The Organist

Photo: Makkos Collection

David Weinberg brings us the story of Joseph Makkos, who made a once-in-a-lifetime discovery trolling Craigslist for free stuff.

Produced by David Weinberg

City on Shoulders New Orleans DNA

Mardi Gras, 1925 New Orleans DNA

Mardi Gras, 1927 New Orleans DNA

TV Radio Number New Orleans DNA

From the Chicago Tribune

From the NY Tribune

From the NY World

From the NY World

Dolly Dimples Comic, 1914 New Orleans Digital Newspaper Archive

This week, The Organist premieres Funeral for Everyone I Knew, a new radio play by novelist Jesse Ball (The Curfew, Silence Once Begun, etc.) Starring Greta Gerwig (Frances Ha) and Whip Hubley (Top Gun), the play follows the dark machinations of a dying man, and his elaborate plans for his own funeral.

Photo: Joe Haupt

Drummer Neal Morgan, who has supported Joanna Newsom, Bill Callahan, Robin Pecknold, and others, sat down with Creedence Clearwater Revival's Doug Clifford to dive into ecstatic detail on the arrangement of "Long as I Can See The Light."

Photo; Doug Clifford playing in Hamburg, September, 1971 (Heinrich Klaffs)

A greatest-hits compilation from The Organist's first two years, created for a special holiday broadcast on KCRW, featuring Nick Offerman, David Cross, Sarah Silverman, Jack White, Lena Dunham, Judy Blume, and more!

This week, The Organist interviews the actress Greta Gerwig. Gerwig began acting in the New York film community of the 2000s with films such as Hannah Takes the Stairs and LOL. She has since worked with Woody Allen, Noah Baumbach, and Whit Stillman, and continues to lend her voice to the Adult Swim cartoon China, Illinois. On The Organist, Gerwig discusses acting with her voice, her body and how her love of fiction inspires her performances.

Amber Scorah went to Shanghai as a Jehovah's Witness missionary. But in one of the most restrictive, totalitarian countries in the world, for the first time in her life, she found she had the freedom to think.

Photo: Andy

Ilse Blansert (aka The Waterwhispers on YouTube) discusses her experiences with ASMR, or Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, a curious, little understood physiological reaction to gentle sounds or "triggers" that provide relief from stress and insomnia. The videos of Blansert and her peers are hugely popular on YouTube and have helped to create a wide, digital community who can now sleep soundly as tingles dance up their spines.

Michael K. Williams (aka Omar from The Wire; Chalky from Boardwalk Empire) performs a short radio drama written by the lo-fi blues musician and writer Willis Earl Beal, based on Beal’s experiences as a “triple-fictional†security guard in Albuquerque, New Mexico. CONTAINS EXPLICIT LANGUAGE.

Actor/director/screenwriter Thomas Lennon (The State, Reno 911!, Hell Baby) performs two short monologues written by playwright Nick Jones (Orange Is the New Black, Jollyship the Whiz-Bang) and Blake Butler (300,000,000, There Is No Year).

Interviews with three musicians who suffer from hearing disorders. Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Fields discusses his hyperacusis, a sensitivity to loud sounds. Chris Johanson of Sun Foot and electronic musician Gobby explore their tinnitus, a persistent ringing in the ear. Â CONTAINS EXPLICIT LANGUAGE