Person Place Thing
Fridays, 10:30 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.
Hosted by former New York Times Ethicist Columnist Randy Cohen, PPT features guests who talk about a person, a place and a thing they find meaningful. Randy pulls out the most interesting details from columnists to musicians, architects and ballerinas including Rosanne Cash, E. Jean Carroll and Gene Kohn. The results: surprising stories from great talkers.
To learn more about this program, visit presonplacething.org.
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A friend of author Richard Russo’s wife gave his novel “Empire Falls” to Ivanka Trump. Her response: “This is a book about poor people. Why would I want to read a book about poor people?” Russo tells us about his father, Martha’s Vineyard and green pens. -
Poet and president of the Mellon foundation Elizabeth Alexander quotes her great hero June Jordan on the question artists and activists should ask: "Where is the love? What are we moving towards, not just what are we fighting against?" We’ll also hear about Watts Towers and home-cooked lasagna. -
Head of the Hudson River Park Trust Noreen Doyle offers a too-modest explanation for its popularity: “I think there’s a universal urge that people have to see and connect with water.” Tune in to hear about B&O Railroad Float Transfer Bridge and Pier 26 Tide Deck, amongst other topics. -
Steve Sarowitz, the founder of Paylocity, is a partner in the Wayfarer Foundation, whose mission is to "advance humankind spiritually toward a future peaceful world civilization." Sarowitz tells us about Abdu'l-Bahá, Baha'i Gardens, Haifa, and his running shoes. -
“The best future for the United States belongs to people who can appreciate both the Declaration of Independence, and Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech,” says the Manhattan borough historian and Rutgers professor emeritus Rob Snyder. Snyder joins us to talk about his work, Marc Bloch, 550 Fort Washington Ave. and his Swiss Army knife. -
On March 2, 2023, the acclaimed architect Rafael Viñoly died suddenly, at 78, just two weeks before his scheduled “Person Place Thing.” Rather than cancel, his son Román used the occasion to reflect on his father. -
Hear from author Yiyun Li. “I think the best writers always know their characters better than the characters know themselves," she says. The author of “The Book of Goose” talks about “War and Peace,” “Wuthering Heights,” the stories of William Trevor, and her old army buddies. -
The esteemed pianist Wu Han offers not only beauty but insight, like this observation: “If you go to any concert and you hear a Dvořák piece, look for the pigeon and the train; it’s always in there.” Pigeons and trains, presented with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. -
Like Conrad, Nabokov, and Beckett, novelist Hernan Diaz (“In the Distance,” “Trust”) writes in a language other than the one he spoke as a child, and it helps him see the world afresh: “If you move out of one language and into another, it is like moving out of one country and into another.” A repeat broadcast from January 6, 2023. -
Author, writer and copy editor for “The New Yorker” Mary Norris goes into depth about the wine-dark sea and about her thing, a tin pitcher. A repeat broadcast from September 23, 2022.
