fuji. It’s mythologized in Japanese literature as a sacred place for people to end their lives -– and every year close to a hundred suicides are committed...
View ArticleMy Poet, My Novelist
What’s it like to practice the same line of work as your spouse? Novelist Naeem Murr wrote about that marriage for the Poetry Foundation. We brought him together with his wife, Averill Curdy, for both...
View ArticleWaiting for Godot in New Jersey
The Lillian Booth Home in Englewood, New Jersey is a retirement home for former entertainers. Studio 360 met some residents that are not done performing. Produced by Pejk Malinovski with Lu Olkowski...
View ArticleMiranda July
Miranda July became an indie darling with the 2005 film "Me and You and Everyone We Know." She's also a performance artist, sculptor, and writer. She reads the story "This Person" from her...
View ArticleGang Side Story
A revival of “West Side Story” is up for four Tonys. With choreography, and score, and songs that are all regarded as classics, we sometimes forget the show is all about gang violence. The writer Bruce...
View ArticleWhat Did You Learn in School?
Parents everywhere are asking the same question: what did you learn in school today? Studio 360’s Pejk Malinovski visited a Manhattan elementary school to find out for himself. With thanks to Rob...
View ArticleNot Too Big To Fail
It’s been one year since the financial giant Lehman Brothers collapsed: wihtout a buyer, it was forced to file for bankruptcy. A new BBC radio play, "The Day That Lehman Died", fictionalizes the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
James Dean of classical music
is what Tim Page the music critic called Glenn Gould. Privately they were close friends. When Gould had finished his legendary 1981 re-recording of the Goldberg variations he asked Tim Page, who was...
View ArticleSuicide Forest
Aokigahara is the forest at the foot of Mount Fuji. It’s mythologized in Japanese literature as a sacred place for people to end their lives - and every year close to a hundred suicides are committed...
View ArticleBonus Track: Radiator Symphony
Henry and Pejk’s musical composition created from radiator sounds.
View ArticleThe Heat Is On
With the rough weather this winter, writer Henry Alford has been cooped up inside more than he’d like. He’s been listening to the radiator clanging, banging, and hissing so long that it sounds like...
View ArticleStarting Over at Sing Sing
A new play opened recently that had a very exclusive audience: patrons had to go to Sing Sing Correctional Facility to see it. It's called "Starting Over," and prisoners wrote and performed it....
View ArticleThe Judgment of Psycho
Would you ever want to get inside Norman Bates' head? Ready or not, it's the subject of John Haskell's eerie short story "The Judgment of Psycho." Haskell imagines what might have been racing through...
View ArticleClik here to view.
American Icons: This Land Is Your Land
This is the national anthem we actually know the words to.All of America sings it at school and summer camp; Bruce Springsteen sang it at President Obama’s inauguration. Yet Woody Guthrie’s song was...
View ArticleWoody Guthrie 2.0
Producing our American Icons story on “This Land Is Your Land” allowed me to meet some great people. As I trawled through Woody-land, I spoke with his daughter, Nora, and sang with his friend, Pete...
View ArticleLearning From Ruby Bridges
In 1960, a 6 year-old black girl walked through the doors of an all-white school in New Orleans. Ruby Bridges was greeted by stares, jeers, and threats of violence. 50 years later her display of...
View ArticleMy Poet/My Novelist
What’s it like to practice the same line of work as your spouse? What if you’re both writers, but one is a novelist — in love with plot and character — and one is a poet — obsessed with words? Novelist...
View ArticleBehind the Scenes with Daniel Lanois
In the behind-the-scenes realm of music producers, Daniel Lanois is a legend. He's the guy you call to juice up your career if you’re U2, Emmylou Harris, or Bob Dylan. Lanois recently published an...
View ArticleDreaming of Osama
Usually when we heard from Osama bin Laden it was on audio tapes broadcast on Al Jazeera — but he also appeared in bedrooms all over the world, haunting our dreams. This piece, Dreaming of Osama, was...
View ArticlePhilippe Petit, Man On Wire
ListenIt had all the glamour, conspiracy, and danger of a classic heist movie, but it was real — and the hero was wearing slippers.Long before 9/11, Philippe Petit’s unauthorized walk on a tightrope...
View ArticleAmerican Icons: This Land is Your Land
This is the national anthem we actually know the words to. Americans sing it at school and summer camp; Bruce Springsteen sang it at President Obama's inauguration. Yet Woody Guthrie's song was once...
View ArticleSuicide Forest
Aokigahara is the forest at the foot of Mount Fuji. It’s mythologized in Japanese literature as a sacred place for people to end their lives — and every year close to a hundred suicides are committed...
View ArticleA Final Visit with Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger was a giant, and barely a singer-songwriter has touched a guitar who doesn't owe him a musical debt. He died this week, at age 94.In 2010, Kurt Andersen went to Seeger's home — a house he...
View Article360 Extra: Philippe Petit, Man on Wire
On the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, we wanted to revisit Kurt’s conversation with an artist who had a special relationship with the World Trade Center site.It had all the glamour,...
View ArticleThe End of “The Road”
Visions of a post-apocalyptic future are a mainstay of science fiction. Novelist Cormac McCarthy is known for his super-violent Westerns written in Biblical language — he’s not the kind of writer you’d...
View ArticleClik here to view.
American Icons: This Land is Your Land
“This Land is Your Land” is the national anthem we actually know the words to. Americans sing it at school and summer camp; Bruce Springsteen and the late Pete Seeger sang it at President Obama’s first...
View ArticleSharon Jones's Soul Revival
Sharon Jones burst onto the music scene about 10 years ago — she was backed by The Dap-Kings, a straight-out-of-the-1960s funk band with a fantastic horn section. And at just 5 feet tall, Sharon had...
View ArticleValeria Luiselli on Reënacting the Border
Valeria Luiselli first travelled to the U.S.–Mexico border in 2014, when the current immigration crisis began to heat up. Under the Trump Presidency, the border has become the dead center of American...
View Article