LA Review of Books

In part two of LARB in SF, we feature Laurie and Tom's dialogues with one of America's most celebrated authors, Ha Jin, as well as the only path breaking professor of ethnic studies who is also a legendary bandleader, Dr. Loco (aka Jose Cuellar). Ha Jin reflects on literature, cross-cultural insight, and the very real threat of Donald Trump to democracy. Dr Loco reveals the joyous traditions of, and multicultural influences on, Chicano music; and tells tales of his former bandmate, a young Tom Lutz. Also, both Laurie and Tom express their appreciation of Lena Dunham's memoir Not That Kind of Girl. The show closes with a reading of Thomas Lux's A Little Tooth.

Welcome to the first season of the Reading Opens Minds podcast, produced by the people behind the Reading Opens Minds non-profit, whose mission is "to promote literacy in at-risk communities through book clubs, empowering individuals, building relationships and inspiring hope." This podcast will follow a group of teenagers in Los Angeles, who will meet each week to discuss a book, their ideas and their lives. Like MTV’s The Real World, we hope to introduce you to a new generation. You will get to know these talented young men and women intimately as they tell their own stories through the books they read. Listen now to Episode One – "An Introduction"

This week's Podcast features interviews from LARB's recent event in San Francisco. Co-hosts Tom Lutz and Laurie Winer speak with Rabih Alameddine about his new book The Angel of History, structures of narrative outside the American mainstream, and the state of poetry in light of Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize; and then Jade Chang talks about her novel The Wangs vs The World, the changing shape of the American immigrant tale, and her desire to struggle as a stand-up comic. Then Taschen's Dian Hanson returns to recommend the spectacular erotic photography of China's Ren Hang (soon to be published by Taschen); and we re-listen to CP Cavafy's classic poem Waiting for the Barbarians, pending the arrival of Donald Trump.

Director Jack Pettibone and Producer Shane Slattery-Quintanilla join LARB's Gustavo Turner to discuss their exceptional new documentary The Seventh Fire. Six years in the making, the film takes an unflinching look at the lives of gang members on an Ojibwe Reservation in Minnesota; and discovers men of profound intelligence, acutely aware of the tragic history of their people. Then Dian Hanson, legendary editor of Taschen's sexy books series, drops by to tell the story of trail-blazing gay pornographer, Bob Mizer; and celebrate the publication of The Bob Mizer AMG 1000 Model Directory.

Host Boris Dralyuk is joined by his fellow soviet-emigre Sasha Razor, and Slavic Scholar David MacFadyen, to conjure the spirit of the Holiday Season in the Workers' Paradise. Sasha, David, and Boris relate how the beloved Soviet-era traditions remain alive across the vast territories of the USSR; and also among Southern California's huge immigrant communities from the former Communist Empire. Also, Boris and Sasha recommend Peter Pomerantsev's excellent book on Putin's Russia, "Nothing is True and Everything is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia."

Hosts Medaya Ocher and Kate Wolf decide that in a year unlike any other, it's time for a different approach to holiday gift giving. How can we give the gift of resistance against the anti-democratic forces empowered on November 8th? Medaya and Kate raise this question with guests Adrienna Wong from the ACLU of Southern California, Adrian Martinez from Earthjustice, and Shahid Buttar of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Author Susan Kaiser Greenland talks with Laurie Winer about her new best-selling book Mindful Games: Sharing Mindfulness and Meditation with Children, Teens, and Families. The question is raised: Can mindful meditation be the antidote to the toxicity of Trump? Also, in recognition of Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize in literature, LARB's Gustavo Turner drops by to recommend two works of literature: Bob Dylan's "Love and Theft" and Leonard Cohen's 10 Songs, great albums overlooked because they were released on (or around) 9/11/01. The show closes with Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem Spring and Fall.

Emily Witt, author of Future Sex, joins co-hosts Laurie Winer, Medaya Ocher, and Kate Wolf for a wide-ranging discussion of changing attitudes towards sex in the digital age. Also, Leo Braudy drops by to talk about one of his earlier works, The Frenzy of Renown, and its particular relevance in The Age of Trump. The show closes with a reading of Edna St Vincent Millay's Love Is Not All.

Leo Braudy talks with host Laurie Winer about his new book Haunted: On Ghosts, Witches, Vampires, Zombies, and Other Monsters of the Natural and Supernatural Worlds; and its relevance for understanding our terrifying new post-election world. Impresario Paul Crewes drops by to recommend Michael Morpurgo's WWII yarn The Amazing Story of Adopho Tips; and we listen to Dorothy Parker's Love Song.

Paul Crewes, the new Artistic Director of the Wallis Annenberg Center in Beverly Hills, joins host Laurie Winer to discuss the tremendous possibilities for theater in Southern California. Also, author Dinah Lenney stops by to recommend two books: Marisa Silver's Little Nothing; and Nancy Reisman's Trompe L'Oeil. The show closes with a reading of Anne Sexton's poem "To a Friend Whose Work has Come to Triumph."

Screenwriter John Romano joins Laurie Winer and co-host Dinah Lenney to talk about his adaptation of Philip Roth's 1997 classic novel American Pastoral about a family torn apart amidst the turmoil of the late 1960s. The film directed by Ewan McGregor, who co-stars alongside Dakota Fanning and Jennifer Connelly, was released this past month. A wide-ranging discussion ensues, addressing Roth's relationship to the "meaning" of the 60s, family suffering, Job's suffering, and ours in the age of Trump. Also, author Simon Reynolds drops by to recommend a biography of Occultist Colin Wilson by renaissance man Gary Lachman; and Linda Balgord reads Mark Strand's Eating Poetry.

Host Evan Kindley talks with Simon Reynolds about his new book "Shock and Awe: Glam Rock and Its Legacy, from the Seventies to the Twenty-first Century." David Bowie may be Glam's greatest superstar, but figures as diverse as Roxy Music, Alice Cooper, and LA's own Sparks are also central to this most colorful and still-influential 1970's pop movement. The LA Times Jill Leovy drops by to recommend anthropologist Hortense Powdermaker's After Freedom, a study of 1920'as Mississippi; and which remains a stunning reminder of the severe oppression suffered by Black Americans under Jim Crow. This week's poetry reading is of Denise Levertov's Psalm Concerning the Castle.

Laurie Winer and co-host Medaya Ocher, managing editor of the LA Review of Books, are joined by Jessica Koslow, chef extraordinaire and creator of Sqirl, one of LA's most popular restaurants — on the occasion of the publication of Jessica's first cookbook, Everything I Want To Eat. It's the "Comfort Radio" edition of the podcast, as Laurie and Medaya build up an appetite learning the secrets behind Jessica's scrumptious creations. Leslie M.M. Blume drops by to recommend Anita Loos's brilliant comic novel from the 1920s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Judy Kaye reads ee cummings's poem "I thank God for most this amazing."

Legendary publisher and editor Robert Gottlieb talks with Laurie about his new memoir Avid Reader; reflects on his glory days at Knopf and The New Yorker; and expresses confidence about the state of writing today. Tracy Tynan offers PG Wodehouse as comfort reading for these treacherous times. Tom and Laurie launch a new poetry feature with a reading of WB Yeats The Second Coming.

This week Laurie is joined by LARB legal affairs editor Don Franzen to discuss two competing California Ballot Initiatives related to the death penalty: Proposition 62, which would put an end to the death penalty in the state, and Proposition 66, a confusing pro-death-penalty measure, which calls for speeding up executions. Stephen Rohde (from Death Penalty Focus) and legendary former District Attorney of Los Angeles County, Gil Garcetti, contribute to the clarifying conversation.