Category: Essays
Sequel to the award-winning More Ketchup Than Salsa: Confessions of a Tenerife Barman.Kathy Baron – Equity in Education
Brown vs. the Board of Education was the 1954 Supreme Court decision that declared the old “separate but equal” policies of many school boards unconstitutional. The Brown case triggered numerous court mediated desegregation policies around the country, all designed to get equal education to all students. Producer Kathy Baron looks at school districts in California, fifty years after the Brown decision. What, in fact, does an equal education look like? What she discovers is a broad range of inequalities, from overcrowded classrooms and few resources to under-qualified teachers and little preparation available for college.Listen…
Philip Larkin – Dear Philip, Dear Kingsley
Here we have readings of selected correspondence between the poet Philip Larkin (played by Alan Bennett) and the writer Kingsley Amis (played by Robert Hardy) for your listening pleasure. A meeting at Oxford University during World War II signalled the beginning of a lifelong friendship between two outstanding contributors to 20th century English literature: Philip Larkin, poet, and Kingsley Amis, the prolific novelist.Listen…
Chris Erskine – Daditude: The Joys & Absurdities of Modern Fatherhood
Life is never peaceful in Chris Erskine’s house, what with the four kids, 300-pound beagle, chronically leaky roof, and long-suffering wife, Posh. And that’s exactly the way he likes it, except when he doesn’t.Listen…
Tim Kreider – I Wrote This Book Because I Love You
New York Times essayist and author of We Learn Nothing, Tim Kreider trains his virtuoso writing and singular power of observation on his (often befuddling) relationships with women.Listen…
Andy Rooney – Sweet and Sour
For over 30 years, Andrew Aitken “Andy” Rooney had the last word on the most watched television program in history. “A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney”, a part of the CBS News program 60 Minutes, aired from 1978 to 2011. A man of wit, rue, and common sense, Rooney spoke to us candidly about what drove us crazy, what brought us joy, and what made us human. Hear the man himself as he reads some of his finest newspaper essays, offering his observations on a variety of topics, including politics and politicians, the economy, doctors, sex, clothes, football, toilet paper, ice cream, and cough drops.Listen…
Jill Soloway – Tiny Ladies in Shiny Pants
This hilarious, whip-smart collection of essays from a top writer and producer of Six Feet Under crisscrosses from the highly personal (conflating her own loss of virginity and the Kobe Bryant accusations), to the political (what she has in common with Monica and Chandra), to the outrageously Los Angelean (why women wear huge diamonds and what they must do to get them). Tiny Ladies in Shiny Pants is a genre-defying combination of personal essay and memoir, or a hilarious, unruly and unapologetic evaluation of society, religion, sex, love, and – best of all – Jill Soloway.Listen…
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