Tag Archives: interview

Crucible: John Sayles’s New Historical Novel About Henry Ford, Labor and Cars

Posted on by
Reply

“John Sayles, filmmaker and novelist, known especially for his labor films, including the celebrated Matewan, has a new novel out. In his latest historical fiction, Crucible, Sayles furthers the story of the struggle of American labor, when organized labor in Michigan took on that force of nature–or better, force of capitalism–Henry Ford…”

Click on the small triangle or mp3 link above to hear my interview with John Sayles as broadcast on the Arts Express radio program, as heard on WBAI FM NYC, WBAI.org and Pacifica affiliates across the nation

Teaching in Prisons and More: Andy Teirstein Part 2

Posted on by
1

“Hi this is Jack Shalom, Last week we began our conversation with composer, professor, performer, activist Andy Teirstein. I had met Andy through our mutual immigration rights work at the NYC immigration courts for the New Sanctuary Coalition. In the process of getting to know him I learned that he had taught music and theater at a couple of upstate prisons. We left off our conversation as Andy was describing what it was like for both him and the men in prison to learn in that setting. So here’s Andy…”

Click on the small triangle or mp3 link above to hear Part two of my interview with Andy Teirstein on the Arts Express radio program broadcast on WBAI FM NYC, WBAI.org and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

You can find Part One here:

https://jackshalom.net/2026/02/19/of-immigration-court-and-teaching-in-prisons-part-one-andy-teirstein/

Of Immigration Court And Teaching in Prisons, Part One: Andy Teirstein

Posted on by
Reply

“We’re going to do something a little bit different today. My guest is someone who I just only recently met a few Fridays ago at an immigration court accompaniment, under the auspices of the New Sanctuary Coalition here in NYC. We started talking and I found him to be a fascinating guy with a really eclectic, creative, and political background including all kinds of awards and honors. So, I’m happy to be speaking today with actor, musician, composer, professor and political activist, Fellow at the Center for Ballet and the Arts, and also BMI Woody Guthrie Fellow, Andy Teirstein…”

Click on the small triangle or mp3 link above to hear my wide ranging conversation with Andy, as heard on the Arts Express radio program broadcast on WBAI FM, WBAI.org and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

And you can find Part Two here:

Teaching in Prisons and More: Andy Teirstein Part 2

Bird City: Part 2!

Posted on by
Reply

“Last week we began our delightful conversation with Ryan Goldberg, author of Bird City: Adventures in New York’s Urban Wilds. Ryan talked about how the social and even political structure of New York city has been shaped by, and shaped, New York’s birds from beaches to parks, cemeteries to garbage dumps, airports to salt marshes. We left off our conversation where I had asked Ryan about the New York City so-called celebrity birds that from time to time blow up on social media…”

Click on the small triangle or mp3 link above to hear the continuation of my interview with Ryan Goldberg, author of Bird City: Adventures in New York’s Urban Wilds, as broadcast this week on the Arts Express radio program, heard on WBAI-FM NYC, WBAI.org, and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

(You can find Part 1 of our conversation here)

Bird City

Posted on by
3

“When most New Yorkers look up they see skyscrapers, but award winning journalist Ryan Goldberg sees birds. In fact, he sees birds everywhere: New York City beaches, parks, cemeteries, even garbage landfills–and discovers how  birds help tell the social, cultural and even political story of our city…”

Click on the small triangle or mp3 link above to hear my interview with Ryan Goldberg, author of Bird City: Adventures in New York’s Urban Wilds, as broadcast this week on the Arts Express radio program, heard on WBAI-FM NYC, WBAI.org, and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

(You can find Part 2 of our conversation here)

Venezuela: A European Perspective With Dennis Broe

Posted on by
Reply
Screenshot

“If you’re anything like me you woke up this past Saturday with shock and horror that Nicholas Maduro, the elected president of Venezuela, was kidnapped by US forces on the flimsiest of pretexts. Caracas was bombed and at least 40 people were murdered. And now Maduro is incarcerated in Brooklyn, ostensibly to be tried as a drug criminal, in the same prison where Luigi Mangione is being held . I’m really happy to have with us on Zoom our Paris correspondent and cultural critic, Dennis Broe, to give some of his insights from a European perspective…”

Click on the small triangle or mp3 link above to listen to my conversation with Dennis Broe, as broadcast this week on the Arts Express radio program, heard on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica stations across the nation.

Culture and Barbarism With Dennis Broe

Posted on by
Reply

Part One:

Part Two:

I was happy to have this cross-continental conversation with cultural critic, novelist, and Arts Express Paris Correspondent, Dennis Broe. I think you’ll have fun listening to our wide-ranging conversation with topics from the French street uprisings to media consolidation to AI to Robin Hood to Zohran Mamdani. We broadcast it last week and this week on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the country.

This was conceived originally as a fundraiser for listener-sponsored radio station WBAI, home of Arts Express, but we edited the conversation for the affiliates (and this blog!) to eliminate most of the pitching.

Click on the small triangle or mp3 links to play.

The Last Extinction

Posted on by
Reply

“Among geologists and paleontologists, The Dinosaur Wars have been known as a fearsome conflagration of powerful beings. No, I’m not talking about battles among those long extinct creatures, but among human beings, mostly male, at scientific war in the present day, lined up against a female scientist whose ideas threatened their theories and privilege. And I’m happy to have as our guest today, the woman who has been at the center of this controversy for decades, Dr. Gerta Keller, Professor Emerita at Princeton University, and the author of the new book about her groundbreaking work and discoveries, titled The Last Extinction: The Real Science Behind the Death of the Dinosaurs.“

Click on the mp3 link or small triangle above to listen to my interview with Gerta Keller as broadcast on the Arts Express radio program, heard on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

Newport And The Great Folk Dream PT 2

Posted on by
Reply

We’re back this week with more of our conversation with Robert Gordon and Joe Lauro, director and producers of the film Newport and the Great Folk Dream, about the Newport Folk Festival in the years 1963 to 1966. The festival, started by George Wein and Pete Seeger–where all artists got paid the same–led to an incredible diversity in the music showcased there.

Click on the mp3 link or small triangle above to listen to the interview as broadcast on the Arts Express radio program, heard on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica stations across the nation.

Newport And The Great Folk Dream

Posted on by
Reply

In the cultural and political explosion that became known as the 60s, music was an incredible unifier, and arguably the most important cultural and political form of expression. But what culminated in Woodstock in 1968 had its precursor in the Newport Folk Festival from the early 60s. Now, a new documentary about the Newport Folk Festival based on archival footage that hasn’t been seen in sixty years has been released called Newport and the Great Folk Dream. I was happy to talk with the director and producers of the film, Robert Gordon and Joe Lauro.

Click on the small triangle or mp3 link above to hear the interview, as heard this week on the Arts Express radio program, broadcast on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

And you can find Part 2 here:

Newport And The Great Folk Dream PT 2

Copaganda Part 2

Posted on by
Reply

Last week we began a fascinating discussion with Alec Karakatsanis, author of the recent book called Copaganda. Now, copaganda is the unique form of propaganda that the cops and the rest of what Alec calls the punishment bureaucracy use to convince the public to endlessly fund their corrupt and provenly useless law enforcement institutions. Today we’ll continue our discussion about how copaganda works. Alec tells us that it not only has to do with the sheer number and volume of media scare stories, but also with the careful selection of anecdote.

Click the triangle or mp3 link to hear the continuation of our interview with Alec, broadcast on the Arts Express radio program, heard on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

Copaganda

Posted on by
Reply

In a world where narrative control is essential for the ruling class to maintain dominance, one of the main weapons in the class war is media manipulation. As applied to the world of so-called law enforcement, or what our guest today calls the punishment bureaucracy, you get a particularly insidious and dangerous form of propaganda called copaganda. And Copaganda is the name of the highly readable and eye-opening book written by our guest on the show today, public defender, civil rights lawyer and journalist, Alec Karakatsanis.

Click on the triangle or mp3 link above to hear my interview with Alec Karakatsanis, as broadcast on the Arts Express radio program, heard on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

Part two is here:

Copaganda Part 2

Return to Fukushima Pt 2

Posted on by
1

Last week we began our conversation with investigative journalist and professor Thomas Bass, author of a new book called Return to Fukushima. We discussed how the explosion of the nuclear reactors at Fukushima Japan in 2011, set off by an earthquake and tsunami, is still an ongoing international danger. We left off last week discussing how on Thomas’s visits to Fukushima he discovered that the radiation levels are still high in Fukushima, particularly for food stuffs that are exported world wide. We left off where I was appalled to learn about the danger from…wait for it…blueberries.

Click on the small traingle or mp3 link above to hear part two of our conversation with Thomas Bass, author of Return to Fukushima as heard on the Arts Express radio program broadcast on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

Return To Fukushima

Posted on by
Reply

This month, the 80th anniversary of the dropping of US atom bombs on Japan makes us think about more recent man-made atomic disasters. Never mind 9/11, on 3/11, 2011, the nuclear reactors at Fukushima, Japan exploded, with not only immediate effect, but long-lasting and far-ranging consequences for all of us, ongoing, still spilling radioactive components into the air and water on a large scale. Investigative Journalist and professor Thomas Bass spoke first-hand with the workers, engineers, politicians and remaining inhabitants of Fukushima to uncover the hidden and often distorted truth. He‘s detailed it all in a stunning book called Return to Fukushima, a great piece of personal reporting. I was happy to have him as my guest this week on the Arts Express radio program.

To hear my conversation with Thomas Bass, as broadcast on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the country, click on the small triangle or mp3 link above.

Union Pt 2

Posted on by
1

Last week we aired part one of our interview with Brett Story and Stephen Maing, directors of the recent film documentary Union. Union tells the story of the odds-defying independent Amazon labor union drive led by the extraordinary Chris Smalls in Staten Island. Today in Part two, we’ll explore union strategy, the international scene, and what the possible win of Zohran Mamdani for NYC mayor might mean for labor.

Click on the small triangle or mp3 link above to hear the interview as broadcast this week on the Arts Express radio program, heard on WBAI-FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

UNION

Posted on by
1

We’ve recently been assaulted with Jeff Bezos’s 50 million dollar wedding, but now let’s turn back the clock to the spring of 2021. Bezos had sent a rocket into space, but down on the ground Amazon warehouse workers in Staten Island were fed up and ready to fight back. The workers there, led by the indefatigable Chris Smalls, were fighting for the first Amazon union representation ever in the US. Directors Brett Story and Stephen Maing were able to literally get the inside story on the drama and power of that 11 month union drive in a new film documentary called Union, and I was happy to speak with them.

Click on the small triangle or mp3 link above to hear my interview with Brett Story and Stephen Maing, directors of Union, as broadcast on the Arts Express radio show, heard this week on WBAI-FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

Where Biology Ends and Bias Begins

Posted on by
Reply

It seems every generation there is a new upsurge of white supremacy and with that new attempts to justify it in some pseudo-scientific manner. We’ve had some great books in the past such as those by Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Lewontin laying out the scientific fallacies of those racist justifications. And now with the advances in genetic technology, it’s only natural that we have to update that scientific de-bunking. I was happy to talk with the author of a new book called Where Biology Ends and Bias Begins, Dr. Shoumita Dasgupta.

Click on small triangle or mp3 link to listen to the interview as broadcast on the Arts Express radio program, heard on WBAI FM and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

Beat The Reaper With The Firesign Theatre

Posted on by
Reply

If you are of a certain age, growing up as a high school or college kid during the late 60s or early 70s, then odds are that at least one time as you were toking up, the surrealist record LPs of the Firesign Theatre invaded your brain. As the albums brilliantly shifted in and out of tv, film and radio parody, they broke down walls of time, space and authority. Now in a new book about the Firesign Theater, called Firesign, author Jeremy Braddock provides a wonderful non-linear look at the four influential guys who turned the art of radio and recording upside down. I was happy to have as our guest on the show, the author of Firesign, Jeremy Braddock.

Click on the small triangle or mp3 link above to hear the interview as heard on the Arts Express radio program broadcast this week on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation

Part Two here:

Firesign Theatre: Part Two

The Strike: Part 2

Posted on by
Reply

Above, Part 2 of my interview with the directors of The Strike, JoeBill Munoz and Lucas Guilkey.

.

.

.

.

The Strike

The Strike

Posted on by
4

I’ve watched a lot of film documentaries this year, but none more  powerful than The Strike. It’s the story of how the inmates of Pelican Bay prison in California, incarcerated in solitary confinement sometimes for decades, went on a life-threatening hunger strike in order to regain their rights and dignity. I was happy to speak to the the directors of The Strike, JoeBill Muñoz and Lucas Guilkey for Arts Express.

Click on the small triangle or mp3 link above to listen to the interview as broadcast yesterday on the Arts Express radio program, heard on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

And Part 2 is here…

The Strike: Part 2

My Friend, The Terrorist, Part 2

Posted on by
Reply

Last week we broadcast Part 1 of our conversation with Malcolm Guy, co-director of the new film called My Friend The Terrorist, about Joma, the founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the Filipino New Peoples guerrilla Army, the NPA.

We left off last time with my rather naive comment about a scene in the film I found shocking. So now Part Two of our interview with Malcolm Guy, co-director of My Friend the Terrorist, as broadcast on Arts Express radio, heard on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation. Click on the small triangle or mp3 link above to listen.

Listen to Part 1 here:

My Friend, The Terrorist

My Friend, The Terrorist

Posted on by
Reply

“The song you just heard is from a poem by Jose Maria Sison, also known as Joma. But more than a poet, for the first 25 years of Joma’s adult life, he was known as the Fidel, Mao, and Che of the Philippines. However, for the next 35 years, he lived in exile in the Netherlands with his wife and comrade in arms, Julieta de Lima, thousands of miles from the Filipino battle grounds, giving counsel to the guerrilla army which he had founded. Now, a new film documentary about Joma and Julieta’s lives has been released, co-directed by Malcolm Guy and Demetri Estdelacropolis, called My Friend, The Terrorist: A Tale of Love and Revolution…”

Click on the small triangle above or the mp3 link to hear my interview with Malcolm Guy, co-director of My Friend, The Terrorist, as broadcast last night on Arts Express radio, heard on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

And…Part 2 here:

My Friend, The Terrorist, Part 2

Amy Tan: The Backyard Bird Chronicles

Posted on by
Reply

Sometimes in life you see a person in a different context and it changes everything, like seeing a favorite teacher climb into a sports car. I had the same sort of feeling when I discovered that novelist Amy Tan has just come out with a new non-fiction book called The Backyard Bird Chronicles, a diary of Amy Tan’s backyard birding experiences. I was happy to have her as a guest on the Arts Express radio show.

Click on the small triangle or mp3 link above to hear my interview with Amy Tan as heard on Arts Express, broadcast yesterday on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

A Revolutionary Artist: Part 2

Posted on by
Reply

This is part 2 of our conversation with artist, revolutionary and Young Lord, Carlito Rovira.

Click on the triangle or mp3 link above to listen to part 2, as broadcast yesterday on Arts Express, heard on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

You can find part 1 here:

A Painter of Revolutionaries

A Painter of Revolutionaries

Posted on by
Reply
Carlito Rovira with his portrait of Puerto Rican revolutionary Lolita Lebrón

What makes a person become an artist? Are they born or are they made? And what is the purpose of art? Our guest yesterday has very definite views about these and other questions, and I was happy to be talking with a man whose portraits are filled with meaning, artist, revolutionary and member of the Young Lords, Carlos “Carlito” Rovira.

Click on the triangle or mp3 link above to hear the interview with Carlito, as broadcast on Arts Express radio yesterday on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

And you can find Part 2 here:

A Revolutionary Artist: Part 2