No one would say today that a woman can't be a writer. But when the Chilean-born novelist Isabel Allende was growing up, "writer" was not on the career menu. Kurt talks with Allende about how she became a novelist, and why she just can't write an erotic ...

A 9-hour theatrical trilogy about 19th century Russian intellectuals could probably only be pulled off by Tom Stoppard. The British playwright manages to mix big ideas with wit, wordplay, and slap-stick humor. Kurt spoke with Stoppard about his trilogy The Coast of Utopia, which just made its ...

Plenty of classical composers like to borrow a snippet from pop music, or throw in a little reference to a well-known song in a piece of "serious music." William Bolcom prefers to go whole hog. WNYC's Sara Fishko talked to Bolcom for our series ...

Rock and roll bands go on tour all the time, and long hours on the tour bus are part of the job. So why can't a bunch of poets go on tour? The Poetry Bus steals a page from rock music's playbook by taking poetry on the road. The bus ...

In his latest film The Fountain, Darren Aronofsky keeps some of the existential angst of previous films like Pi, but channels it into a lush, romantic fantasy: a 1000-year quest for the Fountain of Youth. Kurt talks with Aronofsky about his career as a filmmaker, the allure ...

At the school of the Boston Ballet there are some dedicated students who will never land a part in the Nutcracker. They're grown-ups who attend class several times a week, but have no hope of dancing professionally. Diane Toomey is one of them, and she told us ...