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RADIO TIMES

Joel Rose fills in for Marty and interviews ART SPIEGELMAN, famous for his comic, Maus. Spiegelman is re-introducing his 1978 book, “Breakdowns: Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@&*!,” his transformational memoir. We’re also joined by Comix writer, DAVID HEATLEY, who is continuing in the comic narrative form with his new book, “My Brain is Hanging Upside Down.” Listen to this show via Real Audio | mp3

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The legendary Chicago broadcaster Studs Terkel dedicated his life to capturing the stories of ordinary Americans through oral histories. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1985 for his book The Good War, and hosted a radio show that ran for nearly five decades. He died Oct. 31 at the age of 96. Fresh Air remembers him with a conversation first broadcast in 1985.

NPR: Author and radio personality Garrison Keillor said Terkel’s nickname and his raspy voice were a good fit. “He sounded like he was packing heat,” Keillor said. “But he was a lefty, and that’s an unusual combination. So that’s what first fascinated me about him.” Early in his career, Terkel was an actor, and he actually played gangsters on radio shows before he became a disc jockey. He moved from radio to television, but he was blacklisted during the McCarthy era because his beliefs in workers’ rights, rent control and Social Security were labeled “socialist.” MORE

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The Sound of Young America is public radio’s funniest, most fascinating interview program, available free on the air, on the web or by podcast. You can listen now, or check out our blog or audio archive. Upcoming guests include: Writer Sarah Vowell, Mikita Brottman, author of “The Solitary Vice: Against Reading,” Legendary comedy writer Alan Zweibel,  David Malki !, creator of “Wondermark”, The Dirtbombs and many more…

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Matthew Sweet knows what it means to be an unappreciated songwriter. He spent the ’80s in the fertile Athens, Ga., pop scene, made it big with 1991’s power-pop gem Girlfriend and then quietly fell back into obscurity. He still plugs away, churning out album after album of clever, thoughtful power-pop. Sweet spent the late ’90s and early ’00s avoiding the instrument that defined his sound — the chiming guitar — but his latest album, Sunshine Lies, marks his welcome return to the guitar as a primary instrument. In a session with host David Dye, Sweet performs material from the new album and discusses the affinity for biology he developed as a kid.

MATTHEW SWEET: Girlfriend

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