The Voice of the Arts

A theory about the invention of work and the office, and a tale of two Henry’s: Henry V and Henry Hill.

Thespian, O Thespian! Glenn Close and Jon Lovitz show us their undying devotion for their one true love — acting! And the make-believe continues with young Olivia and her imaginary friend Charlie Ravioli, who is always too busy working to actually play with her.

Jimmy Rogers and the Carter Family take us on a tour of some of country music’s early pioneers. Plus, the Fanny Farmer Cookbook and a General Motors ad from the 2008 recession: Take this car…please.

Welcoming you to the new year with a dose of comedy: Jackie Mason talks relationship advice, Simon Rich explores the secret lives of animals, and Bob & Ray attend a spelling bee.

It’s not Thanksgiving without some of the best music from Eastern Europe: Corky Bucek’s “Bing Bong Bing Bong Did a Liddle Liddle.” Plus, the perils of sexual overstimulation, and a story about God’s girlfriend from Simon Rich.

Ian Frazier explores human fallacy and the pivotal question: Does doing something stupid make you an idiot? Or are you merely someone who suffers from idiocy?

A collection of early country classics from the lovesick and broken-hearted — Webb Pierce, George Jones, Hank Williams and many others.

Letters of recommendation, job rejections and sales contests — an exploration of the ups and downs of the modern workplace.

I guess the Grandmother was right — they should have gone to East Tennessee instead. Flannery O’Connor’s brilliant, gothic 1953 short story.

Getting a tattoo removed isn’t always as straightforward as it seems. A new episode to accompany all your summer fun.

“Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees.” These were Stonewall Jackson’s last words, and they provide a poignant and fitting framework around this week’s episode, which explores love, loss, joy and death, and the ways in which they are all interconnected. From the personal to the poetic to the hilarious, we aim to show that laughter and tears often go hand in hand.

We all know the story of Paul Revere’s legendary ride to warn of approaching British forces during the Revolutionary War, but few remember the real hero of the tale — his heroic horse Oatsy. This week, he finally gets his due. And we pay tribute to Sidney Bechet, a musician who embodied the New Orleans ragtime tradition at its best. As we read from his autobiography “Treat It Gentle” we’ll h...

Kate Walbert’s 2012 New Yorker short story is set on a buzzing early spring day in Times Square, evoking the unique sense of renewal and energy palpable in New York when the city finally begins to thaw out from a long winter. While dutifully fulfilling her youngest daughter’s wish of visiting the hectic M&M World, Ginny’s day turns tense as she struggles to keep track of her kids and revisits...

We feature another great short story by Alice Munro titled “Axis,” first published in The New Yorker in 2011. As in many of Alice Munro’s short stories, the characters aren’t like anyone I know, but they never seem contrived or invented. I would say that she loves creating characters and then observing them as they go their own way.

This week we return to an early classic episode, an exploration of the impact of passionate and well-crafted speech. Effective rhetoric can rouse supporters and sway opponents, and aptly chosen words have the ability to pierce and persuade like little else. Featuring some of the greatest masters of the craft — Churchill, Shakespeare, Sorkin, and of course, Jack Handey — we will show ho...

In 1954, Frank Sinatra won an Oscar for his performance as a scrappy soldier named Angelo Maggio in the film “From Here to Eternity.”    In our Winter Doldrums podcast, we play an audio clip from Francis Ford Coppola’s first Godfather film that details how that role went to Sinatra over the intense objection of Columbia Pictures head of production Harry Cohn.   We also have an audio clip fro...

A new year brings with it a new episode, with lots to keep you warm during this cold and rainy season. We feature two classic comedy segments, one of which is comedy duo Bob & Ray’s “Two Faces West,” a sketch which might have been based on film heavy Jack Palance’s inability to get on a horse without looking funny. Indeed, the only way he could be convincingly shown mounting one fo...

Is it humanly possible to have too much cowbell? I mean is it physically, psychologically, emotionally, and morally possible to have too much cowbell?

“What I mean is, this kind of music? Concerts and the like? They ever pay money to sit down for a couple of hours and wear their bottoms out listening to something they wouldn’t recognize half a day later? Pay money simply to perpetrate a fraud? You ever know them to do that?”

When this episode was first released, we were only 2 months into the Covid pandemic, and many people were homesteading and finding new comforts in simple joys like crafting and baking. Host Joe Weber took this moment as an opportunity to impart some of his well-earned knowledge as a lifelong baker and bakery supplier by giving some highly useful baking tips, which still remain as relevant and usef...

We return this week with another early episode which highlights the life and times of New Orleans musician Sidney Bechet, the legendary jazz saxophonist and clarinetist, and his relationship with Bessie Smith, who he describes as “…the damnedest singer…that would really have the public going.” Featuring bits from his autobiography, we learn of his knack for finding trouble,...

Among his many talents, Irish writer Frank O’Connor had a particular gift for showing the world through the eyes of young, precocious, often naive protagonists, like Larry Delaney of his 1957 story “The Genius.” Larry wants to be the town’s first proper genius and win the affections of Una Dwyer — first, he just has to find out where babies come from. We revisit this...

Continuing with the theme of our last episode, we present another one of Flannery O’Connor’s great short stories, “A Late Encounter with the Enemy.” In this 1953 story, elderly former Civil War veteran George Poker Sash attends his 62-year-old granddaughter’s fateful college graduation, and the occasion leads to ruminations on memory, aging, and mortality. Host Joe We...

Flannery O’Connor was one of the greatest Southern writers, and one who truly understood the people and nuances of the South. In our second ever episode, we featured one of her classic short stories, “Everything that Rises Must Converge.” Published near the end of her life, it deals with a changing South as seen through the lens of recent college graduate Julian and his old-fashi...

This week we revisit another of our very first episodes, featuring a wonderful 1950 short story by Irish writer Frank O’Connor entitled “First Confession.” The story explores a seven-year-old boy’s anxieties over having to give his first ever confession at church. It is a show favorite which sharply exhibits O’Connor’s wit and shows real sympathy for his young protagonist.