West Coast Live (1985—2018) was a weekly two-hour radio variety show hosted by Sedge Thomson. The unscripted program featured interviews with world-renowned authors and cultural figures along with performances by musicians, comedians and other entertainers. It was broadcast live-to-satellite each Saturday morning in front of a theater audience from one of several San Francisco Bay area venues. The show was carried on NPR stations from coast-to-coast, and in Paris, France until 2018. Occasionally, the show traveled to theaters, music festivals and film festivals throughout the northwest. The Biospherical Digital-Optical Aquaphone (container of water sloshed for microphone), is the "trademarked signature" of Sedge Thomson.
Past guests Writers include: Diane Ackerman, Maya Angelou, Julian Barnes, T. C. Boyle, Ray Bradbury, A. S. Byatt, Joyce Carol Oates, Michael Chabon, Julia Child, Billy Collins, Junot Díaz, Jennifer Egan, Dave Eggers, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Jonathan Safran Foer, William Gibson, Allen Ginsberg, Daniel Handler, Robert Hass, John Irving, Jamaica Kincaid, Anne Lamott, Gregory Maguire, Greil Marcus, Armistead Maupin, Michael McClure, Ian McEwan, Toni Morrison, Susan Orlean, P. J. O'Rourke, Raj Patel, Michael Pollan, Tom Robbins, Salman Rushdie, David Sedaris, Eric Schlosser, Julia Flynn Siler, Zadie Smith, Gary Snyder, Calvin Trillin, Chris Van Allsburg, Tobias Wolff, Alice Walker, Alice Waters, Irvine Welsh, Edmund White, Jacqueline Winspear, Jeanette Winterson, Naomi Wolf, Tobias Wolff, Carlos Ruiz Zafón.
Musicians include: The Blind Boys of Alabama, Greensky Bluegrass, Tim Bluhm, Billy Bragg, The Neville Brothers, Greg Brown, Sam Bush, David Byrne, Bruce Cockburn, Judy Collins, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Tommy Emmanuel, Michael Franti, Béla Fleck & The Flecktones, David Grisman, Arlo Guthrie, Ben Harper, Richie Havens, Sean Hayes, Dan Hicks, Jolie Holland, Zakir Hussain, The String Cheese Incident, Leo Kottke, Taj Mahal, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Ray Manzarek, Country Joe McDonald, Tuck & Patti, U. Utah Phillips, Kronos Quartet, Jonathan Richman, Peter Rowan, Blame Sally, Pharoah Sanders, Merl Saunders, John Sebastian, Chris Smither, Allen Toussaint, Charlie Hunter Trio, Trance Mission, Hot Tuna, McCoy Tyner, The Devil Makes Three, Vetiver, Loudon Wainwright III.
Actors include: Carrie Fisher, Peter Gallagher, Elliott Gould, Gene Hackman, Larry Hankin, Bill Irwin, Eddie Izzard, Terry Jones, Rita Moreno, Adam Savage & Jamie Hyneman, Richard Lewis, Robin Williams, Debra Winger, Geoff Bolt, Michael O'Brien Others include: Andre Agassi, Jerry Brown, Roger Ebert, Wavy Gravy, Spalding Gray, Guerrilla Girls, Garrison Keillor, Craig Newmark, Peter Sellars, Steve Wozniak.
2015 Nick Papadopoulous, CropMobster - December 19, 2015 Steve Silberman, NeuroTribes - October 3, 2015
2014 A. Scott Berg, Wilson - September 27, 2014 Eric Schlosser, Command and Control - September 27, 2014 Charles Saumarez Smith, Royal Academy of Arts - February 1, 2014
2013 Dave Barry, Insane City - February 9, 2013 Mo Willems - February 9, 2013
2012 Claire Peaslee - December 22, 2012 Anne Lamott, Help Thanks Wow - December 15, 2012 Raymond Offenheiser, Oxfam America - July 21, 2012 Raj Patel, Stuffed and Starved - July 21, 2012 Alice Waters, Owner of Chez Panisse Restaurant - July 21, 2012 Raj Patel, Raymond Offenheiser & Alice Waters - July 21, 2012 Howard Rheingold, Netsmart: How to Thrive Online - June 16, 2012 Dhaya Lakshminarayanan - June 16, 2012 Juliet Bell ( Sylvia Brownrigg), Keplers Dream - May 12, 2012 Edmund White, Jack Holmes and His Friend - February 4, 2012 Barbara Babcock, Woman Lawyer - February 4, 2012 Maira Kalman, Why We Broke Up - February 4, 2012 Ellis Avery, The Last Nude - January 14, 2012 Nicholas de Monchaux, Fashioning Apollo - January 14, 2012 Julia Flynn Siler, Lost Kingdom - January 7, 2012
2011 Thomas Steinbeck, The Silver Lotus - December 10, 2011 Mark Bowden, Worm: The First Digital World War - October 22, 2011 Courtney E Smith, Record Collecting for Girls - September 10, 2011 Rita Moreno, Life WIthout Makeup - September 10, 2011 Adam Hochschild, To End All Wars - April 30, 2011 Eric Greitens, The Heart and The Fist - April 30, 2011 Daniel Clowes - April 23, 2011 Donovan Hohn, Moby Duck & Susan Freinkel, Plastic - April 23, 2011 Jacques dAmboise, I Was a Dancer - April 9, 2011 Joyce Carol Oates, A Widows Story - April 2, 2011
2010 Judy Chicago, Frida Kahlo: Face to Face - December 11, 2010 Coleman Barks, Rumi the Big Red Book - December 11, 2010 Armistead Maupin, Mary Ann in Autumn - December 11, 2010 Daniel Handler AKA Lemony Snicket, 13 Words - November 13, 2010 Terry McMillan, Getting to Happy - November 13, 2010 Alice Walker, Hard Times Require Furious Dancing- October 30, 2010 Alexander McCall Smith, The Lost Art of Gratitude - October 23, 2010 Julia Butterfly Hill, The Legacy of Luna - April 17, 2010 Zachary Mason, The Lost Books of Odysseus - March 6, 2010 TC Boyle, Wild Child - February 20, 2010
2009 Andre Agassi, Open: An Autobiography - November 21, 2009 Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals - November 7, 2009 John Irving, Last Night in Twisted River - November 7, 2009 Ben Fong Torres - August 8, 2009 Ruth Reichl, Not Becoming my Mother - May 9, 2009 Geoffrey Masson - May 2, 2009 Jane E Smith - May 2, 2009 Jane Vandenburgh - April 25, 2009 Lynn Freed - April 25, 2009 Alva Noe - April 11, 2009 Brenda Webster - April 11, 2009 RuthReichl_2009_05_09 Alan Boss - March 14, 2009 Zoe Heller, The Believers - March 7, 2009 Barry Jenkins, Medicine for Melancholy - March 7, 2009 Joe Gores, Spade and Archer - February 28, 2009 Jacqueline Winspear, Among the Mad - February 28, 2009 Stacey DErasmo, The Sky Below - January 17, 2009 Robert Roper, Now the Drum of War - January 17, 2009 Wes Nisker - January 10, 2009
2008 Spain Rodriguez, CHE, A Graphic Biography - December 13, 2008 Maxine Hong Kingston - November 29, 2008 Toni Morrison, A Mercy - November 22, 2008 Eoin Colfer, The Worst Boy in the World - May 24, 2008 Sylvia Brownrigg, Morality Tale - May 10, 2008 Rabih Alameddine, Hakawati - May 10, 2008 Robert Bly and Eavan Boland - May 3, 2008 Elizabeth McKenzie, McGregor Tells the World - May 3, 2008 Richard Price, Lush Life - March 29, 2008 Gene Hackman and Daniel Lenihan, Wake of the Perdido Star - February 16, 2008 James McBride, Song Yet Sung - February 9, 2008 Roy Blount Jr, Long Time Leaving - February 2, 2008 Calvin Trillin - February 2, 2008 Ricki Lake & Abby Epstein, The Business of Being Born - January 19, 2008 Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food - January 19, 2008
2007 Robert Hass, Time and Materials - December 8, 2007 Alice Waters, The Art of Simple Food - November 24, 2007 Bill Pullman - September 8, 2007 Michael Chabon - June 16, 2007 Josh Waitzkin, Searching for Bobby Fisher - June 16, 2007 Mal Sharpe - May 26, 2007 Helen Simpson, In the Drivers Seat - May 26, 2007 Julia Whitty - May 26, 2007 Bill Bryson - May 12, 2007
2006 Craig Newmark - November 4, 2006 Mark Childress, One Mississippi - August 19, 2006 Carolyn Cooke - August 12, 2006 Sylvia Brownrigg, The Delivery Room - July 8, 2006 Ben Fong Torres, Almost Famous - June 10, 2006 Gary Shteyngart, Absurdistan - May 13, 2006 John Baxter, Well Always Have Paris - April 1, 2006 Julian Barnes, Arthur and George - February 11, 2006 Mary Roach, Spook- February 4, 2006 Ayelet Waldman, Love and Other Impossible Pursuits - February 4, 2006 Allan Zweibel, The Other Shulman - February 4, 2006 Matthew and Terces Anglehart, The Abounding River - January 28, 2006
2005 Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln - December 3, 2005 Michael Recchiuti and Fran Gage - November 26, 2005 Will Durst - October 22, 2005 Howard Junker, Zyzzyva - October 15, 2005 Gus Lee, China Boy - October 15, 2005 Terry McMillan, The Interruption of Everything - August 20, 2005 Melissa Bank, The Wonder Spot - June 11, 2005 David Sedaris, Dress your Family in Corduroy and Denim - June 11, 2005 Robert Bly - May 14, 2005 Marc Ian Barasch, Field Notes on the Compassionate Life - May 7, 2005 SARK, Sarks New Creative Companion: Ways to Free Your Creative Spirit - May 7, 2005 Les Barker - February 19, 2005 Irvin Yalom - February 19, 2005
2004 Nigella Lawson, Feast: Food to Celebrate - November 20, 2004 Maya Angelou - October 16, 2004 Guy Johnson- October 16, 2004 Carl and Karl- October 2, 2004 Annie Somerville, Greens Restaurant Chef - August 28, 2004 David Sedaris - June 19, 2004 Isabel Allende, Adventure Stories, My Invented Country: A Memoir - May 15, 2004 Lang Lang, pianist and raconteur - Nov. 13, 2004
2003 Amy Tan - December 13, 2003 Kathy Kamen Goldmark - August 9, 2003 Sarah Jones - May 17, 2003 Paul Disco - May 3, 2003 Norman Fisher - May 3, 2003 Noah Levine - May 3, 2003 Paul Collins - April 12, 2003 Po Bronson - February 8, 2003 William Gibson - February 8, 2003 Sarah Jones - February 1, 2003 AS Byatt - January 25, 2003
2002 Salman Rushdie - September 28, 2002 Alan Bennett- August 8, 2002 Margaret Cho - July 13, 2002 Anne Packer - July 13, 2002 Eric Schlosser - January 26, 2002 Steve Wozniak - January 26, 2002 Lily Tomlin - January 12, 2002 Rebecca Walker - January 12, 2002
2001 Lawrence Ferlinghetti - October 13, 2001 Dave Eggers & Zadie Smith - July 21, 2001 Doris Haddock "Granny D" - May 5, 2001
2000 David Sedaris - June 17, 2000 Eddie Izzard - June 10, 2000
1999 Spalding Gray - January 2, 1999
1998 Joe Quirk - March 28, 1998
1997 Alice Walker - May 10, 1997 Francesco Rosi - May 3, 1997 Marilyn Yalom - March 1, 1997 Oliver Sacks - February 22, 1997 Dean Koontz - February 22, 1997 Robert Girardi - February 8, 1997 Diane Johnson - February 8, 1997 Diane Ackerman - February 8, 1997 Rigo97 - February 8, 1997
1996 Gary Snyder - December 14, 1996 Julia Child - November 16, 1996 Hettie Jones - October 10, 1996 Dennis Hopper - October 5, 1996 Ruth Weiss - October 12, 1996 Charles Schultz - September 7, 1996 Jennifer Egan - May 9, 1996 Gus Lee - March 30, 1996 Jamaica Kincaid - February 10, 1996 Anne Lamott - January 6, 1996
1995 Tobias Wolff - November 11, 1995 Gregory Maguire - October 14, 1995 David Byrne - October 7, 1995 John Berendt - September 23, 1995 Anne Lamott - June 3, 1995 Ray Bradbury & Robert Watson - June 3, 1995 Paulo Coelho - May 27, 1995 Thomas Keneally - May 6, 1995 Oliver Sacks - March 4, 1995 Helen Palmer - January 21, 1995
1994 Sylvia Earl - December 12, 1994 Anne Lamott - December 12, 1994 Karl and Carl - December 12, 1994 Meredith Tromble - December 12, 1994 Ian Frazier - December 3, 1994 Lucy Grealy - December 3, 1994 Howard Rheingold - December 10, 1994 Josh Kornbluth - October 15, 1994 Naa Kahidi - October 15, 1994 Terry Jones - October 22, 1994 George Takei, To the Stars - September 24, 1994 Allen Ginsberg - September 17, 1994 Michael McClure - August 6, 1994 James Houston - July 9, 1994 Bill Barich - July 2, 1994 Whitfield Diffie - July 2, 1994 Paul Theroux - March 19, 1994
1991 Sedge Thomson, Total Solar Eclipse, Baja California - July 11, 1991
Venues The Freight and Salvage Yoshi's (jazz club) San Francisco Museum of Modern Art San Francisco Ferry Building 142 Throckmorton Theatre The Chapel The Empire Plush Room Cowell Theater at Fort Mason Venetian Room at the Fairmont Hotel Oregon Shakespeare Festival High Sierra Music Festival Kate Wolf Memorial Music Festival
References
External links West Coast Live official webpage where to hear West Coast Live