Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen show

Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen

Summary: The Peabody Award-winning Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen, from PRI, is a smart and surprising guide to what's happening in pop culture and the arts. Each week, Kurt introduces the people who are creating and shaping our culture. Life is busy – so let Studio 360 steer you to the must-see movie this weekend, the next book for your nightstand, or the song that will change your life. Produced in association with Slate.

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Podcasts:

 Fake Photos & Cold Specks | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Fake photos aren’t just Photoshop.  An exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum showcases hundreds of strange and fascinating fakes from the predigital age, including high art, satire, and outright scams. Married photographers Jerry Uelsmann and Maggie Taylor are split on how best to create photomontage — he's an old-school darkroom guy, while she's embraced the computer. And the self-described “doom soul/gothic gospel” band Cold Specks plays live in the studio.

 American Icons: I Love Lucy | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

This is where television invented itself. It set the model for the hit family sitcom. Lucy was a bad girl trapped in the life of a ‘50s housewife; her slapstick quest for fame and fortune ended in abject failure weekly. Both the antics and the humiliation entered the DNA of TV comedy, from Desperate Housewives to 30 Rock — writers can’t live without Lucy. Rapper Mellow Man Ace celebrates the breaking of an ethnic taboo; a drag performer celebrates Lucy as a freak. With novelist Oscar Hijuelos, producer Chuck Lorre, The Office’s Mindy Kaling, and a marriage counselor who has some advice for the bickering couple. I Love Lucy was produced by Jenny Lawton, with production assistance from Chloe Plaunt and Claes Andreasson. David Krasnow edited the show. → Quiz: How well do you know Lucy?  Bonus Track: Mindy Hearts Ricky Mindy Kaling (The Mindy Project, The Office) grew up thinking I Love Lucy was “one of the many black and white things that people keep telling you is so great... and you’re just sort of bored and annoyed by it.” Then her Office boss Greg Daniels ordered her to watch it. She came away with a pretty serious crush on Ricky Ricardo. And she says she's not bothered by jokes about his accent.   Bonus Track: Deconstructing Lucy Although Lucy's on-screen antics may have looked improvised, every gesture, glance, and step was written into the script. Gregg Oppenheimer — son of creator, producer, and head writer Jess Oppenheimer — reads a bit of telling stage direction from “Lucy is Enceinte.” Jess and Gregg Oppenheimer are the authors of Laughs, Luck... and Lucy. → Read an excerpt from the "Lucy is Enciente" episode script   Bonus Track: Notes on a Scandal In 1955 Confidential Magazine, a Hollywood scandal rag, reported on Desi Arnaz’s supposed philandering. Dartmouth film and television professor Mary Desjardins explores the less desirable side effect of being a celebrity couple. → Read about Lucy and Desi in Confidential Magazine (1955)   Slideshow: Behind the scenes of I Love Lucy

 Presidential Jingles and Sympathy for the Loser | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

If this presidential election were a Hollywood movie, how would it end? Kurt Andersen talks with Lawrence O’Donnell (formerly a writer on The West Wing, now a political pundit on MSNBC) about the more interesting outcome. For the loser, David Ellis Dickerson, a Hallmark veteran, has a custom greeting card to soothe a bruised ego. We reveal the winners of our campaign jingle challenge, and look at the new breed of mashup videos making politics into entertainment.

 Art Heist & Martin McDonagh | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Thieves in Rotterdam walked off with $130 million of fine art in less than 90 seconds; Kurt Andersen talks with a security expert about this seemingly perfect crime. Playwright and filmmaker Martin McDonagh (Seven Psychopaths) explains why bad guys often have a soft spot for their pets. And an LA resident ditches her car and tries to live the 1980s hit “Walking in LA.”

 American Icons: The Wizard of Oz | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Follow the yellow brick road through America’s favorite story and discover places in the land of Oz more wonderful, and weirder, than you ever imagined. It's been over seventy years since movie audiences first watched The Wizard of Oz. Meet the original man behind the curtain, L. Frank Baum, who had all the vision of Walt Disney, but none of the business sense. Discover how Oz captivated the imaginations of Russians living under Soviet rule. Hear how the playwright Neil LaBute, the late filmmaker Nora Ephron, the novelist Salman Rushdie, and the musician Bobby McFerrin, found magic, meaning, and inspiration in Oz.

 Jack Black & Diana Krall | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Jack Black, superstar clown, rocks out live and sings a cappella in our studio. Diana Krall tells Kurt Andersen how she pulled 78 rpm records out of the closet at random to find material for her new album. Rocky and Bullwinkle make the Cold War kid-friendly. And an art dealer helps Costco.com and other big retailers get into the fine art market.

 Campaign Ads & Steampunk Chic | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

What exactly is steampunk?  We’ll meet some musicians who are making the dusty Victorian era new all over again.  Kurt Andersen finds out why the presidential campaign ads have lost their edge. Mark Helprin (Winter’s Tale) reveals that his new novel — a story of war, romance, and gangsters — is actually based on his family. And singer-composer Shara Worden (who performs as My Brightest Diamond) plays live in the studio.

 Andrew McCarthy & Theater for the People | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Kurt Andersen talks with Andrew McCarthy, the Brat Pack heartthrob (don’t say it to his face) who’s now an award-winning travel writer. Oskar Eustis, maybe the most influential man in American theater, explains why theater can change the world. And a young woman dreams her way out of Brooklyn with a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

 Salman Rushdie & Andy Warhol | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Kurt Andersen talks with Salman Rushdie. His new memoir chronicles the stranger-than-fiction decade he spent under threat of the Ayatollah Khomeni’s fatwa. We revisit the golden age of MTV. And Andy Warhol turns a can of Campbell’s soup into an American icon. (Segments in this week's show aired previously.)

 Philip Glass & Strippers | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Kurt Andersen asks whether stripping is art — or at least, enough like art to win tax-exempt status in a case before a New York court. Philip Glass explains how his generation of avant-garde artists busted out of obscurity. And from all the listeners who participated in our Remix Challenge, DJ/rupture picks a winner.

 David Foster Wallace & Sadder Pop Hits | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

DT Max talks about his new biography of the late David Foster Wallace. Kurt Andersen asks rockers The Heavy, whose song “How You Like Me Now” is ubiquitous, why generations of Brits have reintroduced Americans to American music. And we find out why pop music has been getting sadder.

 Making Better People | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

What traits could we engineer to “improve” people? Kurt Andersen talks with Greg Stock, a leading proponent of genetic engineering. We’ll hear from a double amputee and MIT scientist who walks using bionic legs of his own creation; and from a doctor and an artist exploring mankind’s ability to defy the limits of nature with the help of a bit of bio-enhancement. (Originally aired: November 4, 2011)

 Campaign Playlists & Celebrity Shrinks | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Kurt Andersen talks with Barry Michels and Phil Stutz, therapists who help Hollywood actors and writers to stay positive in an unforgiving industry. We’ll check out the presidential campaign playlists carefully curated to rock your vote. And a new Afropop duo, The Very Best, shows that there’s more to Malawi than Madonna’s kids.

 Marjane Satrapi & DJ /rupture | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Kurt Andersen talks with Marjane Satrapi, who’s turned her graphic novel Chicken With Plums into a new movie that blends live action, animation, and puppetry. Kurt takes a spin on the turntables with Jace Clayton, a world-class DJ who performs as DJ /rupture. And Janka Nabay, a singer who fled his native Sierra Leone, creates a new musical life with a bunch of indie rockers from Brooklyn.

 Marvin Hamlisch & Julian Barnes | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Kurt Andersen sits at the piano with Marvin Hamlisch, the composer of The Sting, A Chorus Line, and other classic scores, in this interview from 2009. Hamlisch, who died this week, knew as well as anyone on earth how to get a melody stuck in your head. The literary shape-shifter Julian Barnes tries to figure out what makes a Barnesian novel. And a middle-aged couple rekindle their romance with tango. (Segments in this week’s episode aired previously.)

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