Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen

No one plays a lovable jerk like Jeff Daniels — but it’s hard to love the jerk that he is in his latest role, as a pedophile in Broadway’s “Blackbird.” Plus, we hear from David Foster Wallace’s biographer D.T. Max about why “Infinite Jest” is still so important, 20 years after it first came out. And the punk-rock songwriter Shilpa Ray draws on her classical Indian music training in a live performance.

George Miller launched his directing career with the first “Mad Max” movie — and 40 years later, “Mad Max: Fury Road” is his most acclaimed yet. Also, the singer Lorely Rodriguez has her mother to thank for becoming the pop sensation Empress Of. Plus, the writer Terence Winter on HBO’s new series about 1970s rock ‘n roll, “Vinyl.”

Adam McKay has made his mark on comedy many times over. But the director of “Anchorman” and “Talladega Nights” switched gears in his latest movie, “The Big Short,” which is about the financial collapse of 2008. Sure, CDOs and synthetic CDOs might seem a little arcane, but McKay says it’s not really that complicated. “You’re really moving money and debt around and then they give it strange names and act like no one should understand,” says the director. “The Big Short” is up for 5 Academy Awards – including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. In this extended conversation with Kurt Andersen, McKay explains how great characters can make anything compelling to watch – and how he and Will Ferrell almost broke the internet with the help of his then two-year-old daughter.

Filming “The Revenant” in the freezing cold of Alberta nearly did him in, but Alejandro González Iñárritu isn’t complaining. “That’s our job,” says the director. His last film, “Birdman,” won big at last year’s Oscars, and “The Revenant” is up for 12 Academy Awards — more than any other film this year. Iñárritu downplays the controversy over the harsh shooting conditions, which prompted one crew member to call the film a “living hell.” In this extended conversation with Kurt Andersen, Iñárritu explains why he’s driven to extreme challenges — and why filming trees terrifies him. Hear an interview with the composer Alva Noto, who wrote the score for "The Revenant" with Ryuichi Sakamoto and The National's Bryce Dessner.

Ken Kesey had worked in a mental hospital, but his first novel was really a parable of what happens when you stand up to the Man — a counterculture fable that doesn’t end well. Despite his far-reaching influence, Kesey was shut out by filmmakers who turned the story into an Oscar-sweeping phenomenon. Cuckoo’s Nest changed how many people thought about mental illness and institutions. Sherman Alexie debunks the myth of the silent Indian; we visit Oregon State Hospital, where the director played himself on screen; a psychiatrist explains how the movie gave mental hospitals a bad name, with tragic consequences; and actress Louise Fletcher takes us into the mind of one of the most fearsome movie villains, the sweet-faced Nurse Ratched. “She doesn’t see her behavior as it really is. Who does? Who sees that they’re really evil?” (Rebroadcast)

Hilary Mantel on why we’re still so interested in Henry VIII: he was a “monster-king.” John McWhorter explains why racially charged titles to historic paintings should be left alone. And Mac DeMarco brings his signature cool to a live performance.  Segments in this week's episode aired previously.

Adam McKay, the director of “The Big Short,” explains how he turned the economic crash into one of the year’s most surprising hits. Kurt Andersen strolls through his old neighborhood with Garth Risk Hallberg, the author of the novel “City on Fire.” And Jenny Slate picks a winner of our 30-second holiday film challenge.

Universe not big enough for you? There’s always the multiverse — many universes, scattered through time and space. In one world, you might drive a bus; in another, you might be a Formula One racer. If the idea sounds familiar, that could be because it has obsessed science-fiction and comic-book writers for decades. But artists and writers aren't the only ones fascinated by multiples — some physicists think the multiverse could be very real. 

Ron Howard’s latest film, “In the Heart of the Sea,” puts us in the whaling ship whose catastrophic sinking inspired “Moby Dick.” Kurt gets a sneak preview of the future of virtual reality storytelling — and finds the future is a bit disorienting. And the songwriter and musician Son Little plays live.

The actor Lucy Liu talks about her decision to reveal her secret second career as a painter — and her struggles with being typecast. Also, Charles Schulz’s biographer on how one of the most beloved comic strips of all time made us more open about depression. And the radio play “Sorry, Wrong Number” puts us inside the frantic mind of the victim of a murder plot. (Segments in this week's show aired previously.)

When terrorists struck Paris, they took aim at what binds us together as a society: our culture. And looking back at 15 years of terror, that’s nothing new. Near East scholar Bernard Haykel shows how ISIS uses poetry as propaganda. Pakistani-American columnist Rafia Zakaria calls the attacks an assault on fun — and explains why that’s much more serious than it sounds. Also, we hear how Sly and the Family Stone provided the soundtrack for freedom. And writer Gavin McCrea talks about his first novel, which imagines what it was like to love the co-author of “The Communist Manifesto.” 

This week, Kurt Andersen asks: can computers make art? And if so, is it any good? We’ll meet a program named AARON that’s been painting for nearly 40 years, a filmmaker who replaced her editor with an algorithm, and a professor who thinks what computers need is more Shakespeare. (Originally aired December 16, 2011)

What do you do after founding one of the most beloved bands ever? If you’re Carrie Brownstein, you become the star of “Portlandia” and satirize one of the most beloved cities. Also, former “Saturday Night Live” political writer Jim Downey explains how a sketch comedy show came to shape American political discourse. Plus, how the novelist Emma Donoghue adapted her bestselling novel, “Room,” into a movie — with a little help from director Lenny Abrahamson.

The new band EL VY plays live in our studio, combining the downer indie rock of The National with the cheery electro-pop of Menomena. Also, how President Obama became the internet’s go-to scapegoat for all of life’s little annoyances. And the writer Valeria Luiselli explains how she collaborated with the workers in a Mexican juice plant to write her latest novel, “The Story of My Teeth.”

One of the most famous choreographers working today, Twyla Tharp is the person you call when you want to turn Billy Joel songs into Broadway catnip or get horses dancing in Central Park. Also, we hear what made “The X-Files” such a good fit for the conspiracy-minded 1990s, and why we’re primed for it to come back now. And the director Sebastian Schipper explains how he shot a feature-length thriller over the course of two hours in Berlin — in just one take.