All times in Pacific
Change
Help

Studio 360 (Art)

Visit the show website

Next available on KSTX 89.1 San Antonio, TX in 3 hours 43 minutes
Listen locally on KCRW 89.9 Sun, Dec 7 at 6pm (Pacific)
Find another station or time for this program on one of 338 other stations & times
Host: Kurt Andersen
Current issues, events and trends in art are a jumping off point for an exploration of ideas that aren't necessarily "news," yet are provocative and offer a lens on experience that only art can provide.
Add to Presets

Genres: Art, Magazine, Politics
Location: New York, NY
Language: English
Networks: PRI, NPR

Last updated 12 days ago Update program info

Recent Topics

Nikola Tesla: Strange Genius (Studio 360)

Fri, Nov 28 Listen

The astounding mad scientist life of Nikola Tesla. Just who was this pioneer of radio, radar, and wireless communication? We discover his legacy in the work of today’s scientists and artists. Samantha Hunt’s novel The Invention of Everything Else is a fictional portrait of Tesla. Monologist Mike Daisey tells us how Tesla X-rayed Mark Twain’s head. And across the country, garage inventors toil in obscurity at the next breakthrough that will change the world.

Wylie, Eggs, Radiation (Studio 360)

Fri, Nov 21 Listen

This week, Studio 360 follows the art and science of a delicious meal. Kurt Andersen visits the kitchen of Wylie Dufresne, who owns the adventurous New York restaurant WD-50. Dufresne believes that the organic ingredients and fine food are not incompatible with the kind of chemicals we might see on a packet of Twinkies. We’ll follow the creation of a single dish – Eggs Benedict – from the egg farm to the taste test.

Nukes, Hutz, Headhunters (Studio 360)

Thu, Nov 20 Listen

This week, Studio 360 remembers “The Day After.” 25 years ago this month, half the country tuned in to watch this landmark TV movie about nuclear winter in the heartland. Kurt Andersen looks at the legacy of that broadcast and our lingering fears of all things nuclear. We’ll visit a decommissioned missile command base under a Kansas prairie, now inhabited by a peace activist turned real-estate agent. And gypsy rocker Eugene Hutz, who leads the band Gogol Bordello, uses songs and stories to...

Creative Minds Go Green (Studio 360)

Fri, Nov 14 Listen

Studio 360 saves the planet. Kurt Andersen asks a priest about the Vatican’s declaration that pollution is a modern sin. Then we explore design solutions for a changing environment. Kurt visits a solar-powered subway station in Coney Island and talks to an engineer making biofuel from bacteria. Plus, the creative thinkers behind a hand-cranked street generator, the adobe house of the future, carbon-neutral rock shows, and the Eco Art movement.

Black Watch, Blount, D.I.A. (Studio 360)

Fri, Oct 31 Listen

This week in Studio 360, highlanders in the desert. Kurt Andersen talks with Gregory Burke about "Black Watch," his play about a Scottish army regiment based Iraq. The humorist Roy Blount Jr. obsesses over words and language, and even invents some of his own. And after a debilitating stroke, a woman regains her voice through song.

Election, Magic, Kaufman (Studio 360)

Fri, Oct 24 Listen

Kurt explores how today’s candidates borrow their strategies from magicians, hit TV shows, and Puritan theology. With writer Sarah Vowell and actress Sarah Jones, who describes how “sounding black” may have helped Obama. Plus, screenwriter and director Charlie Kaufman; his new film is “Synecdoche, New York.”

Peanuts, Kerouac, Matisyahu (Studio 360)

Sat, Oct 18 Listen

Good grief! Charles Schulz's biographer reveals some surprising secrets about the creator of "Peanuts." A couple of newlyweds struggle over whether On the Road is just a boy book; and the cellist Erik Friedlander improvises music to a passage from the book. We explore changing the look of interstate highway signs. Plus, a Hasidic Jewish reggae singer tells us how he got that way.

Post-Soviet Bloc Party (Studio 360)

Fri, Oct 10 Listen

Russian-American Irina Reyn updates Tolstoy with her novel What Happened to Anna K. Underground theater thrives in Belarus, a country where statues of Stalin still loom over the city. We’ll explore how tiny Georgia became a filmmaking capital of the old Soviet Union, and how freedom and war have threatened the film industry. And we’ll take a trip to Poland, where a Jewish culture festival draws visitors to a land with no Jews.

Zucker, Conservative Folk, Nam Le (Studio 360)

Fri, Oct 3 Listen

Studio 360 looks to the right. Director David Zucker talks about his new movie “An American Carol,” a conservative spoof that lampoons the left. We hear about the conservative folk music movement that sang for peace (by defeating communism) and love (of Barry Goldwater). And we’ll talk with up-and-coming fiction writer Nam Le.

Spike Lee, Bernstein, Handey (Studio 360)

Fri, Sep 26 Listen

Meet some true believers. Director Spike Lee cannot imagine a loss for Barack Obama. Unemployed theater geeks miraculously get their musical to Broadway. Collectors embrace computer art, glitches and bugs and all. Plus, little tiny stories from Jack Handey.

Nat Turner, Little House, Randy Newman (Studio 360)

Sat, Sep 20

Kyle Baker turns Nat Turner’s 1831 slave rebellion into a 21st century graphic novel. “Little House on the Prairie” hits Minneapolis in the form of a big splashy musical. Kurt talks music and politics with songwriter Randy Newman. And we see how a hippie architect became the Yoda of computer programming.

LHC, J&M, Theresa Andersson (Studio 360)

Fri, Sep 19

Studio 360 wonders: could an enormous science project create the conditions for a black hole? We try to wrap our brains around the Large Hadron Collider, which just opened for business. Hear how rock n’ roll history owes a lot to a simple Laundromat in New Orleans. Plus, live in the studio, the indie-soul sound of Theresa Andersson.

Spore, Burning Man, Malkovich (Studio 360)

Fri, Sep 12

Studio 360 creates life. Will Wright, game designer and creator of the Sims, shows Kurt how his new game Spore lets players control the evolution of their very own species. Correspondent “Fiona Chutney” (a character played by performer Iris Bahr) tries to get loose at this year’s Burning Man festival. And John Malkovich stops by to talk about his role in the new Coen Brothers film “Burn After Reading.”

Forgery, Iron Fists, Talib Kweli (Studio 360)

Fri, Sep 5

Nothing is quite as it seems. Kurt talks with Lee Israel about her new memoir Can You Ever Forgive Me? about her years forging letters by famous writers. Steven Heller shows us how the 20th century’s towering mad men -- Hitler, Stalin, Mao -- were masters not just of terror but of successful branding. And we’ll take a surprising look at another aspect of Mao Zedong’s rule: he wrote classical poetry like a bourgeois reactionary.

Gypsy, Iraqi Symphony, Biophony (Studio 360)

Fri, Aug 29 Listen

Kurt talks with Broadway diva, Patti Lupone, the star of "Gypsy." And we’ll hear how the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra keeps performing, against all odds, in wartorn Baghdad. An Iraqi guitarist carries his love of American blues into his new life as a refugee in Damascus. And a folkie-turned-biologist gets us to listen to the wild.

Porochista, MacDowell, Blind Boys (Studio 360)

Fri, Aug 22

The ultimate summer camp for artists. For a century New Hampshire’s MacDowell Colony has given artists studio space in the woods, no interruptions, and a picnic basket delivered to the cabin door. We’ll hear from MacDowell alums Mike Daisey, a monologist, and Tara Geer, a visual artist. The writer Henry Alford gets inspired to start his own artist colony, and delivers lunch by subway to a hand-picked group of artists. Plus, novelist Porochista Khakpour and an in-studio performance from gospel...

Baker, Alexander, Newman (Studio 360)

Fri, Aug 15

Made in China (Studio 360)

Fri, Aug 8

Cooder, China, Cheetah Legs (Studio 360)

Fri, Aug 1

Kurt Andersen walks us through the astonishing architecture of the new Beijing. We’ll hear about the prosthetic limb that may change the future of track and field. Plus, music legend Ry Cooder on his new record I, Flathead – the third in his trilogy about modern California and its people.

Philippe, Kehinde, DJ Shadow (Studio 360)

Fri, Jul 25 Listen

Studio 360 takes some risks. Philippe Petit remembers his infamous highwire walk between the World Trade Center towers. DJ Shadow lectures on the occupational hazards of finding precious vinyl in record-store basements. And Bill Murray reads a poem – don’t worry, not his own. Plus, Kehinde Wiley paints hip-hop legends in the style of the Renaissance masters, and Miranda July reads a story from her recent collection.

Live in Aspen (Studio 360)

Fri, Jul 18

Multiple personalities. In a program recorded live at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Tony Award-winning performer Sarah Jones transforms herself into a dizzying range of characters – from a Jewish grandmother to a teenaged rapper. Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner, who developed the theory of multiple intelligences, gives some free analysis to audience members. And country rocker Steve Earle sings about leaving Tennessee, performing tracks from his new record Washington Square Serenade.

Superman (Studio 360: American Icons)

Fri, Jul 11

Kurt Andersen explores the history of Superman and why "The Man of Steel" remains as popular and elusive as ever.

Stop-Loss, Bell Labs, Burke (Studio 360)

Fri, Jul 4 Listen

Filmmaker Kimberly Peirce talks about taking inspiration from soldiers’ videos, shot in Iraq and posted to YouTube. Her movie “Stop-Loss” is just out on DVD. We’ll also hear about the legendary scientific lab in New Jersey that invented nearly everything. Plus, soul singer Solomon Burke masters country music.

WALL-E, Waterfalls, Batman (Studio 360)

Fri, Jun 27

Studio 360 falls for summer blockbusters. Meet the genius behind sound effects in the new Pixar film "Wall-E." A victim of "viral marketing" explains how he got psyched for next month’s Batman movie. And take a boat ride with an international art star, Olafur Eliasson, as he inspects his enormous art project in New York Harbor: four man-made waterfalls, ten stories high.

T-Bone, Doonan, Fonseca (Studio 360)

Fri, Jun 20 Listen

Fashion guru Simon Doonan, author of Eccentric Glamour, schools Kurt in style. Writer Isabel Fonseca explains how she tackled the thorny world of marital infidelity in her new novel Attachment. And producer extraordinaire T-Bone Burnett shares dark and moody songs from his new record Tooth of Crime.

Keaton, Suburbs, Tonys (Studio 360)

Fri, Jun 13

We've got your front yard and we're not giving it back. An artist transforms America's lawns, one vegetable garden at a time. What can America's suburbs learn from the shantytowns of Tijuana? Architect Teddy Cruz has an answer. And Diane Keaton obsesses over an obscure photographer. Plus, we’ll hear about two Tony-nominated musicals shaking up Broadway: "Sunday in the Park with George" and "Passing Strange."

Getty Fabulous: Live in L.A. (Studio 360)

Fri, Jun 6

Studio 360 goes Hollywood. In June 2007, in front of a live audience at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, Kurt talked to the city’s creative movers and shakers. East L.A. fusion rockers Quetzal show how they’re pushing the boundaries of Chicano music to a new level of cool. Jon Robin Baitz (creator of ABC’s "Brothers and Sisters") explains why it’s good to be a playwright writing for TV. Plus, insightful commentary from Svetlana, LA's most highly cultured escort (as performed by actress and...

Ellison, Omaha, Mann (Studio 360)

Fri, May 30

Hadron Collider, Price, Misrach (Studio 360)

Fri, May 23

Smashing atoms and colliding worlds. We try to wrap our brains around the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest particle accelerator, which revs up this summer. Writer Lydia Millet imagines a quantum accident at the Collider in a story, read by Martha Plimpton. On the Lower East Side of Manhattan, two worlds collide violently in Richard Price’s novel Lush Life. And, in time for the unofficial start of summer, the eerie and intense beach scenes of Richard Misrach.

Schnabel, Martians, Dickinson (Studio 360)

Fri, May 16

Creativity against all odds. A stroke survivor dictates his memoir by blinking his left eye, a story told in the film “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.” We’ll explore an Emily Dickinson poem written from beyond the grave in our American Icons series. And Jack Handey takes on our extraterrestrial enemies, in a story called “What I’d Say to the Martians.”