Popular music critic Richie Unterberger has written books on the Who, on the history of folk-rock music, and now a second book on the Velvet Underground. Do What You Fear Most: The History of the Velvet Underground is an 800-page dive into the legacy of this influential and transgressive New York band.

As some listeners might know I host a show on free-form, listener-supported radio station WPKN, where I currently serve as program director. Visit us at wpkn.org. Imagine my surprise, then, when I encountered a passage in Tom Perrotta's novel The Wishbones that was, unmistakably, about WPKN. A character hosts a show on "this great listener-supported station" in Bridgeport, Connecticut. That's us! I called Perrotta and the result is this interview, mostly about music. Perrotta is the author of Election and Little Children, both made into feature films, and The Leftovers and Mrs. Fletcher, both now mini series. He's working on a music-related TV show now. He was a delightful interview.

Denny Zeitlin is a highly regarded jazz pianist--signed by John Hammond, and Thelonious Monk sang his praises in a Blindfold Test--who is also a clinical professor psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. In this wide-ranging interview, he talks about his dual roles, going back to the 1960s. Zeitlin is a pioneer in electro-acoustic music, and wrote the music for the 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. He might have done more movies, but his schedule was too busy.