window.__IS_SSR__=true
window.__INITIAL_STATE__={
"attachmentsReducer": {
"audio_0": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "audio_0",
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/audio_bgs/background0.jpg"
}
}
},
"audio_1": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "audio_1",
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/audio_bgs/background1.jpg"
}
}
},
"audio_2": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "audio_2",
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/audio_bgs/background2.jpg"
}
}
},
"audio_3": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "audio_3",
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/audio_bgs/background3.jpg"
}
}
},
"audio_4": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "audio_4",
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/audio_bgs/background4.jpg"
}
}
},
"placeholder": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "placeholder",
"imgSizes": {
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-160x107.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 107,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"medium": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-800x533.jpg",
"width": 800,
"height": 533,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-768x512.jpg",
"width": 768,
"height": 512,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1020x680.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"height": 680,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1536x1024.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"height": 1024,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"fd-lrg": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1536x1024.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"height": 1024,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"fd-med": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1020x680.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"height": 680,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"fd-sm": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-800x533.jpg",
"width": 800,
"height": 533,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"height": 576,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"xxsmall": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-160x107.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 107,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"xsmall": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"small": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"xlarge": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1020x680.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"height": 680,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1920x1280.jpg",
"width": 1920,
"height": 1280,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-32": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 32,
"height": 32,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-50": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 50,
"height": 50,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-64": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 64,
"height": 64,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-96": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 96,
"height": 96,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-128": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 128,
"height": 128,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"detail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 160,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1.jpg",
"width": 2000,
"height": 1333
}
}
}
},
"audioPlayerReducer": {
"postId": "stream_live",
"isPaused": true,
"isPlaying": false,
"pfsActive": false,
"pledgeModalIsOpen": true,
"playerDrawerIsOpen": false,
"liveAudioPlayStartedAt": 0,
"liveAudioPlayContext": ""
},
"authorsReducer": {
"byline_arts_18048": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "byline_arts_18048",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"slug": "byline_arts_18048",
"name": "Min Jin Lee",
"isLoading": false
},
"byline_arts_17929": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "byline_arts_17929",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"slug": "byline_arts_17929",
"name": "Mark Lindquist",
"isLoading": false
},
"byline_arts_17705": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "byline_arts_17705",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"slug": "byline_arts_17705",
"name": "Tom Swift",
"isLoading": false
},
"byline_arts_17610": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "byline_arts_17610",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"slug": "byline_arts_17610",
"name": "Jeremy Larner",
"isLoading": false
},
"byline_arts_17562": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "byline_arts_17562",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"slug": "byline_arts_17562",
"name": "Philip Mayard",
"isLoading": false
},
"byline_arts_17381": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "byline_arts_17381",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"slug": "byline_arts_17381",
"name": "Jennifer Belle",
"isLoading": false
},
"byline_arts_17205": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "byline_arts_17205",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"slug": "byline_arts_17205",
"name": "Ayelet Waldman",
"isLoading": false
},
"skleid": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "19",
"meta": {
"index": "authors_1716337520",
"id": "19",
"found": true
},
"name": "Suzanne Kleid",
"firstName": "Suzanne",
"lastName": "Kleid",
"slug": "skleid",
"email": "FAKE_skleid@kqed.org",
"display_author_email": false,
"staff_mastheads": [],
"title": null,
"bio": "Suzanne Kleid is a fiction writer, book critic, copyeditor and bookseller. Her work has appeared in \u003ca href=\"http://www.pindeldyboz.com\">Pindeldyboz\u003c/a>, Watchword\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"http://www.othermag.org\">other Magazine\u003c/a>, and \u003ca href=\"http://www.mcsweeneys.net\">mcsweeneys.net\u003c/a> . She is a contributing editor to \u003ci>other Magazine\u003c/i>, and co-edited the anthology \u003cb>Created In Darkness By Troubled Americans: The Best of McSweeney's Humor Category\u003c/b>, released by Alfred A. Knopf in 2004.",
"avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/e51f1ad5569860b5667f6495a535951b?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twitter": null,
"facebook": null,
"instagram": null,
"linkedin": null,
"sites": [
{
"site": "arts",
"roles": [
"Contributor",
"subscriber"
]
}
],
"headData": {
"title": "Suzanne Kleid | KQED",
"description": null,
"ogImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/e51f1ad5569860b5667f6495a535951b?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/e51f1ad5569860b5667f6495a535951b?s=600&d=blank&r=g"
},
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/author/skleid"
}
},
"pagesReducer": {
"arts_category_literature": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "arts_73",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "arts",
"id": "73",
"score": 12.7935505
},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Books",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Books Archives | KQED Arts",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 74,
"slug": "literature",
"isLoading": false,
"title": "Books",
"pageMeta": {
"site": "arts",
"WpPageTemplate": "page-topic-editorial",
"currentPage": 148
},
"blocks": [
{
"blockName": "kqed/post-list",
"attrs": {
"layout": "cardArticle2",
"query": "posts/arts?category=literature",
"seeMore": false,
"paginated": true,
"page": 148
}
},
{
"blockName": "kqed/ad"
}
]
}
},
"pfsSessionReducer": {},
"postsReducer": {
"stream_live": {
"type": "live",
"id": "stream_live",
"audioUrl": "https://streams.kqed.org/kqedradio",
"title": "Live Stream",
"excerpt": "Live Stream information currently unavailable.",
"link": "/radio",
"featImg": "",
"label": {
"name": "KQED Live",
"link": "/"
}
},
"stream_kqedNewscast": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "stream_kqedNewscast",
"audioUrl": "https://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/RDnews/newscast.mp3?_=1",
"title": "KQED Newscast",
"featImg": "",
"label": {
"name": "88.5 FM",
"link": "/"
}
},
"arts_18048": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "arts_18048",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "arts",
"id": "18048",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1185237279000
]
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "free_food_for_millionaires",
"title": "Free Food for Millionaires",
"publishDate": 1185237279,
"format": "audio",
"headTitle": "Free Food for Millionaires | KQED",
"labelTerm": {
"site": "arts"
},
"content": "\u003cp>Casey is having trouble navigating her worlds. After graduating from Princeton, Casey struggles with her life in Manhattan and how she fits in with those around her — her immigrant parents, her angelic sister, her Korean counterparts, her former classmates and the many men in her life. \u003cb>Free Food for Millionaires\u003c/b> explores the post-Ivy league world and the world of first generation Korean-Americans through the eyes of a young woman who is learning who she is despite her expensive habits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "In this excerpt from the first chapter of Min Jin Lee's novel, \u003cb>Free Food for Millionaires\u003c/b>, the Han family dinner is disrupted when a violent argument breaks out between Joseph and his eldest daughter Casey, who is home for the summer after graduating from Princeton. \u003cb>Please Note:\u003c/b> This episode contains adult language.",
"status": "publish",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1726706767,
"stats": {
"hasAudio": false,
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"paragraphCount": 3,
"wordCount": 84
},
"headData": {
"title": "Free Food for Millionaires | KQED",
"description": "In this excerpt from the first chapter of Min Jin Lee's novel, Free Food for Millionaires, the Han family dinner is disrupted when a violent argument breaks out between Joseph and his eldest daughter Casey, who is home for the summer after graduating from Princeton. Please Note: This episode contains adult language.",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogDescription": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"twDescription": "",
"twImgId": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Free Food for Millionaires",
"datePublished": "2007-07-23T17:34:39-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-09-18T17:46:07-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"sourceUrl": "http://www.kqed.org/arts/programs/writersblock/",
"sticky": false,
"nprByline": "Min Jin Lee",
"path": "/arts/18048/free_food_for_millionaires",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Casey is having trouble navigating her worlds. After graduating from Princeton, Casey struggles with her life in Manhattan and how she fits in with those around her — her immigrant parents, her angelic sister, her Korean counterparts, her former classmates and the many men in her life. \u003cb>Free Food for Millionaires\u003c/b> explores the post-Ivy league world and the world of first generation Korean-Americans through the eyes of a young woman who is learning who she is despite her expensive habits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/arts/18048/free_food_for_millionaires",
"authors": [
"byline_arts_18048"
],
"categories": [
"arts_73"
],
"tags": [
"arts_330"
],
"label": "arts"
},
"arts_18001": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "arts_18001",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "arts",
"id": "18001",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1185214880000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {
"site": "arts"
},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1185214880,
"format": "standard",
"title": "Austin Grossman: Soon I Will Be Invincible",
"headTitle": "Austin Grossman: Soon I Will Be Invincible | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>A while ago, a friend introduced me to the concept of Mr. Exposition Man. Mr. Exposition man is a superhero with only one power — the ability to summarize backstory at blinding speed. Mr. Exposition Man can appear at any time and take on the guise of any character: wherever there is a sloppily plotted film, comic book, or novel, wherever a bad guy has struck and the local officials are baffled and an author didn’t feel like taking the time to set up the scene, someone will say, “Who would do such a thing?” At this signal, Mr. Exposition Man will step out of a shadowy corner, saying, “It all started back in 1987…”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mr. Exposition Man’s magical appearance relieves the need to do the hard work of foreshadowing, character development, or smooth transitions. That’s why he appears so often in the sorts of films that spend fifty times more on special effects as they do on a screenwriter. When I picked up Austin Grossman’s new novel \u003cb>Soon I Will Be Invincible\u003c/b>, a more literary treatment of a world peopled with superheroes and arch-nemeses, I was hoping that Grossman would not feel the need to employ Mr. Exposition Man’s services. Grossman is well known in the world of video game design, as well as a PhD candidate in English Lit at UC Berkeley. He also happens to be the twin brother of sci-fi novelist and Time Magazine book critic Lev Grossman. The Grossman twins are both Harvard grads, and all of this is the kind of stuff that has book jacket copy writers at major houses salivating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Austin Grossman knows his stuff. He has clearly spent a lifetime steeped in comic book lore and his superhero knowledge is vast and encyclopedic. The novel’s premise is similar to that of Alan Moore’s classic \u003cb>Watchmen\u003c/b> or even to the pixar movie \u003cb>The Incredibles\u003c/b>. It takes place in a sort of counter-factual present day, in which a significant minority of humans have super powers, and this causes them no end of emotional, moral, and physical torment. “This morning on Planet Earth, there are one thousand six hundred and eighty-six enhanced, gifted, or otheriwise-powered persons,” the book opens. These members of the “powered community,” or “metahumans” as they prefer to be called, came by their abilities in myriad ways. “Once in a hundred million times, a lifetime of factors align, and at the right moment something new coalesces out of high-tech industrial waste, genetic predisposition, and willpower, with a dash of magic or alien invention,” one of our two narrators, Fatale, explains. “It started happening more often in the early 1950s, and no one knows why — nuclear power plants, alien contact, chlorinated water, or too many people dancing the Twist.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Grossman alternates the action between two narrators, one on the side of the forces of light and the other for the forces of darkness. Dr. Impossible, an angry narcissist with childhood problems, developed his abilities after being accidentally hit with a “zeta beam.” As the book opens he is being held in a special prison, a holding facility for captured supervillains — but being, of course, a supervillain means he escapes in short order. In the custody of two young, green interrogators, he makes quick work of them. “They can’t believe they’re interrogating me, the terror who held the Supersquadron at bay for over a decade. A guy who stood in the oval office and told the President of the United States to call him Emperor.” (anyone else feel the impulse to insert a Dick Cheney joke here?) “And now I’m inches away, chained… I see no reason why I should make this easy for them.” His archnemesis, the golden boy, American hero, unbeatably powerful CoreFire, has disappeared, and is maybe dead. Now, finally, Dr. Impossible believes, he will be unstoppable. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rest of the chapters are narrated by Fatale, a fascinating, complex creation for whom being a “hero” is more a curse and burden than a gift. Fatale is half a woman wired and grafted inside a 400-pound, 6-foot-7-inch metal and elecronic body. She has no memory of who she was before half of her was sheared away by a bus and a stone wall in Sao Paolo, no life before the top-secret army “super soldier” program turned her into this cyborgian thing. When she is recruited to join a famous hero team called the Champions in order to fight the newly emboldened Dr. Impossible, she takes the job. How could she not? What else could she possibly do?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The natural pace of a superhero story is serial and open-ended. Room is always left for a new character to rise or an old enemy to re-emerge so that there will be a plot for the sequel or the next volume of the comic or the newer version of the Xbox game. In a stand-alone book, there’s only one way to fit in all that necessary information — Mr. Exposition Man, lecturing away at us. Many things about \u003cb>Soon I Will Be Invincible\u003c/b> are clever and entertaining. I love the chapter titles, each of which riffs on an old comic cliche: “Welcome To My Island,” “At Last We Meet,” and “But Before I Kill You” are a few of my favorites. An appendix in the back of the book is “Selections From the International Metahuman Database,” a list of the names and powers of various superheroes and baddies, many of whom are not in the book or who are just mentioned in passing. I get the feeling that inventing heroes is the fun part for Grossman. Choosing just a few and rendering them in three dimensions, however, is not his strongest suit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If \u003cb>Soon I will Be Invincible\u003c/b> doesn’t succeed on all fronts, it’s not really Austin Grossman’s fault. It’s just that he chose to take on the unenviable task of using 1000 words to describe what should have been a picture, for 280 pages. IS there any way to write a (non-graphic) novel about superheroes and prevent it from reading like a transcript, a pale imitation of a Marvel series, an Xbox game, or a Hollywood blockbuster? Not even Mr. Exposition Man can answer that question.\u003c/p>\n\n",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 1118,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 9
},
"modified": 1705053427,
"excerpt": "A while ago, a friend introduced me to the concept of Mr. Exposition Man. Mr. Exposition man is a superhero with only one power -- the ability to summarize backstory at blinding speed. Mr. Exposition Man can appear at any time and take on the guise of any character: wherever there is a sloppily plotted film, comic book, or novel, wherever a bad guy has struck and the local officials are baffled and an author didn't feel like taking the time to set up the scene, someone will say, \"Who would do such a thing?\" At this signal, Mr. Exposition Man will step out of a shadowy corner, saying, \"It all started back in 1987...\"",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "A while ago, a friend introduced me to the concept of Mr. Exposition Man. Mr. Exposition man is a superhero with only one power -- the ability to summarize backstory at blinding speed. Mr. Exposition Man can appear at any time and take on the guise of any character: wherever there is a sloppily plotted film, comic book, or novel, wherever a bad guy has struck and the local officials are baffled and an author didn't feel like taking the time to set up the scene, someone will say, "Who would do such a thing?" At this signal, Mr. Exposition Man will step out of a shadowy corner, saying, "It all started back in 1987..."",
"title": "Austin Grossman: Soon I Will Be Invincible | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Austin Grossman: Soon I Will Be Invincible",
"datePublished": "2007-07-23T11:21:20-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-01-12T01:57:07-08:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "austin_grossman_soon_i_will_be_invincible",
"status": "publish",
"sourceUrl": "http://www.kqed.org/arts/category/literature/literature-review/",
"sticky": false,
"path": "/arts/18001/austin_grossman_soon_i_will_be_invincible",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A while ago, a friend introduced me to the concept of Mr. Exposition Man. Mr. Exposition man is a superhero with only one power — the ability to summarize backstory at blinding speed. Mr. Exposition Man can appear at any time and take on the guise of any character: wherever there is a sloppily plotted film, comic book, or novel, wherever a bad guy has struck and the local officials are baffled and an author didn’t feel like taking the time to set up the scene, someone will say, “Who would do such a thing?” At this signal, Mr. Exposition Man will step out of a shadowy corner, saying, “It all started back in 1987…”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mr. Exposition Man’s magical appearance relieves the need to do the hard work of foreshadowing, character development, or smooth transitions. That’s why he appears so often in the sorts of films that spend fifty times more on special effects as they do on a screenwriter. When I picked up Austin Grossman’s new novel \u003cb>Soon I Will Be Invincible\u003c/b>, a more literary treatment of a world peopled with superheroes and arch-nemeses, I was hoping that Grossman would not feel the need to employ Mr. Exposition Man’s services. Grossman is well known in the world of video game design, as well as a PhD candidate in English Lit at UC Berkeley. He also happens to be the twin brother of sci-fi novelist and Time Magazine book critic Lev Grossman. The Grossman twins are both Harvard grads, and all of this is the kind of stuff that has book jacket copy writers at major houses salivating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Austin Grossman knows his stuff. He has clearly spent a lifetime steeped in comic book lore and his superhero knowledge is vast and encyclopedic. The novel’s premise is similar to that of Alan Moore’s classic \u003cb>Watchmen\u003c/b> or even to the pixar movie \u003cb>The Incredibles\u003c/b>. It takes place in a sort of counter-factual present day, in which a significant minority of humans have super powers, and this causes them no end of emotional, moral, and physical torment. “This morning on Planet Earth, there are one thousand six hundred and eighty-six enhanced, gifted, or otheriwise-powered persons,” the book opens. These members of the “powered community,” or “metahumans” as they prefer to be called, came by their abilities in myriad ways. “Once in a hundred million times, a lifetime of factors align, and at the right moment something new coalesces out of high-tech industrial waste, genetic predisposition, and willpower, with a dash of magic or alien invention,” one of our two narrators, Fatale, explains. “It started happening more often in the early 1950s, and no one knows why — nuclear power plants, alien contact, chlorinated water, or too many people dancing the Twist.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Grossman alternates the action between two narrators, one on the side of the forces of light and the other for the forces of darkness. Dr. Impossible, an angry narcissist with childhood problems, developed his abilities after being accidentally hit with a “zeta beam.” As the book opens he is being held in a special prison, a holding facility for captured supervillains — but being, of course, a supervillain means he escapes in short order. In the custody of two young, green interrogators, he makes quick work of them. “They can’t believe they’re interrogating me, the terror who held the Supersquadron at bay for over a decade. A guy who stood in the oval office and told the President of the United States to call him Emperor.” (anyone else feel the impulse to insert a Dick Cheney joke here?) “And now I’m inches away, chained… I see no reason why I should make this easy for them.” His archnemesis, the golden boy, American hero, unbeatably powerful CoreFire, has disappeared, and is maybe dead. Now, finally, Dr. Impossible believes, he will be unstoppable. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rest of the chapters are narrated by Fatale, a fascinating, complex creation for whom being a “hero” is more a curse and burden than a gift. Fatale is half a woman wired and grafted inside a 400-pound, 6-foot-7-inch metal and elecronic body. She has no memory of who she was before half of her was sheared away by a bus and a stone wall in Sao Paolo, no life before the top-secret army “super soldier” program turned her into this cyborgian thing. When she is recruited to join a famous hero team called the Champions in order to fight the newly emboldened Dr. Impossible, she takes the job. How could she not? What else could she possibly do?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The natural pace of a superhero story is serial and open-ended. Room is always left for a new character to rise or an old enemy to re-emerge so that there will be a plot for the sequel or the next volume of the comic or the newer version of the Xbox game. In a stand-alone book, there’s only one way to fit in all that necessary information — Mr. Exposition Man, lecturing away at us. Many things about \u003cb>Soon I Will Be Invincible\u003c/b> are clever and entertaining. I love the chapter titles, each of which riffs on an old comic cliche: “Welcome To My Island,” “At Last We Meet,” and “But Before I Kill You” are a few of my favorites. An appendix in the back of the book is “Selections From the International Metahuman Database,” a list of the names and powers of various superheroes and baddies, many of whom are not in the book or who are just mentioned in passing. I get the feeling that inventing heroes is the fun part for Grossman. Choosing just a few and rendering them in three dimensions, however, is not his strongest suit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "floatright"
},
"numeric": [
"floatright"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If \u003cb>Soon I will Be Invincible\u003c/b> doesn’t succeed on all fronts, it’s not really Austin Grossman’s fault. It’s just that he chose to take on the unenviable task of using 1000 words to describe what should have been a picture, for 280 pages. IS there any way to write a (non-graphic) novel about superheroes and prevent it from reading like a transcript, a pale imitation of a Marvel series, an Xbox game, or a Hollywood blockbuster? Not even Mr. Exposition Man can answer that question.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/arts/18001/austin_grossman_soon_i_will_be_invincible",
"authors": [
"111"
],
"categories": [
"arts_73"
],
"tags": [
"arts_596",
"arts_769"
],
"label": "arts"
},
"arts_17929": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "arts_17929",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "arts",
"id": "17929",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1184709474000
]
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "the_king_of_methlehem",
"title": "The King of Methlehem",
"publishDate": 1184709474,
"format": "audio",
"headTitle": "The King of Methlehem | KQED",
"labelTerm": {
"site": "arts"
},
"content": "\u003cp>Detective Wyatt James is a veteran police officer in the Meth Lab team in Pierce County, Washington — an epicenter of methamphetamine production. At the core of the local meth problem is the elusive, self-proclaimed “King of Methlehem.” The kiing moves from one shelter to another, relying on the kindness and desperation of a variety of women. He’s the top meth cook in the region and a dangerously successful identity thief.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wyatt has been chasing Howard relentlessly, but the pursuit has become a fixation that threatens to destory Wyatt’s personal life and distrupt the lives of his bookish girlfriend, Suki, who just moved into his loft, and his best friend, Mike, a prosecutor — and perhaps involve them all in a dangerously volatile situation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "In this selection from \u003cb>The King of Methlehem\u003c/b>, author Mark Lindquist introduces \"Howard Schultz,\" the self-proclaimed monarch of methamphetamine production in Pierce County, Washington and Wyatt James, the veteran police officer on his trail. ",
"status": "publish",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1726706771,
"stats": {
"hasAudio": false,
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"paragraphCount": 4,
"wordCount": 133
},
"headData": {
"title": "The King of Methlehem | KQED",
"description": "In this selection from The King of Methlehem, author Mark Lindquist introduces "Howard Schultz," the self-proclaimed monarch of methamphetamine production in Pierce County, Washington and Wyatt James, the veteran police officer on his trail. ",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogDescription": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"twDescription": "",
"twImgId": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "The King of Methlehem",
"datePublished": "2007-07-17T14:57:54-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-09-18T17:46:11-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"sourceUrl": "http://www.kqed.org/arts/programs/writersblock/",
"sticky": false,
"nprByline": "Mark Lindquist",
"path": "/arts/17929/the_king_of_methlehem",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Detective Wyatt James is a veteran police officer in the Meth Lab team in Pierce County, Washington — an epicenter of methamphetamine production. At the core of the local meth problem is the elusive, self-proclaimed “King of Methlehem.” The kiing moves from one shelter to another, relying on the kindness and desperation of a variety of women. He’s the top meth cook in the region and a dangerously successful identity thief.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wyatt has been chasing Howard relentlessly, but the pursuit has become a fixation that threatens to destory Wyatt’s personal life and distrupt the lives of his bookish girlfriend, Suki, who just moved into his loft, and his best friend, Mike, a prosecutor — and perhaps involve them all in a dangerously volatile situation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/arts/17929/the_king_of_methlehem",
"authors": [
"byline_arts_17929"
],
"categories": [
"arts_73"
],
"tags": [
"arts_330"
],
"label": "arts"
},
"arts_17705": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "arts_17705",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "arts",
"id": "17705",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1184030996000
]
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "the_beginning",
"title": "The Beginning",
"publishDate": 1184030996,
"format": "audio",
"headTitle": "The Beginning | KQED",
"labelTerm": {
"site": "arts"
},
"content": "\u003cp>In \u003cb>The Beginning\u003c/b>, playwright Tom Swift explores the sweet, awkward and sometimes painful moments at the beginning of a new relationship. In the end, can you choose whom you fall in love with or does love choose you?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The Beginning\u003c/b> premiered at the 9th Annual Best of PlayGround Festival in San Francisco on May 12, 2005.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Cast:\u003c/b>\u003cbr>Daniel: John Patrick Moore\u003cbr>Richard: Gabriel Marin\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Directed by Jim Kleinmann and presented by \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/arts/places/profile.jsp?id=6266\">PlayGround\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "Playground presents John Patrick Moore and Gabriel Marin perform Tom Swift's short play, \u003cb>The Beginning\u003c/b>, about the sweet, awkward and sometimes painful moments at the beginning of a new relationship. Jim Kleinmann directs.",
"status": "publish",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1726706774,
"stats": {
"hasAudio": false,
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"paragraphCount": 6,
"wordCount": 73
},
"headData": {
"title": "The Beginning | KQED",
"description": "Playground presents John Patrick Moore and Gabriel Marin perform Tom Swift's short play, The Beginning, about the sweet, awkward and sometimes painful moments at the beginning of a new relationship. Jim Kleinmann directs.",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogDescription": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"twDescription": "",
"twImgId": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "The Beginning",
"datePublished": "2007-07-09T18:29:56-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-09-18T17:46:14-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"sourceUrl": "http://www.kqed.org/arts/programs/writersblock/",
"sticky": false,
"nprByline": "Tom Swift",
"path": "/arts/17705/the_beginning",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In \u003cb>The Beginning\u003c/b>, playwright Tom Swift explores the sweet, awkward and sometimes painful moments at the beginning of a new relationship. In the end, can you choose whom you fall in love with or does love choose you?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The Beginning\u003c/b> premiered at the 9th Annual Best of PlayGround Festival in San Francisco on May 12, 2005.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Cast:\u003c/b>\u003cbr>Daniel: John Patrick Moore\u003cbr>Richard: Gabriel Marin\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Directed by Jim Kleinmann and presented by \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/arts/places/profile.jsp?id=6266\">PlayGround\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/arts/17705/the_beginning",
"authors": [
"byline_arts_17705"
],
"categories": [
"arts_73"
],
"tags": [
"arts_330"
],
"label": "arts"
},
"arts_17610": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "arts_17610",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "arts",
"id": "17610",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1183496302000
]
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "chicken_on_church",
"title": "Chicken on Church",
"publishDate": 1183496302,
"format": "audio",
"headTitle": "Chicken on Church | KQED",
"labelTerm": {
"site": "arts"
},
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cb>Chicken on Church\u003c/b> is “a magnificent celebration of existence and self…that goes beyond [Whitman and Sandburg] in its specificity of human detail, and its tremendous range of reference… The comic tone protects the poems from grandiosity, but still, there is something grand here.”–Robert Charlton\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "Jeremy Larner reads three selections about art and artists from his poetry collection, \u003cb>Chicken on Church\u003c/b>. ",
"status": "publish",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1726706777,
"stats": {
"hasAudio": false,
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"paragraphCount": 3,
"wordCount": 53
},
"headData": {
"title": "Chicken on Church | KQED",
"description": "Jeremy Larner reads three selections about art and artists from his poetry collection, Chicken on Church. ",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogDescription": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"twDescription": "",
"twImgId": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Chicken on Church",
"datePublished": "2007-07-03T13:58:22-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-09-18T17:46:17-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"sourceUrl": "http://www.kqed.org/arts/programs/writersblock/",
"sticky": false,
"nprByline": "Jeremy Larner",
"path": "/arts/17610/chicken_on_church",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cb>Chicken on Church\u003c/b> is “a magnificent celebration of existence and self…that goes beyond [Whitman and Sandburg] in its specificity of human detail, and its tremendous range of reference… The comic tone protects the poems from grandiosity, but still, there is something grand here.”–Robert Charlton\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/arts/17610/chicken_on_church",
"authors": [
"byline_arts_17610"
],
"categories": [
"arts_73"
],
"tags": [
"arts_330"
],
"label": "arts"
},
"arts_17560": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "arts_17560",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "arts",
"id": "17560",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1183419067000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {
"site": "arts"
},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1183419067,
"format": "standard",
"title": "Bay Area Poetry Marathon",
"headTitle": "Bay Area Poetry Marathon | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>On a warm Saturday night in the Mission District, poetry is being celebrated. The LAB on 16th street hosted the second of four installments in husband-and-wife team Donna de la Perriere and Joseph Lease’s \u003cb>Bay Area Poetry Marathon\u003c/b>. Incredibly, not only was it NOT the only Saturday-night poetry game in town, it wasn’t even the only poetry game in a five-block radius. Over at New College of California, on Valencia, a tribute to the late John Wieners was underway, celebrating the release of a newly-discovered journal, \u003ca href=\"http://www.bootstrapproductions.org/catalog/books/bop.html\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">A Book of Prophecies\u003c/a>. Readers over there included current San Francisco poet laurate Jack Hirschman, New College poetry instructor Micah Ballard, and San Francisco Art Institute professor Bill Berkson, among many others. Back at the LAB, de la Perriere and Lease both teach in the California College of the Arts creative writing program, and three of the readers (Camille Dungy, Brian Strang, and Paul Hoover) teach at San Francisco State University. This means the audience for poetry in the Mission that night was divided among no less than four MFA programs on two opposing axes: NCOC-SFAI at the Wieners tribute, CCA-SFSU at the Marathon. It’s too bad. Both readings would have had double the audience, had they been on separate nights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s no matter. At the July and August readings in the \u003cb>Bay Area Poetry Marathon\u003c/b>, there will be no such conflict, and you’ll be able to enjoy the poetry without wondering if they have better wine and cheese or more comfortable folding chairs down the block. Lease and de la Perriere began the Poetry Marathon when they lived in Boston (where it had a much pithier title), and up until this year it was a one-day, all-day event. Although it’s not really a marathon anymore per se, the new format makes it much easier to pay full attention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Donna de la Perriere kicked off the night by promising there would be no police presence this time around: “and if you think I’m kidding, ask someone who was here in May!” she says. Apparently May’s Poetry Marathon was interrupted by cops searching for a fleeing armed suspect (not a rare occurence at 16th and Capp). In a voice dripping with sarcasm, de la Perriere repeated a police officer’s admonition: “A man with a gun is more important than your little poetry reading.” The audience hissed and booed. I was a little alarmed. This crowd meant business. These were people willing to risk death for poetry!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First up was the legendary \u003ca href=\"http://www.citylights.com/catalog/?category_id=313\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">Diane Di Prima\u003c/a>, author of an astonishing forty-three books. Di Prima is sometimes referred to as “the only female Beat Poet,” which is both factually wrong and horribly reductive, considering all she’s done in the decades since she was a kid running around the Village with those wild boys. Seated in a chair beside the podium to rest her swollen feet, Di Prima has lost none of her fire or power with age. She read from her newest work, the as-yet-unpublished \u003cb>Loba, Book III\u003c/b>. Di Prima explained that she began writing the \u003cb>Loba\u003c/b> series in 1971, and that the newest poems were mostly written in the middle of the night when she was awakened by aches and pains. “Waking up from pain can be quite delightful because you remember your dreams,” she tells us. The new poems were written in fast succession in the weeks just before and after Hurriance Katrina made landfall in 2005. She invoked Robert Duncan, Federico Garcia Lorca, and Mnemnosyne, the mother of the muses and goddess of memory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Next was Sara Lihz Dobel, a recent CCA grad. Dobel got her poetic education on the \u003ca href=\"http://press.creighton.edu/041505/thescene1.html\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">slam circuit\u003c/a> before getting her MFA, and described the poems for the evening as being from “somewhere between” the two worlds. She declaimed, sans microphone, from memory, standing in front of the podium. Her performance was as polished as a one-woman show, using body and voice and facial expression as much as the words. I noticed Dobel’s imagery often involved nostalgic foods: spam sandwiches, white cake and white frosting, watermelon, squash, fruits and vegetables that conjure Nebraska childhood summers and the terrible sexual end of that innocence. “I discharge cherry pits and I miss my mother,” read one arresting image.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Third was \u003ca href=\"http://www.mainstreetrag.com/JK_Sweeney.html\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">Jennifer K. Sweeney\u003c/a>, who stood shielded behind the podium, with microphone. She explained one poem was about her husband, fellow poet and \u003ca href=\"http://www.parthenonwestreview.com/\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">Parthenon West Review\u003c/a> editor Chad Sweeney, who suffered from chronic pain due to a neck injury — again with these poets and their terrible aches! She wrote of how his pain arrived like a solid object, like another person, and they begged it to leave him, coaxing “as you would a child, if we had one.” Sweeney got the first of several audience-wide approving “hmms,” for a poem about being four years old and studying the words on a package of marigold seeds: “gold God, Mary good, good God, Mary gold:” it became a religious incantation, the flowers a symbol of prayer and redemption. Her words were deceptively simple and very beautiful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Next, \u003ca href=\"http://www.spuytenduyvil.net/authors/BrianStrang.htm\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">Brian Strang\u003c/a>‘s works seemed to have a lot to do with science. He wrote a lot about the collision between the natural and technological worlds: about fossils, plate tectonics, insects and animals and plastic and televisions. His language was ultra-precise and amazingly complicated, I won’t pretend I understand exactly what it all means (“workers service radios attached their their own faces” –whoa). Like standing before an abstract painting, or listening to a song in a language you don’t speak, I didn’t have to “get it” to feel a deeper emotional resonance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Camille Dungy, author of a book with the excellent title \u003ca href=\"http://www.redhen.org/bookDetail.asp?bookID=197\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cb>What To Eat, What To Drink, What To Leave For Poison\u003c/b>\u003c/a>, stood WITH the microphone but NEXT TO the podium. “Part of the fun tonight is seeing what everyone does with the microphone,” she said. This turned out to be a perfect segue into her first poem abut Billie Holliday. According to Dungy, Billie’s stardom was made possible by the advent of high-quality microphones. Any earlier in history and Billie’s singing would have been lost to time, since her quiet and evocative deilvery didn’t aurally project more than a couple feet. The poem, in Billie’s voice, is addressed to a man, absent but remembered, “the music of your fingers strumming my slip’s strap.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The final performer was the real crowd pleaser: Paul Hoover, editor of \u003ca href=\"http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100588730\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">Postmodern American Poetry\u003c/a> and author of several books. His latest work, explained, is “56 formal treatments of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 56.” He began by reading \u003ca href=\"http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/56.html\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">the original\u003c/a> and then asking, “did you understand that?” when several people nodded in the affirmative, he looked incredulous. “REALLY?” he asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hoover read a selection of his “formal treatments,” including noun plus seven, a form invented by \u003ca href=\"http://www.nous.org.uk/oulipo.html\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">Oulipo\u003c/a>. Noun plus seven involves taking a poem and replacing each noun with the one that comes seven definitions after it in the dictionary. “Tomorrow sharpened in its former might” thus becomes “tonality sharpened in its former mildew.” Hoover also gave us Sonnet 56 as ballad, haiku, epigram, epitaph, vilanelle, personal ad (“minor melancholia ok”), and in the howler of the night, Hoover rendered Sonnet 56 as Graduate Seminar Course Description. The audience (probably 95 percent of whom were either MFA students or MFA professors) was roaring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Going to a poetry reading, especially one of poets one hasn’t heard of, can be nerve-wracking: is it going to be embarrassingly confessional, or boring, or bad? I’m not normally a poetry person myself. I’m sure there were dozens of allusions and techniques totally lost on me. But there were also sublime moments, along with some interesting and funny ones, and not a dud in the bunch. Lease and De La Perriere clearly put a lot of thought into who they’ve chosen to read, and if watching skilled people do interesting things with language sounds like your idea of a good Saturday night, I recommend coming to cheer on the Poetry Marathon as it rounds into the final stretch. They even serve beer. Hopefully the cops won’t come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The Bay Area Poetry Marathon\u003c/b> continues at the LAB from 7-9pm on Saturday, July 28 and Saturday, August 25. Featured readers will include Lyn Hejinian, Noah Eli Gordon, Dana Teen Lomax, Lisa Robertson, and others. The LAB is located at 2948 16th Street, at Capp. For more information \u003ca href=\"http://www.thelab.org\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">visit thelab.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 1511,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 14
},
"modified": 1705053446,
"excerpt": "On a warm Saturday night in the Mission District, poetry is being celebrated. The LAB on 16th street hosted the second of four installments in husband-and-wife team Donna de la Perriere and Joseph Lease's \u003cb>Bay Area Poetry Marathon\u003c/b>. Incredibly, not only was it NOT the only Saturday-night poetry game in town, it wasn't even the only poetry game in a five-block radius. Over at New College of California, on Valencia, a tribute to the late John Wieners was underway, celebrating the release of a newly-discovered journal, \u003ca href=\"http://www.bootstrapproductions.org/catalog/books/bop.html\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">A Book of Prophecies\u003c/a>. Readers over there included current San Francisco poet laurate Jack Hirschman, New College poetry instructor Micah Ballard, and San Francisco Art Institute professor Bill Berkson, among many others. Back at the LAB, de la Perriere and Lease both teach in the California College of the Arts creative writing program, and three of the readers (Camille Dungy, Brian Strang, and Paul Hoover) teach at San Francisco State University. This means the audience for poetry in the Mission that night was divided among no less than four MFA programs on two opposing axes: NCOC-SFAI at the Wieners tribute, CCA-SFSU at the Marathon. It's too bad. Both readings would have had double the audience, had they been on separate nights.",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "On a warm Saturday night in the Mission District, poetry is being celebrated. The LAB on 16th street hosted the second of four installments in husband-and-wife team Donna de la Perriere and Joseph Lease's Bay Area Poetry Marathon. Incredibly, not only was it NOT the only Saturday-night poetry game in town, it wasn't even the only poetry game in a five-block radius. Over at New College of California, on Valencia, a tribute to the late John Wieners was underway, celebrating the release of a newly-discovered journal, A Book of Prophecies. Readers over there included current San Francisco poet laurate Jack Hirschman, New College poetry instructor Micah Ballard, and San Francisco Art Institute professor Bill Berkson, among many others. Back at the LAB, de la Perriere and Lease both teach in the California College of the Arts creative writing program, and three of the readers (Camille Dungy, Brian Strang, and Paul Hoover) teach at San Francisco State University. This means the audience for poetry in the Mission that night was divided among no less than four MFA programs on two opposing axes: NCOC-SFAI at the Wieners tribute, CCA-SFSU at the Marathon. It's too bad. Both readings would have had double the audience, had they been on separate nights.",
"title": "Bay Area Poetry Marathon | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Bay Area Poetry Marathon",
"datePublished": "2007-07-02T16:31:07-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-01-12T01:57:26-08:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "bay_area_poetry_marathon",
"status": "publish",
"sourceUrl": "http://www.kqed.org/arts/category/literature/",
"sticky": false,
"path": "/arts/17560/bay_area_poetry_marathon",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>On a warm Saturday night in the Mission District, poetry is being celebrated. The LAB on 16th street hosted the second of four installments in husband-and-wife team Donna de la Perriere and Joseph Lease’s \u003cb>Bay Area Poetry Marathon\u003c/b>. Incredibly, not only was it NOT the only Saturday-night poetry game in town, it wasn’t even the only poetry game in a five-block radius. Over at New College of California, on Valencia, a tribute to the late John Wieners was underway, celebrating the release of a newly-discovered journal, \u003ca href=\"http://www.bootstrapproductions.org/catalog/books/bop.html\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">A Book of Prophecies\u003c/a>. Readers over there included current San Francisco poet laurate Jack Hirschman, New College poetry instructor Micah Ballard, and San Francisco Art Institute professor Bill Berkson, among many others. Back at the LAB, de la Perriere and Lease both teach in the California College of the Arts creative writing program, and three of the readers (Camille Dungy, Brian Strang, and Paul Hoover) teach at San Francisco State University. This means the audience for poetry in the Mission that night was divided among no less than four MFA programs on two opposing axes: NCOC-SFAI at the Wieners tribute, CCA-SFSU at the Marathon. It’s too bad. Both readings would have had double the audience, had they been on separate nights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s no matter. At the July and August readings in the \u003cb>Bay Area Poetry Marathon\u003c/b>, there will be no such conflict, and you’ll be able to enjoy the poetry without wondering if they have better wine and cheese or more comfortable folding chairs down the block. Lease and de la Perriere began the Poetry Marathon when they lived in Boston (where it had a much pithier title), and up until this year it was a one-day, all-day event. Although it’s not really a marathon anymore per se, the new format makes it much easier to pay full attention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Donna de la Perriere kicked off the night by promising there would be no police presence this time around: “and if you think I’m kidding, ask someone who was here in May!” she says. Apparently May’s Poetry Marathon was interrupted by cops searching for a fleeing armed suspect (not a rare occurence at 16th and Capp). In a voice dripping with sarcasm, de la Perriere repeated a police officer’s admonition: “A man with a gun is more important than your little poetry reading.” The audience hissed and booed. I was a little alarmed. This crowd meant business. These were people willing to risk death for poetry!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First up was the legendary \u003ca href=\"http://www.citylights.com/catalog/?category_id=313\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">Diane Di Prima\u003c/a>, author of an astonishing forty-three books. Di Prima is sometimes referred to as “the only female Beat Poet,” which is both factually wrong and horribly reductive, considering all she’s done in the decades since she was a kid running around the Village with those wild boys. Seated in a chair beside the podium to rest her swollen feet, Di Prima has lost none of her fire or power with age. She read from her newest work, the as-yet-unpublished \u003cb>Loba, Book III\u003c/b>. Di Prima explained that she began writing the \u003cb>Loba\u003c/b> series in 1971, and that the newest poems were mostly written in the middle of the night when she was awakened by aches and pains. “Waking up from pain can be quite delightful because you remember your dreams,” she tells us. The new poems were written in fast succession in the weeks just before and after Hurriance Katrina made landfall in 2005. She invoked Robert Duncan, Federico Garcia Lorca, and Mnemnosyne, the mother of the muses and goddess of memory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Next was Sara Lihz Dobel, a recent CCA grad. Dobel got her poetic education on the \u003ca href=\"http://press.creighton.edu/041505/thescene1.html\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">slam circuit\u003c/a> before getting her MFA, and described the poems for the evening as being from “somewhere between” the two worlds. She declaimed, sans microphone, from memory, standing in front of the podium. Her performance was as polished as a one-woman show, using body and voice and facial expression as much as the words. I noticed Dobel’s imagery often involved nostalgic foods: spam sandwiches, white cake and white frosting, watermelon, squash, fruits and vegetables that conjure Nebraska childhood summers and the terrible sexual end of that innocence. “I discharge cherry pits and I miss my mother,” read one arresting image.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Third was \u003ca href=\"http://www.mainstreetrag.com/JK_Sweeney.html\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">Jennifer K. Sweeney\u003c/a>, who stood shielded behind the podium, with microphone. She explained one poem was about her husband, fellow poet and \u003ca href=\"http://www.parthenonwestreview.com/\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">Parthenon West Review\u003c/a> editor Chad Sweeney, who suffered from chronic pain due to a neck injury — again with these poets and their terrible aches! She wrote of how his pain arrived like a solid object, like another person, and they begged it to leave him, coaxing “as you would a child, if we had one.” Sweeney got the first of several audience-wide approving “hmms,” for a poem about being four years old and studying the words on a package of marigold seeds: “gold God, Mary good, good God, Mary gold:” it became a religious incantation, the flowers a symbol of prayer and redemption. Her words were deceptively simple and very beautiful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Next, \u003ca href=\"http://www.spuytenduyvil.net/authors/BrianStrang.htm\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">Brian Strang\u003c/a>‘s works seemed to have a lot to do with science. He wrote a lot about the collision between the natural and technological worlds: about fossils, plate tectonics, insects and animals and plastic and televisions. His language was ultra-precise and amazingly complicated, I won’t pretend I understand exactly what it all means (“workers service radios attached their their own faces” –whoa). Like standing before an abstract painting, or listening to a song in a language you don’t speak, I didn’t have to “get it” to feel a deeper emotional resonance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Camille Dungy, author of a book with the excellent title \u003ca href=\"http://www.redhen.org/bookDetail.asp?bookID=197\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cb>What To Eat, What To Drink, What To Leave For Poison\u003c/b>\u003c/a>, stood WITH the microphone but NEXT TO the podium. “Part of the fun tonight is seeing what everyone does with the microphone,” she said. This turned out to be a perfect segue into her first poem abut Billie Holliday. According to Dungy, Billie’s stardom was made possible by the advent of high-quality microphones. Any earlier in history and Billie’s singing would have been lost to time, since her quiet and evocative deilvery didn’t aurally project more than a couple feet. The poem, in Billie’s voice, is addressed to a man, absent but remembered, “the music of your fingers strumming my slip’s strap.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The final performer was the real crowd pleaser: Paul Hoover, editor of \u003ca href=\"http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100588730\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">Postmodern American Poetry\u003c/a> and author of several books. His latest work, explained, is “56 formal treatments of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 56.” He began by reading \u003ca href=\"http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/56.html\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">the original\u003c/a> and then asking, “did you understand that?” when several people nodded in the affirmative, he looked incredulous. “REALLY?” he asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hoover read a selection of his “formal treatments,” including noun plus seven, a form invented by \u003ca href=\"http://www.nous.org.uk/oulipo.html\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">Oulipo\u003c/a>. Noun plus seven involves taking a poem and replacing each noun with the one that comes seven definitions after it in the dictionary. “Tomorrow sharpened in its former might” thus becomes “tonality sharpened in its former mildew.” Hoover also gave us Sonnet 56 as ballad, haiku, epigram, epitaph, vilanelle, personal ad (“minor melancholia ok”), and in the howler of the night, Hoover rendered Sonnet 56 as Graduate Seminar Course Description. The audience (probably 95 percent of whom were either MFA students or MFA professors) was roaring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Going to a poetry reading, especially one of poets one hasn’t heard of, can be nerve-wracking: is it going to be embarrassingly confessional, or boring, or bad? I’m not normally a poetry person myself. I’m sure there were dozens of allusions and techniques totally lost on me. But there were also sublime moments, along with some interesting and funny ones, and not a dud in the bunch. Lease and De La Perriere clearly put a lot of thought into who they’ve chosen to read, and if watching skilled people do interesting things with language sounds like your idea of a good Saturday night, I recommend coming to cheer on the Poetry Marathon as it rounds into the final stretch. They even serve beer. Hopefully the cops won’t come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "floatright"
},
"numeric": [
"floatright"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The Bay Area Poetry Marathon\u003c/b> continues at the LAB from 7-9pm on Saturday, July 28 and Saturday, August 25. Featured readers will include Lyn Hejinian, Noah Eli Gordon, Dana Teen Lomax, Lisa Robertson, and others. The LAB is located at 2948 16th Street, at Capp. For more information \u003ca href=\"http://www.thelab.org\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">visit thelab.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/arts/17560/bay_area_poetry_marathon",
"authors": [
"19"
],
"categories": [
"arts_73"
],
"label": "arts"
},
"arts_17562": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "arts_17562",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "arts",
"id": "17562",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1183417346000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {
"site": "arts"
},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1183417346,
"format": "standard",
"title": "Armistead Maupin: Michael Tolliver Lives",
"headTitle": "Armistead Maupin: Michael Tolliver Lives | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Back in the mid-1970s, a naïve, 20-something Mary Ann Singleton arrived in San Francisco for the first time. She immediately fell in love with the mystical beauty of the city and its ridiculously fascinating denizens. Making her new home at 28 Barbary Lane, Singleton’s life soon became intertwined with the building’s colorful tenants: the enigmatic Anna Madrigal, the womanizing Brian, and the sweet, sexy, hopelessly romantic gay guy, Michael Tolliver… So began life in the \u003cb>Tales of the City\u003c/b>, the mythical world created by one of San Francisco’s greatest literary heroes, Armistead Maupin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maupin began cranking out \u003cb>Tales of the City\u003c/b> as a column in the \u003ci>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/i> in 1976. There were still a few hippies hanging around Golden Gate Park smoking pot, Safeway in the Marina was the place for straights to hook up, and the gay liberation movement was just beginning to make a home for itself in the Castro. There was no such thing as AIDS. It was perhaps one of the most exciting, hopeful times to be living in our city, and the tenants of Barbary Lane were in the thick of it all. Maupin’s extraordinary ability to merge local news, gossip and culture with the hilarious and sometimes heartbreaking adventures of Mary Ann and her friends deeply resonated with San Franciscans. Readers didn’t just identify with the \u003cb>Tales of the City\u003c/b> characters — they actually were the characters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For those of us who didn’t arrive in San Francisco until long after Maupin’s column ceased to exist, we can only dream about what it was like to pick up the \u003ci>Chronicle\u003c/i> and “find ourselves” in \u003cb>Tales of the City\u003c/b>. However, with \u003cb>Michael Tolliver Lives\u003c/b>, Maupin has given Barbaryphiles (the nickname given to \u003cb>Tales\u003c/b> fans) some idea of what that experience must have been like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although Maupin says \u003cb>Michael Tolliver Lives\u003c/b> is not an addition to the six-book \u003cb>Tales of the City\u003c/b>series, there’s no doubt — thankfully — that is precisely what this book is. When we last checked in on the \u003cb>Tales\u003c/b> characters in 1989, Mary Ann’s former best friend Michael “Mouse,” having tested positive for HIV, was preparing for an early death. However, as the title implicitly states, Michael is alive and well, thanks to drug cocktails. And although he’s not a regular at the End Up anymore, with regular shots of testosterone and a Viagra prescription, he has an active sex life with a much younger boyfriend. Michael is clearly a character with which Maupin intimately identifies (Maupin, 62, is married to Christopher Turner, 35), and he lovingly writes from Tolliver’s first-person perspective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maupin recently stated, “I was interested in pursuing the life of an aging gay man, and Michael was the perfect vehicle… However, as soon as I started writing, I found that, one by one, all the other characters stepped forward and asked to be present. It felt natural, so I went with it.” Hooray! Brian is contemplating retirement, his daughter Shawna, now in her mid-20s, is an up-and-coming pansexual writer (a character who seems a lot like Michelle Tea) and Anna Madrigal is holding court in her new home somewhere around Duboce Triangle. Whether you’ve read the \u003cb>Tales\u003c/b> books numerous times, as seems to often be the case in this town, or haven’t thought about the inhabitants of Barbary Lane in the 18 years since \u003cb>Sure of You\u003c/b> hit shelves, it’s a genuine thrill to find out what’s been going on in the lives of these and all of Maupin’s other relentlessly loveable characters. Even if you’ve never read any of Armistead’s books, \u003cb>Michael Tolliver Lives\u003c/b> is still a fabulous read.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much to the delight of his droves of fans, Maupin recently hinted that another book about the \u003cb>Tales\u003c/b> characters could be in the works, saying, “I’ve lived in that world for 30 years, even when I was writing non-\u003cb>Tales\u003c/b> books. Whatever I have to offer seems to come through those characters, and I see no reason to abandon them.” Armistead’s fans aren’t abandoning him either. I went to a Maupin book signing at Book Passage in the Ferry Building on the day \u003cb>Michael Tolliver Lives\u003c/b> was released. It was quite a scene, with throngs of old ladies, young men and everything in between. Apparently more people showed up for Maupin than did for Bill Clinton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This book is Armistead at his very best. In this humble scribe’s opinion, there isn’t an author around that can, with so few words, capture the essence of a character like Maupin. And of course, as in all Maupin works (with the exception of \u003cb>Maybe the Moon\u003c/b>), our beloved city is perhaps his most important character of all. \u003cb>Michael Tolliver Lives\u003c/b> is a must-read not only for obsessive Barbary-philes like myself, but for anyone who has ever walked down Castro Street or gazed across the Bay from the Marin Headlands, and thought, “Yep, this is where I belong.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 886,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 9
},
"modified": 1705053445,
"excerpt": "Back in the mid-1970s, a naïve, 20-something Mary Ann Singleton arrived in San Francisco for the first time. She immediately fell in love with the mystical beauty of the city and its ridiculously fascinating denizens. Making her new home at 28 Barbary Lane, Singleton's life soon became intertwined with the building's colorful tenants: the enigmatic Anna Madrigal, the womanizing Brian, and the sweet, sexy, hopelessly romantic gay guy, Michael Tolliver... So began life in the \u003cb>Tales of the City\u003c/b>, the mythical world created by one of San Francisco's greatest literary heroes, Armistead Maupin. ",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "Back in the mid-1970s, a naïve, 20-something Mary Ann Singleton arrived in San Francisco for the first time. She immediately fell in love with the mystical beauty of the city and its ridiculously fascinating denizens. Making her new home at 28 Barbary Lane, Singleton's life soon became intertwined with the building's colorful tenants: the enigmatic Anna Madrigal, the womanizing Brian, and the sweet, sexy, hopelessly romantic gay guy, Michael Tolliver... So began life in the Tales of the City, the mythical world created by one of San Francisco's greatest literary heroes, Armistead Maupin. ",
"title": "Armistead Maupin: Michael Tolliver Lives | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Armistead Maupin: Michael Tolliver Lives",
"datePublished": "2007-07-02T16:02:26-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-01-12T01:57:25-08:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "armistead_maupin_michael_tolliver_lives",
"status": "publish",
"sourceUrl": "http://www.kqed.org/arts/category/literature/literature-review/",
"nprByline": "Philip Mayard",
"sticky": false,
"path": "/arts/17562/armistead_maupin_michael_tolliver_lives",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Back in the mid-1970s, a naïve, 20-something Mary Ann Singleton arrived in San Francisco for the first time. She immediately fell in love with the mystical beauty of the city and its ridiculously fascinating denizens. Making her new home at 28 Barbary Lane, Singleton’s life soon became intertwined with the building’s colorful tenants: the enigmatic Anna Madrigal, the womanizing Brian, and the sweet, sexy, hopelessly romantic gay guy, Michael Tolliver… So began life in the \u003cb>Tales of the City\u003c/b>, the mythical world created by one of San Francisco’s greatest literary heroes, Armistead Maupin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maupin began cranking out \u003cb>Tales of the City\u003c/b> as a column in the \u003ci>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/i> in 1976. There were still a few hippies hanging around Golden Gate Park smoking pot, Safeway in the Marina was the place for straights to hook up, and the gay liberation movement was just beginning to make a home for itself in the Castro. There was no such thing as AIDS. It was perhaps one of the most exciting, hopeful times to be living in our city, and the tenants of Barbary Lane were in the thick of it all. Maupin’s extraordinary ability to merge local news, gossip and culture with the hilarious and sometimes heartbreaking adventures of Mary Ann and her friends deeply resonated with San Franciscans. Readers didn’t just identify with the \u003cb>Tales of the City\u003c/b> characters — they actually were the characters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For those of us who didn’t arrive in San Francisco until long after Maupin’s column ceased to exist, we can only dream about what it was like to pick up the \u003ci>Chronicle\u003c/i> and “find ourselves” in \u003cb>Tales of the City\u003c/b>. However, with \u003cb>Michael Tolliver Lives\u003c/b>, Maupin has given Barbaryphiles (the nickname given to \u003cb>Tales\u003c/b> fans) some idea of what that experience must have been like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although Maupin says \u003cb>Michael Tolliver Lives\u003c/b> is not an addition to the six-book \u003cb>Tales of the City\u003c/b>series, there’s no doubt — thankfully — that is precisely what this book is. When we last checked in on the \u003cb>Tales\u003c/b> characters in 1989, Mary Ann’s former best friend Michael “Mouse,” having tested positive for HIV, was preparing for an early death. However, as the title implicitly states, Michael is alive and well, thanks to drug cocktails. And although he’s not a regular at the End Up anymore, with regular shots of testosterone and a Viagra prescription, he has an active sex life with a much younger boyfriend. Michael is clearly a character with which Maupin intimately identifies (Maupin, 62, is married to Christopher Turner, 35), and he lovingly writes from Tolliver’s first-person perspective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maupin recently stated, “I was interested in pursuing the life of an aging gay man, and Michael was the perfect vehicle… However, as soon as I started writing, I found that, one by one, all the other characters stepped forward and asked to be present. It felt natural, so I went with it.” Hooray! Brian is contemplating retirement, his daughter Shawna, now in her mid-20s, is an up-and-coming pansexual writer (a character who seems a lot like Michelle Tea) and Anna Madrigal is holding court in her new home somewhere around Duboce Triangle. Whether you’ve read the \u003cb>Tales\u003c/b> books numerous times, as seems to often be the case in this town, or haven’t thought about the inhabitants of Barbary Lane in the 18 years since \u003cb>Sure of You\u003c/b> hit shelves, it’s a genuine thrill to find out what’s been going on in the lives of these and all of Maupin’s other relentlessly loveable characters. Even if you’ve never read any of Armistead’s books, \u003cb>Michael Tolliver Lives\u003c/b> is still a fabulous read.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much to the delight of his droves of fans, Maupin recently hinted that another book about the \u003cb>Tales\u003c/b> characters could be in the works, saying, “I’ve lived in that world for 30 years, even when I was writing non-\u003cb>Tales\u003c/b> books. Whatever I have to offer seems to come through those characters, and I see no reason to abandon them.” Armistead’s fans aren’t abandoning him either. I went to a Maupin book signing at Book Passage in the Ferry Building on the day \u003cb>Michael Tolliver Lives\u003c/b> was released. It was quite a scene, with throngs of old ladies, young men and everything in between. Apparently more people showed up for Maupin than did for Bill Clinton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This book is Armistead at his very best. In this humble scribe’s opinion, there isn’t an author around that can, with so few words, capture the essence of a character like Maupin. And of course, as in all Maupin works (with the exception of \u003cb>Maybe the Moon\u003c/b>), our beloved city is perhaps his most important character of all. \u003cb>Michael Tolliver Lives\u003c/b> is a must-read not only for obsessive Barbary-philes like myself, but for anyone who has ever walked down Castro Street or gazed across the Bay from the Marin Headlands, and thought, “Yep, this is where I belong.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/arts/17562/armistead_maupin_michael_tolliver_lives",
"authors": [
"byline_arts_17562"
],
"categories": [
"arts_73"
],
"tags": [
"arts_596",
"arts_769"
],
"label": "arts"
},
"arts_17482": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "arts_17482",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "arts",
"id": "17482",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1183076967000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {
"site": "arts"
},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1183076967,
"format": "standard",
"title": "Jack Pendarvis: Your Body Is Changing",
"headTitle": "Jack Pendarvis: Your Body Is Changing | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>During my college years I interned at various litmags, sorting through slush piles in search of gold. I must have read hundreds of stories, and skimmed several hundred more. One of the very few that affected me deeply was called “The Pipe.” It involved a security guard and a paramedic, hired to watch over a pipe sticking out of the ground. Six feet beneath the pipe is a radio DJ, attempting to break some sort of record for being buried alive, a la David Blaine. The paramedic and guard are there in case the DJ rings his distress bell and wants to come up. But the bell never rings, and so the two men have plenty of time to get stoned and drunk, have sex with transsexual women in the back of the ambulance, trade insults, and attempt to poison each other. Things go so far off the deep end that you start to wonder, what if the DJ’s distress bell isn’t hooked up properly, and he’s been ringing it all this time? Is there even a DJ buried down there at all? And if there is, wouldn’t he be dead by now?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The story somehow combined laugh-out-loud hilarity and existential terror, an ingenious cross between \u003cb>No Exit\u003c/b> and \u003cb>Waiting for Godot\u003c/b>. I raved about it to the editors of the magazine I was reading for at the time, but for some unfathomable reason they took a pass. I forgot the author’s name, but never forgot the story. Fast forward five years or so: I pick up Jack Pendarvis’ first story collection, \u003cb>The Mysterious Secret of the Valuable Treasure\u003c/b>. There it is: “The Pipe.” I almost drop the book.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Less than a year after the paperback release of \u003cb>Mysterious Secret\u003c/b>, Pendarvis follows it up this month with \u003cb>Your Body Is Changing\u003c/b>, a selection of several short pieces and one longish novella that, in its best moments, proves Pendarvis to be capable of brilliant po-mo social satire in the tradition of Kurt Vonnegut, or George Saunders (who provides some glowing blurbage).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The universe inhabited by Pendarvis’ characters closely resembles our own, except with the mechanisms that serve to regulate normal human behavior strangely absent. Everyone in his stories, whether they know it or not, is utterly, floridly, unabashedly, batshit insane. Pendarvis has a tremendous gift for rendering the mindless niceties of colloquial speech. The characters speak, and you are lulled into thinking this is a normal person talking, saying the kind of thing you’ve heard a million times before, until the camera pulls back and what you thought you saw is something completely else.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s a quote from an ad exec being interviewed in “Courageous Blast: The Legacy of America’s Most Radical Gum:” “There’s a lot of talk right now about courage and whatnot, but whenever I’m pressed for a definition I just say, take a look at It Better Be Gum.” What is “It Better Be Gum?” A mystery substance that causes horrible diarrhea and permanent gastrointestinal damage (or, in the words of the ad exec, a “sea change in the way Americans engage with gum as a recreational snack.”) A huge fan of the product explains that he didn’t realize the terrible burning and the hours on the john were caused by his favorite gum. “I just thought there was something wrong with me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The problem with \u003cb>Your Body Is Changing\u003c/b> is the same problem that most story collections have — unevenness. The title novella takes up about half the length of the book, and alongside it are seven brief pieces, some only a page or two long. Some of them appeared originally online, and they are as insubstantial as cotton candy. Some lean a bit too heavily on the cheap shot and the one-note gag.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The title novella, though, is terrific and too short. I wish Jack Pendarvis had jettisoned the filler and expanded “Your Body Is Changing” to novel length, so we could spend more time with Henry Gill, a fourteen-year-old Alabama resident, committed fundamentalist Christian, and guilt-wracked seeker of truth, whose deep religious conviction co-mingles with his sweaty-palmed, feverish sexual fantasies. Its opening paragraph is an image so startling and singular that I have to quote the whole thing:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Henry and his mother returned from Wednesday-night prayer meeting to find an enormous owl eating sausage biscuits out of a torn sack on the kitchen counter. When they walked in the door, the owl turned its head all the way around on its neck and looked over at them just as calm as could be, and it was holding a biscuit in one set of talons like a man eating half a sandwich.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> If you say you’re not physically compelled to keep reading after an opening like that, you’re a liar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Henry is abandoned by his mother early on, and literally stumbles into the dark woods, like Dante at the start of the Divine Comedy. Henry meets people who test and challenge his faith, and he does battle against his private urges, with limited success. He has a favorite book called “Your Body Is Changing: a Christian Teen’s Guide to Sexuality” which has taught him that “Masturbation is a perfectly normal urge that happens to everyone on the planet and it must be avoided at all costs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He finds shelter with a family of “secular humanists” headed by a pathetic college professor, a red-stater’s worst nightmare of pompous coastal intelligentsia. “I would pay a million dollars to a person who could show me a prayer that accomplished even as much as one miniscule droplet of gasoline,” he says. Henry is horrified. “These people probably wish they were in France right now,” Henry thinks, “making fun of the President and going number two on the American flag.” He spends a lot of time fantasizing about Hollywood actresses, imagining how he would save their doomed souls and also get to second base.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> Henry eventually finds Brother Lampey, a preacher, builder of scarecrows, goat owner and “outsider artist” (another wonderfully batshit Pendarvis original) who takes him under his (foul-smelling, unwashed) wing. After many misadventures, Henry finds a path out of the dark woods of his soul, in a most surprising fashion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jack Pendarvis has a unique voice and vision. He holds up a distorted funhouse mirror to post-millenial America, and will make you think as much as he will make you laugh — and by the time you get to the end of the book, no pieties (neither Fundamentalist Christian nor Secular Humanist) will be left intact.\u003c/p>\n\n",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 1168,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 15
},
"modified": 1705053448,
"excerpt": "During my college years I interned at various litmags, sorting through slush piles in search of gold. I must have read hundreds of stories, and skimmed several hundred more. One of the very few that affected me deeply was called \"The Pipe.\" It involved a security guard and a paramedic, hired to watch over a pipe sticking out of the ground. Six feet beneath the pipe is a radio DJ, attempting to break some sort of record for being buried alive, a la David Blaine. The paramedic and guard are there in case the DJ rings his distress bell and wants to come up. But the bell never rings, and so the two men have plenty of time to get stoned and drunk, have sex with transsexual women in the back of the ambulance, trade insults, and attempt to poison each other. Things go so far off the deep end that you start to wonder, what if the DJ's distress bell isn't hooked up properly, and he's been ringing it all this time? Is there even a DJ buried down there at all? And if there is, wouldn't he be dead by now?",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "During my college years I interned at various litmags, sorting through slush piles in search of gold. I must have read hundreds of stories, and skimmed several hundred more. One of the very few that affected me deeply was called "The Pipe." It involved a security guard and a paramedic, hired to watch over a pipe sticking out of the ground. Six feet beneath the pipe is a radio DJ, attempting to break some sort of record for being buried alive, a la David Blaine. The paramedic and guard are there in case the DJ rings his distress bell and wants to come up. But the bell never rings, and so the two men have plenty of time to get stoned and drunk, have sex with transsexual women in the back of the ambulance, trade insults, and attempt to poison each other. Things go so far off the deep end that you start to wonder, what if the DJ's distress bell isn't hooked up properly, and he's been ringing it all this time? Is there even a DJ buried down there at all? And if there is, wouldn't he be dead by now?",
"title": "Jack Pendarvis: Your Body Is Changing | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Jack Pendarvis: Your Body Is Changing",
"datePublished": "2007-06-28T17:29:27-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-01-12T01:57:28-08:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "jack_pendarvis_your_body_is_changing",
"status": "publish",
"sourceUrl": "http://www.kqed.org/arts/category/literature/literature-review/",
"sticky": false,
"path": "/arts/17482/jack_pendarvis_your_body_is_changing",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>During my college years I interned at various litmags, sorting through slush piles in search of gold. I must have read hundreds of stories, and skimmed several hundred more. One of the very few that affected me deeply was called “The Pipe.” It involved a security guard and a paramedic, hired to watch over a pipe sticking out of the ground. Six feet beneath the pipe is a radio DJ, attempting to break some sort of record for being buried alive, a la David Blaine. The paramedic and guard are there in case the DJ rings his distress bell and wants to come up. But the bell never rings, and so the two men have plenty of time to get stoned and drunk, have sex with transsexual women in the back of the ambulance, trade insults, and attempt to poison each other. Things go so far off the deep end that you start to wonder, what if the DJ’s distress bell isn’t hooked up properly, and he’s been ringing it all this time? Is there even a DJ buried down there at all? And if there is, wouldn’t he be dead by now?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The story somehow combined laugh-out-loud hilarity and existential terror, an ingenious cross between \u003cb>No Exit\u003c/b> and \u003cb>Waiting for Godot\u003c/b>. I raved about it to the editors of the magazine I was reading for at the time, but for some unfathomable reason they took a pass. I forgot the author’s name, but never forgot the story. Fast forward five years or so: I pick up Jack Pendarvis’ first story collection, \u003cb>The Mysterious Secret of the Valuable Treasure\u003c/b>. There it is: “The Pipe.” I almost drop the book.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Less than a year after the paperback release of \u003cb>Mysterious Secret\u003c/b>, Pendarvis follows it up this month with \u003cb>Your Body Is Changing\u003c/b>, a selection of several short pieces and one longish novella that, in its best moments, proves Pendarvis to be capable of brilliant po-mo social satire in the tradition of Kurt Vonnegut, or George Saunders (who provides some glowing blurbage).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The universe inhabited by Pendarvis’ characters closely resembles our own, except with the mechanisms that serve to regulate normal human behavior strangely absent. Everyone in his stories, whether they know it or not, is utterly, floridly, unabashedly, batshit insane. Pendarvis has a tremendous gift for rendering the mindless niceties of colloquial speech. The characters speak, and you are lulled into thinking this is a normal person talking, saying the kind of thing you’ve heard a million times before, until the camera pulls back and what you thought you saw is something completely else.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s a quote from an ad exec being interviewed in “Courageous Blast: The Legacy of America’s Most Radical Gum:” “There’s a lot of talk right now about courage and whatnot, but whenever I’m pressed for a definition I just say, take a look at It Better Be Gum.” What is “It Better Be Gum?” A mystery substance that causes horrible diarrhea and permanent gastrointestinal damage (or, in the words of the ad exec, a “sea change in the way Americans engage with gum as a recreational snack.”) A huge fan of the product explains that he didn’t realize the terrible burning and the hours on the john were caused by his favorite gum. “I just thought there was something wrong with me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The problem with \u003cb>Your Body Is Changing\u003c/b> is the same problem that most story collections have — unevenness. The title novella takes up about half the length of the book, and alongside it are seven brief pieces, some only a page or two long. Some of them appeared originally online, and they are as insubstantial as cotton candy. Some lean a bit too heavily on the cheap shot and the one-note gag.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The title novella, though, is terrific and too short. I wish Jack Pendarvis had jettisoned the filler and expanded “Your Body Is Changing” to novel length, so we could spend more time with Henry Gill, a fourteen-year-old Alabama resident, committed fundamentalist Christian, and guilt-wracked seeker of truth, whose deep religious conviction co-mingles with his sweaty-palmed, feverish sexual fantasies. Its opening paragraph is an image so startling and singular that I have to quote the whole thing:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Henry and his mother returned from Wednesday-night prayer meeting to find an enormous owl eating sausage biscuits out of a torn sack on the kitchen counter. When they walked in the door, the owl turned its head all the way around on its neck and looked over at them just as calm as could be, and it was holding a biscuit in one set of talons like a man eating half a sandwich.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> If you say you’re not physically compelled to keep reading after an opening like that, you’re a liar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Henry is abandoned by his mother early on, and literally stumbles into the dark woods, like Dante at the start of the Divine Comedy. Henry meets people who test and challenge his faith, and he does battle against his private urges, with limited success. He has a favorite book called “Your Body Is Changing: a Christian Teen’s Guide to Sexuality” which has taught him that “Masturbation is a perfectly normal urge that happens to everyone on the planet and it must be avoided at all costs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He finds shelter with a family of “secular humanists” headed by a pathetic college professor, a red-stater’s worst nightmare of pompous coastal intelligentsia. “I would pay a million dollars to a person who could show me a prayer that accomplished even as much as one miniscule droplet of gasoline,” he says. Henry is horrified. “These people probably wish they were in France right now,” Henry thinks, “making fun of the President and going number two on the American flag.” He spends a lot of time fantasizing about Hollywood actresses, imagining how he would save their doomed souls and also get to second base.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> Henry eventually finds Brother Lampey, a preacher, builder of scarecrows, goat owner and “outsider artist” (another wonderfully batshit Pendarvis original) who takes him under his (foul-smelling, unwashed) wing. After many misadventures, Henry finds a path out of the dark woods of his soul, in a most surprising fashion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "floatright"
},
"numeric": [
"floatright"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jack Pendarvis has a unique voice and vision. He holds up a distorted funhouse mirror to post-millenial America, and will make you think as much as he will make you laugh — and by the time you get to the end of the book, no pieties (neither Fundamentalist Christian nor Secular Humanist) will be left intact.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/arts/17482/jack_pendarvis_your_body_is_changing",
"authors": [
"111"
],
"categories": [
"arts_73"
],
"tags": [
"arts_596",
"arts_769"
],
"label": "arts"
},
"arts_17381": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "arts_17381",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "arts",
"id": "17381",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1182909699000
]
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "little_stalker",
"title": "Little Stalker",
"publishDate": 1182909699,
"format": "audio",
"headTitle": "Little Stalker | KQED",
"labelTerm": {
"site": "arts"
},
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cb>Little Stalker\u003c/b> is the story of Rebekah Kettle, a one-time successful novelist who is hopelessly blocked, and instead of working on her next novel, she bides her time stalking her favorite film director, Arthur Weeman, and writing him letters under the guise of a thirteen-year-old girl. Through intimate correspondence that details her alter ego’s life, Rebekah relives a painful episode from her own thirteenth year. To complicate matters, Rebekah falls in love with a tabloid paparazzo, setting up a moral dilemma — should she give her boyfriend the scoop of a lifetime or should she protect her idol?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Music by \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/arts/people/profile.jsp?id=16285\">Adam Cimino\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "Jennifer Belle reads a selection from \u003cb>Little Stalker\u003c/b>, which enters the chaotic mind of Rebekah Kettle, a one-time successful novelist (now hopelessly blocked), as she attends a book party for an attractive British novelist, delivers a signed copy of his book to her ex-boyfriend and remembers a trip to Disneyworld.",
"status": "publish",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1726706781,
"stats": {
"hasAudio": false,
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"paragraphCount": 4,
"wordCount": 109
},
"headData": {
"title": "Little Stalker | KQED",
"description": "Jennifer Belle reads a selection from Little Stalker, which enters the chaotic mind of Rebekah Kettle, a one-time successful novelist (now hopelessly blocked), as she attends a book party for an attractive British novelist, delivers a signed copy of his book to her ex-boyfriend and remembers a trip to Disneyworld.",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogDescription": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"twDescription": "",
"twImgId": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Little Stalker",
"datePublished": "2007-06-26T19:01:39-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-09-18T17:46:21-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"sourceUrl": "http://www.kqed.org/arts/programs/writersblock/",
"sticky": false,
"nprByline": "Jennifer Belle",
"path": "/arts/17381/little_stalker",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cb>Little Stalker\u003c/b> is the story of Rebekah Kettle, a one-time successful novelist who is hopelessly blocked, and instead of working on her next novel, she bides her time stalking her favorite film director, Arthur Weeman, and writing him letters under the guise of a thirteen-year-old girl. Through intimate correspondence that details her alter ego’s life, Rebekah relives a painful episode from her own thirteenth year. To complicate matters, Rebekah falls in love with a tabloid paparazzo, setting up a moral dilemma — should she give her boyfriend the scoop of a lifetime or should she protect her idol?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Music by \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/arts/people/profile.jsp?id=16285\">Adam Cimino\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/arts/17381/little_stalker",
"authors": [
"byline_arts_17381"
],
"categories": [
"arts_73"
],
"tags": [
"arts_330"
],
"label": "arts"
},
"arts_17261": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "arts_17261",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "arts",
"id": "17261",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1182482467000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {
"site": "arts"
},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1182482467,
"format": "standard",
"title": "DC Comics: Minx",
"headTitle": "DC Comics: Minx | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>There are many things I am thankful for in my life. One of them is the calming bliss that comes from the fact that, ahh, I’m not a teenager anymore. Clichés aside, that is one awkward time, and for a media junkie like myself, it’s made all the more awful by the fact that any book/movie/music that claims to “address your generation” inevitably reveals itself to be a clunky, pandering disaster riddled with misused slang and ham-fisted anti-drug messages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Double that disappointment if something claims to speak specifically to teenage girls — I know I much preferred the comfort of open patronization from magazine-cum-catalogs like \u003ci>Seventeen\u003c/i> over the veiled insults of getting it, like, so totally wrong. But this barren desert of good representation does leave teen girls with little options but to swallow their stereotype or step outside the offered pink, shiny bubble and go for male-dominated media like computer games, action movies, and comics. (A tip here for young readers: the latter option gives you bonus access to guys. Oh yes.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But now, people are starting to catch on to a gap in the current offerings for teen girls. Big time comics publisher DC is hoping to lure young readers towards Minx, a new imprint expressly devoted to “reaching the teenage girl.” Despite the bizarrely sexist kitsch of its name, \u003ca href=\"http://www.dccomics.com/minx/\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">Minx\u003c/a> looks to be pretty promising.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The premier title of the list is \u003cb>The Plain Janes\u003c/b>, a breezy graphic novel written by YA novelist Cecil Castellucci and illustrated by Jim Rugg. \u003cb>The Plain Janes\u003c/b> is a sweet little rebellion fantasy about a troubled girl who shakes up suburbia by engaging in public acts of poetic vandalism with her friends — soaping the town fountain, leaving cryptic messages to point out their bland consumerist ways, etc. — until the stuffy town sheriff cracks down to end the hi-jinx. Except these performance art pieces have already expanded the baying, sheep-like minds of her fellow suburbanites, who take up the cause, proving that “art saves” and individual voices matter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yes, the whole affair is a little \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Capra\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">Frank Capra\u003c/a>, but young teens, maybe even tweens, just starting to eke out an interest in counterculture could find the story exhilarating. Certainly, it’s a positive reminder that teen angst can be funneled into constructive, creative expression, and that girls can push the envelope as well as boys. Also, the impetus of the art pranks start as a plot to connect to a cute guy, but happily evolves into a way to bond with fellow girls in friendship. The art is stylish and full of realistic details that young teens will likely relate to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The next title, just released this month, is \u003cb>The Re-Gifters\u003c/b>. Though there’s an all-male team behind it, this book offers a more complex and empowering female character. Dixie is a young girl balancing her Korean heritage, \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hapkido\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">hapkido\u003c/a> martial arts lessons, a dangerous urban environment, and one massive crush. The whirlwind plot revolves around Dixie’s foolish decision to sacrifice everything for her dream boy, only to discover that he’s not worth even a second thought. But, Dixie’s hapkido skills save the day and her self respect, as she quite literally finds herself facing her ex-crush in the ring, and, well… kicking his a**.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This plot twist inspired me to have a whole new expectation in frothy chick-lit: forget swooning and happily ever after, it’s SO much more satisfying to watch a character throw her ex-crush down in a complex kick/hold, then jump up to receive a tournament trophy, plus maybe even a kiss from her new, appreciative boyfriend. \u003cb>The Re-Gifters\u003c/b>‘s energetic pace and realistic dialogue was engaging and fresh. The message of individuality and the importance (and possibility) of finding someone who truly appreciates you is subtle, yet inspiring. I’d recommend this title also to younger teens, but the story has enough tooth to appeal to older girls, as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minx has two more titles slated to launch this summer, \u003cb>Clubbing\u003c/b> and \u003cb>Good as Lily\u003c/b>. With the fine example set by the line’s first two books, Minx looks to be a welcome bright spot in the dismal world of teen media.\u003c/p>\n\n",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 738,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 10
},
"modified": 1705053455,
"excerpt": "There are many things I am thankful for in my life. One of them is the calming bliss that comes from the fact that, ahh, I'm not a teenager anymore. Clichés aside, that is one awkward time, and for a media junkie like myself, it's made all the more awful by the fact that any book/movie/music that claims to \"address your generation\" inevitably reveals itself to be a clunky, pandering disaster riddled with misused slang and ham-fisted anti-drug messages.",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "There are many things I am thankful for in my life. One of them is the calming bliss that comes from the fact that, ahh, I'm not a teenager anymore. Clichés aside, that is one awkward time, and for a media junkie like myself, it's made all the more awful by the fact that any book/movie/music that claims to "address your generation" inevitably reveals itself to be a clunky, pandering disaster riddled with misused slang and ham-fisted anti-drug messages.",
"title": "DC Comics: Minx | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "DC Comics: Minx",
"datePublished": "2007-06-21T20:21:07-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-01-12T01:57:35-08:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "dc_comics_minx",
"status": "publish",
"sticky": false,
"path": "/arts/17261/dc_comics_minx",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>There are many things I am thankful for in my life. One of them is the calming bliss that comes from the fact that, ahh, I’m not a teenager anymore. Clichés aside, that is one awkward time, and for a media junkie like myself, it’s made all the more awful by the fact that any book/movie/music that claims to “address your generation” inevitably reveals itself to be a clunky, pandering disaster riddled with misused slang and ham-fisted anti-drug messages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Double that disappointment if something claims to speak specifically to teenage girls — I know I much preferred the comfort of open patronization from magazine-cum-catalogs like \u003ci>Seventeen\u003c/i> over the veiled insults of getting it, like, so totally wrong. But this barren desert of good representation does leave teen girls with little options but to swallow their stereotype or step outside the offered pink, shiny bubble and go for male-dominated media like computer games, action movies, and comics. (A tip here for young readers: the latter option gives you bonus access to guys. Oh yes.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But now, people are starting to catch on to a gap in the current offerings for teen girls. Big time comics publisher DC is hoping to lure young readers towards Minx, a new imprint expressly devoted to “reaching the teenage girl.” Despite the bizarrely sexist kitsch of its name, \u003ca href=\"http://www.dccomics.com/minx/\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">Minx\u003c/a> looks to be pretty promising.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The premier title of the list is \u003cb>The Plain Janes\u003c/b>, a breezy graphic novel written by YA novelist Cecil Castellucci and illustrated by Jim Rugg. \u003cb>The Plain Janes\u003c/b> is a sweet little rebellion fantasy about a troubled girl who shakes up suburbia by engaging in public acts of poetic vandalism with her friends — soaping the town fountain, leaving cryptic messages to point out their bland consumerist ways, etc. — until the stuffy town sheriff cracks down to end the hi-jinx. Except these performance art pieces have already expanded the baying, sheep-like minds of her fellow suburbanites, who take up the cause, proving that “art saves” and individual voices matter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yes, the whole affair is a little \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Capra\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">Frank Capra\u003c/a>, but young teens, maybe even tweens, just starting to eke out an interest in counterculture could find the story exhilarating. Certainly, it’s a positive reminder that teen angst can be funneled into constructive, creative expression, and that girls can push the envelope as well as boys. Also, the impetus of the art pranks start as a plot to connect to a cute guy, but happily evolves into a way to bond with fellow girls in friendship. The art is stylish and full of realistic details that young teens will likely relate to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The next title, just released this month, is \u003cb>The Re-Gifters\u003c/b>. Though there’s an all-male team behind it, this book offers a more complex and empowering female character. Dixie is a young girl balancing her Korean heritage, \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hapkido\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">hapkido\u003c/a> martial arts lessons, a dangerous urban environment, and one massive crush. The whirlwind plot revolves around Dixie’s foolish decision to sacrifice everything for her dream boy, only to discover that he’s not worth even a second thought. But, Dixie’s hapkido skills save the day and her self respect, as she quite literally finds herself facing her ex-crush in the ring, and, well… kicking his a**.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This plot twist inspired me to have a whole new expectation in frothy chick-lit: forget swooning and happily ever after, it’s SO much more satisfying to watch a character throw her ex-crush down in a complex kick/hold, then jump up to receive a tournament trophy, plus maybe even a kiss from her new, appreciative boyfriend. \u003cb>The Re-Gifters\u003c/b>‘s energetic pace and realistic dialogue was engaging and fresh. The message of individuality and the importance (and possibility) of finding someone who truly appreciates you is subtle, yet inspiring. I’d recommend this title also to younger teens, but the story has enough tooth to appeal to older girls, as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minx has two more titles slated to launch this summer, \u003cb>Clubbing\u003c/b> and \u003cb>Good as Lily\u003c/b>. With the fine example set by the line’s first two books, Minx looks to be a welcome bright spot in the dismal world of teen media.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/arts/17261/dc_comics_minx",
"authors": [
"109"
],
"categories": [
"arts_73"
],
"label": "arts"
},
"arts_17205": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "arts_17205",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "arts",
"id": "17205",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1182296313000
]
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "darling_i_like_you_that_way",
"title": "Darling, I Like You That Way",
"publishDate": 1182296313,
"format": "audio",
"headTitle": "Darling, I Like You That Way | KQED",
"labelTerm": {
"site": "arts"
},
"content": "\u003cp>Ayelet Waldman’s essay “Darling, I Like You That Way,” defends her not-so-secret wish that at least one of her two sons would turn out gay — or at least would have some of the qualities that she values so much in her gay friends. This essay came as a result of an essay she wrote for Salon.com in 2005\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Waldman’s essay is featured in \u003cb>Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys: True Tales of Love, Lust and Friendship Between Straight Women and Gay Men\u003c/b>, a collection of essays edited by Melissa de la Cruz and Tom Dolby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "Ayelet Waldman reads her essay \"Darling, I Like You That Way,\" in which she defends her not-so-secret wish that at least one of her two sons would turn out gay.",
"status": "publish",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1726706784,
"stats": {
"hasAudio": false,
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"paragraphCount": 4,
"wordCount": 108
},
"headData": {
"title": "Darling, I Like You That Way | KQED",
"description": "Ayelet Waldman reads her essay "Darling, I Like You That Way," in which she defends her not-so-secret wish that at least one of her two sons would turn out gay.",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogDescription": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"twDescription": "",
"twImgId": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Darling, I Like You That Way",
"datePublished": "2007-06-19T16:38:33-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-09-18T17:46:24-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"sourceUrl": "http://www.kqed.org/arts/programs/writersblock/",
"sticky": false,
"nprByline": "Ayelet Waldman",
"path": "/arts/17205/darling_i_like_you_that_way",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Ayelet Waldman’s essay “Darling, I Like You That Way,” defends her not-so-secret wish that at least one of her two sons would turn out gay — or at least would have some of the qualities that she values so much in her gay friends. This essay came as a result of an essay she wrote for Salon.com in 2005\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Waldman’s essay is featured in \u003cb>Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys: True Tales of Love, Lust and Friendship Between Straight Women and Gay Men\u003c/b>, a collection of essays edited by Melissa de la Cruz and Tom Dolby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/arts/17205/darling_i_like_you_that_way",
"authors": [
"byline_arts_17205"
],
"categories": [
"arts_73"
],
"tags": [
"arts_330"
],
"label": "arts"
},
"arts_17160": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "arts_17160",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "arts",
"id": "17160",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1182200017000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {
"site": "arts"
},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1182200017,
"format": "standard",
"title": "Kaui Hart Hemmings: The Descendants",
"headTitle": "Kaui Hart Hemmings: The Descendants | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Joan Didion once wrote, “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” I agree. Little kids love to hear violent fairy tales of children lost in the woods, to remind themselves just how safe and cozy in bed they are. It’s a way to vicariously experience, and maybe somehow prevent, the most horrific aspects of human misfortune. That need doesn’t go away with the onset of adulthood. Otherwise there wouldn’t be such huge markets for books about murderers, deadly mountaineering accidents, or soul-crushing child abuse. None of those things happen in \u003cb>The Descendants\u003c/b>, a first novel from local author Kaui Hart Hemmings. The tragedies are a bit more subtle and a lot more commonplace. And they even happen in the insulated world of old-money Hawaii, so protected from the kind of problems that most people have. The fact that tragedy strikes, even in this place, makes it all the more terrifying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We tell ourselves stories in order to live, and Hemmings’ story takes on a few truths that we’d really rather not face, but often have to: Sometimes, a person in the prime of life will have an accident that leaves her gravely injured. Sometimes, a person will cheat on his or her spouse, even if they desperately love and need each other. Sometimes, though it’s no one’s fault, little girls will have to grow up in the world without their mother. It’s the stuff of nightmares, yet I’d be willing to bet that scores of women across America will be packing \u003cb>The Descendants\u003c/b> into their luggage to read this summer on Hawaiian beach vacations. Laying on chaises in the sun, reading about a family falling to pieces, they will look up at their own kids and spouses frolicking in the surf, and they will take a deep breath and appreciate for a moment how safe and cozy they are. That’s why we read about tragedy — to ward it off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hemmings’ novel (expanded from her prizewinning short story, “The Minor Wars”, which appeared in her story collection \u003cb>House Of Thieves\u003c/b>) has plot elements that are fairly similar to those of any number of other works in the much maligned “Women’s Fiction” genre. Parents fight with kids, spouses fight with each other, tragedy visits itself upon the unsuspecting. It doesn’t matter: novelty is not why you read a book like this, anyway. You read it to hear how a new singer reinterprets an old standard, and Kaui Hart Hemmings sings it beautifully.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Matt King, the book’s narrator, a lawyer, describes his situation like this: “I have inheritance issues. I belong to one of those Hawaii families that make money off of luck and dead people.” Descended from a Hawaiian princess who married a wealthy white land speculator, it’s now fallen to Matt to dissolve the family trust. He has the largest number of voting shares, and because of this, his vote will be the only one that counts when they meet to decide which time-share condo or shopping mall developer wins the bid for the family’s vast and valuable land holdings. But, Matt’s wife Joanie — a gorgeous, wild island girl, a former model with a taste for partying and fast boats — is lying in a deep coma. She was launched from a cigarette boat during a race and nearly drowned. Her condition keeps getting worse, and Matt is forced to abide by the conditions of her living will. He will have to withdraw life support, stop feeding her, and let her pass away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Matt pulls his daughters out of school, so they have time to say goodbye. 10-year-old Scottie, tough and at times disturbingly adult, inherited her mother’s penchant for chasing danger. After an incident in which Scottie hurts herself at the beach in order to get a boy to rescue her, Matt remarks that it’s exactly the kind of thing her mother would have done: “Joanie WOULD think that story was hilarious. I think of her while we were dating. She loved creating dramas that involved men, pain, sex.” Matt’s older daughter Alexandra, 17, has taken on her mother’s beauty and her party-girl lifestyle. When we first encounter her in the book, she’s drunk on her boarding school’s soccer field. Alex lets her father in on a secret she’d kept with her mother: at the time of the accident, Joanie had been carrying on a passionate affair. Matt has a lot of questions, and sets about answering them before Joanie dies: who is he? Did he love her? Does he deserve a chance to say goodbye?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What prevents all of this from falling down the treacle well is Matt’s funny, real, exasperated voice. he simply cannot believe that all of this is happening to him, and he’s dealing as best he can. Describing Troy, Joanie’s friend who was piloting her boat when the accident happened, he says “Troy is so slow. His great-grandfather invented the shopping cart, and this has left little for Troy to do except sleep with lots of women and put my wife in a coma.” At times, Matt’s daughters seem to him like strangers, a foreign invading alien species. He asks the housekeeper what they do, and what they like, studying up like you would for an exam. Other times, he talks to them like you’d talk to any adult confidante, confessing everything, no matter how personal or upsetting. Alex is a full accomplice in Matt’s effort to find and confront Joanie’s lover. These are not things a child psychologist would suggest to help get your kids through grief.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Matt is as clueless and adrift as anyone would be when thrust into such a situation, but especially so for someone who seemed destined for a life of sun, sand, and leisure. The immensity of what’s about to happen dawns on him slowly. “I need to remember to feed the children. I need to make sure they wash and brush their teeth and go to doctors…They need to say ‘yes’, not ‘yeah,’ to put their napkins in their laps, to chew gum with closed mouths. I need more time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The phrase “Minor Wars,” from which Hemmings’ original short story took its title, comes from Matt’s nickname for the Portuguese man-of-war, a kind of stinging jellyfish. “I called them minor wars because they were like tiny soldiers with impressive weapons–the gaseous bubble, the whiplike tail, the toxic tentacles–advancing in swarms.” It’s too bad that Hemmings didn’t keep her original title, because it’s such a wonderfully evocative phrase, and so perfect for Matt’s situation. One “minor war” wouldn’t kill you. But a whole swarm might make you wish you were dead. Matt doesn’t cave, though, he soldiers on, he figures things out, he loves his daughters, he needs and relies on them. They deal with their tragedies in the real, messy, messed-up way that real people do. An impressive achievement, \u003cb>The Descendants\u003c/b> is hopefully just the first in a long line of solid, enjoyable, smart yet beach-readable novels from Kaui Hart Hemmings. After all, we still need more stories in order to live.\u003c/p>\n\n",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 1301,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 10
},
"modified": 1705053460,
"excerpt": "Joan Didion once wrote, \"We tell ourselves stories in order to live.\" I agree. Little kids love to hear violent fairy tales of children lost in the woods, to remind themselves just how safe and cozy in bed they are. It's a way to vicariously experience, and maybe somehow prevent, the most horrific aspects of human misfortune. That need doesn't go away with the onset of adulthood. Otherwise there wouldn't be such huge markets for books about murderers, deadly mountaineering accidents, or soul-crushing child abuse. None of those things happen in \u003cb>The Descendants\u003c/b>, a first novel from local author Kaui Hart Hemmings. The tragedies are a bit more subtle and a lot more commonplace. And they even happen in the insulated world of old-money Hawaii, so protected from the kind of problems that most people have. The fact that tragedy strikes, even in this place, makes it all the more terrifying.",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "Joan Didion once wrote, "We tell ourselves stories in order to live." I agree. Little kids love to hear violent fairy tales of children lost in the woods, to remind themselves just how safe and cozy in bed they are. It's a way to vicariously experience, and maybe somehow prevent, the most horrific aspects of human misfortune. That need doesn't go away with the onset of adulthood. Otherwise there wouldn't be such huge markets for books about murderers, deadly mountaineering accidents, or soul-crushing child abuse. None of those things happen in The Descendants, a first novel from local author Kaui Hart Hemmings. The tragedies are a bit more subtle and a lot more commonplace. And they even happen in the insulated world of old-money Hawaii, so protected from the kind of problems that most people have. The fact that tragedy strikes, even in this place, makes it all the more terrifying.",
"title": "Kaui Hart Hemmings: The Descendants | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Kaui Hart Hemmings: The Descendants",
"datePublished": "2007-06-18T13:53:37-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-01-12T01:57:40-08:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "kaui_hart_hemmings_the_descendants",
"status": "publish",
"sourceUrl": "http://www.kqed.org/arts/category/literature/literature-review/",
"sticky": false,
"path": "/arts/17160/kaui_hart_hemmings_the_descendants",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Joan Didion once wrote, “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” I agree. Little kids love to hear violent fairy tales of children lost in the woods, to remind themselves just how safe and cozy in bed they are. It’s a way to vicariously experience, and maybe somehow prevent, the most horrific aspects of human misfortune. That need doesn’t go away with the onset of adulthood. Otherwise there wouldn’t be such huge markets for books about murderers, deadly mountaineering accidents, or soul-crushing child abuse. None of those things happen in \u003cb>The Descendants\u003c/b>, a first novel from local author Kaui Hart Hemmings. The tragedies are a bit more subtle and a lot more commonplace. And they even happen in the insulated world of old-money Hawaii, so protected from the kind of problems that most people have. The fact that tragedy strikes, even in this place, makes it all the more terrifying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We tell ourselves stories in order to live, and Hemmings’ story takes on a few truths that we’d really rather not face, but often have to: Sometimes, a person in the prime of life will have an accident that leaves her gravely injured. Sometimes, a person will cheat on his or her spouse, even if they desperately love and need each other. Sometimes, though it’s no one’s fault, little girls will have to grow up in the world without their mother. It’s the stuff of nightmares, yet I’d be willing to bet that scores of women across America will be packing \u003cb>The Descendants\u003c/b> into their luggage to read this summer on Hawaiian beach vacations. Laying on chaises in the sun, reading about a family falling to pieces, they will look up at their own kids and spouses frolicking in the surf, and they will take a deep breath and appreciate for a moment how safe and cozy they are. That’s why we read about tragedy — to ward it off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hemmings’ novel (expanded from her prizewinning short story, “The Minor Wars”, which appeared in her story collection \u003cb>House Of Thieves\u003c/b>) has plot elements that are fairly similar to those of any number of other works in the much maligned “Women’s Fiction” genre. Parents fight with kids, spouses fight with each other, tragedy visits itself upon the unsuspecting. It doesn’t matter: novelty is not why you read a book like this, anyway. You read it to hear how a new singer reinterprets an old standard, and Kaui Hart Hemmings sings it beautifully.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Matt King, the book’s narrator, a lawyer, describes his situation like this: “I have inheritance issues. I belong to one of those Hawaii families that make money off of luck and dead people.” Descended from a Hawaiian princess who married a wealthy white land speculator, it’s now fallen to Matt to dissolve the family trust. He has the largest number of voting shares, and because of this, his vote will be the only one that counts when they meet to decide which time-share condo or shopping mall developer wins the bid for the family’s vast and valuable land holdings. But, Matt’s wife Joanie — a gorgeous, wild island girl, a former model with a taste for partying and fast boats — is lying in a deep coma. She was launched from a cigarette boat during a race and nearly drowned. Her condition keeps getting worse, and Matt is forced to abide by the conditions of her living will. He will have to withdraw life support, stop feeding her, and let her pass away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Matt pulls his daughters out of school, so they have time to say goodbye. 10-year-old Scottie, tough and at times disturbingly adult, inherited her mother’s penchant for chasing danger. After an incident in which Scottie hurts herself at the beach in order to get a boy to rescue her, Matt remarks that it’s exactly the kind of thing her mother would have done: “Joanie WOULD think that story was hilarious. I think of her while we were dating. She loved creating dramas that involved men, pain, sex.” Matt’s older daughter Alexandra, 17, has taken on her mother’s beauty and her party-girl lifestyle. When we first encounter her in the book, she’s drunk on her boarding school’s soccer field. Alex lets her father in on a secret she’d kept with her mother: at the time of the accident, Joanie had been carrying on a passionate affair. Matt has a lot of questions, and sets about answering them before Joanie dies: who is he? Did he love her? Does he deserve a chance to say goodbye?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What prevents all of this from falling down the treacle well is Matt’s funny, real, exasperated voice. he simply cannot believe that all of this is happening to him, and he’s dealing as best he can. Describing Troy, Joanie’s friend who was piloting her boat when the accident happened, he says “Troy is so slow. His great-grandfather invented the shopping cart, and this has left little for Troy to do except sleep with lots of women and put my wife in a coma.” At times, Matt’s daughters seem to him like strangers, a foreign invading alien species. He asks the housekeeper what they do, and what they like, studying up like you would for an exam. Other times, he talks to them like you’d talk to any adult confidante, confessing everything, no matter how personal or upsetting. Alex is a full accomplice in Matt’s effort to find and confront Joanie’s lover. These are not things a child psychologist would suggest to help get your kids through grief.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Matt is as clueless and adrift as anyone would be when thrust into such a situation, but especially so for someone who seemed destined for a life of sun, sand, and leisure. The immensity of what’s about to happen dawns on him slowly. “I need to remember to feed the children. I need to make sure they wash and brush their teeth and go to doctors…They need to say ‘yes’, not ‘yeah,’ to put their napkins in their laps, to chew gum with closed mouths. I need more time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "floatright"
},
"numeric": [
"floatright"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The phrase “Minor Wars,” from which Hemmings’ original short story took its title, comes from Matt’s nickname for the Portuguese man-of-war, a kind of stinging jellyfish. “I called them minor wars because they were like tiny soldiers with impressive weapons–the gaseous bubble, the whiplike tail, the toxic tentacles–advancing in swarms.” It’s too bad that Hemmings didn’t keep her original title, because it’s such a wonderfully evocative phrase, and so perfect for Matt’s situation. One “minor war” wouldn’t kill you. But a whole swarm might make you wish you were dead. Matt doesn’t cave, though, he soldiers on, he figures things out, he loves his daughters, he needs and relies on them. They deal with their tragedies in the real, messy, messed-up way that real people do. An impressive achievement, \u003cb>The Descendants\u003c/b> is hopefully just the first in a long line of solid, enjoyable, smart yet beach-readable novels from Kaui Hart Hemmings. After all, we still need more stories in order to live.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/arts/17160/kaui_hart_hemmings_the_descendants",
"authors": [
"111"
],
"categories": [
"arts_73"
],
"tags": [
"arts_596",
"arts_769"
],
"label": "arts"
}
},
"podcastsReducer": {
"isFetching": false,
"fetchFailed": false,
"hasFetched": false,
"podcasts": {}
},
"radioProgramsReducer": {
"isFetching": false,
"fetchFailed": false,
"hasFetched": false,
"radioPrograms": {}
},
"radioSearchSegmentsReducer": {},
"programsReducer": {
"all-things-considered": {
"id": "all-things-considered",
"title": "All Things Considered",
"info": "Every weekday, \u003cem>All Things Considered\u003c/em> hosts Robert Siegel, Audie Cornish, Ari Shapiro, and Kelly McEvers present the program's trademark mix of news, interviews, commentaries, reviews, and offbeat features. Michel Martin hosts on the weekends.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 1pm-2pm, 4:30pm-6:30pm\u003cbr />SAT-SUN 5pm-6pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/All-Things-Considered-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/all-things-considered/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/all-things-considered"
},
"american-suburb-podcast": {
"id": "american-suburb-podcast",
"title": "American Suburb: The Podcast",
"tagline": "The flip side of gentrification, told through one town",
"info": "Gentrification is changing cities across America, forcing people from neighborhoods they have long called home. Call them the displaced. Now those priced out of the Bay Area are looking for a better life in an unlikely place. American Suburb follows this migration to one California town along the Delta, 45 miles from San Francisco. But is this once sleepy suburb ready for them?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/American-Suburb-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/news/series/american-suburb-podcast",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 19
},
"link": "/news/series/american-suburb-podcast/",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/RBrW",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?mt=2&id=1287748328",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/American-Suburb-p1086805/",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/series/american-suburb-podcast/feed/podcast",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkMzMDExODgxNjA5"
}
},
"baycurious": {
"id": "baycurious",
"title": "Bay Curious",
"tagline": "Exploring the Bay Area, one question at a time",
"info": "KQED’s new podcast, Bay Curious, gets to the bottom of the mysteries — both profound and peculiar — that give the Bay Area its unique identity. And we’ll do it with your help! You ask the questions. You decide what Bay Curious investigates. And you join us on the journey to find the answers.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Bay-Curious-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Bay Curious",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/news/series/baycurious",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 3
},
"link": "/podcasts/baycurious",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bay-curious/id1172473406",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/500557090/bay-curious",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/category/bay-curious-podcast/feed/podcast",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9a90d476-aa04-455d-9a4c-0871ed6216d4/bay-curious",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/bay-curious",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/6O76IdmhixfijmhTZLIJ8k"
}
},
"bbc-world-service": {
"id": "bbc-world-service",
"title": "BBC World Service",
"info": "The day's top stories from BBC News compiled twice daily in the week, once at weekends.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9pm-10pm, TUE-FRI 1am-2am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BBC-World-Service-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_world_service",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "BBC World Service"
},
"link": "/radio/program/bbc-world-service",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/global-news-podcast/id135067274?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/BBC-World-Service-p455581/",
"rss": "https://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/p02nq0gn.rss"
}
},
"californiareport": {
"id": "californiareport",
"title": "The California Report",
"tagline": "California, day by day",
"info": "KQED’s statewide radio news program providing daily coverage of issues, trends and public policy decisions.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-California-Report-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The California Report",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareport",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 8
},
"link": "/californiareport",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/kqeds-the-california-report/id79681292",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/26099305-72af-4542-9dde-ac1807fe36d5/kqed-s-the-california-report",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432285393/the-california-report",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqedfm-kqeds-the-california-report-podcast-8838",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/tcram/feed/podcast"
}
},
"californiareportmagazine": {
"id": "californiareportmagazine",
"title": "The California Report Magazine",
"tagline": "Your state, your stories",
"info": "Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.",
"airtime": "FRI 4:30pm-5pm, 6:30pm-7pm, 11pm-11:30pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-California-Report-Magazine-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The California Report Magazine",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareportmagazine",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 10
},
"link": "/californiareportmagazine",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-california-report-magazine/id1314750545",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM3NjkwNjk1OTAz",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/564733126/the-california-report-magazine",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/the-california-report-magazine",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/tcrmag/feed/podcast"
}
},
"city-arts": {
"id": "city-arts",
"title": "City Arts & Lectures",
"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/cityartsandlecture-300x300.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.cityarts.net/",
"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
"subscribe": {
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/City-Arts-and-Lectures-p692/",
"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"closealltabs": {
"id": "closealltabs",
"title": "Close All Tabs",
"tagline": "Your irreverent guide to the trends redefining our world",
"info": "Close All Tabs breaks down how digital culture shapes our world through thoughtful insights and irreverent humor.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/CAT_2_Tile-scaled.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Close All Tabs",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 1
},
"link": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/close-all-tabs/id214663465",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC6993880386",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/92d9d4ac-67a3-4eed-b10a-fb45d45b1ef2/close-all-tabs",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/6LAJFHnGK1pYXYzv6SIol6?si=deb0cae19813417c"
}
},
"code-switch-life-kit": {
"id": "code-switch-life-kit",
"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
"airtime": "SUN 9pm-10pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Code-Switch-Life-Kit-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/code-switch-life-kit",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/1112190608?mt=2&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnByLm9yZy9yc3MvcG9kY2FzdC5waHA_aWQ9NTEwMzEy",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/3bExJ9JQpkwNhoHvaIIuyV",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510312/podcast.xml"
}
},
"commonwealth-club": {
"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.commonwealthclub.org/podcasts",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/commonwealth-club-of-california-podcast/id976334034?mt=2",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Commonwealth-Club-of-California-p1060/"
}
},
"forum": {
"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/forum",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
"link": "/forum",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/kqeds-forum/id73329719",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432307980/forum",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqedfm-kqeds-forum-podcast",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC9557381633"
}
},
"freakonomics-radio": {
"id": "freakonomics-radio",
"title": "Freakonomics Radio",
"info": "Freakonomics Radio is a one-hour award-winning podcast and public-radio project hosted by Stephen Dubner, with co-author Steve Levitt as a regular guest. It is produced in partnership with WNYC.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/4s8b",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
"rss": "https://feeds.feedburner.com/freakonomicsradio"
}
},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
"title": "Fresh Air",
"info": "Hosted by Terry Gross, \u003cem>Fresh Air from WHYY\u003c/em> is the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues. One of public radio's most popular programs, Fresh Air features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 7pm-8pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Fresh-Air-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/fresh-air",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/4s8b",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Fresh-Air-p17/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/381444908/podcast.xml"
}
},
"here-and-now": {
"id": "here-and-now",
"title": "Here & Now",
"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
"airtime": "MON-THU 11am-12pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Here-And-Now-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/here-and-now",
"subsdcribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?mt=2&id=426698661",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Here--Now-p211/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
}
},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
"title": "Hidden Brain",
"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/hiddenbrain.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/series/423302056/hidden-brain",
"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/hidden-brain/id1028908750?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Science-Podcasts/Hidden-Brain-p787503/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510308/podcast.xml"
}
},
"how-i-built-this": {
"id": "how-i-built-this",
"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Arts--Culture-Podcasts/How-I-Built-This-p910896/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510313/podcast.xml"
}
},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
"imageAlt": "KQED Hyphenación",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hyphenaci%C3%B3n/id1191591838",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/2p3Fifq96nw9BPcmFdIq0o?si=39209f7b25774f38",
"youtube": "https://www.youtube.com/c/kqedarts",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/6c3dd23c-93fb-4aab-97ba-1725fa6315f1/hyphenaci%C3%B3n",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC2275451163"
}
},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/790253322/the-political-mind-of-jerry-brown",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1492194549",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/series/jerrybrown/feed/podcast/",
"tuneIn": "http://tun.in/pjGcK",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/the-political-mind-of-jerry-brown",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/54C1dmuyFyKMFttY6X2j6r?si=K8SgRCoISNK6ZbjpXrX5-w",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/44420f75-3b0e-4301-ab3b-16da6b09e543/the-political-mind-of-jerry-brown"
}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/xtTd",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Latino-USA-p621/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=201853034&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/APM-Marketplace-p88/",
"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
}
},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Masters-of-Scale-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mindshift-podcast/id1078765985",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/464615685/mind-shift-podcast",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/stories-teachers-share",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/0MxSpNYZKNprFLCl7eEtyx"
}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "On Our Watch from NPR and KQED",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/onourwatch",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/0OLWoyizopu6tY1XiuX70x",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-Our-Watch-p1436229/",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/show/on-our-watch",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510360/podcast.xml"
}
},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "pbs"
},
"link": "/radio/program/pbs-newshour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
"rss": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"
}
},
"perspectives": {
"id": "perspectives",
"title": "Perspectives",
"tagline": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991",
"info": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Perspectives_Tile_Final.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Perspectives",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/perspectives/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 14
},
"link": "/perspectives",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id73801135",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432309616/perspectives",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/perspectives/category/perspectives/feed/",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93dzIua3FlZC5vcmcvcGVyc3BlY3RpdmVzL2NhdGVnb3J5L3BlcnNwZWN0aXZlcy9mZWVkLw"
}
},
"planet-money": {
"id": "planet-money",
"title": "Planet Money",
"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/sections/money/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/M4f5",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Business--Economics-Podcasts/Planet-Money-p164680/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510289/podcast.xml"
}
},
"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Political-Breakdown-2024-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Political Breakdown",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 5
},
"link": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/political-breakdown/id1327641087",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/e0c2d153-ad36-4c8d-901d-f1da6a724824/political-breakdown",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/572155894/political-breakdown",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/political-breakdown",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/07RVyIjIdk2WDuVehvBMoN",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/political-breakdown/feed/podcast"
}
},
"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.possible.fm/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Possible"
},
"link": "/radio/program/possible",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/possible/id1677184070",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/730YpdUSNlMyPQwNnyjp4k"
}
},
"pri-the-world": {
"id": "pri-the-world",
"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pri.org/programs/the-world",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "PRI"
},
"link": "/radio/program/pri-the-world",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pris-the-world-latest-edition/id278196007?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/News--Politics-Podcasts/PRIs-The-World-p24/",
"rss": "http://feeds.feedburner.com/pri/theworld"
}
},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
"title": "Radiolab",
"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
"airtime": "SUN 12am-1am, SAT 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/radiolab1400.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/radiolab/",
"meta": {
"site": "science",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/radiolab",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/radiolab/id152249110?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/RadioLab-p68032/",
"rss": "https://feeds.wnyc.org/radiolab"
}
},
"reveal": {
"id": "reveal",
"title": "Reveal",
"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
"airtime": "SAT 4pm-5pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/reveal300px.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/reveal",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/reveal/id886009669",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Reveal-p679597/",
"rss": "http://feeds.revealradio.org/revealpodcast"
}
},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rightnowish-Podcast-Tile-500x500-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Rightnowish with Pendarvis Harshaw",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/rightnowish",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 16
},
"link": "/podcasts/rightnowish",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/721590300/rightnowish",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/programs/rightnowish/feed/podcast",
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rightnowish/id1482187648",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/rightnowish",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkMxMjU5MTY3NDc4",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/7kEJuafTzTVan7B78ttz1I"
}
},
"science-friday": {
"id": "science-friday",
"title": "Science Friday",
"info": "Science Friday is a weekly science talk show, broadcast live over public radio stations nationwide. Each week, the show focuses on science topics that are in the news and tries to bring an educated, balanced discussion to bear on the scientific issues at hand. Panels of expert guests join host Ira Flatow, a veteran science journalist, to discuss science and to take questions from listeners during the call-in portion of the program.",
"airtime": "FRI 11am-1pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Science-Friday-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/science-friday",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/science-friday",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=73329284&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Science-Friday-p394/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/science-friday"
}
},
"snap-judgment": {
"id": "snap-judgment",
"title": "Snap Judgment",
"tagline": "Real stories with killer beats",
"info": "The Snap Judgment radio show and podcast mixes real stories with killer beats to produce cinematic, dramatic radio. Snap's musical brand of storytelling dares listeners to see the world through the eyes of another. This is storytelling... with a BEAT!! Snap first aired on public radio stations nationwide in July 2010. Today, Snap Judgment airs on over 450 public radio stations and is brought to the airwaves by KQED & PRX.",
"airtime": "SAT 1pm-2pm, 9pm-10pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Snap-Judgment-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Snap Judgment",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://snapjudgment.org",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 4
},
"link": "https://snapjudgment.org",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/snap-judgment/id283657561",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/449018144/snap-judgment",
"stitcher": "https://www.pandora.com/podcast/snap-judgment/PC:241?source=stitcher-sunset",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/3Cct7ZWmxHNAtLgBTqjC5v",
"rss": "https://snap.feed.snapjudgment.org/"
}
},
"soldout": {
"id": "soldout",
"title": "SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America",
"tagline": "A new future for housing",
"info": "Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Sold-Out-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/soldout",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 13
},
"link": "/podcasts/soldout",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/911586047/s-o-l-d-o-u-t-a-new-future-for-housing",
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/introducing-sold-out-rethinking-housing-in-america/id1531354937",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/soldout",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/38dTBSk2ISFoPiyYNoKn1X",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/sold-out-rethinking-housing-in-america",
"tunein": "https://tunein.com/radio/SOLD-OUT-Rethinking-Housing-in-America-p1365871/"
}
},
"spooked": {
"id": "spooked",
"title": "Spooked",
"tagline": "True-life supernatural stories",
"info": "",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Spooked-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Spooked",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://spookedpodcast.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 7
},
"link": "https://spookedpodcast.org/",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/spooked/id1279361017",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/549547848/snap-judgment-presents-spooked",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/76571Rfl3m7PLJQZKQIGCT",
"rss": "https://feeds.simplecast.com/TBotaapn"
}
},
"tech-nation": {
"id": "tech-nation",
"title": "Tech Nation Radio Podcast",
"info": "Tech Nation is a weekly public radio program, hosted by Dr. Moira Gunn. Founded in 1993, it has grown from a simple interview show to a multi-faceted production, featuring conversations with noted technology and science leaders, and a weekly science and technology-related commentary.",
"airtime": "FRI 10pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Tech-Nation-Radio-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://technation.podomatic.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "science",
"source": "Tech Nation Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/tech-nation",
"subscribe": {
"rss": "https://technation.podomatic.com/rss2.xml"
}
},
"ted-radio-hour": {
"id": "ted-radio-hour",
"title": "TED Radio Hour",
"info": "The TED Radio Hour is a journey through fascinating ideas, astonishing inventions, fresh approaches to old problems, and new ways to think and create.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm, SAT 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/tedRadioHour.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/?showDate=2018-06-22",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/ted-radio-hour",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/8vsS",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=523121474&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/TED-Radio-Hour-p418021/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510298/podcast.xml"
}
},
"thebay": {
"id": "thebay",
"title": "The Bay",
"tagline": "Local news to keep you rooted",
"info": "Host Devin Katayama walks you through the biggest story of the day with reporters and newsmakers.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Bay-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Bay",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/thebay",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 2
},
"link": "/podcasts/thebay",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bay/id1350043452",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/d800ea4c-7a2c-42f2-b861-edaf78a5db0b/the-bay",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/586725995/the-bay",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/the-bay",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/4BIKBKIujizLHlIlBNaAqQ",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC8259786327"
}
},
"thelatest": {
"id": "thelatest",
"title": "The Latest",
"tagline": "Trusted local news in real time",
"info": "",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/The-Latest-2025-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Latest",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/thelatest",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 6
},
"link": "/thelatest",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-latest-from-kqed/id1197721799",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/1257949365/the-latest-from-k-q-e-d",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/5KIIXMgM9GTi5AepwOYvIZ?si=bd3053fec7244dba",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC9137121918"
}
},
"theleap": {
"id": "theleap",
"title": "The Leap",
"tagline": "What if you closed your eyes, and jumped?",
"info": "Stories about people making dramatic, risky changes, told by award-winning public radio reporter Judy Campbell.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Leap-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Leap",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/theleap",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 17
},
"link": "/podcasts/theleap",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-leap/id1046668171",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/447248267/the-leap",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/the-leap",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/3sSlVHHzU0ytLwuGs1SD1U",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/programs/the-leap/feed/podcast"
}
},
"the-moth-radio-hour": {
"id": "the-moth-radio-hour",
"title": "The Moth Radio Hour",
"info": "Since its launch in 1997, The Moth has presented thousands of true stories, told live and without notes, to standing-room-only crowds worldwide. Moth storytellers stand alone, under a spotlight, with only a microphone and a roomful of strangers. The storyteller and the audience embark on a high-wire act of shared experience which is both terrifying and exhilarating. Since 2008, The Moth podcast has featured many of our favorite stories told live on Moth stages around the country. For information on all of our programs and live events, visit themoth.org.",
"airtime": "SAT 8pm-9pm and SUN 11am-12pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/theMoth.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://themoth.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "prx"
},
"link": "/radio/program/the-moth-radio-hour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-moth-podcast/id275699983?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/The-Moth-p273888/",
"rss": "http://feeds.themoth.org/themothpodcast"
}
},
"the-new-yorker-radio-hour": {
"id": "the-new-yorker-radio-hour",
"title": "The New Yorker Radio Hour",
"info": "The New Yorker Radio Hour is a weekly program presented by the magazine's editor, David Remnick, and produced by WNYC Studios and The New Yorker. Each episode features a diverse mix of interviews, profiles, storytelling, and an occasional burst of humor inspired by the magazine, and shaped by its writers, artists, and editors. This isn't a radio version of a magazine, but something all its own, reflecting the rich possibilities of audio storytelling and conversation. Theme music for the show was composed and performed by Merrill Garbus of tUnE-YArDs.",
"airtime": "SAT 10am-11am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-New-Yorker-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/tnyradiohour",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/the-new-yorker-radio-hour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1050430296",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/New-Yorker-Radio-Hour-p803804/",
"rss": "https://feeds.feedburner.com/newyorkerradiohour"
}
},
"the-sam-sanders-show": {
"id": "the-sam-sanders-show",
"title": "The Sam Sanders Show",
"info": "One of public radio's most dynamic voices, Sam Sanders helped launch The NPR Politics Podcast and hosted NPR's hit show It's Been A Minute. Now, the award-winning host returns with something brand new, The Sam Sanders Show. Every week, Sam Sanders and friends dig into the culture that shapes our lives: what's driving the biggest trends, how artists really think, and even the memes you can't stop scrolling past. Sam is beloved for his way of unpacking the world and bringing you up close to fresh currents and engaging conversations. The Sam Sanders Show is smart, funny and always a good time.",
"airtime": "FRI 12-1pm AND SAT 11am-12pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/The-Sam-Sanders-Show-Podcast-Tile-400x400-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.kcrw.com/shows/the-sam-sanders-show/latest",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "KCRW"
},
"link": "https://www.kcrw.com/shows/the-sam-sanders-show/latest",
"subscribe": {
"rss": "https://feed.cdnstream1.com/zjb/feed/download/ac/28/59/ac28594c-e1d0-4231-8728-61865cdc80e8.xml"
}
},
"the-splendid-table": {
"id": "the-splendid-table",
"title": "The Splendid Table",
"info": "\u003cem>The Splendid Table\u003c/em> hosts our nation's conversations about cooking, sustainability and food culture.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Splendid-Table-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.splendidtable.org/",
"airtime": "SUN 10-11 pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/the-splendid-table"
},
"this-american-life": {
"id": "this-american-life",
"title": "This American Life",
"info": "This American Life is a weekly public radio show, heard by 2.2 million people on more than 500 stations. Another 2.5 million people download the weekly podcast. It is hosted by Ira Glass, produced in collaboration with Chicago Public Media, delivered to stations by PRX The Public Radio Exchange, and has won all of the major broadcasting awards.",
"airtime": "SAT 12pm-1pm, 7pm-8pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/thisAmericanLife.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "wbez"
},
"link": "/radio/program/this-american-life",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=201671138&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"rss": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/podcast/rss.xml"
}
},
"tinydeskradio": {
"id": "tinydeskradio",
"title": "Tiny Desk Radio",
"info": "We're bringing the best of Tiny Desk to the airwaves, only on public radio.",
"airtime": "SUN 8pm and SAT 9pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/300x300-For-Member-Station-Logo-Tiny-Desk-Radio-@2x.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/series/g-s1-52030/tiny-desk-radio",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/tinydeskradio",
"subscribe": {
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/g-s1-52030/rss.xml"
}
},
"wait-wait-dont-tell-me": {
"id": "wait-wait-dont-tell-me",
"title": "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!",
"info": "Peter Sagal and Bill Kurtis host the weekly NPR News quiz show alongside some of the best and brightest news and entertainment personalities.",
"airtime": "SUN 10am-11am, SAT 11am-12pm, SAT 6pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Wait-Wait-Podcast-Tile-300x300-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/wait-wait-dont-tell-me/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/wait-wait-dont-tell-me",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/Xogv",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=121493804&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Wait-Wait-Dont-Tell-Me-p46/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/344098539/podcast.xml"
}
},
"weekend-edition-saturday": {
"id": "weekend-edition-saturday",
"title": "Weekend Edition Saturday",
"info": "Weekend Edition Saturday wraps up the week's news and offers a mix of analysis and features on a wide range of topics, including arts, sports, entertainment, and human interest stories. The two-hour program is hosted by NPR's Peabody Award-winning Scott Simon.",
"airtime": "SAT 5am-10am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Weekend-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/weekend-edition-saturday/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/weekend-edition-saturday"
},
"weekend-edition-sunday": {
"id": "weekend-edition-sunday",
"title": "Weekend Edition Sunday",
"info": "Weekend Edition Sunday features interviews with newsmakers, artists, scientists, politicians, musicians, writers, theologians and historians. The program has covered news events from Nelson Mandela's 1990 release from a South African prison to the capture of Saddam Hussein.",
"airtime": "SUN 5am-10am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Weekend-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/weekend-edition-sunday/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/weekend-edition-sunday"
}
},
"racesReducer": {},
"racesGenElectionReducer": {},
"racesGenElection2026Reducer": {},
"radioSchedulesReducer": {},
"listsReducer": {
"posts/arts?category=literature": {
"isFetching": false,
"latestQuery": {
"from": 1764,
"size": 12
},
"vitalsOnly": false,
"totalRequested": 12,
"isLoading": false,
"isLoadingMore": true,
"total": {
"value": 1917,
"relation": "eq"
},
"items": [
"arts_18048",
"arts_18001",
"arts_17929",
"arts_17705",
"arts_17610",
"arts_17560",
"arts_17562",
"arts_17482",
"arts_17381",
"arts_17261",
"arts_17205",
"arts_17160"
],
"complete": true
}
},
"recallGuideReducer": {
"intros": {},
"policy": {},
"candidates": {}
},
"savedArticleReducer": {
"articles": [],
"status": {}
},
"newslettersReducer": {
"isFetching": false,
"fetchFailed": false,
"hasFetched": false,
"newsletters": {},
"isSubscribing": false,
"isUnsubscribing": false,
"subscribedNewsletters": {}
},
"termsReducer": {
"about": {
"name": "About",
"type": "terms",
"id": "about",
"slug": "about",
"link": "/about",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"arts": {
"name": "Arts & Culture",
"grouping": [
"arts",
"pop",
"trulyca"
],
"description": "KQED Arts provides daily in-depth coverage of the Bay Area's music, art, film, performing arts, literature and arts news, as well as cultural commentary and criticism.",
"type": "terms",
"id": "arts",
"slug": "arts",
"link": "/arts",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"artschool": {
"name": "Art School",
"parent": "arts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "artschool",
"slug": "artschool",
"link": "/artschool",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"bayareabites": {
"name": "KQED food",
"grouping": [
"food",
"bayareabites",
"checkplease"
],
"parent": "food",
"type": "terms",
"id": "bayareabites",
"slug": "bayareabites",
"link": "/food",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"bayareahiphop": {
"name": "Bay Area Hiphop",
"type": "terms",
"id": "bayareahiphop",
"slug": "bayareahiphop",
"link": "/bayareahiphop",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"campaign21": {
"name": "Campaign 21",
"type": "terms",
"id": "campaign21",
"slug": "campaign21",
"link": "/campaign21",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"careers": {
"name": "Careers",
"type": "terms",
"id": "careers",
"slug": "careers",
"link": "/careers",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"checkplease": {
"name": "KQED food",
"grouping": [
"food",
"bayareabites",
"checkplease"
],
"parent": "food",
"type": "terms",
"id": "checkplease",
"slug": "checkplease",
"link": "/food",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"education": {
"name": "Education",
"grouping": [
"education"
],
"type": "terms",
"id": "education",
"slug": "education",
"link": "/education",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"elections": {
"name": "Elections",
"type": "terms",
"id": "elections",
"slug": "elections",
"link": "/elections",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"events": {
"name": "Events",
"type": "terms",
"id": "events",
"slug": "events",
"link": "/events",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"event": {
"name": "Event",
"alias": "events",
"type": "terms",
"id": "event",
"slug": "event",
"link": "/event",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"filmschoolshorts": {
"name": "Film School Shorts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "filmschoolshorts",
"slug": "filmschoolshorts",
"link": "/filmschoolshorts",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"food": {
"name": "KQED food",
"grouping": [
"food",
"bayareabites",
"checkplease"
],
"type": "terms",
"id": "food",
"slug": "food",
"link": "/food",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"forum": {
"name": "Forum",
"relatedContentQuery": "posts/forum?",
"parent": "news",
"type": "terms",
"id": "forum",
"slug": "forum",
"link": "/forum",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"futureofyou": {
"name": "Future of You",
"grouping": [
"science",
"futureofyou"
],
"parent": "science",
"type": "terms",
"id": "futureofyou",
"slug": "futureofyou",
"link": "/futureofyou",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"jpepinheart": {
"name": "KQED food",
"relatedContentQuery": "posts/food,bayareabites,checkplease",
"parent": "food",
"type": "terms",
"id": "jpepinheart",
"slug": "jpepinheart",
"link": "/food",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"liveblog": {
"name": "Live Blog",
"type": "terms",
"id": "liveblog",
"slug": "liveblog",
"link": "/liveblog",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"livetv": {
"name": "Live TV",
"parent": "tv",
"type": "terms",
"id": "livetv",
"slug": "livetv",
"link": "/livetv",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"lowdown": {
"name": "The Lowdown",
"relatedContentQuery": "posts/lowdown?",
"parent": "news",
"type": "terms",
"id": "lowdown",
"slug": "lowdown",
"link": "/lowdown",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"mindshift": {
"name": "Mindshift",
"parent": "news",
"description": "MindShift explores the future of education by highlighting the innovative – and sometimes counterintuitive – ways educators and parents are helping all children succeed.",
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift",
"slug": "mindshift",
"link": "/mindshift",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"news": {
"name": "News",
"grouping": [
"news",
"forum"
],
"type": "terms",
"id": "news",
"slug": "news",
"link": "/news",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"newsletters": {
"name": "newsletters",
"type": "terms",
"id": "newsletters",
"slug": "newsletters",
"link": "/newsletters",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"perspectives": {
"name": "Perspectives",
"parent": "radio",
"type": "terms",
"id": "perspectives",
"slug": "perspectives",
"link": "/perspectives",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"podcasts": {
"name": "Podcasts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "podcasts",
"slug": "podcasts",
"link": "/podcasts",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"pop": {
"name": "Pop",
"parent": "arts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "pop",
"slug": "pop",
"link": "/pop",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"pressroom": {
"name": "Pressroom",
"type": "terms",
"id": "pressroom",
"slug": "pressroom",
"link": "/pressroom",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"quest": {
"name": "Quest",
"parent": "science",
"type": "terms",
"id": "quest",
"slug": "quest",
"link": "/quest",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"radio": {
"name": "Radio",
"grouping": [
"forum",
"perspectives"
],
"description": "Listen to KQED Public Radio – home of Forum and The California Report – on 88.5 FM in San Francisco, 89.3 FM in Sacramento, 88.3 FM in Santa Rosa and 88.1 FM in Martinez.",
"type": "terms",
"id": "radio",
"slug": "radio",
"link": "/radio",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"root": {
"name": "KQED",
"image": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"imageWidth": 1200,
"imageHeight": 630,
"headData": {
"title": "KQED | News, Radio, Podcasts, TV | Public Media for Northern California",
"description": "KQED provides public radio, television, and independent reporting on issues that matter to the Bay Area. We’re the NPR and PBS member station for Northern California."
},
"type": "terms",
"id": "root",
"slug": "root",
"link": "/root",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"science": {
"name": "Science",
"grouping": [
"science",
"futureofyou"
],
"description": "KQED Science brings you award-winning science and environment coverage from the Bay Area and beyond.",
"type": "terms",
"id": "science",
"slug": "science",
"link": "/science",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"stateofhealth": {
"name": "State of Health",
"parent": "science",
"type": "terms",
"id": "stateofhealth",
"slug": "stateofhealth",
"link": "/stateofhealth",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"support": {
"name": "Support",
"type": "terms",
"id": "support",
"slug": "support",
"link": "/support",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"thedolist": {
"name": "The Do List",
"parent": "arts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "thedolist",
"slug": "thedolist",
"link": "/thedolist",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"trulyca": {
"name": "Truly CA",
"grouping": [
"arts",
"pop",
"trulyca"
],
"parent": "arts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "trulyca",
"slug": "trulyca",
"link": "/trulyca",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"tv": {
"name": "TV",
"type": "terms",
"id": "tv",
"slug": "tv",
"link": "/tv",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"voterguide": {
"name": "Voter Guide",
"parent": "elections",
"alias": "elections",
"type": "terms",
"id": "voterguide",
"slug": "voterguide",
"link": "/voterguide",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"guiaelectoral": {
"name": "Guia Electoral",
"parent": "elections",
"alias": "elections",
"type": "terms",
"id": "guiaelectoral",
"slug": "guiaelectoral",
"link": "/guiaelectoral",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"arts_category_literature": {
"isLoading": true
},
"arts_73": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "arts_73",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "arts",
"id": "73",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Books",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Books Archives | KQED Arts",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 74,
"slug": "literature",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/arts/category/literature"
},
"arts_330": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "arts_330",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "arts",
"id": "330",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "The Writers' Block",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "The Writers' Block Archives | KQED Arts",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 331,
"slug": "writersblock",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/arts/tag/writersblock"
},
"arts_596": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "arts_596",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "arts",
"id": "596",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "ntv",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "ntv Archives | KQED Arts",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 602,
"slug": "ntv",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/arts/tag/ntv"
},
"arts_769": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "arts_769",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "arts",
"id": "769",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "review",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "review Archives | KQED Arts",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 787,
"slug": "review",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/arts/tag/review"
}
},
"userPermissionsReducer": {
"wpLoggedIn": false
},
"eventsReducer": {},
"fssReducer": {},
"tvDailyScheduleReducer": {},
"tvWeeklyScheduleReducer": {},
"tvPrimetimeScheduleReducer": {},
"tvMonthlyScheduleReducer": {},
"userAccountReducer": {
"user": {
"email": null,
"emailStatus": "EMAIL_UNVALIDATED",
"loggedStatus": "LOGGED_OUT",
"loggingChecked": false,
"articles": [],
"firstName": null,
"lastName": null,
"phoneNumber": null,
"fetchingMembership": false,
"membershipError": false,
"memberships": [
{
"id": null,
"startDate": null,
"firstName": null,
"lastName": null,
"familyNumber": null,
"memberNumber": null,
"memberSince": null,
"expirationDate": null,
"pfsEligible": false,
"isSustaining": false,
"membershipLevel": "Prospect",
"membershipStatus": "Non Member",
"lastGiftDate": null,
"renewalDate": null,
"lastDonationAmount": null
}
]
},
"authModal": {
"isOpen": false,
"view": "LANDING_VIEW"
},
"error": null
},
"youthMediaReducer": {},
"checkPleaseReducer": {
"filterData": {
"region": {
"key": "Restaurant Region",
"filters": [
"Any Region"
]
},
"cuisine": {
"key": "Restaurant Cuisine",
"filters": [
"Any Cuisine"
]
}
},
"restaurantDataById": {},
"restaurantIdsSorted": [],
"error": null
},
"userAgentReducer": {
"userAgent": "Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)",
"isBot": true
}
}
