The Jim Motavalli Interview Podcast

 Roxanne Khamsi talks to Jim Motavalli about the profound implications of recent cell research. She is an author, speaker and contributing writer for The Atlantic. Her first book, Beyond Inheritance (Riverhead Books, 2026), reveals how we mutate genetically every day of our lives and how the DNA changes that accumulate within us can profoundly affect our health. She has reported extensively on the intersection of genetics and medicine for more than two decades. Her writing has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, The Economist, Popular Science, The Atlantic, Scientific American, Slate, Nature, New York magazine, WIRED magazine and National Geographic. She has appeared on television programs such as CBS News and has guest-hosted the national radio shows On The Media and Science Friday.  

Terri Thal (third from right in the photo) was married to Dave Van Ronk (at far right), managed Bob Dylan (second from right) and was a friend of Dylan's then-girlfriend Suze Rotolo (second from left). She has written about that time in her book My Greenwich Village: Dave, Bob and Me. We talked about those times, about her close friend Patrick Sky (not as well remembered as Van Ronk) and about the politics of the era. Dylan said of Terri in his book Chronicles, "Van Ronk’s wife, Terri, definitely not a minor character, took care of Dave’s bookings, especially out of town, and she began trying to help me out. She was just as outspoken and opinionated as Dave was, especially about politics — not so much the political issues but rather the highfalutin’ theological ideas behind political systems."

John Sayles is a prolific filmmaker who, since The Return of the Secaucus Seven in 1980, hasn't been afraid to take on big political themes. In 17 films and eight novels (as well as short-story collections and screenplays) he looks at a specific moment in the historical record from multiple perspectives. Sayles' latest work is Crucible, a closely observed historical novel that looks at the Ford Motor Company from the introduction of the Model A to the postwar period. It includes the fight for unionization (and union busters), the boss' anti-Semitism, the immigrants' experience, and Fordlandia, the ill-fated attempt to grow rubber (for tires) in Brazil. 

Robbie Fulks is a native North Carolinian who has bluegrass and country as a default position, but also revels in many other musical styles. A stint at Columbia University in New York probably helped broaden his world view, but there's something of an auto didact about him, too. Music came naturally, as his father played guitar and his aunt banjo, which he started playing at age six. Skipping ahead,  In 1987, he joined The Special Consensus Bluegrass Band, where he showcased his unique guitar flatpicking style. In the early 1990s he performed in the musical Woody Guthrie's American Song. Fulks writes some very funny songs that, as one critic noted, "subvert the country tropes," but his music also delves deep.  

Murieann Bradley is a 19-year-old acoustic guitarist/singer from Ireland who specializes in the fingerpicking styles of the 1920s, 30s and 40s, citing influences such as Mississippi John Hurt, Reverend Gary Davis, and Elizabeth Cotten. She learned to play largely from her father, a blues enthusiast. After a breakout performance on the BBC's Jools' Annual Hootenanny in 2023, she has toured the world, including a performance at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee on March 28. Her debut album, I Kept These Old Blues, was released on Tompkins Square Records and later reached the top ten of the UK Albums Download Chart. She signed with Decca Records in late 2024.

Melanie D.G. Kaplan talks to Jim Motavalli about her book Lab Dog: A Beagle and his Human Investigate the Surprising World of Animal Research. She explores the ethics and future of animal experimentation through the story of her rescued beagle, Hammy. 

Jim Motavalli talked to Sam Beam, a/k/a Iron & Wine, a master of brilliant, hushed Americana music and a collaborator par excellence (particularly with amazing women). In the interview, we talk about Beam's work with Fiona Apple, Jesca Hoop, I'm With Her and others, and also about his new album Hen's Teeth (2026). 

Alex Manos says he's the country's number one buyer of classic cars. He buys European and American cars nationwide, and would love to talk about buying your old vehicle. 

 Two Crows for Comfort is a Canadian folk and Americana duo based out of Manitoba, composed of Erin Corbin and Cory Sulyma. Known for their rich harmonies and poignant storytelling, they have been a full-time touring act since early 2020, living on the road in an 18-foot camper with their rescue dog, Elliot. They talked to Jim Motavalli for WPKN

British jazz singer Emily Masser is only 21, but shows a mature command of her art, inspired by her saxophonist father, Dean Masser. Pianist Horace Silver wrote the beautiful "Song For My Father," but Masser made a whole album called Songs With my Father (with dad playing his horn). 

John Gennari's profusely illustrated book The Jazz Barn (Brandeis University Press) traces the history of a short-lived but vital institution in the history of music. Music Inn, in Lenox, Massachusetts near Tanglewood, took jazz seriously and brought musicians to a bucolic setting for teaching, concerts and building bridges to what eventually became the classical-jazz fusion known as Third Stream. With many photographs by Holocaust survivor Clemens Kalischer.

Encountered recently at the Scandinavian Club in Fairfield, Connecticut, Sweden's Frander combines roots in traditional Swedish folk with an ear to progressive rock--but all with acoustic instruments. 

 Iowa-based Americana duo, Weary Ramblers bring years of experience to the stage with award-winning songwriting and chemistry. Chad Elliott (Woody Guthrie Song Contest & Kerrville Finalist) and Kathryn Severing Fox (DownBeat winner & international touring artist) showcase multi-instrumental performances with tight harmonies and great storytelling. Fox has played, toured or recorded with George Benson, The Beach Boys, The Eagles, Pharrell Williams, Gloria Estefan, Natalie Cole, Osmond Brothers, Gloria Gaynor, Chick Corea, Bobby McFerrin, Kenny Loggins, The Marley Family, Mark O’Connor, Ryan Montbleau, Seth Walker, Ben Sollee, Edgar Meyer and Joshua Bell. Chad Elliott, known as "Iowa's Renaissance Man," has written 2,000 songs and toured with Odetta, Tom Paxton, Loudon Wainwright III, R.L. Burnside, Greg Brown, Ruthie Foster, Verlon Thompson, Jimmie Vaughan, Bo Ramsey and Mary Gauthier.

Eric O'Neill, a former FBI agent who led the capture of notorious spy-for-Russia Robert Hanssen, is the author Spies, Lies, and Cybercrime. It's focus: teaching readers how to defend against digital threats like hackers and scammers, blending thrilling anecdotes with practical advice. The book details tactics used by adversaries and provides actionable steps (Prepare, Assess, Investigate, Decide) for personal digital safety. 

Americana singer-songwriter Gann Brewer doesn't seek the shiny neo-retro town malls where the selfie slick hipsters air their spanking new tattoos but rather, it's the half spaces, the unremarkable edges of town, where he finds those nuggets of truth--or at least enough gas to get to the next town. From the liner notes to Brewer's fourth album, Highway Lullaby, under discussion with Jim Motavalli on this podcast. 

Bryce Edwards is a musician and cabaret artist reviving traditional jazz and popular music from the early 20th century. A vaudevillian troubadour, Edwards is a unique vocalist that takes equal cues from the crooners and soft singers of the late 1920s and early 30s and from the bombastic voices of the acoustic phonograph era, as well as an instrumentalist who plays banjo, ukulele, tenor guitar, and mandolin in the modernistic jazz idiom. Leading a hot combination featuring the talents of extraordinary jazzman Scott Ricketts (cornet) and Grammy award winner Conal Fowkes (piano, upright bass), Edwards revels in the idiosyncrasies and eccentricities of the sweet and raucous music of the 1910s, 20s, and 30s; Bryce brings his singular verve and sensibility to songs made famous by great artists such as Cliff Edwards, Gene Austin, Jack Teagarden, Rudy Vallée, and Bing Crosby. 

Singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sam Amidon comes from a New England family deeply involved in old-time music, and he remains devoted to that form--but fused with just about everything else, including jazz and avant-garde music. Amidon, who began playing fiddle at age 3, has recorded in Iceland collaborated with artists as diverse as drummer Milford Graves and guitarist Bill Frisell. As a sideman, he's appeared on albums by Tune-Yards, The Blind Boys of Alabama, The National, and many more. In talking to WPKN December 8, 2025 the talk was about his latest album, Salt River, which contains a take on Ornette Coleman's "Friends and Neighbors." Along with traditional songs, of course. 

This broadcast features the first half hour of an interview with Nate Soares, executive director of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI), conducted by Alice Horrigan and Jim Motavalli on October 16, 2025 and aired on WPKN-FM. The conversation explores the safety limits of current AI engineering and the broader implications for humanity’s future. For the full hour, watch the video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/u-22jwE4GZU . Also, read Alice Horrigan’s accompanying book review in The Berkshire Edge: “If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: When the AI Engineers Are in Over Their Heads”

S.G. Goodman lives in rural Kentucky farm country, and grew up attending church three times a week, with limited exposure to secular music. That experience colors her deeply grounded (in place and time) new album, Planting by the Signs. Fellow Kentuckian Bonnie Prince Billy is featured in this richly evocative collection. 

George Pelecanos is the author of 20 crime novels, and a regular writing collaborator with David Simon on projects, including The Wire and Treme. Pelecanos' books ofteh catch Washington, D.C.'s denizens at the moment they hover between a life of crime and straight society. They are moral tales, as well as fast-paced thrillers. 

Maria Muldaur discusses her storied career and new album, One Hour Mama: The Blues of Victoria Spivey, released on July 11th, 2025, on Nola Blue Records. The album is a tribute to the legendary blues singer Victoria Spivey, who was a mentor to Muldaur. It features collaborations with Taj Mahal, Elvin Bishop, and Tuba Skinny. 

Jerusalem Peace Builders Students visit the Bridgeport, CT area and discuss their trip and community engagement activities with Dr. Danna Kurtin.

Speed the Plough, a New Jersey rock group from the Hoboken/Maxwell's scene that produced The Feelies and Yo La Tengo, has a serendipitous encounter with an Italian harpsichord professor. And the result is beautiful music. 

Harry Freedman, based in England, has previously explored the Jewish roots of Leonard Cohen, but here he takes on Bob Dylan, who was wont to deny those roots--at least early on in his career. 

Tessa Souter is a jazz singer, originally from England but living in New York, who likes ambitious projects. And adapting and writing lyrics for the music of Erik Satie (who died 100 years ago in 2025) is just the latest one. 

Astroforge is going after rare metals like platinum on near-Earth asteroids, hitching rides on the Falcon 9 and other rockets. 

Richard Cortez, from Florida originally, had a circuitous route to his role as an emerging jazz singer in New York. He was a confessional Americana singer with messages for his community, did sex work, and stripped in some of the same gay bars where he now performs his beautiful jazz music. 

Brad Kolodner is an acclaimed clawhammer banjo player who performs with the chart-topping Irish, Old-Time, bluegrass fusion quartet Charm City Junction. He’s recorded four albums of Old-Time and original music with his father Ken under the name Ken & Brad Kolodner including their latest Billboard-charting release Stony Run (2020). His new album of solo gourd banjo music is called Old Growth. 

Jim Kweskin founded the legendary 1960s Jim Kweskin Jug Band with Fritz Richmond, Geoff Muldaur, Maria Muldaur, Mel Lyman and Bruno Wolfe. During the five years they were together, they successfully transformed the sounds of pre-World War II rural music into a springboard for their good-humored performances. And Kweskin is still at it, with a new album called Doing Things Right, out from Jalopy Records on April 25, 2025.

Preston Lauterbach is the author of the book Before Elvis: The African-American Musicians Who Made the King, a book that examines the careers of Big Mama Thornton, Little Junior Parker (author of "Mystery Train"), Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup and both Calvin and Phineas Newborn, Jr. He talks to WPKN about how Elvis absorbed their music and stage moves, and sometimes even acknowledged their help. 

Mark Weinstein's new book is Restoring Our Sanity Online: A Revolutionary Social Framework, published by Wiley. Here, he dissects Web 1, until 2001, Web 2--our current state of "Surveillance Capitalism" with dominance by Facebook and Google--and the hopefully more enlightened and less privacy-invading states of Web 3 and Web 4. 

A subtle and exquisite jazz vocalist, Stacey Kent has long had a love affair with the music of Brazil, and especially that of Antonio Carlos Jobim. On April 12 she joins with Danilo Caymmi (long a member of Jobim's band) for a tribute to bossa nova's greatest composer. 

Colin Newman of Wire fame and Malka Spigel of Githead first recorded their electronic music as Immersion for the Oscillating album in 1994. They're set to play the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee on March 27. Here they talk to Jim Motavalli from Little Rock, Arkansas. 

Derek and Hannah Jeter were interviewed in upstate New York on the set of a commercial they were making for the Jeep Grand Wagoneer Obsidian Edition. They talked about family, and cars. 

Phoebe White is an accomplished yodeler, and demonstrates her skills in this WPKN interview. Her album is Cowgirl's Delight, and it includes appearances from Riders in the Sky and Suzy Bogguss. Six of the 10 tunes are her own. White could be said to part of the movement that includes Rhiannon Giddens and is not only reclaiming the African-American heritage in country music, but blazing her own path in forming its future. 

Miss Tess, one of our most talented roots singers, songwriters and multi-instrumentalists, has just put out Cher Rêve, an album dedicated to exploring Louisiana's southern Acadiana region and in specific the "magical" city of Lafayette, home of the Blackpot Festival (about music and food). Instead of the Big Easy, Lafayette is the sleepy "Little Easier."

The Irish singer Karan Casey's most recent album is Nine Apples of Gold. She tours regularly in the US, where Irish music has a huge audience. Casey was a member of the popular band Solas, and is a founder of Fairplé, which works to achieve fairness and gender balance for female performers in Irish traditional music. 

The Syrian-born master clarinet player is now based in Brooklyn, and making his hard-to-characterize music--a meld of jazz, Middle Eastern and classical influences--with the CityBand. His latest album was recorded live in Berlin. 

The Chatham Rabbits, Austin and Sarah McCombie, live on a working farm in rural North Carolina. Their original songs reflect their dedication to the land, and to each other. Be Real With Me is their latest album, evenly split between her songs and his songs. 

Jim White is an outsider Americana artist, who uses country music as a jumping off point to explore the psyche in ways that sometimes recall the author Cormac McCarthy. He found a kindred spirit in Trey Blake, an autistic poet he met while on tour in England. He encouraged her singing, and the resulting songs (realized initially by a member of Stereolab) are memorable and deeply probing. This was Blake's very first interview.

One of the most admired guitarists in jazz, Bill Frisell has never recognized boundaries and his music--while always remaining jazz--reflects his deep study of Americana and country music's roots. He spoke in advance of a 2024 gig in Fairfield, CT. 

Tenor saxophonist Nicole Glover is currently dividing her time between the all-female Artemis band, a new ensemble from bassist Christian McBride, Ursa Major, and her solo projects--sometimes a trio without a net. She's a fully committed player, and here she talks about coming up on the Portland, OR scene and making the all-important move to NYC.

David Amram is a true musical omnivore, with deep roots in jazz (bringing the French horn into the mix), classical and folk music. He virtually invented jazz poetry with Jack Kerouac in the 1950s, worked with Leonard Bernstein and composed symphonic works, and was a friend of Rambling Jack Elliot and Woody Guthrie. Here, at 94, he talks about the musical lessons he's learned.  

Robert Rubin is the author Vanishing Point Forever, the ultimate and exhaustive take on the filming and meaning of the semi-existential 1970s road movie Vanishing Point. Who was Barry Newman? Listen and find out. 

Krissie Nagy is a major new new discovery in jazz singing, making the Great American Songbook come alive with verve and panache. Her self-titled album as Krissie and the Kranks is out now.

Seafarers specializes in highly literate, gorgeous pop music that's hard to slot into an easy category. 

The Maine-based singer-songwriter, most famous for asking, "What was I thinking?" talks about her album "Avalanche," her new book, and her hit Buffy the Vampire Slayer podcast. 

British author Graeme Thomson talks about the flamboyant but also press-shy superstar Kate Bush, the subject of the recent update of his incisive biography of her.  

Billy Harper is a impassioned progressive jazz saxophonist.  He is "one of a generation of Coltrane-influenced tenor saxophonists" with a distinctively stern, hard-as-nails sound on his instrument. He was interviewed by Jim Motavalli for WPKN and New York City Jazz Record.