Shadow // Yaddo

Celebrating the finale of our first season with two of our favorite humorists and radio stars: Elna Baker, writer, comedian, producer for "This American Life" and author of the "wickedly funny" (People) memoir The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance in conversation with Negin Farsad—comedian, director, panelist for "Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me!" and author of How to Make White People Laugh as well as the host of "Fake the Nation." Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Modest Mouse.

Opera, voyages, battlegrounds and more: Playwright Sandra Seaton on how she came to be a librettist, why she's moved to reimagine the past and how she inhabits the nuanced hearts of historical figures. Radiant visual artists Alexi Worth and Joyce Kozloff excavate what lies beneath the surface of war cartography. Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, William Bolcom, Joan Osborne.

Venture behind the scenes for a glimpse of Yaddo magic: Chef and writer Gabrielle Hamilton (Blood, Bones & Butter) in conversation with New York magazine's "bilious gourmand" Adam Platt on the tastes of summer and what the future might hold for NYC restaurants. Award-winning journalists Mark Binelli (Detroit City Is the Place to Be) and Julian Rubenstein—author of The Holly: Five Bullets, One Gun, and the Struggle to Save an American Neighborhood—discuss life, work and moving back home to write a book. Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Michael Harrison, Janis Joplin, George Michael.

With summer in full swing, we consider the triumph of light over dark. The luminous writer Jo Ann Beard discusses her new book, Festival Days, with revered editor Patricia Towers. And we'll share some news about a very special Yaddo event coming up this fall: "Art Saved Us—Let's Save Art," with singer-songwriter and mega-talent Shaina Taub, who gives a preview of her performance. Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Ylvis.

"Routing a racial justice revolution through Hollywood" (The New York Times): Brilliant filmmaker Shaka King, director and co-writer of Judas and the Black Messiah, discusses the difficulty of making meaningful films, New York vs. L.A., and the ebb and flow of social change with superstar Walter Mosley, celebrated writer and executive producer of Snowfall. PLUS: Photographer and veteran activist Dona Ann McAdams on a chance encounter that changed the course of her life and work: The day she met civil rights leader Harvey Milk. Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Queen, The Illustrious Blacks.

Whether it's a creative pursuit, side-hustle or "real" job, work is at the heart of this episode featuring novelists Lisa Dierbeck and Jonathan Ames on his latest book, A Man Named Doll, the first in a new noir series set in Los Angeles. Plus: Spoken word artist and poet Hakeem Furious performs "Valero Valet," a piece he wrote about working the graveyard shift at a gas station. Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Damu the Fudgemunk.

Obsession, motherhood, long-held secrets and more in this week's exploration of family: Kirstin Valdez Quade on her new novel, The Five Wounds, in which multiple generations of family converge. Illustrator and writer Margaret Kimball, whose debut memoir Now I Spill the Family Secrets offers a riveting and layered account of divorce, mental health and coming to terms with family conflict, speaks with the wonderful novelist Charles Bock, author of Beautiful Children. Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Peter Gabriel, Sister Sledge, Three Dog Night.

As arts venues reopen (hooray!), we asked two brilliant friends to imagine a new paradigm for concert classical music: Venezuelan/American composer, multimedia collaborator and Yaddo Board Member Manuel Sosa in conversation with Saratoga Performing Arts Center President and CEO Elizabeth Sobol on resilience, experimentation and turning our "lost year" into a boon for the next generation of performing arts. Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Spike T. Jones, Will T. Bear, Michael Tilson Thomas & San Francisco Symphony, Tania León, Afro Cuban All Stars, Art Tatum.

Dig into the forensics of a new kind of noir, climate crime, with acclaimed novelist and nonfiction writer Nathaniel Rich, author of Second Nature: Scenes from a World Remade, and intellectual powerhouse Philip Gourevitch, longtime staff writer for The New Yorker. We'll also revisit the pioneering sonic composition about rewiring the earth's atmosphere: Landfall, the genius collaboration—and now a Grammy Award-winning album—between Laurie Anderson, icon, inventor, and NASA's first artist in residence, and Kronos Quartet. Contributing artist: Joseph Keckler.

Yaddo connections run far and wide! One of these circles is having a red, hot streak in the East Village scene in New York City, where a group of performers with talent to burn—many of them Yaddo artists—have found each other and are creating new, exciting work. Playwright, songwriter and performer David Cale (Harry Clarke, We're Only Alive for a Short Amount of Time, Lillian) and his friend and sometime-collaborator Sylver Wallace talk about pandemic projects and share new music, with nods to the East Village hotspot Pangea, Sade Adu, and… squirrels! Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Plastic Angel of the Month, Matthew Dean Marsh.