The Scene: Baltimore
From WYPR's The Signal, a weekly radio magazine devoted to Maryland's cultural scene, hosted by Andy Bienstock.

David Silverman’s got a collection of almost 900 pinball machines, and he’s just opened the National Pinball Museum in downtown Baltimore.  We drop in at the museum for a crash course in pinball history. 

Christmas starts earlier every year, and perhaps the wreaths and peppermint mochas have you rolling your eyes. If so, too bad! It’ll be over soon enough, so light a pine-scented candle, set your Pandora to "Jingle Bells," and dig in to the Studio 360 Christmas archive. ...

Five years ago, Studio 360 redesigned Christmas. We commissioned the design firm Pentagram to come up with a fresh, 21st century concept for the holiday that could be used — and loved — universally. Since then we've done several other redesigns, including of the rainbow Gay Flag, Valentine's Day, and the Monopoly boardgame.

What do you think we should redesign next?

Five years ago on the show we redesigned Christmas. The whole holiday. We hired the graphic designer Michael Beirut, of the firm Pentagram, to come up with a fresh, 21st century concept that could be used — and loved — universally. Since then we've done all kinds of redesigns of symbols and holidays ...

What should Studio 360 redesign next?  Tell us!

Kurt Andersen and Michael Kimmelman head to Lower Manhattan to check out the transformation of Zuccotti Park, the plaza at the center of the Occupy Wall Street protest. Kimmelman is the architecture critic for the New York Times. The protesters haven’t built permanent structures, but Kimmelman believes they are creating ...

Slideshow: On Location at Zuccotti Park

Countless artists in the past decade, from novelists to comic book illustrators to documentary theater directors, have grappled with the events of 9/11 and the War on Terror. What follows is a curated list of crucial works, by no means complete or definitive, that help us make sense of what happened a decade ago. (With thanks to Studio 360's listeners.)

Ten years ago, Lower Manhattan was the epicenter of the most shocking, upsetting day in many Americans' lifetimes. But today Ground Zero is bustling with construction workers, cranes, and other building equipment. The site is still a work in progress, except for the new national memorial ...

Video: Kurt Andersen Visits the 9/11 Memorial with Designer Michael Arad

Look around you, specifically at the objects that are surrounding you right now.  How would you describe the products you use for your everyday life?  Unobtrusive?  Innovative?  Honest?  These are the kind of questions that make up the legendary industrial designer Deitar Rams' 10 Guiding Principles of Good Design. ...

Gadgets aren’t just for nerds anymore.  In the age of social media, they've become an extension of who we are. Talk to Me, a new design exhibition focusing on the communication between people and objects at New York's Museum of Modern Art, brings all things techy into the gallery space. ...

When Nintendo released Donkey Kong in 1981, it was one of the only arcade games in which you did more than just blast space invaders. It contained an entire world, with a damsel in distress and an unlikely hero: a little Italian plumber named Mario. ...

Which of these things is not like the others? Last week on the show, Kurt Andersen went head to head with the conservative culture critic John Silber, who railed against the “absurd” work of architects Frank Gehry and Daniel Libeskind for their flashy ...

Slideshow: The Experience Music Project

Last week, the New York Times called the new CCTV Headquarters in Beijing the “greatest work of architecture built in this century.” Designed by Rem Koolhaas, the building looks like a giant Mobius strip, with its glassy, twisting arch. Kurt...

Slideshow: Architecture of the Absurd

You know you've made it when your face is on a postage stamp.  Twelve giants of industrial design have just been given that honor with a new set of stamps released by the United States Postal Service last week. But instead of their profiles gracing the corner of your next electric bill, their enduring work is spotlighted.

All this month the Federal Reserve Bank in Richmond, Virginia, will honor Gay Pride Month by flying the rainbow on its flagpole just below Old Glory. And, not surprisingly, they’ve received a lot of angry responses. The rainbow flag has been a symbol of...

Slideshow: Worldstudio redesigns the gay flag

In 1960, zip tops made opening aluminum cans more convenient — and dangerous. Those razor-sharp metal tags you ripped off and threw away were a hazard for the thirsty. That all changed in 1972, when a young engineer named Daniel Cudzik...

Last week, Apple’s Steve Jobs made a design presentation — not to masses of swooning tech journalists, but to the Cupertino, California city council. What Jobs unveiled this time was Apple’s future corporate headquarters. The design, by celebrated architect Norman Foster, is shaped like a giant ...

Industrial designer Karim Rashid creates ordinary household objects known the world over: he has more than 3000 in production, including the Umbra “Oh Chair” and the Bobble Water Bottle which filters water as you drink.  He found his calling early, when his family crossed ...

Last month, Studio 360 announced plans to redesign the board game Monopoly. Capitalism and real estate have changed a lot since the Monopoly was first sold by Parker Brothers in the 1930s, and we decided the game needed a major overhaul. We collected dozens of inspired suggestions from listeners, and delivered them to...

Studio 360 is redesigning Monopoly, and to help us decide what to toss and what to keep, we’ve gotten advice from an all-star team.  The former investment banker William Cohan suggested we let players leverage their holdings and create a bank with vested interests, but former ...