Sam McPheeters on shoplifting hardcore punk 7-inches in 1980s Manhattan.

Sam McPheeters (Ep.6 - The Organist)

Mac Barnett, Catherine Keener, and Emily Bazelon on Russell Hoban and the “moral question” in children’s literature.

The Moral Question (Ep.8 - The Organist)

An oral history of the artist Mike Kelley, who died last year, featuring Kelley’s most significant collaborators and friends.

Mike Kelley (Ep.8 - The Organist)

The “listening history” of Alexis Georgopoulos, who records as ARP, describing his musical genesis from dad-Classical through Human League, Terry Riley, and beyond.

Alexis Georgopoulos (Ep.8 - The Organist)

An original bite-sized radio drama written and performed by Jesse Eisenberg.

Jesse Eisenberg (Ep.8 - The Organist)

Excerpt from an instructional cassette tape that accompanied all medical marijuana prescriptions during the five-month legalization of medical marijuana in the fictional province of Maniscotia in 1978. Courtesy of Sunset Television.


Medical Marijuana - Driving (Ep.9 - The Organist)

Kenneth Walton in conversation with Jonathon Keats on art forgery at the dawn of the Internet.

Kenneth Walton and Jonathon Keats (Ep.9 - The Organist)

Andy Battaglia and Ben Vida on aural illusions and the use of psychoacoustics in art.

Psychoacoustics (Ep.9 - The Organist)

Excerpt from an instructional cassette tape that accompanied all medical marijuana prescriptions during the five-month legalization of medical marijuana in the fictional province of Maniscotia in 1978. Courtesy of Sunset Television.

Medical Marijuana - Working (Ep.9 - The Organist)

Lars Iyer on the intersection of philosophy, literature, and the Internet.

Lars Iyer (Ep.9 - The Organist)

Medical Marijuana - Parenting (Ep.9 - The Organist)

The Organist is a monthly experimental arts-and-culture program produced and distributed by KCRW. The editors of the award-winning monthly magazine the Believer, published in San Francisco by McSweeney's, produce ten annual episodes of the podcast, which includes reported stories, interviews, comic radio drama, reviews, and more. The scope of the podcast reflects that of the print edition: its contributors take a thoughtful approach to pop culture, along with an irreverent attitude toward the highbrow. From philosophy to daytime TV, from poetry to martial arts, the show scrutinizes and interrogates the world with an affectionate and rigorous intelligence. Pieces from the podcast grow out of stories in the magazine, and vice versa. Weaving together the voices of its contributors, which include the brightest talents in literature and the arts, the Organist is an elegant, impressionistic, funny, and sharp cultural magazine that itself becomes an object of inquiry, discussion, and wonder.

The Organist

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