Shadow Yaddo – Yaddo

Episode 20: Change is Like an Ocean

June 10, 2021

Brilliant filmmaker Shaka King and celebrated writer Walter Mosley discuss the difficulty of making meaningful films, New York vs. L.A., and the ebb and flow of social change. PLUS: Photographer and seasoned activist Dona Ann McAdams on a chance encounter that changed the course of her life and work: The day she met civil rights leader Harvey Milk.

Episode 19: Love of Labor

May 27, 2021

Whether it’s a creative pursuit, side-hustle or “real” job, work is at the heart of this episode featuring novelists Lisa Dierbeck and Jonathan Ames on his latest book, A Man Named Doll, the first in a new noir series set in Los Angeles. Plus: Spoken word artist and poet Hakeem Furious performs “Valero Valet,” a piece he wrote about working the graveyard shift at a gas station. Contributing artists: Joseph Keckler, Damu the Fudgemunk.

Episode 18: Family Mystery

May 13, 2021

Obsession, motherhood, long-held secrets and more in this week’s exploration of family: Kirstin Valdez Quade on her new novel, The Five Wounds, in which multiple generations of family converge. Illustrator and writer Margaret Kimball, whose debut memoir Now I Spill the Family Secrets offers a riveting and layered account of divorce, mental health and coming to terms with family conflict, speaks with the wonderful novelist Charles Bock, author of Beautiful Children.

Episode 17: Future Forward

April 29, 2021

As arts venues reopen (hooray!), we asked two brilliant friends to imagine a new paradigm for concert classical music: Venezuelan/American composer, multimedia collaborator and Yaddo Board Member Manuel Sosa in conversation with Saratoga Performing Arts Center President and CEO Elizabeth Sobol on resilience, experimentation and turning our “lost year” into a boon for the next generation of performing arts.

Episode 16: Nature Noir

April 15, 2021

Dig into the forensics of a new kind of noir, climate crime, with acclaimed novelist and nonfiction writer Nathaniel Rich and intellectual powerhouse Philip Gourevitch. PLUS selections from Landfall, the genius collaboration by iconic inventor and artist Laurie Anderson and Kronos Quartet.

Episode 15: Full Circle

April 1, 2021

Playwright, songwriter and performer David Cale and his friend and sometime-collaborator Sylver Wallace talk about pandemic projects and share new music, with nods to the East Village hotspot Pangea, Sade Adu, and… squirrels!

Episode 14: Spring Fever

March 18, 2021

Work hard, play hard, and evade the “tyranny of the early riser”—stay up late with Shadow // Yaddo! Katherine Rosman and Melissa Maerz on the cult classic, “Dazed and Confused.” Plus Beena Kamlani shares a reading from Saul Bellow’s Herzog.

Episode 13: Out West

March 4, 2021

Time for some Big Sky! We’re headed out west with two incredibly talented Yaddo artists: Novelist Maxim Loskutoff and photographer Peter Kayafas.

Episode 12: Dare to Fail

February 18, 2021

Innovation, big ideas, and the glory of experimentation: Writer-director Adam Goldman on bootstrapping his way to a TV series, Miranda July shares early work, and new music from Arthur Moon.

Episode 11: Invisible Among Us

February 4, 2021

Acclaimed filmmaker Mitch McCabe on her latest feature, “Civil War Surveillance Poems,” bestselling author Jewell Parker Rhodes on writing for children, and performance artist Chin Chih Yang on the one thing he thinks everyone should do every day.