KPFA - Radio Wolinsky

Martin Cruz Smith (1942-2025, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded in the KPFA studio December 9, 2004 while on tour for his novel “Wolves Eat Dogs.” The great noir and detective author Martin Cruz Smith died of Parkinsons Disease on July 11, 2025 at the age of 82.  A journalist originally, and then a writer of paperback fiction under a variety of pseudonyms, he began writing under his own name and became known following the publication of a horror novel, Nightwing, in 1977. Though it wasn’t until 1981 with the release of Gorky Park, a detective novel set in Soviet Russia and featuring investigator Arkady Renko, that he hit best-seller stardom. Over the next few years, he alternated non-series novels with entries in the Renko series, all to much acclaim. “Wolves Eat Dogs” is partially set in Ukraine, in and around Chernobyl. In the interview, Bill Smith discusses his own trip to Kyiv and Ukraine, and the politics of the early 2000s, which offers insight into what’s happening in 2025. There are four Martin Cruz Smith interviews. The first two, both co-hosted with Richard A. Lupoff for Probabilities, were recorded in 1990 while on tour for Polar Star, the sequel to Gorky Park, and then again in 1996 for the award-winning stand-alone novel, Rose. These interviews have yet to be digitized. This is the third interview. The fourth, for his novel “Tatiana,” was recorded on December 9, 2013. At the time of his death, Martin Cruz Smith had written 15 early novels under a variety of pseudonyms, eleven novels in the Renko series, and seven stand alone novels. The final Renko novel, “Hotel Ukraine,” was published shortly before his death. This interview has never been posted, or aired, in its entirety. The post Martin Cruz Smith (1942-2025) Acclaimed Noir and Literary Novelist appeared first on KPFA.

Even during his lifetime, Howard Browne (1908-1999) was not well known outside of his given fields. His novels, including his best detective fiction, were written under pseudonyms, and his work as editor and Hollywood writer, through credited, remained mostly unknown, except by those in the business. During his long lifetime Browne published hundreds of stories in science fiction and detective magazines, along with several novels. He wrote dozens of television shows including Mission Impossible, Run for Your Life, Maverick and Cheyenne, and three of his film scripts were produced: Portrait of a Mobster with Vic Morrow; The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre with Jason Robards and George Segal; and Capone, starring Ben Gazzara. He also wrote radio scripts in the late 1940s. His day job, before he went to Hollywood, was as an associate editor under Ray Palmer and then editor for Ziff-Davis pulp magazines, which included Amazing Stories, Fantastic Adventures and other lesser known fiction magazines. Richard A. Lupoff interviewed Howard Browne at Browne’s home in Southern California some time in the mid 1980s (the cassettes aren’t labeled). This was Browne’s only radio interview, and only the second extant interview on record (the other appeared in Locus Magazine). After he retired, Howard Browne taught a couple of college classes and worked on a big Chicago novel that never saw publication. Most of his work is out of print today, though his four noir novels, in the style of Raymond Chandler and featuring a detective named Paul Pine, are available in a small press edition published this past spring by Haffner Press, with an introduction by Richard A. Lupoff. If you go to Imdb, you’ll find a long list of his television shows, many of which can be found streaming. Curiously, his novel Thin Air formed the basis for his first television credit, on the show Climax in 1955, and his last, for an episode of Simon and Simon in 1982. Thin Air was also the basis for an episode on yet a third program, The Rockford Files. Two minor points: Browne says he never wrote for Hawaiian Eye, yet IMDb claims he wrote an episode, and he says he retired in 1973 but his credits extend to 1975. Howard Browne IMDb page Howard Browne Wikipedia page   The post The Probabilities Archive: Howard Browne (1908-1999) Pulp Editor and Writer appeared first on KPFA.

Vauhini Vara, Pulitzer Prize finalist for her novel, “The Immortal King Rao,” and former tech journalist for the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere, discusses her book, “Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age” with host Richard Wolinsky. “Searches” is an exploration of how the internet and digital technologies influence and reshape our personal identities and self-perception, and the quest for meaning in contemporary society. The interview focuses on various aspects of her book, most notably the relation of the tech giants and corporations to politics, and specifically, the ins and outs of the corporate product known as “A.I.” The post Vauhini Vara: AI and the Search for Self in the Digital World appeared first on KPFA.

David Leavitt, acclaimed gay novelist, essayist, biographer and short story writer, discusses his book  The Man Who Knew Too Much: Alan Turing and the Invention of the Computer, recorded in the KPFA studios November 28, 2005. David Leavitt has written ten novels, including The Lost Language of Cranes, Why England Sleeps and The Page Turner, four collections of short stories, and two non-fiction works. He’s also served as editor for several anthologies. His next novel, Bright Monday, will be published in 2026. His novels frequently, though not always, deal with issues in the gay community. In the interview from 2005, along with the story of Alan Turing, David Leavitt discusses his other work to that date. Alan Turing was one of the twentieth century’s greatest mathematicians. Along with leading the team that created the enigma machine, which broke German codes, his later work on the nascent world of computers has never been fully recognized. The post PRIDE MONTH: David Leavitt: Alan Turing and the Invention of the Computer appeared first on KPFA.

In honor of Pride Month, we hear a 2004 interview with the late Terrence McNally, four time Tony Award winner, who frequently focused on the gay experience in his work. This podcast, unedited from its original posting, was first heard on April1, 2020. Terrence McNally, who died of complications from COVID on March 24, 2020  at the age of 81, was a giant of the American theatre. He received tony awards for his plays Love Valour Compassion and Master Class, and for best book for a musical for Kiss of the Spider Woman and Ragtime. His plays, musicals and operas have been performed around the world. Among his other plays were Lisbon Traviata, Lips Together Teeth Apart, The Ritz, and Frankie and Johnnie in the Claire de Lune. His plays, rich with humor and deft characterization, also were political in nature, and he never shied away and he was always willing to take a stand especially in the area of gay rights and the necessity for community. Richard Wolinsky spoke with Terrence McNally on March 18, 2004 in the offices of New Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, which was then running the musical, A Man of No Importance, for which he had written the book. The music and lyrics were by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, who he had previously collaborated with on Ragtime. He was in San Francisco as New Conservatory’s playwright in residence that spring, working on a play that would eventually become Some Men, a look at gay mens lives over the course of several decades. Terrence McNally’s play Some Men played off Broadway in 2007 and would return to its theatre of origin, New Conservatory in San Francisco, in 2009. Over the fifteen years after the interview, he would write several plays that reached Broadway, including It’s Only a Play and Mothers and Sons, along with three musicals, the last being Anastasia, based on the animated film, which ran on Broadway for two years, closing in spring, 2019 after 808 performances.     The post Pride Month: Terrence McNally (1938-2020), Titan of the American Theatre appeared first on KPFA.

John Fisher, Artistic Director of Theatre Rhino, and writer/performer/co-director of “The Doodler,” now at The Marsh in San Francisco through July 6, 2025, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky. Theatre Rhino is the longest running LGBTQ+ theatre company in America, and John Fisher has been its Artistic Director since 2002. His show, “The Doodler” concerns a serial killer off gay men in the mid-1970s in San Francisco and is based on an actual case in which a  young man would approach gay men in a bar with a drawing, a doodle, he’d made of them, and then invite them to a secluded location. Between six and thirteen men were killed. It’s a true-crime story that also involves police indifference and homophobia. In this interview, John Fisher discusses how he came to work on the piece, the history behind it, and Rhino’s upcoming show, “The Laramie Project.” The post Pride Month: John Fisher, Theatre Rhinoceros and “The Doodler” appeared first on KPFA.

Edmund White (1940-2025) in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded in the KPFA Studios, September 20, 2012 while on tour for the novel “Jack Holmes and His Friend.” Edmund White, who died on June 3, 2025 at the age of 85, was often called the Grandfather of gay literature. Equally at home writing novels, biographies, plays, memoirs, essays and various hybrids, he was a pioneer in the LBGT world, one of the first gay novelists to achieve literary fame, the co[author in 1977 of The Joy of Gay Sex, along with a ground breaking trilogy of novels based on his own life, several memoirs, three well received biographies, and various collections of essays. Winner of the Lambda Literary Award and nominated several times, nominated for the Pulitzer and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for his biography of Jean Genet, winner of the National Book Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award and the PEN/Saul Bellow Award, Edmund White has also been called the Patron Saint of Gay Literature. There were four Bookwaves interviews with Edmund White. In this third interview, recorded on February 20, 2012, he discusses his novel Jack Holmes and His Friend, along with a collection of essays, Sacred Monsters, and various other topics. The post Edmund White (1949-2025). The Patron Saint of Gay Literature appeared first on KPFA.

Joseph Heller, author of Catch-22 and its sequel, Closing Time, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff, recorded in San Francisco on October 17, 1994. Since its original publication in 1961, Catch-22 by Joseph Heller has become a classic of anti-war literature, gaining fame during the Vietnam era for its dark and satirical look at American military life. Filmed to middling results by Mike Nichols in 1970, a new miniseries on Hulu has brought the novel back into the spotlight, where its focus on circular reasoning and insanity seems a propos to life during the current American regime. Catch-22 was Joseph Heller’s first novel. In the 1970s he wrote the novels Something Happened and Good as Gold, and in the 1980s God Knows and Picture This, and the non-fiction No Laughing Matter about his struggle with Guillan-Barre Syndrome In 1994, Joseph Heller came out with a sequel to Catch-22, titled Closing Time, which deals with what happened to Yossarian and other characters after the end of World War II. This interview was recorded during that book tour and deals with both books, as well as other aspects of his career, along with comparisons to the works of Kurt Vonnegut. Despite respectful reviews and a good reputation, Closing Time is mostly forgotten today, though it is easily available on-line in both paper and e-book. Joseph Heller published a memoir, Now and Then, in 1998, and another novel, Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man, an autobiographical work about an author who is unable to shake the success of his very first novel, was published posthumously in 2000. This podcast was originally digitized and posted on May 21, 2019. The post From the Archive: Joseph Heller (1923-1999) appeared first on KPFA.

J.K. Fowler, Executive Director of the Bay Area Book Festival in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky, discussing this year’s festival, Saturday May 31st and Sunday June 1st throughout the City of Berkeley. The focus of this year’s Festival is Changing the Narrative, with looks at activism, resistance, responding to backlash, writing for social change and more. Guests include Mia Birdsong, Prentiss Hemphill. Viet Thanh Nguyen, Greg Sarris and over a hundred other writers, publishers and editors. The venues include the Berkeley Library, Freight & Salvage, The Marsh, the Brower Center, the Hotel Shattuck, and three outdoor stages, including one at Berkeley’s BART Plaza. J.K. Fowler founded Nomadic Press, sat on Oakland’s Cultural Affairs Commission, and works on several community projects. The post J.K. Fowler: The 11th Annual Bay Area Book Festival appeared first on KPFA.

Jacques d’Amboise (1934-2021), whose memoir is titled “I Was a Dancer,” in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky, April 6, 2011. First posted May 9, 2021. Jacques d’Amboise, who died on May 2, 2021 at the age of 88 following complications from a stroke, was a principal dancer for the New York City Ballet from 1953 to his retirement in 1984. As such, he was considered the living embodiment of the choreography of the great George Balanchine. In 1976, he founded the National Dance Institute to teach dance to children. In time, he became one of the most famous dancers in America, appearing as one of the Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and as the male dancer in the second act ballet in Carousel in those respective 1950s films. The post Jacques d’Amboise (1934-2021), “I Was a Dancer,” 2011 appeared first on KPFA.