The Art of Climbing Tenement Stairs

Listen to a half-hour documentary about the legendary newspaper columnist Jimmy Breslin.

Andy Statman's Journey

Listen to a half-hour documentary on the bluegrass/klezmer virtuoso Andy Statman.

Brooklyn According to Kalish

Listen to an hour-long documentary on the Orthodox Jews of Brooklyn.

My Life In Orthodox Brooklyn

In 1997 the public radio series Soundprint commissioned this half-hour radio documentary about my life in Midwood, an Orthodox neighborhood in Brooklyn. I lived there for several years in the late 1980’s while taking care of my father during the last years of his life. We rented an apartment in a house owned by a prominent Orthodox rabbi named Meir Fund who had been in some of my NPR stories. I came up with the title Modern Unorthodox decades before the TV series, podcast and book of the same name.

Lord Buckley

Listen to a half-hour documentary about the hipster comedian known as Lord Buckley.

Rabbi Abulafia's Boxed Set

Listen to Rabbi Abulafia's Boxed Set, a half-hour documentary about the late Lionel Ziprin and his grandfather's recordings.

The Counterfeiters in Barrack 18

Listen to the half-hour radio documentary Barrack 18, which tells the story of the Jewish printers and graphic artists in a Nazi concentration camp who were forced to counterfeit British currency.

Hank and Irv

Listen to a 20-minute piece about the late Hollywood screenwriter Irv Brecher, who wrote two Marx Brothers movies by himself. Brecher is the subject of Hank Rosenfeld’s wonderful book The Wicked Wit of the West.

Spalding Gray

Listen to a special tribute to the late monologist Spalding Gray produced for KCRW shortly after he committed suicide.