The 7th Avenue Project

There are a lot of comedians whose work I'm partial to, but I have a special place in my pantheon for Garry Shandling. He was funny, unsparing, compassionate, psychologically acute and epistemologically astute all at once, an uneasy combination of entertainer and truth-seeker. When I learned of his untimely death on March 24, like many fans I felt bereaved, and I sought out someone to talk to who loved his work as much as I do: Paul Provenza. Paul is a comedian and a sort of comedy curator, chronicler and catalyst, and he was responsible for one of Garry's more memorable public appearances, which I was fortunate enough to attend thanks to Paul. We talked about Garry the person and the performer – and the complicated relationship thereof.

If the news coverage of recently discovered gravitational waves left you with lingering questions, you've come to the right place. Theoretical physicist Anthony Aguirre, our go-to guy on all things general relativistic, provides some great insight into the details and subtleties that popular accounts ignored or glossed over.

Gwendolyn Mok may have flunked her first Juilliard audition at the age of 5, but that was just a speed bump en route to a distinguished recording and concert career. Gwen sees herself as a kind of medium, doing her best to channel the spirit and intentions of composers such as Brahms, Mendelssohn, Saint-Saëns, and particularly Ravel. Her brand of originalism extends to playing historic pianos like those the composers themselves knew and wrote for, and Gwen demonstrated with some exquisite renditions on an 1868 Erard and 1871 Streicher as we talked about her life as a student, performer and teacher. Also discussed: her school days with Yo Yo Ma, apprenticing with Ravel's last living student, performing with Astor Piazzolla, driving the Silk Road in a 1940 Chevy, making mistakes in concert, and the best place to listen to a piano.

“As a black male in the United States,” says George Yancy, “to do philosophy in the abstract would be to deny the reality of my own existence.” Yancy grew up in a tough North Philadelphia housing project, where young men were far more likely to end up in early graves or jail than in academia. He beat the odds and now enjoys the status of a tenured professor at a major university, but he hasn't forgotten where he came from, or the racial realities that made his story so unlikely. George and I talked about his beginnings, becoming a philosopher and using his brand of "down to earth" philosophizing to explore the structure of blackness, whiteness and lived experience in a racialized society.

It's one thing to genetically modify an organism in the lab. It's another thing entirely to spread those modifications in the wild, altering whole populations or even species. A new technology, the “CRISPR gene drive,” promises to do just that, giving human beings an unprecedented ability to fine-tune the natural world and nudge evolution in new directions. Malaria-resistant mosquitoes? Lyme-blocking ticks? Those are just a few of the applications floated so far, but the possibilities are endless. I talked to molecular biologist and “evolutionary sculptor” Kevin Esvelt, who first proposed the CRISPR gene drive, about its potential, perils and steps to ensure that we use our new powers wisely. Topics covered include: The CRISPR revolution: fast, cheap gene editing Gene drives: CRISPR on auto-pilot Using gene drives to fight disease and suppress pests Safeguards, controls and oversight More evo-sculpting: Kevin's PACE system, harnessing viral evolution to create novel biomolecules Personally, I find the implications of gene drives to be fairly head-spinning. Imagine self-propagating genes that spread inexorably even when they offer no selective advantage – even when they're maladaptive! Of course, like a too-virulent pathogen, really maladaptive CRISPR drives might put themselves out of business by killing off their hosts, and selective pressures would favor mutations that incapacitate the drive, but still…

If you're going to tell cool stories in comic books, it helps to have had a colorful life and interesting friends. Dean Haspiel has had both. His dad was a writer, occasional street vigilante and confidante of Marilyn Monroe. Mom's pals included Shelly Winters and the young Bobby De Niro, who was one of Dean's babysitters. Dean worked with Harvey Pekar and Jonathan Ames on their respective graphic novels, and won an Emmy for his title work on Jonathan's HBO sitcom "Bored to Death." He was also the inspiration for Ray the cartoonist, played on BTD by Zack Galifianakis. We talked about all of the above, plus Dean's beginnings as a comic artist, his love of superheroes and his own hero complex, his residencies at the Yaddo artist colony, and his latest comic memoir, "Beef with Tomato."

Jonathan Gottschall's career as a college English prof was on the rocks, and he was desperate to do something completely different. So in his late 30s he left the classroom for the cage, taking up mixed martial arts and training for an amateur bout. It was more than a mid-life escapade, though. Jonathan had some unresolved issues around bullying in his own youth, and wanted to better understand the relationship between violence and masculinity, including his own. We talked about MMA, male aggression and Jonathan's book "The Professor in the Cage: Why Men Fight and Why We Like to Watch," as well as his ill-fated stint as a literary scholar with an evolutionary bent.

"I was an obscure novelist and then I was given the keys to this production, and I had to learn on the spot.” And learn he did, helming HBO's "Bored to Death" for three hilarious seasons and now "Blunt Talk" on Starz. Jonathan Ames describes the delights and terrors of television auteur-dom, the dubious distinction of being TV's first showrunner to go Full Monty, being manhandled by Zack Galifianakis, his friendship with Jason Schwartzman, the comedic excellence of Patrick Stewart and more, while making decorous use of euphemism.

It's been called the "decline effect," "the proteus phenomenon," and "the reproducibility crisis": the startling realization that a lot of seemingly solid scientific research doesn't pan out under repeated testing. The latest blow to scientific confidence comes from the Reproducibility Project, which attempted to replicate 100 published psychology studies and found that, when the experiments were repeated, half or more failed to uphold the original findings. So is it time to start doubting the credibility of research in general? Stanford University psychologist and Reproducibility Project participant Mike Frank joined us to explain what the results really mean, misconceptions about statistical rigor in science, the various ways experimenters blunder and sometimes delude themselves, and the gradual, cumulative nature of scientific progress.

Cop shows and tough-on-crime rhetoric often depict a world so brutish that police have no choice but to play rough and kick butt, but Seth Stoughton says we've been misled. The former cop turned law professor and policing expert contends that civility, a cool head and patience are far more effective in fighting crime and reducing risks to the public and police than the warrior mentality getting so much emphasis these days in popular culture and some police departments. Seth and I talked about the psychology of police-civilian confrontations, alternatives to deadly force, and some recent cases where things went famously wrong, including the Walter Scott shooting, the Sandra Bland arrest and the McKinney pool party.

Huang Ruo's career wasn't his to choose. His fortune-teller grandfather and composer father did that for him, and at the age of 12 he was bundled off to a distant music conservatory in Shanghai as his mother wept. Sad as that may sound, it all worked out remarkably well. Huang Ruo's path eventually took him from China to the U.S., to Oberlin and Julliard, and today it's hard to imagine him as anything other than the prolific and exuberant composer he's become. His work draws on all the music he heard growing up in China and in the years since – from ancient ritual chants and folk songs to classical, rock and pop (both Chinese and western) – to create something that feels integral, vibrant and new. He's also a wonderful singer, as you'll hear in this very musical interview. I met Huang Ruo when he was in town for the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, and getting to know him and his work was a highlight of the festival for me. Here are some of the things we talked about as we listened to a selection of his incredibly varied oeuvre.

People suffering from Cotard's Syndrome think they're dead. Victims of body integrity identity disorder believe their own limbs don't belong to them, and schizophrenics feel their thoughts aren't their own. By chipping away at our sense of a unified, stable self, these and other mental conditions hint at how selfhood might be assembled in the first place. What exactly is a self, anyway? Is it the product of specific neural mechanisms, or perhaps a psych-social construct? Does it ever go entirely away? Science writer Anil Ananthaswamy examines the evidence from neuroscience along with theories of the self from psychology, philosophy and spiritual traditions such as Buddhism, in his new book "The Man Who Wasn't There: Investigations into the Strange New Science of the Self."

The Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music brings together some of the best and brightest composers working today. I spoke to three from this year's lineup as we listened to some of their pieces. Harpist/composer Hannah Lash confided her love of tuned percussion and hidden structure. Missy Mazzoli discussed her "River Rouge Transfiguration" – inspired by the iconic Ford auto plant–and "Vespers for a New Dark Age": secular music with sacred sources. Nico Muhly reflected on cartoon travelogues and Disneyfied gamelan in his piece "Wish You Were Here" and his "technical exercise with a heart of gold," "Étude #3" featuring violist Nadia Sirota.

Viewers of Joshua Oppenheimer's jaw-dropping documentary "The Act of Killing," about the men who conducted Indonesia's genocidal anti-communist purges in 1965, might well have concluded that it was an impossible act to follow. Yet its sequel is, if anything, even more accomplished and affecting. While "The Act of Killing" gave us a portrait of mass murderers refracted through their own anamorphic imaginations, The "Look of Silence" performs a kind of perspectival correction by introducing the victims' POV that was missing from the earlier film (and from public discourse in Indonesia). We follow Adi Rukun, whose brother was one of the massacred, as he confronts the killers and dares to speak the truth. That Adi happens to be an optometrist, who prescribes corrective lenses even as he restores moral clarity, is just one of many metaphorical harmonies that make "The Look of Silence" such a rich and layered experience. Joshua and I talked about the making of the movie, its visual and sonic poetry, how violence distorts the psyche, the possibility of reconciliation, and the resolve that kept him working during years of difficult filmmaking. Josh is uncommonly thoughtful and eloquent on these questions, and this interview is well worth a listen whether you've seen his films or not.

I used to think that the Civil War ended at Appomattox. But the next 150 years of conflict – including the events of recent months – make it clear how naive I was. Yale historian David Blight explains how the nation dropped the ball when it abandoned Reconstruction and set about reconstructing history itself, embracing some convenient myths and turning its back on civil rights and African Americans. In the second part of the show, Pulitzer prizewinner Tony Horwitz reflects on confederate nostalgia, the Lost Cause tradition and "How the South Lost the War but Won the Narrative.”

The recent case of Rachel Dolezal – the “black” activist outed as white – may have seemed novel, but she's actually part of an old tradition of racial passing in this country. How long has passing been going on and how has it changed over the years? What's it tell us about racial categories and color lines? Why are we so fascinated with passing stories? I spoke with historian Allyson Hobbs about her book A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life.

Sara Solovitch grew up playing classical piano, a dedicated student and aspiring performer. But she quit at 19, undone by chronic jitters. Thirty years later, she decided to face her old fears, start over and brave the concert stage again. She tells the story in her new book, "Playing Scared: A History and Memoir of Stage Fright." Sara and I discussed the psychology of stage fright, its sufferers and treatments, how perfectionism and pressure set us up for failure, and the culture of classical performance.

Astronomer Robert Kirshner is an expert in supernovae – those spectacular exploding stars that can outshine a galaxy. It's a specialty he chanced on in grad school, and his timing was perfect. The field was really taking off, and it was supernovae that would lead to the biggest cosmological surprise of the last 20 years: the revelation that mysterious "dark energy" os pushing the universe apart at faster and faster rates. Bob and I talked about his career, the discovery of dark energy and what it might mean for the future of the cosmos.

A century before the first electronic computers, there was the Analytical Engine, a giant, coal-powered mechanical brain. Sounds like a steampunk fantasy, but it was the real deal: a general-purpose computer capable not only of number-crunching but also logical operations. Not even its inventor, the brilliant and eccentric Victorian-era mathematician Charles Babbage, grasped its full potential. It was his friend and fellow visionary Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron, who had that critical insight. Alas, though worked out in painstaking detail by Babbage, the Analytical Engine was never built. But now it's been drawn – at least parts of it – by the illustrator and animator Sydney Padua. Sydney's new book, "The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer," mixes comics, explanatory footnotes, historical documentation and some wonderful cartoon diagrams. It's a funny and absorbing portrait of one of history's great intellectual partnerships – and the magnificent machine that brought them together.

We know life is made of molecules, but how did those molecules come together in the first place? Was it more than a series of rare and highly improbable coincidences--the parts just falling into place? MIT biophysicist Jeremy England thinks so. He says that under the right circumstances, which aren't rare at all, matter tends naturally toward greater organization, complex structures and adaptive behavior, making life a likely, even inevitable result of physics. His theory of pre-biological evolution provides a much-needed complement to Darwinian biological evolution.

One of America's most prominent philosophers says his field has been tilting at windmills for nearly 400 years. Representationalism – the idea that we don't directly perceive objects in the world, only our mental images of them – has bedeviled philosophy ever since Descartes, and now it's mucking up neuroscience as well, John Searle alleges. He has long defended the “naïve” alternative – that our senses do give us direct access to reality – and he fires his latest salvo in his new book “Seeing Things as They Are.” John is well-known for his no-nonsense approach to philosophical problems and there was plenty of straight talk as we discussed his theory of perception, the subjective-objective divide, the scientific study of consciousness and his dog Tarski.

Kazuo Ishiguro returns to the show to talk about his first novel in 10 years. The Buried Giant may sound like fantasy fiction, with its ogres, dragon and nod to Arthurian legend, but if so it's fantasy in the same sense that Ishiguro's previous novel, Never Let Me Go was sci-fi: an exotic premise used to accentuate some stark realities of the human condition. Ish and I talked about memory and forgetting in the lives of couples and societies, the comforting lies we tell ourselves, decency as a small victory, samurai films and the right way to stage a sword fight.

It wasn't long after Einstein amazed the world with his theory of general relativity in 1915 that physicists were busily working out its more outlandish implications. And none freakier than the spacetime disruptions we now call black holes. Black holes have been making trouble for theorists ever since: putting ideas to the test, exposing gaps and contradictions, and forcing physics to search for new unifying principles beneath the rifts. The latest bit of black hole mischief is a set of paradoxes whose solution, some say, threatens one or more pillars of modern physics and may require a rethinking of general relativity itself.Cosmologist and relativist Anthony Aguirre, who so ably introduced us to GR in our two-part primer, returns to discuss the black hole information paradox and firewall hypothesis, which are fueling one of the hottest controversies in theoretical physics today. Anthony also provides an update on the BICEP2 experiment and the reported – now retracted – discovery of primordial gravity waves that created such a stir last year.

Eugene Robinson has been a body builder, disco dance instructor, streetfighter, bouncer, mixed-martial artist, rocker, author, journalist and actor. We talked about his early days fending off bullies in Brooklyn, training at martial arts, becoming a journalist, performing as frontman and occasional enforcer of audience decorum with the experimental rock band Oxbow, and learning to tango (his latest passion). Plus, working for Larry Flynt, acting in one of the worst movies ever, interviewing Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey, and plenty of fight stories, along with some bits of fistic philosophy from Eugene's book "Fight: everything you ever wanted to know about ass-kicking but were afraid you'd get your ass kicked for asking."

Just as some of us are getting used to the idea of the multiverse, along comes Max Tegmark telling us that we're not thinking big enough. According to Max, there are actually multiple multiverses containing endless copies of and variations on the "pocket universe" we've quaintly come to think of as everything. And while it may sound like he's tripping, Max assures us that he's only high on mathematics and logic, following where they lead. In our tour of the multi-multiverse, he and I discussed the implications of infinite spacetime, eternal inflation, the quantum mechanical wave function, the many worlds interpretation and the idea that reality is at bottom mathematical.

Tweezing, shaving, waxing, corrosive chemicals, hormones, radiation, electrolysis, lasers and now the prospect of genetic engineering: human beings have gone to extreme — and sometimes suicidal — lengths to rid themselves of unwanted body hair. Whence the follicular fear and loathing? Why is a hairless body to die for? Rebecca Herzig examines the modern stigmatization of body hair — especially on women – and the vast arsenal of treatments arrayed against it – in her fascinating new book “Plucked: A History of Hair Removal.”

(From March 2014) Rebecca Goldstein says some of her best friends are “philosophy jeerers,” convinced that anything philosophers can do, scientists can do better. She begs to differ, and offers the grandaddy of Western philosophy as exhibit A. 21st-century America has a surprising amount in common with Athens c. 400 BCE, Rebecca says, and Plato still has a thing or two to teach us moderns. She shows how well the 2,400-year-old-man has aged by transporting him to our own times in her new book “Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't go Away.” Rebecca and I talked about the world of the ancient Greeks, the death of Socrates, the relevance of Plato and what philosophy is good for. Plus a bonus segment: just how timely is Plato? Philosophical rapper Dr. Awkward makes the case in rhymes.

(From Feb 2014) Harry Greene is a much-admired natural historian and herpetologist with a soft spot for black-tailed rattlesnakes. He's spent years in the field studying venomous serpents, when not in the classroom or lab (he's currently a prof at Cornell; before that he was at UC Berkeley, where he both taught and curated the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology). Harry's a very thoughtful guy and serious writer, as evidenced in his new memoir Tracks and Shadows: Field Biology as Art. We talked about his career, about field biology vs. theory and experiment, about the wonders of snakedom and some of his favorite rattlers (like “Superfemale 21”), and life and death in the natural and human worlds.

Cosmologist Anthony Aguirre and I continue our jaunt through General Relativity. Last week we presented some of the basics. This week, we talk about the evidence, the impacts and implications, including the cosmological constant, the expanding universe, gravity waves, time dilation, black holes, and spacetime singularities.

It was Einstein's greatest idea, and one of the most audacious leaps of scientific imagination ever. Much of what physicists know or think they know about space, time and the cosmos depends on it. But General Relativity is usually brushed over in pop sci accounts, because GR is considered too GD difficult for ordinary brains. Even on this scientifically-minded program, we've given it pretty cursory treatment. But not this time. I'm devoting two whole shows to the subject with physicist Anthony Aguirre. He's taught relativity and applies it in his own cosmological research, and does a yeomanly job here of making some very alien concepts approachable. We originally broadcast this series in 2012 but seeing as 2015 is the centenary of Einstein's great discover, we're airing these shows again.

(From Jan 2014) If you've bought into the simplified notion that genes are top-down bosses, issuing marching orders that your cells, body and brain merely obey, it's time to rethink. Biobehavioral scientist Steve Cole and colleagues are assembling a new picture of genes that don't just talk, but also listen. Though scientists have long known that external inputs affect gene regulation (which genes are switched on or off), the degree to which large numbers of genes are influenced moment-to-moment by our experiences – including our social life, our feelings and perceptions – is an important developing story. Steve and I talked about this new understanding of the mind-body connection, how feelings and perceptions may impact the immune system via changes in gene regulation and the emerging field he calls “social genomics.” After hearing this interview, you may never feel the same about your genome again.

With apologies to Bob Newhart and others, my favorite TV shrink will always be Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist. A lot of the best comics of our era tried out their routines—and worked out their issues—on Dr. Katz's couch, and the effect was certainly therapeutic for viewers like me. The animated series ran from 1995-1999 and marks its 20th birthday this year with a live performance at SF Sketchfest. I spoke with co-creator and star Jonathan Katz about the show, his life and career. Including: improv with H. Jon Benjamin and Laura Silverman; hustling ping-pong with David Mamet; how not to pitch a project; ripping it up on a mobility scooter.

Growing up, Nore Davis used laughter to ease family friction and foster mutual understanding. As a professional comedian, that's still his M.O., applying some healing humor to divisive subjects like race, homophobia, and police-civilian tensions. We talked about his youth in Yonkers, being a cop's kid, becoming a comic, using his baby face to good advantage, his transgender "sisbro," his bit part on "Boardwalk Empire," the unequal power of black and white racial slurs, and more.

(Originally aired April, 2014) It took Meklit Hadero a while to realize she could be a singer, and a while longer to start recording, but man, has she made up the distance. Over the last few years she's released a series of impeccably produced albums showcasing her own craftily written songs as well as some pretty beguiling cover versions, moving seamlessly from jazz to soul to hip-hop, indie rock, folk and even a little country. Her supple, spirited vocals invite comparisons to Joni Mitchell, Nina Simone, Nora Jones and Joan Armatrading. But she has a sound all her own, drawing on musical influences in all the aforementioned genres as well as the Ethiopian pop she heard growing up and the North/East African music she's been exposed to in her work on The Nile Project, which she co-founded. Meklit and I surveyed her discography, including her new album We Are Alive, while talking about her life and career, her exuberant approach to performance and the way creativity takes its own good time.

Ever wondered what life is like for medical workers treating Ebola patients? Or what sort of people volunteer for such hazardous duty? Davis Perkins is a paramedic, a former paratrooper and retired firefighter with a passion for landscape painting and overseas medical missions. He's just returned from Liberia, where he worked in an Ebola Treatment Unit (ETU). As Davis waited out his mandatory 21-day homecoming quarantine, we talked about his decision to go to the hot zone and what he experienced there.

Before reading Eula Biss's new book "On Immunity," I thought the anti-vaccination movement was a recent phenomenon. But as she makes clear, the roots go much deeper: not only historically, but psychologically, sociologically, maybe even theologically. We talked about vaccines and their safety, the history of inoculation and its discontents, public vs. personal health, choosing what to fear, purity and pollution, illness as metaphor, and vampires.

The criminalization of psychedelic drugs did little to stop casual use, but did make it nearly impossible to do legitimate research on their effects and medicinal potential. Rick Doblin has spent most of his life trying to change that. Now, he and the organization he founded, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), may be on the verge of a breakthrough: the first FDA approval for therapeutic use of psychedelics. On today's show, I spoke to Rick about the long road from proscription to prescription; where the previous generation of psychedelic advocates went wrong and what's going right this time; how psychedelics might work to assist psychotherapy for conditions such as PTSD, severe anxiety and drug and alcohol addiction; and how that model differs from conventional psychopharmaceutical approaches. Also Rick talks about his own psychedelic experiences and why mind-altering drugs can be so life-altering.

Cultural commentator Laura Kipnis is one of our sharpest surveyors of sexual politics and gender relations. She's written bracingly about porn, femininity and feminism, self-deception and scandal, love and marriage… So why'd it take her so long to get around to the subject of men and masculinity? Actually, Laura's been writing about and puzzling over guys—and her relationship to them—for years, and now she's collected some of her best essays on the topic in her book "Men: Notes from an Ongoing Investigation." We talked about male anxiety, male power, male excess, her own envy of men and her sometimes confused expectations of them. Also the challenges of self-exploration and self-revelation in writing, and what to wear when you meet Larry Flynt.

Michael Robbins says he wanted to be a rock star even more than a poet. His devotion to music, from rap to rock to pop and country, is plain in almost every line of his verse — not just in the lyrics he samples and remixes, but in the sounds and the syllables themselves. Michael's just released his second poetry collection, "The Second Sex," following up on 2012's critical smash, "Alien Vs. Predator." We talked about his sources and inspirations, both literary and musical, and listened to some tunes of his choosing.

Richard Ford and I don't always see eye to eye on his long-running protagonist Frank Bascombe, and he thinks that's OK, even a good thing. Amidst differing readings and some good-natured contrariety, I learned a lot about Richard the writer, his craft and the man himself. With Frank Bascombe's return in Richard's new collection of stories, this interview feels as timely as it did when first broadcast eight years ago to the day.

It's not just organisms that compete in nature—molecules do, too. Sofie Salama and colleagues have been exploring an age-old tug-of-war inside our genome, between genes that spread like kudzu and others that perform a kind of weed control. The conflict between jumping genes (aka transposons), and repressors may have a biological payoff, contributing new regulatory elements that drive organismal complexity and new evolutionary possibilities. Among the subjects Sofie and I discussed: *The pioneering work of Barbara McClintock, discoverer of transposons *The possible viral origins of jumping genes *Do transposons hurt us or help us? *Watching the intragenomic “arms race” in action *There's so much more to the genome than genes *Combinatorial complexity: how a modest number of genes give rise to much more complicated systems *Epigenetics: beyond classical inheritance

Tillie Olsen didn't publish much, but her work has had an outsize impact. Her stories were instant classics and part of the great democratization of 20th-century American lit. The fact that they were painstakingly written while working menial jobs, raising four kids and campaigning tirelessly for human rights added to her legend. With the recent publication of some of her previously out-of-print works, I talked with teacher/writer Julie Olsen Edwards and poet/teacher Rebekah Edwards – Tillie's daughter and granddaughter, respectively – about her life, writing and legacy.

When we last spoke to Bammer in 2008, she was still flying a little under the mainstream radar. In recent years she's broken through, and success couldn't happen to a nicer, funnier person. Maria's especially well-known and lauded for her hilarious-yet-sympathetic depictions of her own dysfunctional family and struggles with depression, unwanted thought syndrome and other DSM-listed conditions. This time we talked about the latest chapter of her career, comedic solutions for world problems, joke-theft, heckler-handling, pug-herding, love, relationships and meds.

Jonathon Keats is still searching for the perfect job title. In the meantime he's making do with “experimental philosopher,” though he's also been called a conceptual artist and a poet of ideas. His chosen form is the Gedankenexperiment, brought to life and acted out. In his decade-plus career he has “genetically engineered God,” made porn movies for plants, built a church to science and hustled extra-dimensional real estate. His latest venture: a consulting firm that trains bacteria for careers in corporate management. Microbial Associates has its public launch event at Modernism Gallery in San Francisco on October 21st. Funny yes, but it's not all a big joke. For all the funning there's a serious intent at the heart of Jonathon's antics. By taking ideas to unreal extremes, Jonathon aims to explore the very real implications of our beliefs.

Abigail Washburn always considered singing and songwriting a sideline and never thought she could make a career of it. But a sharp-eared music exec knew better. After overhearing her play at a bluegrass convention, he signed her on the spot to a Nashville record deal. She set aside her plans to become a lawyer in China, took up music full time, turned out a series of highly regarded albums and began a musical partnership with banjo master Béla Fleck. Then came love, marriage, baby carriage – and now their first duo album. Abby and I talked about her highly empathetic approach to song, the evolution of her voice, how a suburban Midwestern girl became a countrified tunesmith and how she and Béla learned to blend their two very different banjo styles and sensibilities.

As Ira Glass was getting ready to perform Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host in our area as part of his cousin Philip Glass's Days and Nights Festival, I grabbed the opportunity to chat with him. We talked about Three Acts, a movement-and-storytelling piece he created with dancers Monica Bill Barnes and Anna Bass. Willy-nilly the conversation turned to Ira's radio career, the version of himself he plays on air and the benefits of keeping some things close to the vest.

I included parts of this interview on the radio show, but this online version is the first time it's been available uncut. Brian was coming to Philip Glass's Days and Nights Festival to present and narrate the film adaptation of his relativistic physics fable, Icarus at the Edge of Time. We talked about the principles the story conveys, especially the way gravity stretches time, and about his collaboration with Philip Glass, who composed the film's score. Also, a bit on Brian's passion for physics education, teaching free online courses at World Science U and grappling – literally – with fellow celebrity physicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Julia Reynolds never planned on becoming an expert on gang violence. But as a reporter covering towns like Salinas, CA, she found the carnage hard to ignore, and she wondered why so many young men were keen for a career that often ends in an early grave or a prison cell. After a decade of getting to know gang members, their families and anti-gang law enforcement officials, she's produced a vivid portrait of life and death in one of California's most notorious crime organizations. Drawing on her own first-hand reporting as well as police surveillance tapes and court discovery documents, her new book "Blood in the Fields: Ten Years Inside California's Nuestra Familia Gang" has a novelistic, you-are-there immediacy while remaining resolutely factual.

You wouldn't know it from watching CSI, but forensic science may not be so scientific after all. In recent years the use of DNA evidence has exposed just how badly traditional crime lab techniques can fail, helping to convict the innocent while the guilty go free. Jim Dwyer, Pulitzer Prizewinning reporter and columnist for the New York Times, has been covering wrongful convictions and DNA-based exonerations for years. He and I talked about the many ways conventional forensics can go wrong, as described and demonstrated in his recent eBook "False Conviction: Innocence, Guilt and Science."

Max Brooks on his best-selling graphic novel "The Harlem Hellfighters," the true story of a heroic black U.S. regiment in World War I who fought the Germans abroad and racism at home. Also thoughts on WWI, Max's best-selling zombie fiction, and his battles with dyslexia, self-doubt and the stigma of being a "legacy kid" (he's the son of Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft).

"The point of math isn't solving problems," Jordan Ellenberg told me, "it's understanding stuff." And all too often these days we're misunderstanding stuff, even if we have more numbers than ever to work with. Jordan and I discussed some of the mathematical muddles we get into in politics, economics, finance and scientific research and how we can do better. He's a professor of math at the University of Wisconsin and the author of the acclaimed new book "How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking."