January 29, 2010
Our redesign of Valentine's Day moves full steam ahead. We hear from the husband-wife team who run the Austin design firm, Under Consideration. Armin Vit and Bryony Gomez-Palacio work to upgrade this fraught holiday. Studio 360 commissioned them, but they consider their client "all of mankind."
Check out all of the entries so far and submit your own!
Rebecca Stead just won the Newbery Medal for her children's novel When You Reach Me. Stead tells Kurt how she based her heroine, a sixth-grader named Miranda, on her own latchkey childhood in gritty 1970s New York City. There's a time travel twist to the plot too: when Miranda receives anonymous notes instructing her on how to change events that haven't happened yet, her mom's "rules for life in New York City" can only protect her so far.
Niki Russ Federman, fourth generation of the smoked fish dynasty Russ & Daughters, resisted joining the family business. She explains why she owes her career choice to hipster klezmorim and the musician-composer John Zorn. Produced by Studio 360's Jenny Lawton.
Australian (and now Icelandic) composer Ben Frost creates music that is electronic, classical, beautiful, and scary all at the same time. Kurt talks to Frost about his new album, By the Throat.
The buzz around Colombian music is growing, and the country's biggest rock band, Aterciopelados, is up for a Grammy this weekend. Studio 360's Rob Weisberg explains how Colombia's coolest pop draws on old traditions that used to be called "grandpa's music."
Producer T-Bone Burnett has worked with everyone from Emmylou Harris to Elvis Costello. This weekend Burnett is up for two Grammys, including Producer of the Year. He's getting all kinds of acclaim for his soundtrack to the new film "Crazy Heart." Kurt talked to Burnett in 2008 when his record, Tooth of Crime, came out.
(Originally aired June 20, 2008)
Nathan Isherwood owns a moped repair and retail shop in Brooklyn. He loves the modest motorbikes because they're easy to fix and they get 100 miles per gallon. Produced by Matt Frassica.
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. 
