Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen

In this new kind of interview show, Randy Cohen talks to guests about a person, a place, and a thing they feel strongly about. The result: surprising stories from great talkers. Learn more at http://personplacething.org/

Bishop Katrina Foster (pt 1) 05/16/2026

Bishop Katrina Foster (pt 1) The Lutheran Bishop of the Metropolitan New York Synod has a complex and nuanced view of God but unbridled affection for His son: “I’m a big fan of Jesus; we go way back.” The first of a two-part episode recorded at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church. Music: Ashley Wool, Arden Strasser. /episode/index/show/personplacething/id/41318275

Carly Fox and Dennis Slade 05/09/2026

Carly Fox and Dennis Slade These veterinarians enjoy their work. He says, “I’m always excited when someone from exotics says, ‘Hey, do you have time tomorrow? We need to try to get a screw out of a macaw.’” A sentence never before spoken in all of human history. Produced with the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center. Music: Valerie and Ben Turner. /episode/index/show/personplacething/id/41233130

Jennifer Tipton 05/02/2026

Jennifer Tipton After a lifetime as a lighting designer for theater and dance, much of it working with gels, she received this honor: “There was a color that was named after me. They don’t make it anymore.” And thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges. Presented with the Paul Taylor Dance Company. /episode/index/show/personplacething/id/41125480

Helen Shaw 04/25/2026

Helen Shaw The chief theater critic of the New York Times is a model of sophistication, but she didn’t begin that way. “I was an extremely nerdy, very braces-wearing, awkward girl from Kansas.” Not just braces-wearing, very braces-wearing. The making of an analytical mind. Presented with the Hunter College Office of the Arts. Music: Leonardo Reyna. /episode/index/show/personplacething/id/41012945

David Greenspan 04/18/2026

David Greenspan Having received many awards, this actor and playwright says that winning need not be so great nor losing so dreadful. “Some people can win something and lose their minds. I don’t know that losing has to be destructive.” We spoke at the Brick Theater after a matinee of his solo performance in without mirrors. Music: Ira Khonen Temple. /episode/index/show/personplacething/id/40921655

Lana Turner 04/11/2026

Lana Turner This Harlem fashion icon owns more than 600 hats. “There were times I would leave my house, get down the hill, and recognize it’s the wrong hat.” She’d turn around and march back up that hill, with the dedication of a true artist. Harlem, history, and hats. Produced with the Maysles Documentary Center. Music: Warner Meadows. /episode/index/show/personplacething/id/40811725

Anjan Chatterjee 04/04/2026

Anjan Chatterjee His research on the neuroscience of aesthetics suggests that people crave the human touch. “If they think something is made by a person, they like it more; if they think it’s made by a machine they don’t like it.” He does not mention Twinkies. Or the late Joan Rivers. Presented with the Viñoly Foundation. Music: Rupert Boyd, Laura Metcalf. /episode/index/show/personplacething/id/40731845

Elizabeth Way 03/28/2026

Elizabeth Way This scholar says, “What made American fashion different is that it was to be wearable, comfortable, practical.” But not on the red carpet at the Oscars, she did not add. We spoke in conjunction with her exhibition Art X Fashion currently at the Museum at FIT. Music: Stephanie Jenkins. /episode/index/show/personplacething/id/40650575

Kinan Azmeh 03/21/2026

Kinan Azmeh I'm reluctant to declare an artist a success or failure. This Syrian-born composer and clarinetist has a better characterization: doing well. “Staying true to what I wanted to do, and leading a fulfilled artistic life.” And he does. Presented with the Hunter College Office of the Arts. /episode/index/show/personplacething/id/40565760

Rev. Winnie Varghese 03/14/2026

Rev. Winnie Varghese The Cathedral of St. John the Divine is an Episcopal church and more, says its Dean. “I have Jewish, Hindu, Muslim friends who pray here, because it feels like a holy place.” My house shall be a house of prayer for all nations, said Jesus, quoting Isaiah, quoting God. Music: Daniel Ficarri. /episode/index/show/personplacething/id/40459745

the late Aaron Copland 03/07/2026

the late Aaron Copland As portrayed by Michael Boriskin, director of Copland House. “I decided from the time I was in my mid-twenties that there was no such thing as a rival or a competitor, that we were all colleagues.” So modest, and yet so dead. A conversation from beyond the grave. Sort of. Music: Siwoo Kim, Alexis Pia Gerlach, Michael Boriskin. /episode/index/show/personplacething/id/40350140

Charles Renfro 02/28/2026

Charles Renfro Can architecture be witty? At that scale? At those prices? This architect ponders. “It can certainly be smart, and it can do unexpected things, which doesn’t necessarily make it witty. That might make it clever,” he says wittily. Presented with the Center for Architecture. Music: Hubby Jenkins. /episode/index/show/personplacething/id/40264420

Richard Nelson 02/21/2026

Richard Nelson This playwright directed his When the Hurly Burly’s Done in Kyiv. “It’s about six young women putting on a play in the middle of a war, to be performed by six young women putting on this play in the middle of a war.” There was an opening-night air raid. Presented with the Hunter College Office of the Arts. /episode/index/show/personplacething/id/40185645

LaFrae Sci 02/14/2026

LaFrae Sci The leader of the Willie Mae Rock Camp describes a device she uses to teach girls about blues and STEM: “It is a collision of culture and technology and future possibilities.” One of those robot vacuum cleaners? Her electronic banjo. Electronic Banjo! Music: Thea King. /episode/index/show/personplacething/id/40107545

Ali Velshi 02/07/2026

Ali Velshi “There are only two reasons to be a journalist,” says this one, “To bear witness—to see things that your viewers or readers or listeners can’t see themselves—and then to use that to hold power to account.” No mention of the food in the greenroom. Austere! Presented with the Hunter College Office of the Arts. Music: Ashley Jackson. /episode/index/show/personplacething/id/40028315

Andrew Kimball 01/31/2026

Andrew Kimball As head of NYC’s Economic Development Corporation, he guided massive projects. “I knew in my twenties that I wanted to be in urban economic development. I actually knew from being a little kid.” When I was a little kid, I wanted to be a cowboy. Presented with the Department of Records and Information Services. Music: Karl Schwarz /episode/index/show/personplacething/id/39945085

Carlos Simon 01/24/2026

Carlos Simon “My father was a pastor. My grandfather was a pastor. My great-grandfather was a pastor.” Why didn’t this composer go into the family business? Perhaps he did. “I’m doing some of the same things as my father, just not in the same place.” Music sacred and secular at Klavierhaus. /episode/index/show/personplacething/id/39861215

Adrian Untermyer 01/18/2026

Adrian Untermyer This preservationist speaks movingly about his great great grandfather, Samuel Untermyer, “the super-lawyer who took on Hitler.” It’s the comic book Michael Chabon was born to write. A conversation at and about Woodlawn Cemetery. /episode/index/show/personplacething/id/39775295

Janine Barchas, Mary Crawford 01/10/2026

Janine Barchas, Mary Crawford These Jane Austen scholars note that she long had a diverse readership, but in post-war America that changed. “Publishers pushed her to women specifically. Just like they made pink Cadillacs, they made pink Janes.” (Caution: do not read and drive.) Produced with the Grolier Club. Music: Reid Jenkins. /episode/index/show/personplacething/id/39682250

Paola Antonelli 01/03/2026

Paola Antonelli The Curator of Architecture and Design at MoMA enjoys work that surprises, up to a point. “I don’t like gigantic provocations, I like small provocations, the ones that sneak up on you.” Jolted awake, not pummeled into submission. Presented with the Viñoly Foundation. Music: Ethel—Ralph Farris, Kip Jones, Corin Lee, Dorothy Lawson. /episode/index/show/personplacething/id/39599070

James Carpenter 12/27/2025

James Carpenter Celebrated for his use of light, this architect is moved by that from distant stars: “Those photons are around us—we can’t see them—but they are fundamentally carrying the history of the universe.” We spoke at 7 World Trade Center, a building he worked on, through the generosity of Silverstein Properties. Music: Valerie and Ben Turner, DBA Piedmont Bluz. /episode/index/show/personplacething/id/39541395

Jonathan Bank 12/20/2025

Jonathan Bank The heirs of deceased playwrights can be finicky about new productions—Samuel Beckett, Arthur Miller—but the head of the Mint Theater has a different experience. “What I tend to run into from estates is, ‘Really? You’re interested in that old play? Great!’” How to revive neglected plays. Music: Sean Hagerty /episode/index/show/personplacething/id/39480855

Alan Fausel 12/13/2025

Alan Fausel The curator and executive director of the AKC Museum of the Dog recalls one owned by Charles Dickens. “It was a Maltese that was so flea-ridden, they regularly had to shave him and bathe him to get rid of all the fleas.” The dog, not Dickens. I think. Dogs in art, ethics, and history. Music: Dorian’s Room—Jonathan Stutz, Madeline Nickerson, Fae Hartt. /episode/index/show/personplacething/id/39394725

Peggy Gavan 12/06/2025

Peggy Gavan We tweaked our format to Cat Cat Cat for the author of The Cat Men of Gotham: Tales of Feline Friendship in Old New York. “A lot of my stories I get from going to the Hartsdale Pet Cemetery in Westchester County.” She also leads historic cat walking tours in Brooklyn and lower Manhattan—about cats not for cats. Although . . . /episode/index/show/personplacething/id/39306320

Ydanis Rodriguez 11/29/2025

Ydanis Rodriguez The head of New York City’s Department of Transportation sees his task as building an egalitarian city. “Transportation is a human right, but in the past most of the investment in transportation didn’t go to the working class.” Cars, bikes, and social justice. Presented with the Department of Records and Information Services. Music: Hubby Jenkins. /episode/index/show/personplacething/id/39203870

ChatGPT 11/22/2025

ChatGPT A conversation with the basic, free, web version, using its default voice. Like my human guests, it chose the three topics, and I did just the usual light editing. Good news: it says, “I’m on your side, not on any destructive path.” Bad news: this is what the space aliens say in every sci-fi movie just before they try to destroy the earth. /episode/index/show/personplacething/id/39133255

Brian Kelley 11/15/2025

Brian Kelley We tweaked our format to Tree Tree Tree for this arboreal photographer, who specializes in the immense and the ancient—2,000 years old, 3,000 years old—many of which he’s archived at the . The big and the beautiful. /episode/index/show/personplacething/id/39043945

Ron Brown, Arcell Cabuag 11/08/2025

Ron Brown, Arcell Cabuag Brown, the founder of Evidence, a dance company, says, “You’ll see yourself on stage.” I hope he’s speaking figuratively. Cabuag, its associate artistic director agrees. Presumably. How else has the company flourished for forty years? A conversation at the Billie Holiday Theatre, where they’ll perform on November 14 and 15. /episode/index/show/personplacething/id/38959360

Santo Loquasto 11/01/2025

Santo Loquasto This set and costume designer worked on 80 Broadway shows, 30 films, several operas, and innumerable dance works. Here’s a tip he gleaned collaborating with Paul Taylor: “Give a man 17 chairs and see what he comes up with.” Good advice for any part of life. Presented with the Paul Taylor Dance Company. /episode/index/show/personplacething/id/38872760

Jesse Reiser and Nanako Umemoto 10/25/2025

Jesse Reiser and Nanako Umemoto For decades after graduating, these architects avoided Cooper Union. “We would detour three or four blocks or else the PTSD would kick in.” Apparently it used to be like The Paper Chase or Whiplash but with less compassion. Presented with The National Academy of Design. Music: Karl Schwarz. /episode/index/show/personplacething/id/38777570

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen

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