Great writers, dazzling filmmakers and musicians, brilliant philosophers and scientists — you can now hear and see them in their own words. Here we present audio and video that captures the words of our greatest cultural icons.
- Allen, Woody — Video — The neurotic New York filmmaker hosts the Reverend Billy Graham in an unlikely conversation.
- Apollinaire, Guillaume — Audio — Reads his famous poem “Le pont Mirabeau” from Alcools. 1913.
- Ashbery, John — Audio — The American Pulitzer Prize-winning poet reads a number of his poems from the 1950s to 1970s.
- Asimov, Isaac — Video — Sci-fi writer shares insights on science, computing, religion, population growth and the universe.
- Auden, W.H. — Audio — Reads lines from his poems at the 92nd Street Y in NYC. 1955.
- Auster, Paul — Audio — Reads from his novel Book of Illusions at The University of Pennsylvania.
- Baez, Joan - Video — One of our great folk singers filmed in 1958, when only 17, playing at Club 47 in Cambridge, Mass.
- Baldwin, James - Video — One of America’s best writers declares independence from some of the more troubling assumptions embedded in the English language.
- Bartók, Béla — Audio — Interview recorded in 1944 as part of the “Ask the Composers” series.
- Bass, Saul - Video — Iconic designer on money, quality work & his creative legacy.
- Bradbury, Ray - Video — The author of Fahrenheit 451 talks about why literature is the safety valve of all civilization.
- Brando, Marlon - Video — Talks about Civil Rights with James Baldwin, Harry Belafonte, Charlton Heston, Joseph L. Mankiewicz and Sidney Poitier.
- Brando, Marlon - Video — A 23 year old Brando screen tests for an early and eventually abandoned version of Rebel Without a Cause. 1947.
- Beckett, Samuel — Video — Rare footage of the avant-garde Irish writer.
- Bellow, Saul — Audi0 — The Nobel Prize-winning author reads from Humboldt’s Gift (1988).
- Bergman, Ingmar - Video — The Swedish director makes a lengthy appearance on The Dick Cavett Show in 1971.
- Bernstein, Leonard - Video — The American conductor breaks down the making of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony on the mid-1950s television program Omnibus.
- Bloom, Harold - Audio — The esteemed Yale literary critic talks in interview about the Ghastly Decline of the Humanities and Obama’s poetry.
- Bono — Video — Lead singer of U2/philanthropist tells UPenn graduates “To pick a fight, Get in it.” (2004)
- Borges, Jorge Luis — Video — Argentina’s favorite son featured in documentary called Jorge Luis Borges: The Mirror Man.
- Botton, Alain de - Video — A 38 minute look at why pessimism could be a useful approach to living life, from one of the best popularizers of philosophy.
- Bowie, David - Video — Sings “Little Drummer Boy” with Bing Crosby in 1977. Unexpected pairing.
- Bowie, David - Video — Original music video for Space Oddity from Bowie’s promotional film, ‘Love You Till Tuesday’, released in 1969.
- Boyle T. Coraghessan — Audio — Reads the short story “Bullet in the Brain” by Tobias Wolff.
- Brown, James — Video — The Godfather of Soul adapts “Sex Machine” to sell miso soup in a Japanese commercial. (1992)
- Buckley, William F. - Video — Conservative doyen William F. Buckley says he flogged himself to get through Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.
- Buckley, William F. — Video — Threatens to smash Noam Chomsky in the face. 1969.
- Bukowski, Charles — Audio — Reads his poem “Something For The Touts, The Nuns, The Grocery Clerks, And You.”
- Buñuel, Luis - Video — Surrealist filmmaker speaks about his collaboration with Salvador Dali on Chien andalou.
- Burroughs, William S. - Video — The great beat writer, 81 years old in this video, resists literary convention and shoots Shakespeare.
- Burroughs, William S. — Video — The creator of experimental novels demonstrates his art of cut-up writing.
- Byrne, David - Video — Talking Heads singer tells TED audience how architecture helped music evolve.
- Capote, Truman — Audio — Reads from his 1958 novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
- Carlin, George - Video — The master riffs through his “Modern Man” routine during his last appearance on The Tonight Show.
- Chandler, Raymond - Audio — America’s foremost writer of hard-boiled detective fiction in conversation with Ian Fleming, James Bond author. 1958.
- Chomsky, Noam — Audio/Video — A vast media collection focused on Chomsky and his views on political issues.
- Chomsky, Noam - Video — The MIT prof talks linguistics with Ali G. Good for a big laugh.
- Clapton, Eric — Video — Back in 1968, a young Eric Clapton explains the elements of his sound.
- Clarke, Sir Arthur C. — Video — The futurist presents a film about Benoît B. Mandelbrot, the father of fractals.
- Clarke, Sir Arthur C. — Video — The author predicts the future in 1964, and nails it.
- Cleese, John — Video — One of the founding members of Monty Python talks about the origin of creativity.
- Coelho, Paulo — Video — The author of The Alchemist, a massive bestseller, says why the road to success runs right through failure.
- Cohen, Leonard - Audio — Great singer/songwriter reads several poems and performs one song that would become an all-time classic. 1966.
- Cohen, Leonard - Video — Reads “The Future” at the beginning of a 20 minute interview.
- Colbert, Stephen - Video — Speaking at Book Expo America, Colbert pumps his book, I Am America (And So Can You!), and spars with Khaled Hosseini.
- Colbert, Stephen — Video — The real Colbert dishes out wisdom & laughs at Northwestern graduation.
- C0ltrane, John - Video — Trane performs “My Favorite Things,” literally and figuratively breathing new life into the soprano saxophone. 1961.
- Conan Doyle, Arthur — Video — Revisits the backstory to Sherlock Holmes (1910).
- Coppola, Francis Ford - Video — The director recounts how The Godfather was almost made without Marlon Brando.
- Costell0, Elvis — Video — Sings “Penny Lane” for Paul McCartney and President Obama. Love the version.
- Cummings, EE - Audio — The poet reads “Somewhere I Have Never Travelled” and also “Anyone Lived in a Pretty How Town.”
- Czikszentmihalyi, Mihaly - Video — The famed psychologist talks about creativity, flow and the source of happiness.
- Dalai Lama - Video — The Tibetan spiritual leader offers an Introduction to Buddhism at Emory University.
- Dali, Salvador - Video — Surrealist artist appears on “What’s My Line?” (1952)
- Dali, Salvador — Video — The surrealist artist gets surreal on a younger Mike Wallace. TV interview was recorded in 1958.
- Davis, Miles - Video — Davis and John Coltrane playing a nice rendition of “So What,” the leadoff tune from Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue (1959).
- Dawkins, Richard — Video — The Oxford biologist debates atheism with Christian mathematician John Lennox.
- Dawkins, Richard — Video — Talks about the awe of life and science in a great lecture from 1991.
- Dawkins, Richard - Video — Debates Alister McGrath, Professor of Historical Theology at Oxford University, about the existence (or non-existence) of God.
- Dean, James - Video — Clashes with Ronald Reagan in newly discovered footage from 1954.
- Depp, Johnny - Video — The versatile actor reads letter from Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson.
- Diamond, Jared - Video — The author of Guns, Germs & Steel offers a lecture at USC on the Evolution of Religion.
- Diaz, Junot -Vide0 — Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao speaks about his book at Google.
- Dietrich, Marlene — Video — The German star screen tests for The Blue Angel in 1929, right before becoming an international star.
- Disney, Walt - Video — The father of Mickey Mouse introduces the “super cartoon camera” that revolutionized animation.
- Dylan, Bob — Video — Performs “The Times They Are A‑Changin” at the White House.
- Edison, Thomas — Audio — The inventor recites “Mary Had a Little Lamb” in the late 1870s. One of the early recordings of the human voice.
- Egan, Jennifer - Video — Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist talks about A Visit from the Goon Squad at Google.
- Einstein, Albert — Video — The great physicist gives a speech. The occasion is unknown.
- Einstein, Albert — Audio — Explains the meaning of E=mc².
- Eliot, T.S. — Audio — Reads his 1922 poem, “The Waste Land,” considered a modernist masterpiece.
- Eliot, T.S. — Audio — Reads “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” accompanied by Portishead.
- Ellington, Duke — Video — The jazz legend appears in a video explaining how records were actually recorded, plated and pressed.
- Ellroy, James - Video — The crime writer tells you how he goes about writing historical fiction.
- Eugenides, Jeffrey - Audio — The Pulitzer Prize-winning author reads “Spring Fugue” by Harold Brodkey.
- Faulkner, William — Audio — 28 hours of Faulkner recordings from the University of Virginia.
- Faulkner, William — Audio — Reads from As I Lay Dying.
- Fey, Tina — Video — SNL star and 30 Rock creator brings her Bossypants book tour to Google.
- Feynman, Richard — Video — The Nobel Prize-winning physicist gives lectures at Cornell in 1964. Bill Gates posts them online.
- Feynman, Richard - Video — The physicist hosts the BBC program Fun to Imagine, which uses physics to explain how the everyday world works. (1983)
- Feynman, Richard - Video — Produced in 1981 by the BBC and PBS, the show features Feynman talking in a very personal way about the joys of scientific discovery.
- Feynman, Richard — Video — Now he plays the bongos and sings praise to orange juice.
- Fitzgerald, F. Scott - Reads lines from Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale and Shakespeare’s Othello.
- Ford, Richard — Audio — The author of Independence Day reads “The Reunion” by John Cheever.
- Frank, Anne - Video — It is the only known footage of Anne Frank, author of the world’s most famous diary, and it’s now online.
- Franklin, Aretha - Video — An American treasure sings “My Country, Tis of Thee” at President Obama’s Inauguration.
- Frankl, Victor - Video — Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor on Man’s Search for Meaning.
- Franzen, Jonathan — Audio — One of America’s hottest writers reads “Love Trouble Is My Business” by Veronica Geng.
- Freud, Sigmund — Audio — The Only Known Recording of His Voice, 1938
- Freud, Sigmund — Video — Home movies provide a rare glimpse of Freud’s private life.
- Friedman, Milton — Video — Influential economist offers defense of capitalism and greed in 1979 on Phil Donahue Show.
- Fry, Stephen — Video — British writer and actor offers some pearls of wisdom in “What I Wish I Had Known When I Was 18.”
- Fry, Stephen - Video — Gets animated about language.
- Fry, Stephen - Video — Tells us his thoughts on philosophy and unbelief.
- Gaiman, Neil - Video — The British writer offers a New Year’s Benediction in January 2010. Recorded at Symphony Hall in Boston.
- Gandhi, Mahatma — Video — The first recorded video (with sound) of Mahatma Gandhi. Shot sometime before 1947.
- Gehry, Frank — Video/Audio — Two towering California artists, the architect Frank Gehry and the composer/conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, discuss their work.
- Gibson, William - Video — The Father of Cyberpunk reads from his novel Spook Country in Second Life.
- Gilbert, Elizabeth - Video — Author of Eat, Pray, Love talks about writers, their “genius,” and the expectations that we place on it.
- Gilliam, Terry - Video — Monty Python animator/cast member shows you how to make your own cutout animation.
- Ginsberg, Allen — Audio — Multiple readings by the Beat writer spanning several decades.
- Ginsberg, Allen -Video — The Beat poet takes a tugboat ride, 1969.
- Ginsberg, Allen — Video — Face to Face with Jeremy Isaacs in 1995.
- Glass, Ira - Video — The host of This American Life talks about the art of storytelling.
- Godard- Jean-Luc -Video — One of the driving forces behind La Nouvelle Vague cinema in conversation with Woody Allen.
- Gould, Glenn — Video — A young Gould plays Bach movingly.
- Gould, Glenn — Video — An older Gould performs Bach’s Goldberg Variations in 1981.
- Greenaway, Peter -Video — The film director presents a lecture “Nine Classic Paintings Revisited” at UC Berkeley.
- Havel, Václav - Audio — Speaks at Columbia; Revisits the Velvet Revolution.
- Hawking, Stephen — Audio — The physicist tells us to abandon Earth or face extinction.
- Hemingway, Ernest — Audio — The great American novelist reads from his work “In Harry’s Bar in Venice.”
- Hemingway, Ernest — Audio — The novelist records his Nobel Prize acceptance speech from Havana, Cuba. 1954
- Hendrix, Jimi - Video — Guitar hero plays Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in June, 1967, right after the album came out.
- Henson, Jim - Video — The legendary puppeteer shows you how to make your own puppets. A 15 minute primer. (1969)
- Herzog, Werner — Video — The great filmmaker in conversation with another one, Errol Morris. At Brandeis University, 2007.
- Herzog, Werner — Audio — Herzog in conversation with Cormac McCarthy. High point: Herzog reads a passage from McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses.
- Hitchcock, Alfred — Audio — Francois Truffaut, legendary French director, conducted 12 hours of interviews with Hitchcock in 1962.
- Hitchcock, Alfred - Video — The director recalls working with Salvador Dali on Spellbound, and Dali’s memorable dream sequence.
- Hitchcock, Alfred - Video — Rare interview conducted with the filmmaker by Tom Snyder in 1973.
- Hitchens, Christopher - Video — The essayist/journalist/critic responds to Reddit user questions.
- Hitchens, Christopher - Video — Revises the Ten Commandments.
- Hitchens, Christopher - Video — A well known supporter of the Iraq War gets water boarded to decide whether it is torture or not.
- Hitchens, Christopher - Video — Goes head to head with Dinesh D’Souza in a debate about religion/atheism.
- Holiday, Billie - Video — The great jazz vocalist sings “Strange Fruit.” TIME called it the song of the century in 1999.
- Holly, Buddy — Audio — His first recording at age 12.
- Hopkins, Anthony — Video — The great actor is well versed in the work of fellow Welshman Dylan Thomas. Reads “Do not go gentle into that good night.”
- Hopper, Dennis — Video — Easy Rider star reads Rudyard Kipling on Johnny Cash Show. 1970.
- Horne, Lena - Video — The actress appears on “What’s My Line?” in 1958.
- Horowitz, Vladimir - Vide0 — The great Russian pianist returns to Moscow in 1986. Plays Mozart.
- Hurston, Zora Neale - Video — The author sings ‘Uncle Bud,’ a popular song in the South in 1939.
- Huston, John - Video — The filmmaker (The Maltese Falcon, The Asphalt Jungle) lives the good life in his Irish castle. 1966.
- Huxley, Aldous — Audio — The author himself narrates a dramatized version of his novel Brave New World.
- Huxley, Aldous - Video — The author warns of dictatorship in America.
- Huxley, Aldous — Video — Presents “The Ultimate Revolution” at UC Berkeley, 1962. Warns of those who will terrorism and pharmaceuticals to create willing slaves out of the population.
- Ionesco, Eugène - Video — French absurdist playwright interviewed in 1961.
- Irving, John — Video — The bestselling writer gives advice to aspiring novelists.
- Jobs, Steve — Video — In one of our favorite graduation speeches, the Apple CEO tells Stanford students about his philosophy of life. Stay hungry, stay foolish.
- Jobs, Steve - Video — The Apple founder demos the first Mac in 1984.
- Jobs, Steve - Video — Talking about what it was like to work with iconic designer Paul Rand.
- Jones, James Earl — Audio — Jones reads passages from Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” in 1973. From 92nd St. Y in NYC.
- Jones, James Earl — Video — Also reads Othello at White House Poetry Jam.
- Joyce, James — Audio — Rare audio recording of James Joyce reading from Ulysses and Finnegans Wake.
- Joyce, James - Video — Rare footage of James in Paris during 1920s.
- Jung, Carl -Video — The famous psychologist tells us why death is a fulfillment, rather than a negation, of life.
- Karajan, Herbert von - Video — The conductor leads the Berlin Philharmonic through Beethoven’s masterpiece circa 1966.
- Kasparov, Garry — Video — Talks Chess, Technology and a Little Life at Google
- Kaufmann, Walter - Audio — Eminent philosopher lectures on Nietzsche, Kierkegaard and Sartre (1960)
- Keller, Helen - Video — Helen Keller and her teacher Annie Sullivan appear in a rare piece of footage from the 1930s.
- Kerouac, Jack — Video — Meets up with the infant terrible of the conservative movement, William F. Buckley. (1962)
- Kerouac, Jack - Video — Reads from his generation-defining novel On the Road.
- Kesey, Ken — Audio/Video — Animated video features audio from Kesey’s first acid trip at government sponsored research trial.
- Kiefer, Anselm — Video — The German painter creates his world of ruination before your eyes.
- Lacan, Jacques - Video — The psychoanalysis rock star gives a public lecture at The Catholic University of Louvain in 1972.
- Lang, Fritz — Video — Director Fritz Lang discusses violence in film.
- Leary, Timothy - Video — The Harvard psychologist, LSD proponent gets interviewed from prison during the 1970s.
- Lee, Bruce - Video — Martial arts star Bruce Lee auditions for The Green Hornet (1964).
- Lee, Bruce — Video — The young actor appears in his first and only TV interview in December 1971.
- Lee, Spike — Video/Audio — In conversation with Paul Holdengräber at The New York Public Library.
- Lennon, John — Audio — Shortly after The Beatles broke up, John Lennon conducted a 3 hour interview with Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner.
- Lennon, John — Video — The Beatle and Yoko Ono appear on The Dick Cavett Show in 1971.
- Lennon, John -Video — Footage recaptures the “bed-ins” that John and Yoko famously staged in Montreal and Amsterdam in 1969 to protest the Vietnam War.
- Lessing, Doris - Video — Reacts to winning the Nobel Prize in Literature.
- Lévy, Bernard-Henri — Audio/Video — France’s “rock-star philosopher” debates Slavoj Žižek, the Slovanian “Elvis of cultural theory.
- Lynch, David - Video — The filmmaker interviews Paul McCartney. The subject? Meditation.
- Lynch, David - Video — Lists his favorite movies and filmmakers.
- Mailer, Norman — Video — The controversial writer in conversation with another controversial writer, Martin Amis. 1991.
- Mailer, Norman — Video — Famously feuds with Gore Vidal on The Dick Cavett Show in 1971.
- Mailer, Norman - Video — The great writer and boxing enthusiast revisits the Rumble in the Jungle: Muhammad Ali v. George Foreman.
- Mandela, Nelson - Video — His first interview ever on TV. Recorded May, 1961.
- Martin, Steve - Video — Brilliant comedian writes song for hymn-deprived atheists.
- McFerrin, Bobby — Video — The singer shows the power of the pentatonic scale in a fun video.
- McLuhan, Marshall - Video — Debates the meaning of the Digital Age with Norman Mailer in 1968.
- McLuhan, Marshall — Video — The World is a Global Village.
- Miller, Arthur - Video — The playwright (Death of a Salesman, The Crucible) talks about his experience with McCarthyism/anti-communism in America. 1971.
- Miller, Henry — Video — The novelist Henry Miller (Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn), then 81 years old, reminisces about his difficult early life in New York.
- Morrison, Toni — Video - In conversation with Fran Lebowitz at the New York Public Library.
- Morris, Errol — Video/Audio — Filmmaker talks with Philip Gourevitch about what actually happened at Abu Ghraib prison.
- Murray, Bill — Video — The funny man reads poetry, including Billy Collins, at a construction site.
- Murray, Bill - Video — Reads more Collins poetry (“Forgetfulness”) at the 16th Annual Poets House Walk Across the Brooklyn Bridge.
- Nabokov, Vladimir - Video — The Russian author marvels over different Lolita book covers.
- Nabokov, Vladimir - Video — A mid 1950s interview with Vladimir Nabokov and Lionel Trilling conducted soon after the publication of Lolita (1955).
- Newman, Paul - Video — Screentests for role in East of Eden with James Dean.
- Newman, Paul — Video — The star hangs out with other iconic stars (Natalie Wood, Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, and Rock Hudson) at the beach in Malibu, 1965.
- Nicholson, Jack - Video — The actor puts his money and star power behind hydrogen powered Chevys in 1978. And he drives one too.
- O’Brien, Conan - Video — The red-headed comedian pays a hilarious visit to Google.
- O’Brien, Conan — Video — Now delivers the Dartmouth commencement address, 2011. The best address of the year.
- O’Connor, Flannery — Audio — Reads “A Good Man is Hard to Find” at Vanderbilt University, 1959.
- O’Keeffe, Georgia - Video — Footage of the 92 year old Georgia O’Keeffe taken in and around her home in New Mexico.
- Page, Jimmy — Video — Jimmy Page, 13, Plays Guitar on BBC Talent Show (1957). Later becomes Led Zeppelin guitarist.
- Page, Larry - Video — Google co-founder/CEO returns to U. Michigan to give 2009 commencement speech.
- Pamuk, Orhan — Audio — The Nobel Prize-winning author from Turkey reads “My Russian Education” by Vladimir Nabokov.
- Pavarotti, Luciano — Video — Sings “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” with the Godfather of Soul, James Brown. Check it.
- Pennebaker, DA - Video — The director of the classic 1967 Bob Dylan documentary Don’t Look Back talks with music critic Greil Marcus.
- Picasso, Pablo - Video — Picasso at his home in Vallauris, painting on glass with a camera rolling on the other side. (1950)
- Pinker, Steven - Video — Harvard linguist and cognitive scientist explains how innuendo makes the world work.
- Plath, Sylvia — Video — Reads her poem “Daddy,” written on October 12, 1962, shortly before her death, and published posthumously in Ariel in 1965.
- Plath, Sylvia - Video — Reads “Ariel.”
- Polanski, Roman - Video — On making his classic 70s film Chinatown.
- Pollock, Jackson — Video — The short film Jackson Pollock 51 features the abstract expressionist painter up close, painting on glass.
- Power, Samantha - Video — Harvard prof and Pulitzer Prize-winning author gives graduation speech at Pitzer, 2008.
- Pound, Ezra — Audio — A rich collection of audio recordings of Ezra Pound is now online thanks to U. Pennsylvania.
- Rand, Ayn — Video — Early in his career, Mike Wallace sits down and interviews the author of Atlas Shrugged. (1959)
- Rand, Ayn — Video — Circa 1979, Rand tells talk show host Phil Donahue all about her atheist views.
- Rauschenberg, Robert -Video — Tells of how he knocked on Willem De Kooning’s door and flat-out asked the master for an original drawing – so he could erase it.
- Reed, Lou - Video — Between 1964 and 1966, Andy Warhol shot close to 500 short movies of friends, celebrities, models. Along with Reed, you will find Nico, Dennis Hopper, and others.
- Reed, Lou — Video — A very hip and blonde Lou Reed sings Sweet Jane in Paris, 1974.
- Reinhardt, Django - Video — Django, the great jazz guitarist, performs “J’Attendrai” (I Will Wait) in 1939.
- Richards, Keith — Video — The Rolling Stones’ guitarist interviewed in a less usual setting, The New York Public Library.
- Rogers, Mr. — Video — The children’s television icon goes to Washington to explain the importance of funding for public television. 1964.
- Roth, Philip — Video — The author of Portnoy’s Complaint dispels myths about aging.
- Roth, Philip — Video — The celebrated American novelist talks about the myths of aging.
- Rowling, JK - Video — Author of the Harry Potter series imparts wisdom to Harvard’s graduating class in 2008.
- Rowling, JK - Video — Gives a public reading of the first chapter of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
- Russell, Bertrand - Video — The British philosopher sends a message to people living 1,000 years from now.
- Russell, Bertrand - Video — Explains why he doesn’t believe in God.
- Russell, Kurt - Video — Auditions for the role of Han Solo in Star Wars.
- Sagan, Carl - Video — His last TV interview.
- Sandel, Michael - Video — The Harvard philosopher on the lost art of democratic debate.
- Sandel, Michael — Video — One of the most popular Harvard courses, Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?, now appears online.
- Sandburg, Carl - Video — The poet appears on “What’s My Line?” in 1960.
- Sapolsky, Robert - Video — Leading biologist demystifies human behavior in free course.
- Schoenberg, Arnold - Audio — The Austrian composer discusses art, music, etc.
- Schnabel, Julian — Video — The artist/filmmaker explains how he overcomes creative ruts.
- Scorsese, Martin - Video — The legendary filmmaker picks his favorite gangster films.
- Sedaris, David - Audio/iTunes — The funny man reads his story “Of Mice and Men” from When You are Engulfed in Flames.
- Sedaris, David - Audio — Reads “Solution to Saturday’s Puzzle”from When You Are Engulfed in Flames.
- Searle, John — Audio — The UC Berkeley philosopher offers three free courses online.
- Seeger, Pete - Video — The great American folk singer talks about his classic song, Turn! Turn! Turn!.
- Seeger, Pete - Video — The folk giant, at 91, performs BP protest song.
- Segovia, Andrés - Video — Father of classical guitar plays one of his favorites, “The Legend of Asturias.”
- Sellers, Peter - Video — The British comedian reads lyrics from The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night in Shakespearean mode. (1964)
- Serling, Rod — Video — The host/creator of The Twilight Zone tells students where ideas come from.
- Shakespeare, William - Video — 20 minute video features Prof. Stanley Wells talking about the Cobbe portrait, and why it’s believed to present the real Shakespeare.
- Silverstein, Shel — Video — The children’s author narrates a short film based on his famous book, The Giving Tree. (1964)
- Simon, David - Video — The creator of The Wire sits down to talk with Bill Moyers.
- Singer, Peter - Video — The Australian philosopher explains how greed drives us, and how it gave rise to the Wall Street meltdown.
- Smith, Patti — Video — The “godmother of punk” recalls her friendship with artist Robert Mapplethorpe.
- Spacey, Kevin — Video — Spacey does nine impersonations in six minutes. Jimmy Stewart, Katharine Hepburn, Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, etc.
- Stein, Gertrude - Video — A home movie that gives you a glimpse of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. 1927.
- Steinbeck, John — Video — The great American author delivers his Nobel Address in 1962.
- Stevens, Wallace — Audio — Extensive number of poetry readings from the 1950s.
- Strauss, Leo — Audio — A father of modern conservatism presents 15 seminars at U. Chicago.
- Streep, Meryl - Video — Oscar-winning actress gives commencement speech at Barnard/Columbia. An inspiration on screen and off.
- Talese, Gay — Video — Drinking at New York Times put Mad Men to Shame.
- Tan, Amy -Video — The author of The Joy Luck Club locates the source of her own creativity in her family history and big existential questions.
- Tarantino, Quentin - Video — Pulp Fiction director lists his favorites films since 1992.
- Taylor, Elizabeth — Video — The young star appears on the long-running TV show, What’s My Line?, in 1954.
- Tchaikovsky, Pyotr — Audio — The Russian composer’s voice captured on an Edison Cylinder (1890).
- Thompson, Hunter S. — Video — Gonzo journalist interviews Keith Richards. Not entirely coherently.
- Thompson, Hunter S. — Video — Gets confronted by the Hell’s Angels on 1960s Canadian TV show.
- Thomas, Michael Tilson- Video — Director of San Francisco Symphony on “How Mahler Changed My Life.”
- Tolkien, J.R.R. — Video — The author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings appears in a BBC documentary.
- Tolstoy, Leo — Video — Great footage of the last days of the towering Russian novelist. 1910.
- Toscanini, Arturo — Video — Conducts Beethoven’s 5th at Carnegie Hall in 1952.
- Twain, Mark — Video — America’s fabled writer captured on film by Thomas Edison in 1909.
- Updike, John — Video — Appears on The Dick Cavett Show with John Cheever in 1981.
- Updike, John - Video — Charles McGrath’s wide-ranging conversation with John Updike at the Times Center in New York on October 28, 2008.
- Vidal, Gore - Video — Vidal and William F. Buckley going at it, almost coming to blows, during the contested presidential campaign of 1968.
- Vonnegut, Kurt - Audio — Reads from his novel Slaughterhouse Five.
- Vonnegut, Kurt - Video — The writer sketches some brilliant blueprints for envisioning the “shape” of a story, all in less than 4 minutes and 37 seconds.
- Vonnegut, Kurt - Video — Conducts unconventional interview in Second Life.
- Waits, Tom - Video — The singer reads “The Laughing Heart” by Charles Bukowski.
- Walken, Christopher — Video — The much loved actor reads lines oh-so-dramatically from Lady Gaga’s Poker Face. Hysterical.
- Walken, Christopher - Video — And then he reads the children’s classic.
- Walken, Christopher - Audio — Hosts radio show in NYC for a day.
- Wallace, David Foster — Audio — A good soul has pulled together a series of audio recordings by David Foster Wallace.
- Wallace, Mike - Video — Before 60 Minutes, Wallace ran his own interview show, talking with many celebrities.
- Warhol, Andy - Video — In 1979, Warhol created public access television programs. In this episode, he chats with Bianca Jagger & Steven Spielberg.
- Warhol, Andy — Video — The painter, who invented the expression “15 Minutes of Fame, “eats a hamburger in 4 minutes. (1982)
- Waters, Muddy - Video — The blues legend sings “You Can’t Lose What You Ain’t Never Had” on The Blues & Gospel Train. (1964)
- Wayne, John — Audio — Great western star recites/interprets the Pledge of Allegiance.
- Welles, Orson — Video — Great filmmaker appears on The Merv Griffin Show hours before he died of a heart attack at his Los Angeles home. (1985)
- Welles, Orson - Video — Welles reads a short selection from Melville’s classic, Moby Dick.
- Welles, Orson — Audio — Welles presents dramatized radio broadcasts during the 1930s, including famous Martian invasion episode.
- Whitman, Walt — Audio — An authentic wax cylinder recording of Whitman reading from his late poem ‘America’ that appeared in 1888.
- Williams, William Carlos — Audio — Abundant number of readings recorded during the 1940s and 50s.
- Wonder, Stevie — Video — Singer/songwriter Stevie Wonder premieres “Sketches of a Life,” a sprawling, hybrid pop-classical concerto, written between 1976 and 1994.
- Wolff, Tobias — Video — The author/Stanford literature professor reads his short story “The Benefit of a Doubt.”
- Wolff, Tobias — Video — One of our best short story writers in conversation with Tim O’Brien, author of The Things They Carried.
- Woolf, Virginia — Audio — Recording comes from a 1937 BBC radio broadcast. The talk, entitled “Craftsmanship,” was part of a series called “Words Fail Me.” The only known recording of her voice.
- Wright, Frank Lloyd - Video — The most important American architect of the last century appears on What’s My Line? in 1956.
- X, Malcolm — Video — Debates at Oxford University in 1964 and makes great reference to Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
- Zinn, Howard - Video — The people’s historian talks about wars and the role governments play in manufacturing them…
- Zizek, Slavoj -Video — The influential philosopher/theorist explains the good karma of capitalism in an RSA animated video.
- Zizek, Slavoj — Video — Living in the End Times According to Slavoj Zizek.
More to come …
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