The New Yorker Radio Hour

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Episode 3: Hacking for the Masses, and Gloria Steinem Nov 06, 2015

Show notes

The hacker group Lizard Squad ruined Christmas for a lot of people last year when it hacked into Sony and Microsoft servers and rendered new PlayStations and Xboxes temporarily unusable for online gaming. Soon after, the hackers starting selling an inexpensive program that anyone could use to block a Web site. Vauhini Vara, a contributor to The New Yorker’s Web site, talked to Vinnie Omari, a hacker who has been associated with Lizard Squad, about the group.

This week concludes Jill Lepore’s three-part story about a woman’s search for the biological father she never knew. He was known as Big Brown, a Greenwich Village street poet whose work Bob Dylan described as “the best poetry I ever heard.” This final installment of “The Search for Big Brown” explores the connection among Brown, Dylan, and rap.

David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, speaks with Gloria Steinem about Hillary Clinton, Black Lives Matter, and a fundamental question for activists: which comes first, changing hearts or changing laws? Steinem also talks about her new memoir, “My Life on the Road,” and why she decided to change her book’s title.

And staff writer Rebecca Mead discusses two of her current obsessions: the soundtrack to the Broadway hit “Hamilton,” and a classic novel by a man without children that offers surprising insights on motherhood.

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Episode Two: Amy Schumer, Jorge Ramos, and the Search for a Lost Father Oct 30, 2015

Show notes

Amy Schumer began her career playing a deranged, rich party girl. With three seasons of her Peabody Award-winning series Inside Amy Schumer now complete, Schumer has since shifted to a more deliberate agenda, one that’s earned her the favor of Hillary Clinton and her distant relative, Senator Charles Schumer. The New Yorker’s editor David Remnick spoke with Schumer about her evolution as a comic and a feminist spokesperson, and how she’s reconciled the desire for laughs with a changing climate of political correctness.

In the second installment of staff writer Jill Lepore’s story “The Search for Big Brown,” Lepore’s childhood friend Adrianna Alty starts learning about her biological father, a black street poet whose time in Greenwich Village in the 1960s brought him the admiration of Bob Dylan. Some of the rumors seem to pan out, but the man remains elusive.

For many Americans, Univision journalist Jorge Ramos first came to public prominence after Donald Trump kicked him out of a campaign event in August. But for Spanish speakers, Ramos has been one of the most recognizable and respected voices in the media for decades. New Yorker staff writer William Finnegan asked Ramos about the Republican party’s stance on immigration, and why he engages with people who seem to hate him.

Then, writer Carolyn Kormann tries out Bird Genie, a new app that attempts to make birding easier by capturing snippets of songs in the field and comparing them to existing recordings. The app’s creator, Tom Stevenson, joins Kormann for some technologically assisted birding in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park.

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Episode One: Boarding Call Oct 23, 2015

Show notes

In The New Yorker Radio Hour’s début episode, the magazine’s editor, David Remnick, speaks with Ta-Nehisi Coates, the author of “Between the World and Me,” about the profound influence of James Baldwin on his writing and why he’ll always be wary of optimism.

Jill Lepore, a staff writer at The New Yorker, introduces us to a childhood friend who was one of the only people of color in their small New England town. This is the first part of a three-part story, “The Search for Big Brown.”

Kelefa Sanneh, who is also a staff writer, takes a day trip to a suburb of Philadelphia to visit Spraynard, a pop-punk band. Most of their friends have moved into the city, but the members of Spraynard stayed to try to create a punk scene in their home town.

Boarding a plane just got even more chaotic in a Shouts & Murmurs written by George Meyer and performed by Allison Williams, from “Girls,” that imagines a farcical airport scene.

And Evan Osnos, who writes about Washington for the magazine, talks about sexism in politics with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, of New York.

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Coming Soon: The New Yorker Radio Hour Oct 17, 2015

Show notes

One of the nation’s most celebrated magazines comes together with New York’s flagship public radio station to create a new weekly radio program and podcast. What’s it all about?

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