Light On Light Through

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 117, in which the notorious Captain Phil (on WUSB Radio) interviews me about my new music, latest science fiction, and Donald Trump's current assaults on democracy.  Phil also plays, at the start of the episode, two rough mixes from my forthcoming Welcome Up album of science fiction songs, to be released by Old Bear Records this Fall: "Alpha Centauri" and "Samantha".  We discuss such topics as the return of Jeff Lynne and the re-launch of Amazing Stories, in which several of my new science fiction stories have appeared. I always have a good time talking to Phil, and this interview was one of the best. Helpful links: Robinson Calculator more on anniversary issue of Amazing Stories my review of Jeff Lynne at Prudential in Newark my review of The Loudest Voice Levinson on television about Trump interview about how I wrote the lyrics to "Looking for Sunsets (In the Early Morning)" Twice Upon A Rhyme by Paul Levinson some of my music - free!

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 116, audio of my appearance on Fox Nation, in which I (a progressive) and three conservatives talk about Donald Trump and the media.  You can see the video here, and more about my book, Fake News in Real Context, here.

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 115 - a 2019 New Year's special - in which Captain Phil (on WUSB Radio) interviews me about my music, views of Donald Trump, and NASA's Ultima Thule fly-by.  Not only that - Phil plays, for the first time on any radio station, three rough mixes from my forthcoming Welcome Up album of science fiction songs, to be released by Old Bear Records this Fall: "Samantha", "If I Traveled to the Past", and "Welcome Up".  I always have a good time talking to Phil, but these 90 minutes were really out of the ball park. Relevant links: 1. Music from my one other album - Twice Upon a Rhyme (1972) - on Bandcamp, Spotify, and Apple Music. 2. Bill O'Reilly's interview with me about Catherine Bosley: the video. 3. My review of Alec Nevala-Lee's Astounding. 4. My best-known book about Trump: Fake News in Real Context  

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 114, in which I reflect on the shuttering of The Village Voice this past September, and discuss the crucial role it played in my life as a writer. The first three articles I ever had published anywhere appeared in The Village Voice in the early 1970s.  You can read them for free at the links below: 1. A Vote for McCartney 2. Murray the K in Nostalgia's Noose 3. Wolfman Hits the Road, Jack And speaking of Murray the K, if you remember him (or not) and are interested in his work, you might enjoy this playlist that popped up a few weeks ago on YouTube. 

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 113, in which I review Making a Murderer, both seasons.  These 20 episodes should be required viewing for anyone who wants to see the reality of our justice system in America. Relevant links - 1. my blog post (written) review of the first season 2. my blog post (written) review of the second season 3. a report about my experience as jury foreperson (May 2013) on a different case, in New York  

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 112, in which I review The Man in the High Castle - Season 3. I thought it was the best season so far, which is high praise indeed, since I thought the first two seasons were outstanding. You can find my written reviews of all three seasons here - The Man in the High Castle on Amazon (pilot)... The Man in the High Castle 1.2-1.10: Timely Alternate Reality Par Excellence ... The Man in the High Castle in Reality -- Well, on NYC Subway Cars ... The Man in the High Castle 2.1-2.3: My Heimisch Town ... The Man in the High Castle 2.4-2.6: Rails and Realities ... The Man in the High Castle 2.7-2.10: Alternate Reality to the Rescue, Literally... The Man in the High Castle 3.1: Real People in Alternate History ... The Man in the High Castle 3.2-3: Alternate Realities, Frederic Brown, and Rockwells ...  The Man in the High Castle 3.4-6: "Tis Death that's Dead" ... The Man in the High Castle 3.7-10: The Metaphysics of Alternate Realities My podcast review of Season 2 is here

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 111, in which Captain Phil interviews me for a second time -- this time about Aretha Franklin, my novel Borrowed Tides, Mars, Carl Sagan, David Kyle, and sundry things.   Captain Phil is the stage name of Phil Merkel, who was filling in for the regular host of "Progressive Solutions," a radio show on WUSB Radio out of Stony Brook University.  

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 110, in which Captain Phil interviews me about my music, science fiction, political views, and everything including the kitchen sink.   Captain Phil is the stage name of Phil Merkel, who was filling in for the regular host of "Progressive Solutions," a radio show on WUSB Radio out of Stony Brook University.  Here are links relating to Justin Hayward and The Blue Dahlia, whom I talk about in my intro to this episode, right before the actual interview begins. 1. My review of Justin Hayward in Tarrytown, NY, 12 August 2018. 2. My review of The Blue Dahlia's new album, La Tradition Américaine.  3.  The Blue Dahlia and I perform my 1972 song, "Today Is Just Like You," at her CD-release party at Barbès in Park Slope, Brooklyn, on 11 August 2018 -- here's the video.

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 109, in which I review all ten episodes, one by one, of Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams (first season). Links mentioned in the podcast - My written reviews of each of these episodes start here.  (The link is to my review of episode 1, with links to my reviews of the other episodes at the bottom of that page.)  The podcast is based on the written reviews, embellished with a few additional thoughts here and there. My podcast reviews of the first two seasons of The Man in the High Castle are here and here. My top-ten television list of 2017, with Sense8 in first place. My podcast reviews of the first two seasons of The Affair are here and here (Maura Tierney who stars in The Affair is in one of the episodes of Electric Dreams and I mention in this podcast.) More about our April 9, 2018 conference on Touching the Face of the Cosmos. And here's a link not mentioned in the podcast - to a video version of this podcast, replete with imagery of the ten episodes. And he

Welcome to Episode 108 of Llght On Light Through, in which I read a new work-in-progress, "Robinson Calculator," on Hour of the Wolf on WBAI-FM Radio on November 16, 2017 at 2 o'clock in the morning.  I read about 1000 words of the story.  "Robinson Calculator" was published in 2019 -- you can read the intro  over here.

Welcome to Episode 107 of Llght On Light Through, a talk I gave at the McLuhan in New York event at Fordham University on 13 October 2017.  More about that event, including a video of the complete panel, here. More about The Omnipotent Ear here, there and everywhere.

It all started in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn Monroe walked off the set of The Misfits and began to hear a haunting song in her head, "Candle in the Wind," which wouldn't be written until 1973 ... Welcome to Episode 106 of Llght On Light Through, a reading I did of a brand new novelette, "Marilyn and Monet," at Readercon 28 in Quincy, MA on July 15, 2017. I read about 3300 words or about a third of the 10,000 word story. (You can read the complete story here.) Thanks Phil Merkel for recording this reading. (The voices you occasionally hear in the background are from a panel next door - I think they add to the ambience.)  

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 105, in which I review The Man in the High Castle - Season 2. Other than mentioning that I think this is easily among the best science fiction television series ever made, if not the best, I'll let my podcast speak for itself ... You can find my written reviews of both seasons here - The Man in the High Castle on Amazon (pilot)... The Man in the High Castle 1.2-1.10: Timely Alternate Reality Par Excellence ... The Man in the High Castle in Reality -- Well, on NYC Subway Cars ... The Man in the High Castle 2.1-2.3: My Heimisch Town ... The Man in the High Castle 2.4-2.6: Rails and Realities ... The Man in the High Castle 2.7-2.10: Alternate Reality to the Rescue, Literally My podcast review of the Season 1 pilot is here. And here are my books and my videos.  

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 104, in which I review every episode of The Affair - Season 2 - one of my all-time favorite series on any kind of television. You can find my written reviews of these episodes here -   The Affair 2.1: Advances ... The Affair 2.2: Loving a Writer ... The Affair 2.3: The Half-Wolf ... The Affair 2.4: Helen at Distraction ... The Affair 2.5: Golden Cole ... The Affair 2.6: The End (of Noah's Novel) ... The Affair 2.7: Stunner ... The Affair 2.8: The Reading, the Review, the Prize ...The Affair 2.9: Nameless Hurricane ... The Affair 2.10: Meets In Treatment ... The Affair 2.11: Alison and Cole in Business ... The Affair Season 2 Finale: No One's Fault   My podcast review of all of The Affair season 1 And here are my books and my videos ...  

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 103, in which I interview Linda Kaplan Thaler.  Linda and I wrote a bunch of songs in the late 1960s, including "Not Yet Ready to Say Goodbye," which appears on my 1972 Twice Upon a Rhyme album, mentioned from time to time on this podcast. Linda went on to write the world-famous, iconic "Toys R Us" jingle in 1983 ("I Don't Wanna Grow Up, I'm a Toys R US Kid"), mastermind the Aflac Duck campaign nearly two decades later, and work on the political campaigns of both Bill and Hillary Clinton.  She has also co-written four books, including The Power of Nice, and the recently published Grit to Great.  We discuss all of this and more on the podcast. You can get Grit to Great here.    Other helpful links - Linda Kaplan Thaler on Wikipedia Linda sings Skyscraper Tony DeSanto sings "Not Yet Ready to Say Goodbye" video of my 15 August 2015 concert with Peter Rosenthal in Ronkonkoma, NY my 2006 interview by Patrick Rands on WZBC Radio, in which I talk about Linda Kaplan and

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 102, in which I interview John Glenn, first American to orbit the Earth, about what he sees as a constructive intersection of space travel and religion.  The interview was conducted on July 30, 2015 in Senator Glenn's office at the John Glenn College of Public Affairs at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. A transcript of this conversation will be published in the Touching the Face of the Cosmos anthology being assembled by Michael Waltemathe and me - more details about that, including the contents, here.   We also discussed John Glenn's response to portrayals of him in the media, and other aspects of his life as an astronaut.  *Note added December 17, 2015: the anthology has been published, and is here available here.   In addition to John Glenn, his wife Annie of 72 years participates in the conversation.  Adam Sackowitz joins in the questioning.  In addition to John and Annie Glenn, I thank Joel Iskowitz, Adam Sackowitz, Peter Bucher, Kathy Dancey, and Fordha

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 101, in which I review the pilot of Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle - that is, the pilot of a series to be streamed on Amazon, based on Dick's alternate history masterpiece.  Here's my written review of the pilot.    three time travel novels: the Sierra Waters trilogy What if the Soviet Union survived into the 21st century,and Eddie and the Cruisers were a real band?

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 100, in which I review Predestination (the movie made from Robert Heinlein's 1959 story "All You Zombies") and the first three episodes of the 12 Monkeys TV series (based on the 1995 movie).  Yes, 2015 is starting out as a great year for time travel!   Blog post reviews - Predestination  12 Monkeys TV series  Italian review, with reference to "The Chronolgy Protection Case"    three time travel novels: the Sierra Waters trilogy four more time travel stories (Loose Ends saga)  

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 99, in which I review every episode of The Affair - Season 1 - my favorite new series on television.   You can find my written reviews of these episodes here - The Affair Premiere: Sneak Preview Review The Affair 1.2: Time Travel! The Affair 1.3: The Agent and the Sleepers  The Affair 1.4: Come Together  The Affair 1.5: Alison's Episode  The Affair 1.6: Drugs and Vision  The Affair 1.7: True Confessions  The Affair 1.8: "I Love You / I Love You, Too"  The Affair 1.9: Who Else on the Train?  The Affair Season One Finale: The Arrest and the Rest And here are my reviews of Season 2 - The Affair 2.1: Advances                                                                                               a different kind of affair      

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 98, in which I play, back to back, my review of Bones 100 (100th episode) as recorded in 2010 and my review of Bones 200 (200th) episode, written just a few days ago and recorded this afternoon.   It's fun to see how much and little has changed in Bones in the past five seasons.  One thing that has remained constant is the delightlful quality of the show.   For my written reviews of these two landmark episodes, see  Bones 100: Two Deep Kisses & One Wild Relationship Bones 200: Just Like Bogey and Bacall   a different kind of love story and mystery