x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen

In this new kind of interview show, Randy Cohen talks to guests about a person, a place, and a thing they find meaningful. The result: surprising stories from great talkers. Learn more at http://personplacething.org/

comedy comedy interviews

All Episodes

27:31

Freeman Hrabowski

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2022/10/29

When he was 12, he joined the Children’s Crusade in Birmingham and was thrown in jail. At 15, he entered college, studied mathematics, and went on to lead the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, bringing legions of under-represented students to STEM studies and STEM professions. He is America's secret STEM mentor.

en

27:31

Lt. Col. Jordan Becker

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2022/10/22

He served in the special forces in Iraq, as a defense policy advisor to NATO, and now teaches international relations at West Point, where a woman colleague gently explained male privilege. He got it: “I had this advantage, in that I’m kind of a fat-headed, broad-shouldered man with badges and gadgets.”

en

27:31

Suzanne Nossel

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2022/10/15

The CEO of PEN America, she has good news and bad news. “We’re not seeing a lot of book burning, thankfully, but we are seeing a kind of forest fire of book banning rippling it way across the United States.” Actually, that’s simply bad news.

en

27:31

Rachael Price & Taylor Ashton

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2022/10/08

These musicians admire the Buddhist teacher and “spiritual entertainer” Alan Watts, despite his having led a flamboyantly imperfect life. Debauchery is not strictly required, however; saintliness, too, has its appeal. “If you can be a shining example on this earth, that’s absolutely inspiring as well,” Rachael tells the New York Baha’i Center.

en

27:31

Andy Byford

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2022/10/01

Affectionately called “Train Daddy,” he has run transit systems in London, Toronto, and New York, where few people in such jobs are affectionately called anything. He reflects with feeling on subways, seaports, and the almost moral duty to support your home team. “You can’t chop and change.”

en

27:31

Machine Dazzle

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2022/09/24

This costume designer, known for his work with playwright Taylor Mac, rejects the old saw, there’s no accounting for taste. “Yes, you account for taste. It is part of who you are. And maybe I’m judging you right now. No. I’m kidding.” I don’t think he’s kidding. We talk sense and sensibility and suits at Materials for the Arts.

en

27:31

Mary Norris

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2022/09/17

When Homer refers to the “wine-dark sea,” does he mean red, white, or rosé? He intends no color whatever, asserts the author of Greek to Me, who offers an ingenious alternative. Wine and the Greeks: in the ancient world, the modern world, the world of mythology. Presented with The Neal Rosenthal Group. Music: Avram Pengas.

en

27:31

Henry Alford

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2022/09/10

This writer is astute and amusing about manners, aging, and their intersection: “The shusher in the movie is always much louder than the person who’s talking; I’ve become a shusher.” Impressively, he has the self-awareness to recognize it, the courage to admit it, and the sense of humor to make it bearable.

en

27:31

Ulysses Owens Jr.

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2022/09/03

When this Grammy-winning drummer was just a kid, Wynton Marsalis performed at a local high school. “There were all these people in this auditorium, and I looked at Wynton, and it almost felt like everybody disappeared, and it was just me and him.” A musician meets his destiny. Presented with Ralph Farris of the quartet Ethel.

en

27:31

Gernot Wagner

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2022/07/23

This climate economist is surprisingly optimistic about our onrushing environmental catastrophe. “Things are dire, yes, but things are moving much much faster in the positive direction than anyone would have imagined five, ten years ago.” A ray of hope! “Now, is it fast enough? No.” A ray of gloom. Produced with the New-York Historical Society’s Climate Café. Music: Mamie Minch.

en

27:31

Robin Nagle

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2022/07/16

“It’s grand, it’s palatial, it’s beautiful,” says the anthropologist-in-residence for the NY Department of Sanitation about a garage. She is happy in her work. A scholar looks at what we throw away and what it says about us. Presented with the Sanitation Foundation. Music: John Sherman.

en

27:31

J. J. Sedelmaier

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2022/07/09

This animator—you don’t know his name, but you know his work for MTV and SNL—is fascinated by Samuel Insull, Thomas Edison’s former assistant, who brought electricity to Chicago, achieved global fame, and whose name you (and I) also didn’t know. “There’s no reason he shouldn’t be up there with Carnegie and J. P. Morgan.” Music: Walter Hawkes.

en

27:31

Tod Machover

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2022/07/02

This composer, much admired for his operas, contemplates a happy dichotomy: “These two places are perfectly balanced for the kind of work I do and the kind of life I lead.” Heaven and Hell? New York and Texas? No! His old-fashioned barn-studio and the newfangled MIT Media Lab. Technology, music, and more.

en

27:31

Meera Subramanian

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2022/06/25

This environmental journalist has covered stories all over the world, but she seldom knows how they continue after she departs: “What keeps me up at night is that all these stories stay with me, and I don’t know the ending all the time.” A conversation about girls in India, maps of Texas, and falcons over Cape Cod. Produced with Orion magazine.

en

27:31

Peter Dugan and Charles Yang

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2022/06/18

As music students, they were sequestered in Juilliard’s fourth-floor rehearsal rooms. “The fourth floor is all dungeony and without sunlight,” says pianist Dugan. “It’s one of the worst, most magical places ever,” says violinist Yang. Today they have flourishing careers among other human beings. That’s the magic. A conversation at the Kaufman Music Center with two artists in residence.

en

27:31

Deborah Berke

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2022/06/11

I respect her as the dean of the Yale School of Architecture, admire her as a practicing architect, but flipped for her when she said, “There are two versions of the story, and both of them are true.” Not contradiction, nuance. The joys of complexity. Presented with the Center for Architecture. Music: Hubby Jenkins.

en

27:31

Steven Greenhouse

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2022/06/04

A former labor reporter for the New York Times, he is surprisingly optimistic: “When the first Starbucks voted to unionize in Buffalo back in December, that was a humongous deal.” Humongous! (A word that does not appear in his most recent book, Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor.)

en

27:31

Diana Mason

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2022/05/28

I note with chagrin that while we’ve had many doctors on the show, she is our first nurse. In addition to being a practitioner, she’s worked on health policy at Georgetown and is a professor emerita at Hunter. “We like to tell our journalism colleagues that if you’re not interviewing a nurse, you’re likely missing the best part of the story.” She’s right. Except about my being a journalist.

en

27:31

Anthony Veneziale

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2022/05/21

When this improv artist—he created Freestyle Love Supreme with Lin-Manuel Miranda—received a guitar from his wife, he was eager to play at bedtime for their two young daughters. “They were like, ‘Could you stop? Could you just cuddle?’” The ups and downs, but mostly ups, of a performer’s life.

en

27:31

Frances Fox Piven

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2022/05/14

Esteemed as both a scholar and an activist, she’s spent nearly ninety years working for social justice, if you count her first few years, and I do: when she was four, she had a clear (and unpopular) position on the Soviet-Finnish war. She’s since revised it. Continuous rethinking—the mark of the true intellectual.

en

180 results

Similar Podcasts

射後不理＃爽就好了

咪咪 & 淳淳

Therapy Gecko

iHeartPodcasts

百靈果 News

Bailingguo News

Old Time Radio Comedy

solgoodmedia.com

The Hard Yarns Podcast

Cameron Branch and Daniel Delby