The Jim Motavalli Interview Podcast

Stevie Holland is an American jazz vocalist, writer and lyricist who's played major concert halls, jazz clubs and cabaret rooms, in addition to performing in theater. The youngest of seven children, Stevie grew up in a music-filled, Norwegian-Italian household in Westchester County, New York. Her father was a tenor sax-playing commercial artist and avid jazz record collector, and her mother was a...

David Helvarg, a longtime environmental activist and journalist, is the founder and president of the marine conservation group Blue Frontier Campaign. He is the author most recently of Forest of the Sea: The Remarkable Life and Imperiled Future of Kelp (Island Press ) . In a matter of decades, a spectacular cold-water paradise thirty million years in the making is succumbing to warming oceans. Kel...

Why do people cite religious objections to getting vaccinated? Where do these passionate beliefs, with no foundation in science, come from? Dr. Kira Ganga-Keiffer, a professor at Fairfield University, is a scholar of health and society, American religion, and history with a Ph. D. from Boston University). Her first book is Unvaccinated Under God: Religion and Vaccine Hesitancy in Modern America  (...

At this very moment, a tiny number of Silicon Valley leaders are making risky decisions that will have a huge impact on the rest of the eight billion people on this planet. They don't mean to cause harm, but their new creations often bring dire unintended consequences: destructive psychological, social, economic, and political results. We call these "side effects," but they're often more powerful...

 Roxanne Khamsi talks to Jim Motavalli about the profound implications of recent cell research. She is an author, speaker and contributing writer for The Atlantic . Her first book, Beyond Inheritance (Riverhead Books, 2026), reveals how we mutate genetically every day of our lives and how the DNA changes that accumulate within us can profoundly affect our health. She has reported extensively on th...

Terri Thal (third from right in the photo) was married to Dave Van Ronk (at far right), managed Bob Dylan (second from right) and was a friend of Dylan's then-girlfriend Suze Rotolo (second from left). She has written about that time in her book My Greenwich Village: Dave, Bob and Me . We talked about those times, about her close friend Patrick Sky (not as well remembered as Van Ronk) and about th...

John Sayles is a prolific filmmaker who, since The Return of the Secaucus Seven in 1980, hasn't been afraid to take on big political themes. In 17 films and eight novels (as well as short-story collections and screenplays) he looks at a specific moment in the historical record from multiple perspectives. Sayles' latest work is Crucible , a closely observed historical novel that looks at the Ford M...

Robbie Fulks is a native North Carolinian who has bluegrass and country as a default position, but also revels in many other musical styles. A stint at Columbia University in New York probably helped broaden his world view, but there's something of an auto didact about him, too. Music came naturally, as his father played guitar and his aunt banjo, which he started playing at age six. Skipping ahea...

Murieann Bradley is a 19-year-old acoustic guitarist/singer from Ireland who specializes in the fingerpicking styles of the 1920s, 30s and 40s, citing influences such as Mississippi John Hurt, Reverend Gary Davis, and Elizabeth Cotten. She learned to play largely from her father, a blues enthusiast. After a breakout performance on the BBC's Jools' Annual Hootenanny in 2023, she has toured the worl...

Melanie D.G. Kaplan talks to Jim Motavalli about her book Lab Dog: A Beagle and his Human Investigate the Surprising World of Animal Research. She explores the ethics and future of animal experimentation through the story of her rescued beagle, Hammy.  

Jim Motavalli talked to Sam Beam, a/k/a Iron & Wine, a master of brilliant, hushed Americana music and a collaborator par excellence (particularly with amazing women). In the interview, we talk about Beam's work with Fiona Apple, Jesca Hoop, I'm With Her and others, and also about his new album Hen's Teeth (2026). 

Alex Manos says he's the country's number one buyer of classic cars. He buys European and American cars nationwide, and would love to talk about buying your old vehicle. 

 Two Crows for Comfort is a Canadian folk and Americana duo based out of Manitoba, composed of Erin Corbin and Cory Sulyma. Known for their rich harmonies and poignant storytelling, they have been a full-time touring act since early 2020, living on the road in an 18-foot camper with their rescue dog, Elliot. They talked to Jim Motavalli for WPKN

British jazz singer Emily Masser is only 21, but shows a mature command of her art, inspired by her saxophonist father, Dean Masser. Pianist Horace Silver wrote the beautiful "Song For My Father," but Masser made a whole album called Songs With my Father (with dad playing his horn). 

John Gennari's profusely illustrated book The Jazz Barn  (Brandeis University Press) traces the history of a short-lived but vital institution in the history of music. Music Inn, in Lenox, Massachusetts near Tanglewood, took jazz seriously and brought musicians to a bucolic setting for teaching, concerts and building bridges to what eventually became the classical-jazz fusion known as Third Stream...

Encountered recently at the Scandinavian Club in Fairfield, Connecticut, Sweden's Frander combines roots in traditional Swedish folk with an ear to progressive rock--but all with acoustic instruments. 

 Iowa-based Americana duo, Weary Ramblers bring years of experience to the stage with award-winning songwriting and chemistry. Chad Elliott (Woody Guthrie Song Contest & Kerrville Finalist) and Kathryn Severing Fox (DownBeat winner & international touring artist) showcase multi-instrumental performances with tight harmonies and great storytelling. Fox has played, toured or recorded with Ge...

Eric O'Neill, a former FBI agent who led the capture of notorious spy-for-Russia Robert Hanssen, is the author Spies, Lies, and Cybercrime. It's focus: teaching readers how to defend against digital threats like hackers and scammers, blending thrilling anecdotes with practical advice. The book details tactics used by adversaries and provides actionable steps (Prepare, Assess, Investigate, Decide)...

Americana singer-songwriter Gann Brewer doesn't seek the shiny neo-retro town malls where the selfie slick hipsters air their spanking new tattoos but rather, it's the half spaces, the unremarkable edges of town, where he finds those nuggets of truth--or at least enough gas to get to the next town. From the liner notes to Brewer's fourth album, Highway Lullaby , under discussion with Jim Motavalli...

Bryce Edwards is a musician and cabaret artist reviving traditional jazz and popular music from the early 20th century. A vaudevillian troubadour, Edwards is a unique vocalist that takes equal cues from the crooners and soft singers of the late 1920s and early 30s and from the bombastic voices of the acoustic phonograph era, as well as an instrumentalist who plays banjo, ukulele, tenor guitar, and...

Singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sam Amidon comes from a New England family deeply involved in old-time music, and he remains devoted to that form--but fused with just about everything else, including jazz and avant-garde music. Amidon, who began playing fiddle at age 3, has recorded in Iceland collaborated with artists as diverse as drummer Milford Graves and guitarist Bill Frisell. A...

This broadcast features the first half hour of an interview with Nate Soares, executive director of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI), conducted by Alice Horrigan and Jim Motavalli on October 16, 2025 and aired on WPKN-FM. The conversation explores the safety limits of current AI engineering and the broader implications for humanity’s future. For the full hour, watch the video on...

S.G. Goodman lives in rural Kentucky farm country, and grew up attending church three times a week, with limited exposure to secular music. That experience colors her deeply grounded (in place and time) new album, Planting by the Signs . Fellow Kentuckian Bonnie Prince Billy is featured in this richly evocative collection. 

George Pelecanos is the author of 20 crime novels, and a regular writing collaborator with David Simon on projects, including The Wire and Treme. Pelecanos' books ofteh catch Washington, D.C.'s denizens at the moment they hover between a life of crime and straight society. They are moral tales, as well as fast-paced thrillers. 

Maria Muldaur discusses her storied career and new album, One Hour Mama: The Blues of Victoria Spivey , released on July 11th, 2025, on Nola Blue Records. The album is a tribute to the legendary blues singer Victoria Spivey, who was a mentor to Muldaur. It features collaborations with Taj Mahal, Elvin Bishop, and Tuba Skinny.