December 18, 2009
"I'm the king of the world!" James Cameron proclaimed upon accepting his best director Oscar for "Titanic." In 1997 it was the most technically ambitious (and lucrative) movie ever made. This week an even more titanic Cameron film is headed for theaters: "Avatar." It cost nearly $400 million to make. Kurt asks Cameron how he tackled yet another insanely ambitious project.
Hear Kurt's full conversation with the director of "Avatar."
Every year the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress selects 25 recordings to be preserved for all time. One of this year's selections is the famous 1961 comedy routine by Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner about a man so old, he once knew Jesus - personally - and dated Joan of Arc. Billy Crystal and Rob Reiner explain why "2000 Year-Old Man" will live forever. Produced by Ben Manilla and Devon Strolovitch.
>> Listen to all five stories in our series HERE.
The Sounds of American Culture, our series highlighting works in the National Recording Registry, receives production support from the Library of Congress.
Weigh in: What recordings should be added to the Registry?
As a security guard at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, Jason Eskenazi was used to directing visitors to the restrooms. But keeping watch at an exhibit of Robert Frank's photography project "The Americans," Eskenazi turned his life around. Produced by Studio 360's Jenny Lawton.
Image (c) Robert Frank, from "The Americans"
Weigh in: Has a work of art changed your life?
Is your Second Life slowly replacing your first life? Do you feel closer to video game characters than actual real humans? New media lets everyone construct virtual identities, but we shouldn't be too afraid of surrendering to technology. As Studio 360's Eric Molinsky discovers, our experiences online might be as real as anything.
Lydia Millet's first short story collection, Love in Infant Monkeys, is filled with fictionalized tales of celebrities' real-life confrontations with exotic species. She reads from her story "Sir Henry" about David Hasselhoff's dachshund and tells Kurt why she's not afraid of lawyers.
It's become a holiday tradition: every year, in cities around the world, hundreds of people show up at a public space with their old boomboxes to participate in Phil Kline's ambient, techno Christmas carol called "Unsilent Night." Produced by Jonathan Mitchell.
Studio 360 is a co-production of
Public
Radio International and
WNYC New York Public Radio, and is funded in part by
Ken and Lucy Lehman, the
National Endowment for the Arts, and the Lily Auchincloss Foundation. Studio 360's American Icons series is supported in part by the
National Endowment for the Humanities. Our series on creativity and science is supported in part by the
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Our series on Underground Heroes is supported in part by the New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. 
