American Masters: Creative Spark

Academy Award-winning actress Lee Grant (“Shampoo,” “In The Heat of the Night,” “Valley of the Dolls”) sits down with American Masters creator Susan Lacy for an in-depth conversation about her upbringing, surviving years on the Hollywood blacklist during the McCarthy era, and her career as an actress and documentary filmmaker. Grant describes how key moments of difficulty in her life emboldened her toward new heights.

Academy Award-winning writer and actor Tarell Alvin McCraney talks about his semi-autobiographical play “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue,” and the Academy Award-winning film “Moonlight” that followed. He discusses the centrality of Florida to his work, and the importance of building a sense of community above all else. McCraney’s recent work includes the TV series “David Makes Man” on the OWN Network, the Broadway play “Choir Boy,” and a run of shows as part of the prestigious Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago.

In 2019, Joy Harjo became the first Native American Poet Laureate of the United States. She joins us from her hometown Tulsa, Oklahoma to talk about the responsibilities that come with this honor and the importance of representing rich Native American storytelling traditions. She talks about the transcendent nature of language, our human origins as storytellers, our innate connection to the Earth, and lessons she learned from one of her inspirations, writer N. Scott Momaday.

Best-selling author R.O. Kwon writes with an empathy that can attract religious and non-religious readers alike. She talks about her debut novel, “The Incendiaries,” a fierce story that deals with faith, loss and fanaticism, and describes how her own loss of faith in high school, and the grief that followed, led to this bold new work.

One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, Mark Rothko’s signature style helped define Abstract Expressionism. After a screening of the new American Masters documentary, Rothko: Pictures Must Be Miraculous at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Rothko’s daughter and son, Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko, sat down withseries executive producer Michael Kantor and director Eric Slade to discuss their father’s legacy. This is a bonus episode of the American Masters Podcast.

A confessional-style comic, Chris Gethard is unafraid to mine his past. He talks about cramming the entire set of his TV show, “The Chris Gethard Show,” into the back of his car’s trunk, and how he pulls off hour-long phone calls with strangers every week on his podcast, “Beautiful Stories from Anonymous People.” Amidst a tumultuous cultural change, Gethard also discusses the current state of comedy and his HBO special, “Career Suicide,” which chronicles his history with depression and anxiety.

Pop icons and twins Tegan and Sara look back at their early days during the height of grunge and rave culture in a new memoir, “High School,” and companion album, “Hey, I’m Just Like You.” The duo discuss the book’s honest account of the drugs, music and relationships they each explored in their formative years, and how they crafted a new album from recently discovered high school demo tapes.

Listen to a preview of what’s to come on Season 4 of the American Masters Podcast, featuring new interviews with artists and cultural figures including musicians Tegan and Sara, playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney, Dr. Michio Kaku, actress Lee Grant, comedian Chris Gethard, author R.O. Kwon and more!

What does it mean to stand on the shoulders of giants? Listen to stories from this season of the American Masters Podcast, and learn more about the people who are changing the way we think. Guests include filmmaker Bo Burnham, musician Boots Riley, artist Miranda July, activist DeRay Mckesson, chef David Chang, author Viet Thanh Nguyen and more. Also hear a preview of next season, featuring actress Lee Grant.

Viet Thanh Nguyen discusses growing up in the U.S. as a refugee from Vietnam, and how writing and reading helped him cope with this difficult experience. He explains how his Pulitzer Prize-winning debut novel “The Sympathizer” (2015) and short story collection “The Refugees” (2017) were partly inspired by problems with cultural representation in American pop culture and literature.