Emily Botein

Remember when...in 1977, NASA put a gold-plated record of earth's sounds, voices and music on board Voyager 1? Or when New York City's Meatpacking District really was a meatpacking district? Or when Marines went to Iraq to take on Saddam Hussein — in 1991? A look into the not-so-distant past ...

Buddhism and Baghdad, the United Nations and the earth's atmosphere — each has its own complicated relationship to war and peace. Find out more — from a Zen master, an archaeologist, 15 smart teenagers and 3 dedicated earth scientists. Also, writer Rick Moody on the music that's seen him through ...

Waiting for, betting on, taking pictures of, and writing letters during war. We check in with Vincent Laforet, Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist now aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, and talk Greek tragedy with Nation columnist Katha Pollitt. Also, music from the Raymond Scott Orchestrette and a new, familiar yet unfamiliar scene ...

WNYC archives id: 32480

We look at the intersection of real lives with mythical ones. Novelist Meg Wolitzer imagines what her life would have been like had one of her many crushes been requited. Host Dean Olsher revisits the crossroads where blues master Robert Johnson is said to have made his pact with the ...

We pay attention to all that noise — from iPods, cellphones, televisions, walkmen and all the rest. And then there are words — your made-up words for dictionary maven Erin McKean, words in verse from poet Steve Almond, and a veritable torrent of words both comic and passionate from performer ...

Jackie Mockbee--wife of the late Samuel "Sambo" Mockbee, internationally acclaimed architect--offers an audio diary of her first year in widowhood. Also, a noisy postcard from Matt Power, seeking enlightenment in a traffic jam in New Delhi. And we hear a new composition by Roy Nathanson, creator of our very own ...

We look at people facing countdowns of every kind. One man must decide whether or not to register as an illegal immigrant with the INS by the end of next month. Another has just a few hours to bake an extravagant cake for one of his more demanding clients. And ...

Writer Francisco Goldman celebrates the 150th birthday of Cuban revolutionary José Marti­ with a drive through his Brooklyn haunts. Also, talking about war with reservists in Fort Dix, NJ, and historian Walter LaFeber. And Chowhound Jim Leff guides Dean by cell phone through the streets of Minneapolis in search of ...

Make-Believe Movies, Music and Made-Up Stories
Week of Friday, January 24 2003

Some things to do when the weather turns bitter cold... like taking a mah jong lesson, learning to play mariachi music, or creating your very own radio talk show. Also, Rick Moody reads from ...

Silver Lining
Week of Friday, January 17 2003


We look for, and find, the silver lining: in the weekly routine of a woman who shuttles puppies to and from a medium-security men's prison in upstate New York; in the rainy day tunes of American ...

Word Battles
Week of Friday, January 10 2003


It's words, words, words... words that won't come out, words officially and unofficially chosen as Word of the Year, words of wisdom from a teacher trying to explain war, and the unreliable words of Alice Furlaud, ...

This week we 1) expose the myth of the tambourine man, 2) question the viability of veganism when you're eating from a dumpster, 3) encourage marriages to dissolve and, 4) once and for all, explain Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. Our first show of the year 2003 CE will change ...

We hear from people who have lost, or given up, a sense — including Herman Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener," famous for abandoning what most of us take to be common sense. Also this week, accordion music in translation, and silly musings on celebrity worship from writer and actor Mark O'Donnell. ...

It's all about pizza. And cats. And dogs. Really.


What's the Next Big Thing?

Host Dean Olsher heads to Bedford Stuyvesant, locale of Sal's Pizza in Spike Lee's movie "Do the Right Thing," to ask the question, "What's the next big ...

Jazz in church, paintings after prison, an electronic soundscape in an old synagogue... we've got all kinds of art happening in all kinds of places. Plus, how to change a man who's committed crimes against humanity — by giving him books. And once again, we hand over the controls for ...

Sure, it's important to give thanks. But sometimes, don't you just want to complain a little? This week, we contemplate some of the less pleasurable aspects of life, from getting the flu to finding rats in your apartment. But don't despair; we've also got advice from a life coach, in ...

We look at people living outside the law — both voluntarily and involuntarily. Host Dean Olsher explores the messy legal terrain confronting gay couples who want the privileges of a "divorce," and talks to local historians about female criminals on the Lower East Side in the 19th century. Sound artist ...

Host Dean Olsher posits the theory that three disparate realms — the romantic, the literary, and the transit — have a remarkable tendency to collide. As evidence, he offers: an interview with romance novelist Eloisa James, a short story by Mark Strand, and the voices of New York City straphangers. ...