The Lives They're Living Podcast
1) David Bianculli on James L. Brooks
David Bianculli is the first return guest to The Lives They're Living. (We talked about Mason Williams in one of the first episodes.) David has been the TV critic for NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross...Show More
2) Aimee Liu on Maxine Hong Kingston
Aimee Liu is the bestselling author of the novel Glorious Boy, as well as Flash House, Cloud Mountain, and Face. Her nonfiction includes Gaining: The Truth About Life After Eating Disorders and Solita...Show More
3) Dave Barry on Roy Blount Jr.
Dave Barry is an author and humorist who won a Pulitzer Prize for his syndicated column, which ran in more than 500 newspapers and was the inspiration for the TV show Dave's World. He has also written...Show More
4) Paul Dickson
This is a bonus episode because it's not in the usual format--me talking to person A about person B. For this one, I'm going directly to the subject: the prolific non-fiction writer Paul Dickson. I've...Show More
5) David Remnick on John McPhee
David Remnick has been editor of the New Yorker since 1998 (making him the second-longest-serving editor in the magazine's history, behind William Shawn). Before that, he was a staff writer at the mag...Show More
6) Folk Icons II: Elijah Wald on Ramblin' Jack Elliott
Elijah Wald has been singing and playing guitar for almost fifty years in a wide variety of styles, from blues, folk, ragtime, swing, country, and cowboy songs to classic Swahili pop, the Bahamian gui...Show More
7) Folk Icons I: Varda Bar-Kar on Janis Ian
Varda Bar-Kar is the director of the 2025 documentary Janis Ian: Breaking Silence, about the singer who burst on the scene in 1966, at the age of fifteen, with her song "Society's Child," Since then I...Show More
8) Robert Strauss on Lois Smith
Robert Strauss is a veteran journalist and the author of three books: Daddy's Little Goalie: A Father, His Daughters, and Sports; Worst. President. Ever.: James Buchanan, the POTUS Rating Game, and th...Show More
9) John Barth on Bill Siemering
John Barth has a long and distinguished career in public broadcasting, which started in earnest in the very early 1980s when he got a peculiar and life-changing phone call from Bill Siemering. Siemeri...Show More
10) David Leaf on Can Dyke Parks
David Leaf is the author of SMiLE: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of Brian Wilson, which will be published in April 2025. More on his many books, documentaries and music projects at his website. Van...Show More