Light On Light Through

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 377, in which I review the third season of Hightown.

• written blog post review of the third season of Hightown, with links to my written reviews of most of the episodes of the first two seasons.

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 376, in which I interview Dan Abella in George's Cafe in Manhattan about The Mind Revolution Experience (March 14, 7-9pm at The Producer's Club, 358 W. 44th Street, NYC) and the upcoming Philip K. Dick Film Festival (April 4-7, Musuem of the Moving Image, and other places in NYC).

• more about The Mind Revolution Experience here
• more about the PKD Film Festival here
• more about my novel, It's Real Life: An Alternate History of The Beatles -- that I'll be doing a reading from at the PKD Film Festival -- here

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 375, in which I interview Richard Sparks about his new novel, New Rock, New Role, as well as the joys and woes, the trials and tribulations and triumphs of the writerly life.

More about New Rock, New Role

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 374, in which I review the fourth season of True Detective on HBO Max.

• Written blog post review of True Detective 4.1-4.3
• Written blog post review of True Detective 4.4-4.6

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 373, in which I review the second season of Reacher on Amazon Prime Video.

• podcast review of Reacher 1
• written blog post review of Reacher 2

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 372, in which I review The Greatest Night in Pop: The Untold Story Behind 'We Are the World'.

• my written blog post review of The Greatest Night in Pop
• the "We Are the World" video
• 30-minute documentary made shortly after "We Are the World"

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 371, in which I join Captain Phil on WUSB-FM Radio (Stony Brook, New York) and Marybeth Ritkouski, Michael Rizzo, Bruce Playfair, and Colleen Bement in a 2+ hour in-depth, fun discussion of For All Mankind, Seasons 1-4, on Apple TV+.

• my written reviews  (w/spoilers) of For All Mankind, Season 4 (link is to my review of the 10th episode, which has links to my reviews of the other 9 episodes) and earlier seasons
• Chuck Todd's podcast December 26, 2023 interview with me about For All Mankind and  alternate histories
• "It's Real Life" (alternate history about The Beatles) story and radio play

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 370, in which I review Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Season 24 premiere.

Read this review.

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 369, in which I review the Who Killed JFK? podcast, episodes 9-10.

Read this review (written review of episode 10, with link to written review of episode 9)

Podcast reviews of Who Killed JFK? Episodes 1-5 and 6-8

Photo by Robert H. Jackson. Originally published in the Dallas Times Herald, November 25, 1963. Winner of the 1964 Pulitzer Prize for Photography.

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 368, which I devote to consideration of tetrads for history and alternate history.   Don't know what tetrads are?  They're explained in the first few minutes of the podcast.

Read about Tetrads for History and Alternate History here.

Further reading on Tetrads: Laws of the Media (by Marshall McLuhan, with Preface by Paul Levinson); Tetrad Wheels of Cultural Evolution (Paul Levinson); Tetrad on the Selfie (Paul Levinson); Tetrads and Chiasmus: A Reclamation of the Tetrad Wheel (Matthew S. Lindia & Paul Levinson),

Further reading, listening to, viewing Alternate History: A Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History by Jack Dann; Paul Levinson's review of A Fiction Writer's Guide to the Alternate History; Paul Levinson's interview with Jack Dann; Paul Levinson's interview with Rufus Sewell, who starred in The Man in the High Castle series on Amazon Prime Video; Chuck Todd's interview with Paul Levinson about alternate histories; It's Real Life (alternate history about The Beatles by Paul Levinson, made into a radio play) 

Also -- a voicemail from Marshall McLuhan for me, in 1978

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 367, in which I review the Who Killed JFK? podcast, episodes 6-8.

Read this review (written review of episode 8, with links to written reviews episodes 6 and 7)

Podcast review of Who Killed JFK? Episodes 1-5

Dick Russell's The Man Who Knew Too Much

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 366, in which I review Maestro, the Leonard Bernstein biopic.

Read this review. 

Links to some of what I mentioned in the podcast:

• 1955 Edward R. Murrow Person to Person interview with Leonard Bernstein
• 1967 Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution (CBS special with Bernstein)

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 365, in which I review the first season of The Way Home on Hallmark TV.

Read this review. 

Links to some of what I mentioned in the podcast:

• review of Chris Cosmain's time-travel novel Novikov Windows
• Sister Hazel All For You
• Maria Tayler Pens Everything I Wanted

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 364, in which I review the Who Killed JFK? podcast, episodes 1-5.

Read this review (written review of episode 5, with links to written reviews episodes 1-4)

Links to some of what I mentioned in the podcast:

• my review of Jack Dann's Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History ... my podcast interview with Jack Dann
• my alternate history story about The Beatles

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 363, in which I review The Lazarus Project, season 1, on TNT.

Read this review.

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 362, in which I review Bosch: Legacy, episodes 2.7-2.10, on Amazon Prime Video.

Read this review (with links to reviews of earlier episodes and seasons, including the very first season of Bosch).

Podcast review of Bosch: Legacy 2.1-2.6

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 361, in which Cora Buhlert, Joel McKinnon, and I talk about the second season of Foundation on Apple TV+.

Relevant links:

• our discussion of the first season of Foundation
• my reviews of the 2nd season of Foundation (with links to reviews of the 1st)
• Cora Buhlert's reviews of the 2nd season of Foundation
• Joel McKinnon's Seldon Crisis podcast

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 360, in which Joel McKinnon and Cora Buhlert join me for a conversation about The Beatles' "Now and Then".  We had reconvened for a conversation about the second season of the Foundation series on Apple TV+ -- I had asked them to join me to talk about the first season back in 2021 -- but Joel, who's been in a band for decades, asked me what I thought of The Beatles new single, and this led to a conversation about the new single, The Beatles in Hamburg, AI and recording, and lots of observations you won't hear any place else.  (And look next week for the conversation about Foundation that ensued.)

Relevant links:

• my review of "Now and Then"
• our 2021 conversation about the 1st season of Foundation

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 359, in which I interview Jack Dann about his book The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History and other things science fictional. 

Relevant links:

• Jack Dann's first publication, his 1974 Wandering Stars anthology 
• How Paul Levinson discovered Wandering Stars back in 1974
• Jack Dann's The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History 
• Paul Levinson's review of The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History 
• Paul Levinson's alternate history story about The Beatles, "It's Real Life"
• Paul Levinson's reaction to The Beatles' "Now and Then" 
• Chuck Todd interviews Paul Levinson about alternate histories

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 358, in which I review Bosch: Legacy, episodes 2.1-2.6, on Amazon Prime Video.

Read this review (with links to reviews of earlier seasons, including the very first season of Bosch).

Podcast review of Bosch: Legacy 2.7-2.10