Studio 360 from PRI and WNYC

Miss Bala & Jack DeJohnette

studio360@wnyc.org (Public Radio International/WNYC) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:00:00 +0000

Kurt Andersen talks with Gerardo Naranjo, the director of the new film Miss Bala, about a beauty pageant contestant caught in the middle of Mexico’s drug war. The composer Eve Beglarian travels the length the Mississippi River collecting songs and stories — she performs live in the studio. And one of jazz’s greatest drummers, Jack DeJohnette, looks back at the road not taken.

Nikola Tesla: Strange Genius

studio360@wnyc.org (Public Radio International/WNYC) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0000

The astounding mad scientist life of Nikola Tesla. Just who was this pioneer of radio, radar, and wireless communication? We discover his legacy in the work of today’s scientists and artists. Samantha Hunt’s novel The Invention of Everything Else is a fictional portrait of Tesla. Monologist Mike Daisey tells us how Tesla X-rayed Mark Twain’s head. And across the country, garage inventors toil in obscurity at the next breakthrough that will change the world.

(Originally aired: January 25, 2008)

David Byrne & Teachers Rebooted

studio360@wnyc.org (Public Radio International/WNYC) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0000

David Byrne tells Kurt Andersen about starting a pop revolution in the early days of Talking Heads. We reveal a bold new graphic design for teachers that takes them out of the little one-room school house and launches them into the 21st century. And despite international accolades, Iran’s filmmakers have run afoul of their government, which just shuttered the country’s largest independent film institute.