In this month’s episode of the Organist:

• Thomas Lennon (Reno 911!, Hell Baby) as an unhinged Urban Outfitters security guard in a short radio drama written by Nick Jones (Orange is the New Black, Jollyship the Whiz-Bang)
• The story of Chris Stroffolino, ex-Silver Jews, ex-Shakespeare scholar, currently living and performing amazing music in a 1983 Ford Econoline van in L.A.
• Kathleen Hanna on Julie Ruin, the Julie Ruin, and writing her own eulogy
• Mahzarin Banaji on the unconscious racial prejudices of four-year-olds
• Thomas Lennon (see above) reading a short, unhinged radio drama written by Blake Butler (There Is No Year, Ever, Scorch Atlas)
• Nothing else.

Chris Stroffolino’s story was produced by David Weinberg. Kathleen Hanna was interviewed by Jenna Weiss-Berman. Mahzarin Banaji was interviewed by Audrey Quinn.

The August episode of the Organist features:

• Son of Rex, a tiny radio drama written by Nick Antosca and performed by Edgar Oliver;
• Hua Hsu on an ancient unsolved mystery of hiphop sampling;
• Sam McPheeters on shoplifting hardcore punk 7-inches in 80s Manhattan;
• French percussionist David Langlois on how his career began with the theft of his grandmother’s fondue pot;
• Dawn of Midi on what live music can learn from computers;
• Max Tundra’s 10 favorite five-second recordings;
• maybe a tiny bit MORE

The David Langlois piece was produced by David Schulman. The episode was produced by Jenna Weiss-Berman, Ross Simonini, and Whitney Jones, and engineered at KCRW by Ray Guarna. Special thanks to Shelby El-Otmani and John Bosson.

In this Episode:

• Sunset Television’s first-ever foray into radio: “Who’s the Other Celebrity in the Room?” Starring Manute Bol and Sly Stallone 
• Vernon Chatman on editing a new album of Andy Kaufman’s personal mini-cassette recordings
• Harmony Korine on his teenage mini-cassette recordings, his first novel, and people who plot things
• Camara Miller and Chris Wood investigate sonic warfare against beetles
• Jack White in conversation with Tempest Storm, the oldest living burlesque dancer

James Yeh produced the Andy Kaufman piece. Ross Simonini produced the Harmony Korine story. Earlier this year, Sunset Television debuted a web series on our Tumblr.

In this episode:

• James Franco performing a new original radio drama by the playwright Will Eno
• Jonathan Coulton on the strange (and infuriating) intersection of Sir Mix-a-Lot, U.S. copyright law, and Glee
•  Tao Lin on speaking very slowly
• Kitty and Kool A.D. rapping Tao Lin’s fiction as quickly as possible
• the artist Nick Cave on his horsey sound installations in Grand Central Station
• Isis Aquarian on documenting her years living with two hundred other members of the Source Family cult in a mansion in L.A.
• Julian Koster of the Music Tapes on his touring sideshow, The Traveling Imaginary
• A tiny bit more!

Jonathan Coulton’s story was produced by Andrea Silenzi of the FMA. Christian Lorentzen appears in the Tao Lin piece. Nick Cave’s story was reported by Anna Altman. Isis Aquarian was interviewed by Patrick James.

Listen to a mixtape of songs chosen by Kitty to score this month’s episode.

Featuring!

• Sarah Silverman on the relative merits of her virtual pet owl
• Shane Carruth on the sound of  his new film, Upstream Color
• Conan O’Brien on “Benny,” a dissatisfying, unhelpful Frankenstein monster
• A brief, bizarre conversation between Jack White and Conan O’Brien
• Novelist Rachel Kushner (The Flamethrowers, Telex From Cuba) in conversation with painter Laura Owens (many awesome paintings)
• JM Tyree and Ben Walters on the relative merits of the 1958 horror-cheese classic The Blob
• Charlie White and Boom Bip cut an album composed entirely of the anxieties of young people
• Nathan Salsburg on a treasure trove of hillbilly records he found in a Louisville Dumpster
• More, some more

Sarah Silverman’s owl speech was written by Alena Smith. Shane Carruth was interviewed by Ross Simonini, who also produced the Charlie White piece. Conan O’Brien’s Frankenstein riff was produced by Jack White. Nathan Salsburg’s story was produced by Matt Frassica. Thanks for listening! Please give us a rating on iTunes if you have a sec. Sad as it is, podcasts can’t get all of their nutrition from listeners alone — they need iTunes ratings to thrive.

Web extras: hear an extended edit of the Rachel Kushner / Laura Owens interview.

Episode Two exists!

• David Cross describes his aura-sniffing powers
• Andrea Silenzi proposes a copyright-free alternative to the Birthday Song
• Devendra Banhart on the language of songwriting. (Listen to DB’s exclusive mixtape he made for the Organist!)
• Sam Lipsyte’s Old-News Summary
• Thomas Rogers on the origins of the gay male voice
• Brian McMullen’s indirectory of toll-free ogres

Also available on iTunes and KCRW.com. Enjoy!

Welcome to Episode one of the Organist, wherein:

• the short-story master George Saunders talks about how riffing as a teenage benchwarmer led to the richly imagined voices of his fiction;
• Parks and Recreation‘s Nick Offerman explains the tortured etymology of the word “podcast” (it’s a conflation of the words paw and broadcast — a radio show with claws);
• critic Greil Marcus considers a reissue of the first Bikini Kill EP and a new novel by Percival Everett;
• Amber Scorah tells the story of her defection from the Jehovah’s Witnesses while working as a missionary in Shanghai;
• Pitchfork editor Brandon Stosuy presents five five-word record reviews of excellent new guitar rock;
• the electronic duo Matmos takes a song from their new album apart, piece by piece, revealing its brilliant, pulsating innards;
• a new(ish) film casts a shotgun microphone as its protagonist;
• And more!
• Actually, not much more. That’s more or less everything.

At a few junctures during Episode One, the listener is directed to this website to find “Web Extras”–e.g., the full interview with George Saunders. Find that and those here.

Erratum: Percival Everett here reads the first paragraph of his novel—not the first chapter.