Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen

Walt Whitman loved America — so much so that it got a little creepy sometimes. But he accomplished his goal, writing a new Bible for American poetry to reflect the democracy and diversity at the heart of this country, and we explore Leaves of Grass in an episode of American Icons. Kurt talks with Linda Ronstadt about being a generation’s most beloved singer, and the disease that made her retire. Plus, we’ll get creative with drones that don’t spy or kill: they dance.

This is the story of America’s fight against authority. 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?” Passages from the audiobook narrated by Ken Kesey were provided courtesy of HighBridge Audio.   Bonus Track: Kurt Andersen's full interview with Louise Fletcher Hear Kurt's entire conversation with Fletcher, including why "no studio in town would touch this movie," and how she was cast in the role for which she won an Oscar.   Slideshow: Behind-the-scenes of the film 

This week in Studio 360, taboos are broken. Jill Soloway talks about her film Afternoon Delight, in which a married woman brings home a sex worker to be her nanny. And in our series American Icons, we look at “Anything Goes,” Cole Porter’s enduring anthem to being naughty — we gave the song a reboot for the age of sexting, bank bailouts, and fries with bacon. Plus, the three sisters of Haim, whose power-pop anthems refer to Fleetwood Mac as much as Rihanna.

This is the novel about racism that America couldn't ignore. The story of a young man in the ghetto who turns to murder was an overnight sensation. Richard Wright set out to confront white readers with the most brutal consequences of racism, and finally lay to rest the stereotype of the passive Uncle Tom — “he literally wanted to create a bigger Thomas,” one scholar argues. But some think Native Son exploited the worst stereotypes of black youth. “Is this giving me permission to go kill white women?” wondered a young Carl Hancock Rux. “Is that what we’re supposed to be doing now?” We trace the line from Bigger Thomas to Notorious B.I.G., and visit a high school drama class acting out Native Son, and struggling to grasp the racism their grandparents experienced. With Nathan McCall, Carl Hancock Rux, and Richard Wright's daughter, Julia Wright. Thank you to the following people for their time and research: Frankie Bailey, Timuel Black, James Campbell, The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, Thomas Cripps, Dolores Fish, Rebecca Hall, Margot McMahon, Gabriel Mendes, Bayo Ojikutu, Howard Pitsch and the Fort Greene Association, Tim Samuelson, and Malcolm Wright.   Bonus Track: Nathan McCall on how Native Son changed his life Hear producer Amanda Aronczyk's full interview with Nathan McCall, author of Makes Me Wanna Holler.   Video: Richard Wright's screen test for the original film of Native Son   Slideshow: The Stivers High School for the Arts' production of Native Son

Studio 360 is big in Japan. Kurt Andersen hits the streets of Tokyo in search of cutting-edge art and design. Female art stars take on the schoolgirl stereotype; young rebels scream against an economic system that failed them. And Kurt goes undercover at the epicenter of all things nerdy to get a taste of otaku culture. (Originally aired: February 6, 2009) Studio 360 in Japan was produced by Jenny Lawton, Pejk Malinovski and Leital Molad, and is supported, in part, by the Freeman Foundation and the United States-Japan Foundation. Special thanks to David D’Heilly, Shizu Yuasa, Junko Takeuchi, Ken Marks, Chris Bannon, Amy Busam, Alex Villari, Anna Boiko-Weyrauch, Ralph Samuelson, Yoko Shioya, David Janes, Kazuo Kawamura, Lisa Kato, and On the Media.

This week in Studio 360, we remember master crime writer Elmore Leonard, who died this week, with an interview from 2005. Our Battle of the High School Bands concludes when rock star judges Andrew W.K. and Thao Nguyen pick a winning song and unveil their cover version. Kurt asks Tony Hale about playing TV’s most lovable losers. We visit an installation by artist James Turrell, whose works hold light the way a cup holds water. Plus, more homework: name six great American artists who deserve to be on our paper money — we’ll see if we can convince the folks over at the Treasury Department.

In a program recorded live at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Tony Award-winning performer Sarah Jones transforms herself into a dizzying array of characters — from a Jewish grandmother to a young male rapper. Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner, who developed the theory of multiple intelligences, gives some free analysis to audience members. And country rocker Steve Earle sings about leaving Tennessee, performing tracks from his record Washington Square Serenade. Studio 360 Live in Aspen 2008 is a co-production of PRI, WNYC, The Aspen Institute, and The Atlantic.  (Originally aired: July 18, 2008)

Kurt Andersen finds out how Big Data is helping us decode our culture. The mobile video app Vine brings us six-second dispatches from soldiers in Afghanistan. Thirty years ago, Sue Grafton started a series of novels named for the alphabet, with W if for Wasted out next month. She looks ahead to the end of the series — then, “a long nap.”

This week in Studio 360, Kurt Andersen talks with a painter who wants to capture the way we live today — so he paints people and products in Walmart. He used to get kicked out, but now the store has given him carte-blanche. We’ll hear about a gang of European jewel thieves and the police who pursue them, all of them imagining their lives as a glamorous heist movie. And speaking of glamorous, we’ll have a studio performance from Carla Bruni — supermodel, former First Lady, and a very fine songwriter.

This week in Studio 360, Kurt talks with middle-school metalheads Unlocking the Truth. Performing together since kindergarten, the boys have long since mastered the art of slaying. They play live in our studio. Detroit reporter Mark Stryker discusses the unprecedented possibility that masterpieces from the Detroit Institute of Arts — Breughels, Van Goghs — could be on the table as an asset during bankruptcy proceedings. Kurt talks with Renata Adler, whose 30-year-old novels are some of this summer’s buzziest books. And we hear the final installment of our Hawaiian adventure with Jack Handey.

This week, Kurt talks with the director of the disturbing and singular new documentary The Act of Killing; it takes us into the minds of paramilitaries, where they re-imagine their massacres with fantasy dance sequences. We meet a biologist who wants to bring extinct species back to life — it’s not science fiction anymore. And we hear a performance from the band Radiation City, who have resurrected the long-extinct harmonies of early-60s girl groups. Plus, Jack Handey continues the strange and untrue adventure of The Stench of Honolulu.

Studio 360 hits the beach. Kurt Andersen visits Coney Island with They Might Be Giants, who sing an ode to that guy with the metal detector looking for … whatever he’s looking for. Plus stories about mermaids, seashells, and a sand sculptor who takes his castles very seriously. (Originally aired: July 05, 2003)

This week in Studio 360, three stories about conflicts simmering below the surface of American life, and sometimes erupting. In Appalachian Spring, a choreographer and a composer teamed up to tell a fundamentally American story about a young couple struggling to reconcile community with individualism in a frontier town. In The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton’s modern young woman tries to be her own person, at the risk of making herself an outcast. And we tell the story of the catchy melody that Americans whistled as they marched off to kill each other in our country’s deadliest war. (Segments in this week's episode aired previously.)

This week in Studio 360, some anxiety about money. The makers of the lady-buddy-cop movie The Heat are feeling the heat to match the success of Bridesmaids, or Hollywood’s women will get sent back to the rom-coms. And an indie-rock veteran puts his reputation on the line to complain publicly about his Pandora royalties; will he become the next Lars Ulrich? Eric Fischl paints the traumas of his childhood in full color, and the band Hem sings an ode to a Superfund site.

This week, Studio 360 gets weird. For one thing, there’s "Weird Al," playing a totally normal cover version of an Elvis Costello hit. Carl Hiaasen tries, once again, to convince America to revile Florida as much as he does. And we get an exclusive preview of Jack Handey’s tropical adventure, The Stench of Honolulu. Plus, rocker Thao Nguyen checks out some listener submissions in the Battle of the High School Bands contest, and we talk NSA leaks with Walter Kirn, who says we’re more 2001 than 1984.