The Jim Motavalli Interview Podcast

Popular music critic Richie Unterberger has written books on the Who, on the history of folk-rock music, and now a second book on the Velvet Underground. Do What You Fear Most: The History of the Velvet Underground is an 800-page dive into the legacy of this influential and transgressive New York band.

As some listeners might know I host a show on free-form, listener-supported radio station WPKN, where I currently serve as program director. Visit us at wpkn.org. Imagine my surprise, then, when I encountered a passage in Tom Perrotta's novel The Wishbones that was, unmistakably, about WPKN. A character hosts a show on "this great listener-supported station" in Bridgeport, Connecticut. That's us! I called Perrotta and the result is this interview, mostly about music. Perrotta is the author of Election and Little Children, both made into feature films, and The Leftovers and Mrs. Fletcher, both now mini series. He's working on a music-related TV show now. He was a delightful interview.

Denny Zeitlin is a highly regarded jazz pianist--signed by John Hammond, and Thelonious Monk sang his praises in a Blindfold Test--who is also a clinical professor psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. In this wide-ranging interview, he talks about his dual roles, going back to the 1960s. Zeitlin is a pioneer in electro-acoustic music, and wrote the music for the 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers . He might have done more movies, but his schedule was too busy.

Hartford, Connecticut-based bassist Nat Reeves is best known for backing legends such as saxophonists Jackie McLean, Kenny Garrett, Benny Golson and Pharoah Sanders, but he's also been (with McLean as his mentor) a longtime professor of jazz studies at the University of Hartford's Hartt School, His own recordings are State of Emergency, Blue Ridge and Now In Time . Reeves has worked and recorded with saxophonists, George Coleman and Eric Alexander, trumpeters Eddie Henderson and Roy Hargrove, trombonist Steve Davis, pianists Harold Mabern, George Cables, David Hazeltine and Rick Germanson, and drummers, Jimmy Cobb, Art Taylor and Jeff “Tain” Watts, Joe Farnsworth, Lewis Nash and Eric McPherson to name a few. He also performs with jazz rising stars, including saxophonist Sarah Hanahan and pianists Caelan Cardello and Jordan Williams. In this interview for WPKN, he talks about his career and his then-pending two-night stand at the Side Door Jazz Club in Old Lyme, Connecticut.

Tu Le of Sino Auto Insights lived in China from 2009 to 2022, and is one of the more insightful voices analyzing the car industry there from an American perspective. It's a view we don't get because Chinese cars are invisible in the U.S. (though all around us in Canada and Mexico). China sells more cars than the U.S. and the European Union combined.

Automotive analyst Ray Shefska of CarEdge spent decades at dealerships learning the tricks of the trade, and here he reveals some of the nastier ones--such as bogus destination fees and fake certification charges. He also explains why there aren't any $20,000 cars--it's not just inflation, but manufacturer greed. They want us to buy the top models with all the bells and whistles.

Neyla Pekarek was a Lumineer for eight years as cellist and vocalist of the folk-rock group, but says her roots are in theater, and she's glad to be back in that world with a new musical (her second) called The Queen of Magic . It's about the celebrated 19th century magician Adelaide Hermann, a contemporary of Harry Houdini who helped reshape the magic world. An EP of songs from the musical has been released.

Stevie Holland is an American jazz vocalist, writer and lyricist who's played major concert halls, jazz clubs and cabaret rooms, in addition to performing in theater. The youngest of seven children, Stevie grew up in a music-filled, Norwegian-Italian household in Westchester County, New York. Her father was a tenor sax-playing commercial artist and avid jazz record collector, and her mother was a church soloist who performed in recitals and operas. Holland's most recent album is Talk to Your Tomatoes , released in late 2025. The album combines pop, jazz and Great American Songbook classics, as well as original songs. Arrangements are by Gary William Friedman, and if it sounds like Ben Monder on guitar, that's because it is. Also on the album are Matthew Sheens, piano; Matt Aranoff, bass; Jeff Davis, drums and Chet Doxas, alto saxophone. Mike Fahie plays trombone, and Sam Hoyt, trumpet and flugelhorn.

David Helvarg, a longtime environmental activist and journalist, is the founder and president of the marine conservation group Blue Frontier Campaign. He is the author most recently of Forest of the Sea: The Remarkable Life and Imperiled Future of Kelp (Island Press ) . In a matter of decades, a spectacular cold-water paradise thirty million years in the making is succumbing to warming oceans. Kelp forests are largely out of sight, hidden under the ocean’s surface, yet they are one of Earth’s most wondrous and underappreciated marine habitats.

Why do people cite religious objections to getting vaccinated? Where do these passionate beliefs, with no foundation in science, come from? Dr. Kira Ganga-Keiffer, a professor at Fairfield University, is a scholar of health and society, American religion, and history with a Ph.D. from Boston University). Her first book is Unvaccinated Under God: Religion and Vaccine Hesitancy in Modern America (Princeton University Press, May 2026).

At this very moment, a tiny number of Silicon Valley leaders are making risky decisions that will have a huge impact on the rest of the eight billion people on this planet. They don't mean to cause harm, but their new creations often bring dire unintended consequences: destructive psychological, social, economic, and political results. We call these "side effects," but they're often more powerful than the intended ones. That's the premise of the new book, The Frankenstein Fix: Why Big Tech Goes Astray and What We Can Do About It . Cohen is a writing professor at Pratt Institute and the author of a plethora of crime novels. He was also a WPKN programmer in the 1980s!

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