Coming up on The Next Big Thing, it's a little like that scene in Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" when Kurtz says, "The horror. The horror." A cartoonist takes in Fashion Week; Essayist Phillip Lopate revisits the terrors of childhood and -- this one's no joke -- we'll hear scenes from death row, theatrical monologues based on prisoners wrongly convicted of capital crimes.

Segment A
What's the next big thing?
This week according to Julia Child, Jesse Sheidlower, editor of the U.S. Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary and Miss Louisiana Faith Jenkins
Cartoonist Marisa Acocella takes on the fashionistas.
On assignment in stilettos, our correspondent pierces the pavement in search of fashion frenzy.
It ain't Ellington's A train.
We take the F instead and find the buskers are alive and well and doing doo-wop. Pledge now, but not online. You'll need to drop it in the hat.

Segment B
The Chowhound, Part 1
The Chowhound's in ecstasy again at the House of Prayer. It's almost sinful.
The Old Neighborhood
Essayist Philip Lopate follows his memory's map back to the old neighborhood, where he remembers fistfights and cockroaches.
It's a Great Hometown
Kadish Millet should have been a contender.... for the Brooklyn anthem, that is. His "Hats Off To Brooklyn" takes an infectiously melodic tour around the borough.
The Chowhound, Part II
Not him again. The Chowhound is very passionate about lard.

Segment C
Exonerated
Out of death's shadow, the stories of former death row prisoners wrongly accused. "This is a weird country, man. I mean, it really is."
Epitaph For a Peach
It's the music of mud, farming and baseball. David Mas Masumoto, author of "Epitaph for a Peach," winds his way through fields of trees and metaphors.

WNYC archives id: 9127