Our sit-down with Brooklyn's Hari Kondabolu. We can categorically say he's the only comedian we've ever talked to with a masters in human rights from the London School of Economics. And he's awesome. Shows in Portland Sept 26th and 27th.

(photo credit: Mindy Tucker)

Author Lois Leveen talks about re-imagining the most famous play in English. Her new novel, Juliet's Nurse, views Shakespeare's play through the perspective of a character typically plays for laughs. What follows is a story loaded with subtext about class, family relations, and the grief of losing a child. More info about the book here: http://loisleveen.com/index.php/juliets-nurse

The low-down on Literary Arts' acquisition of Portland's festival of books.

David Walker, Sean Jordan, and Jason Lamb talk about where they were when Spike Lee's epic 1989 film came out, and it's come to mean to them over the years.

Francisco Fernandez de Miguel is using pre-Columbian art to study the neuroscience of how we perceive art.

Salsa music and dance is becomming more popular in the U.S. and Portland, "All the Sex I've Ever Had" brings seniors on stage to talk about sexuality, and Katie Lane has legal advice for freelancers in comics.

Monica Drake teaches artists how to write in common English, Run-On Sentence captures the West in song, and a neurobiologist uses ancient murals to find out how our brain sees art

Bruce Guenther, chief curator at the Portland Art Museum, retires. Hollywood Theater shows Spike Lee's "Do The Right Thing," and hosts a race discussion. And "Dreamscape" brings the topic of officer involved shootings of minorities to the stage.

Talking with this week's guest curators, Kelly Sue DeConnick and Matt Fraction, about how creators are finding new paths to their audience, they suggested we check our Mike Doughty's method. Doughty. He's an indie rock survivor with a fantastically broad view of how to distribute his songs and writing.