The Next Big Thing is like being on a tour bus through the voices of New York. It's what it's like back stage at the Amato Opera... which isn't all that far from the back row. It's how we think of death in the idyll of Green-Wood Cemetery. It's the poetry of Carl Hancock Rux and the changing character of Sarah Jones.

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Dialect coach Stephen Gabis
Yo-yo champion Larry Sayco
Economist Kevin Carey

At the Amato Opera
Host Dean Olsher visits Tony Amato's house in the Bowery. It's opera for opera-lovers for more than 50 years in a place not much bigger than your average apartment.

Death Becomes Her
Thanatologist Roberta Halporn tours Green-Wood Cemetery, a place that's really for the living. A conversation with Dean Olsher; produced by Jule Gardner.

"Blue Candy"
Somebody once said Carl Hancock Rux -- poet, musician, playwright -- has a voice that feels like a wide tree trunk. A Next Big Thing rendering of a poem about the nature of memory. Produced by Jad Abumrad.

A distant island
It's been 40 years since the Bay of Pigs and, while isolation is still the official U.S. policy toward Cuba, more American tourists seem to be finding ways to get south of Miami. It makes us wonder: What do Cubans here think about home? Ambivalence, vivid memories, contradictions. Hear more from Mario Grillo, bandleader of the Machito Orchestra; Mirta Ojito, New York Times reporter; and Dino Fernandez, architect. Produced by Jad Abumrad.

Once upon the time...
Several of the many voices of poet and performance artist Sarah Jones.

The Next Big Thing with Dean Olsher airs Sundays from 11am-12 noon on 93.9FM

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