The concept behind Randy Cohen’s public radio series Person Place Thing is simple: he invites notable figures from all genres and backgrounds to discuss one person, one place and one thing about which they feel passionately.

Tomorrow at 92YTribeca (May 1) iconic potter, designer and author Jonathan Adler and his husband, author and Barneys creative ambassador at large Simon Doonan, join Person Place Thing as our first couple, for an experience in shared narrative. Audience Q&A to follow.

Get your tickets here!

Person Place Thing: Randy Cohen With Meg Wolitzer

Here’s the latest Person Place Thing podcast!

It is silly to ask a novelist what her books are about, but Meg Wolitzer once wrote, “Sometimes they’re about marriage. Families. Sex. Desire. Parents and children.” That pretty much covers what it is to be human. Omitting only handguns. We admire her deftness with language, in her fiction and also: she devises crossword puzzles. If it can be done with words, she’s done it, as you can discover in her latest book, The Interestings, and in this conversation.

What happens when you ask well-known personalities to talk about “a person, a place and a thing” that hold particular significance in their lives?

Unusual tales emerge in the new podcast series Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen at 92Y. Guest thus far include John Hodgman, Judy Collins, Ed Asner and others. Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

What one person, one place, and one thing have significance to you?

Jack Hitt’s “Slumlord”

In this video, writer Jack Hitt (This American Life, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone) shares his 1980s New York landlord story at the Annual MothSHOP All Star Review in 2006. You gotta hear it to believe it.

His solo show, Making Up The Truth, just completed a November run at Joe’s Pub but you can catch him at 92YTribeca on Dec 5 in Randy Cohen’s Person Place Thing Live! series.

areasofmyexpertise:

You know this joke don’t you? A newspaper judge and former newspaper ethicist walk into the 92Y Tribeca. 

I will be a guest on Randy Cohen’s “PERSON PLACE THING” next week in Manhattan, NY. 

Details are HERE.

We’ll be there! We are there.

driving is dumb

synecdoche:

I gave up and traded in my expired learner’s permit for a state ID because I’m almost 25 and I’m pretty sure I’m just never, ever going to drive and I really don’t want to go back every two years to retake the written test. But like, I know how to drive? I learned when I was eight because my dad is crazy but I’m also kind of scared of driving and car accidents and shit. Mostly I’ve been refusing to get my license because I can’t swim and I’m terrified that one day I’ll lose control of the car and somehow drive off a cliff into the water and I’ll be able to get myself out of the car because I watch a lot of action movies and Fear Factor but I won’t be able to swim to the surface and I’ll drown which is such a stupid and irrational fear but y’know, whatever. Always the drunkard, never the designated driver!

Then you MUST watch this video of ex-Ethicist Randy Cohen explaining how cars kill in many ways. “If you drive where there are real alternatives [like NYC], you are driving straight to hell.”

Alternatively, here’s Gary Numan singing “Cars.”