From 2006 to 2009, Bob Dylan hosted the Theme Time Radio Hour on Sirius Satellite Radio.

I wager that we could all recount the plot points of A Christmas Carol by heart.

Back in the mid-to-late 1980s, some of the figures we consider Rock and Roll icons were near or at the nadir of their popularity.

The Rolling Stones are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year, and like everything with the Stones, they’re doing it big. The band has scheduled a series of five special concerts on both sides of the Atlantic, beginning next Sunday in London and continuing in Newark, New Jersey, and Brooklyn, New York, in December.

Thanks to his frequent appearances on radio’s This American Life, David Sedaris possesses one of the most recognizable author voices in the world. Simultaneously light and insinuating, it has come to seem as much a part of his oeuvre as the Santaland Diaries and his anecdotes about his parents, siblings and boyfriend.

In the spring of 1963 Studs Terkel introduced Chicago radio listeners to an up-and-coming musician, not yet 22 years old, “a young folk poet who you might say looks like Huckleberry Finn, if he lived in the 20th century. His name is Bob Dylan.” (Listen to the interview below.

Will any radio DJ ever draw more respect than John Peel has? It seems unlikely, especially since so many fascinating artifacts of his life and career have become available on the internet since his death in 2004.

If you’re a regular reader of Open Culture, and if you live in the United States, then chances are you listen to Terry Gross’ Fresh Air interviews on NPR, at least occasionally.

Roughly since the 2005 release of his widely seen documentary Grizzly Man, Werner Herzog has come into great demand. He does so not just as a filmmaker (though he has dozens and dozens of movies of many kinds to his name), or as a writer (though several volumes of his diaries and one long-form interview have appeared as books).

For my money, “I don’t necessarily agree with everything I say” tops the list of Marshall McLuhan-isms, followed closely and at times surpassed by “You don’t like those ideas? I got others.