Emily Botein

We're haunted. Haunted by the things that happen in specific places - in Cuba, in New York -- and what effect that has on memory. We're STILL haunted by the election... And then there's the real question keeping us up at night: Just what will we do with that big, ...

Favorite pieces during Winter funder-raiser

A visit to a wax museum and more!

The Next Big Thing is Harlem. It's called the capital of black culture. Lately, it's the epicenter - or at least one of them - of Manhattan's real estate boom. We explore the connection between the two. Also, a true tale of love, death, morality and dinosaurs.

The Next Big Thing is a story by Rick Moody he adapted for radio. He had help - from composer and performer Meredith Monk. It's called "Boys," and it's like nothing you've ever heard. That may NOT be the case with our old friend Kadish Millet, whose song for the ...

The Next Big Thing is everything that gets ignored while everybody's paying attention to "Temptation Island." This week, it's jazz pianist Ethan Iverson, who will play three short pieces he composed for our show. Actor David Margulies takes a walk down Ninth Avenue - and it's not all about Ye ...

The Next Big Thing is a play we're going to put on for you ... about every therapy patient's fantasy. It's how to cup coffee. And it's music from Portugal that will open up your tear ducts.

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The Next Big Thing is a story by Brit-lit "it" girl, Zadie Smith. It's a visit behind the front cover of Family Circle magazine, where tomorrow's recipes are tested today. It's a visit with the woman who thought it was a good idea to play chamber music on a barge ...

This the time when people look back over the past year. And that means thinking about one year ago, when people were getting ready for Y2K Armageddon. When it didn't come, everybody blamed the media for once again hyping a story for the purpose of scaring people. Well how do ...

If you like to pretend that the holidays are not happening, then maybe you also celebrate what's known as Jewish Christmas: a movie and Chinese food.

Well. It's all over. This whole election business was a field day for cartoonists -- a field month, actually. Being a cartoonist has always seemed like such a cushy job. But, of course, it has its headaches and heartaches. This week on the show: life at the New Yorker, from ...

This week, we've got a little more poetry than usual. Why? Just because. And we're not only talking about the stuff that'll make you feel good. We're talking about verse that's meant to hurt. And worse. Also: just so you don't think we're coming down on the side of the ...

We realize that, so close to Thanksgiving, the last thing you want to think about is food. Still, we'll take you to a place on the Lower East Side that's a holdout to its golden era. Learn everything you always wanted to know about fish at Russ & Daughters (at ...

It seems we live in times that are so interesting we have a hard time settling our differences. There's a place on the Internet that has a creative solution. Is that like creative sentencing? We'll have an explanation this week. Also, Arlo Guthrie, on what you would think is the ...

What election? We're already on to the next big contest: Jonathan Ames faces his great aunt Doris in a game of gin rummy. Also, we have writer Ursula LeGuin with dispatches from Ether, OR, a place she invented. And host Dean Olsher asks the important question: Would you like to ...

We've got a play from 1935 that sounds like it could have been written with this year's election in mind. We take a stab at fusing cable TV with public radio and we take a walk with Rebekah Creshkoff on the dark side of being a birder. We've also got ...

What else is there to talk about besides baseball? Plenty. This week, we've got the winners of a coveted prize: a subway token. We've got potential winners of our caption contest -- you. And Edgar Allan Poe is here in spirit.

The First Next Big Thing Caption ...

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 ...

The Nobel Prizes that were NOT awarded ... a walk through Green-Wood Cemetery with a Thanatologist ... and front row at the Amato Opera, which is not that far away from the back row.

On the Menu
Try the Gaggy Assa Burger. That's GaGeAsSeBrKr to Mr. ...

Reporter Alice Furlaud drums up support for her campaign to replace presidential debates with a time-honored method for solving disputes among political rivals: the duel. Jonathan Ames revisits slightly demented scenes from childhood. And Cecil the Singing Dog performs his greatest hits.

This week, on The Next ...