Open Source with Christopher Lydon

We’re saluting one man’s century in American music. Roy Haynes was the jazz drummer from Boston who shaped the bebop sound in Harlem 80 years ago. He got nicknamed Snap Crackle for his own crisp, lyrical, almost melodic touch. Over the decades, he accompanied and energized scores of jazz stars: Thelonious Monk, Sarah Vaughan, Bud Powell, Pat Metheny among them. Michael Haynes and Roy Haynes. Perhaps Roy Haynes’s deepest satisfaction was introducing himself as he once did to me: “I was Charlie Parker’s favorite drummer.” Roy Haynes died two weeks ago, just four months before his one hundredth birthday. We are remembering him in a Thanksgiving spirit with the historian and jazz biographer Robin Kelley at UCLA. L-R: Charles Mingus, Roy Haynes, Thelonious Monk, and Charlie Parker at the Open Door, Greenwich Village, September 1953. The post The Roy Haynes Century appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.

We’re with the writer’s writer Joshua Cohen—beyond category, but ever ahead of the game. He’s a realist, a fantasist, a satirist, New Jersey-born and at home in Israel. Joshua Cohen. It’s his imagination we need, just to peer through his vision of a changed world and, in particular, two force fields in motion: Donald Trump’s USA and Bibi Netanyahu’s State of Israel, two zones of huge power, not least military force, shadowed by darkness and danger. The post Joshua Cohen’s Camp appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.

Fintan O’Toole, an accomplished Irish journalist and author, shares his insights on the striking parallels between the transformations in Ireland and the United States. He examines how nostalgia fuels political movements amid economic struggles. O’Toole discusses the culture of fear spurred by influential political figures and the growing need for unity within progressive movements. He critiques the changing nature of political discourse, focusing on the normalization of crudeness and its impact on public perception. Ultimately, he underscores the importance of identity and narrative in navigating complex political landscapes.

In the long weekend of solemn suspense before our presidential election in 2024, our guest is Amber. I met Amber on a call-in radio show almost 30 years ago, and we’ve been talking ever since. I call Amber my oracle from underground, the voice of the unknown America, undocumented since she arrived in the United States as a child and an orphan. And she’s been without papers, as she says, ever since, despite our best efforts. When Donald Trump talks about sweeping deportations, if he gets reelected, the face I see is Amber’s. The post Amber’s America: Love and Outrage appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.

Richard Powers may just be the bravest big novelist out there. His new book is titled Playground, in which AI plays with the natural world. The question is whether and how the digital transformation might undo the power of death, as in the death of long ago people, the death of species today, even the death of a planet. Richard Powers. This is our third trip through a new book of his, aiming his imagination and hard science at the scariest maladies of modern life. First it was Orfeo, about atonal music, then The Overstory, which won the Pulitzer prize and a huge audience, about disappearing tree species. And now Playground, going deep into the breakdown of oceans—also into dementia with Lewy bodies, also fate and friendships, and damaged people who make foolproof thinking machines. The post Playground appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.

Nathan Thrall, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, delves into the haunting realities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through poignant narratives and personal stories. He examines a tragic bus accident involving Palestinian children, emphasizing systemic injustices and the contrasting indifference of Israeli security forces. The conversation also critiques societal dehumanization, highlights the emotional toll of segregation, and draws parallels to the anti-apartheid movement. Thrall calls for increased awareness and empathy amidst ongoing geopolitical struggles.

We’re in Climate Week 2024, with the indispensable, independent activist and authority Bill McKibben. We catch him packing, in Vermont, for what’s far from his first climate rodeo in New York. The post The Climate Story’s Breaking Point appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.

We’re in our very own post-debate spin room, taking the measure of Kamala Harris, Donald Trump, and of ourselves, as the voters they were pitching. Did we get what we expected? Did we get what we wanted? Fintan O’Toole, on the line from Ireland, is our guest and guide. He’s much admired now for his tart reporting on American life in the New York Review of Books. Fintan O’Toole built his reputation as a theatre critic in Dublin and to this day in New York. We’re asking him to review our presidential debate this week as live drama. The post Bear-Baiting Debating appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.

There’s a puzzle in this podcast, and it comes with our prize sociologist, Tressie McMillan Cottom. It’s roughly this: How does Kamala Harris, after the Democratic convention in Chicago and for the rest of this campaign, come to look and sound presidential, even though no other president has ever looked like her? Tressie McMillan Cottom. Tressie McMillan Cottom has put it this way: that all Kamala Harris has to prove is that a woman can lead, that a black woman can be qualified, that a South Asian woman can come to feel familiar, that a childless woman can become a nation’s Momala, and that a Gen-X sensibility can resonate with boomers. The post The Harris Machine appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.

Cornel West is our guest, the preacher-teacher in a tradition of black prophetic fire, as he puts it, the line of holy anger in American history, and this time on the presidential ballot in a variety of states. Cornel West. His will be the first book I want to read on this 2024 campaign, because he will be recounting a moral inquiry into the American condition at least as much as the ups and downs of his own candidacy. The post In It to the Finish appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.