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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

Jesse Reiser and Nanako Umemoto

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2025/10/25

For decades after graduating, these architects avoided Cooper Union. “We would detour three or four blocks or else the PTSD would kick in.” Apparently it used to be like The Paper Chase or Whiplash but with less compassion. Presented with The National Academy of Design. Music: Karl Schwarz.

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27:31

Anthony Wood

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2025/10/18

This preservationist, a wily veteran of decades of urban campaigns, is happy in his work: “I’ve never regretted being involved in saving a landmark. I’ve only regretted the ones I couldn’t save.” I envy his serenity. I regret nearly everything. Presented with the New York Preservation Archive Project. Music: Adrian Untermyer.

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27:31

Will Power

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2025/10/11

When this playwright’s grandfather faced a tough decision, “He sought the advice of Paul Robeson.” Of course he did. Who wouldn’t? And it all worked out fine. Fine-ish. A writer, his family, his community. Presented with the Classical Theatre of Harlem. Music: Emery Mason, Melissa Mosley.

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27:31

Nilka Martell

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2025/10/04

She and her neighbors—untrained, uncredentialed—revived the Bronx River and are taking on the hideous Cross Bronx Expressway. “We’re just a group of Bronxites with ambitious ideas.” Presented with the Architectural League, in conjunction with the exhibition Cross Bronx/Living Legend at the Bronx River Art Center. Music: Jeremy Bosch, Román Lajara.

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27:31

Steve Clay and M. C. Kinniburgh

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2025/09/28

“The least interesting thing about a book is its contents, assert the curators of the recent Grolier Club exhibition After Words: Visual and Experimental Poetry in Little Magazines and Small Presses, 1960-2025. Now my head hurts. Seldom have I felt older or enjoyed a conversation more.

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27:31

Luca Vignelli

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2025/09/20

In 1972, his parents, Massimo and Lella, designed a map of the New York subway system. Many people hated it. I loved it. (I have one framed on my living room wall.) The MTA soon withdrew it. Now it’s back, slightly revised. Good news in bleak times.

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27:31

Janis Siegel

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2025/09/13

As a member of Manhattan Transfer, she won ten Grammy awards, but “I was not going to be a singer at all, actually; I was going to be a nurse.” Medicine’s loss, music’s gain. Guitar: Sean Harkness. Presented with The Village Trip.

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27:31

Jamie Bernstein

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2025/09/06

Her father, Leonard Bernstein, thought “that if he could write a good enough song, maybe he could stop war.” Not insane, aspiring. “It’s ridiculously idealistic, but that was his impetus.” Tales of a famous father. Music: Amy Burton, accompanied by John Musto. Presented with The Village Trip, whose annual festival begins September 19.

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27:31

Jonathan Capehart

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2025/07/26

He’s a member of The Washington Post’s editorial board, a commentator on the PBS NewsHour, anchor of The Weekend on MSNBC, author of Yet Here I Am. He is liberal in his politics, conservative in his dress. “Absolutely. I love a good, wild outfit, on someone else.”

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27:31

Bobby Sanabria

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2025/07/19

When this drummer was a kid, his father introduced him to an array of music, from Tito Puente to Dobie Gray. “He bought himself a La-Z-Boy chair. He would sit there after dinner, smoke a cigarette, and zone out listening to music.” Bad for the lungs, great for the soul. The making of a musician. Presented with the Bronx Music Hall.

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27:31

Katty Kay

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2025/07/12

She’s a special correspondent for BBC Studios, a regular contributor to MSNBC, and co-host, with Anthony Scaramucci, of the podcast The Rest Is Politics. “People call journalists curious; I think it’s just nosiness.” A higher form of nosiness!

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27:31

Jonathan Brent

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2025/07/05

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research makes many of the 24 million items in its archive available online, but there’s an “electric moment of actually touching a document,” says its executive director. “My first was when Lenin’s party card was put in my hand.” (Patrons are urged not to touch the documents. This is not some sort of scholarly petting zoo.) Music: Jardena Gertler-Jaffe, Bethany Pietroniro.

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27:31

Andrea Patterson

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2025/06/28

This Obie-winning actor created the role of Helen in the Classical Theatre of Harlem’s Memnon. “It is definitely under-utilized. Underappreciated.” Greek mythology in modern theater? That too, but here she refers to the peanut in American cooking. See her in Marcus Garvey Park throughout July. Working. Not just lounging around.

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27:31

David Levering Lewis

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2025/06/21

Decades ago, he shook hands with W. E. B. Du Bois, born in 1868. It seems impossible, but then again Einstein was a contemporary of Billy the Kid. Lewis went on to write a Pultzer-Prize winning biography of Du Bois. Einstein went on to be Einstein. Presented with the Maysles Documentary Center. Music: Henrique Prince.

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27:31

Amale Andraos, Dan Wood

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2025/06/14

These principals of the architectural firm WORKac found it challenging to design their own home. The psychological complexity of domestic life? The culmination of years of thought? “The hardest thing about designing our house was that we just haven’t designed a lot of houses.” Produced with the Center for Architecture. Music: Rashad Brown.

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27:31

Michael Novak

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2025/06/07

The artistic director of the Paul Taylor Dance Company summarizes his aesthetic: “The curtain goes up, twenty minutes happen, the curtain comes down, and it is transformative.” Easy to say, brilliant to achieve. And they do.

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27:31

Mitch Epstein

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2025/05/31

He’s worked from Hanoi to Berlin to America’s old-growth forests. “As a photographer, it’s only in getting lost that you move forward.” As a civilian, when I get lost, I pretty much just get lost. Another reason to admire him. Produced with the National Academy of Design. Music: Stephanie Jenkins.

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27:31

Gregory Mosher

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2025/05/24

He led the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and pretty much created theater at Lincoln Center. “The happiest moments of my life have been in rehearsal rooms.” Well, yeah. In there with him? David Mamet, Tennessee Williams, Samuel Beckett. Sequentially not simultaneously. Presented with Hunter College.

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27:31

Michael Sparer

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2025/05/17

This lawyer works on health policy at Columbia’s Mailman School: “Public health in a certain sense is about balancing, the rights we have as individuals with the needs of society to preserve, protect, and promote the health of the population.” Not a bad approach to democracy in general. Music: Caitlin Warbelow

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27:31

Kate DiCamillo

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen ·

2025/05/10

This children’s book author—Because of Winn-Dixie, The Tiger Rising, The Tale of Despereaux—describes her innate ability: “I have a knack for nothing except being filled with wonder.” I’d dispute that, as would legions of admiring readers.

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174 results

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