A podcast posted every Sunday featuring extended interviews and discussions from Bookwaves, Art-Waves, and Bookwaves Artwaves Hour programs on KPFA, and newly digitized and edited archive interviews from the pre-digital Probabilities series dating back to 1977. Literature, theater, film, the visual arts: in-depth interviews from a progressive and artistic viewpoint, with long-time KPFA/Pacifica host Richard Wolinsky.
Erik Larson, author of “The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky. In the interview, Erik Larson discusses his source material, and compares some of what went on then to what’s happening today, particularly in terms of heroic and destitute patterns of leadership.
Margaret Atwood, discussing her novel “The Robber Bride,” recorded in San Francisco on November 24, 1993 with Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff, from the “Probabilities” archive
Carlos Ruiz Zafon in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded in 2009 while on tour for “The Angel’s Game.” Best known for “The Shadow of the Wind,” the noted Spanish author, born in Barcelona, died on June 19, 2020 of cancer.
Ayana Mathis, author of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky. Recorded in January 2013. The Twelve Tribes of Hattie revolves around the matriarch of a black family of the Great Migration and her children and grandchildren, and was an Oprah Book Club selection.
Bonnie Tsui discusses her book, “Why We Swim,” which examines the human need for moving in water, from the history of swim strokes, to how physiology plays a role in swimming, to the history of swimming from ancient times in the Sahara to Rome and to the present, and how swimming became a sport. Hosted by Richard Wolinsky.
An interview with Judy Juanita, recorded in 2013, as she discusses her novel “Virgin Soul,” a thinly disguised fictionalization of her life with the Black Panthers in the 1960s. Hosted by Richard Wolinsky.
Tayari Jones’ novel “An American Marriage” deals with an African American couple torn apart by a white woman’s false accusation toward the husband, and how both husband and wife cope with their lives in this country’s unjust society. In the interview, Tayari Jones talks about the book and about her career as a writer. Hosted by Richard Wolinsky.
John Updike was considered one of the great chroniclers of middle class American life. Novelist, short story writer, literary critic, poet and essayist, twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction — for the novels Rabbit is Rich and Rabbit at Rest – Updike was considered one of America’s greatest literary masters. He was interviewed by Richard Wolinsky on June 9, 2006.
Clive Cussler (1931-2020) The best-selling author of the Dirk Pitt series, and several other adventure novels, died at the age of 88 on Feb. 24, 2020. This interview was recorded in 1994 on the publication of his novel, “Inca Gold” for the Probabilities radio series, he is interviewed by Richard Wolinsky & Richard A. Lupoff.
Tope Folarin, author of the novel “A Particular Kind of Black Man” is interviewed by host Richard Wolinsky. This first novel, by an up and coming Nigerian American writer, blends memoir and fiction in the tale of the son of Africans who grew up in white Utah and Texas, finding himself ethnically displaced and looking to find his roots.
