USModernist Radio
USModernist® Radio is underwritten by Diane Bald and The Budman Family, restoring significant architecture in Toronto, Los Angeles, Malibu and Palm Springs.
Here are all our past shows
Listen to one of America's top-rated architecture podcasts as the USModernist® Radio crew talks and laughs with fascinating people who own, create, love, and hate Modernist architecture, the most controversial houses and buildings in the world.
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Past architecture guests include Jeanne Gang, Bjarke Ingels, Daniel Libeskind, Helena Arahuete, Barbara Bestor, Moshe Safdie, Tom Kundig, Harry Bates, Peter Bohlin, Alan Hess, Peter Gluck, Robert Rubin, Blair Kamin, Barry Bergdoll, Myron Goldfinger, Kenneth Frampton, Katie Swenson, Bob Ivy, Jen Masengarb, Angie Brooks + Larry Scarpa, Gisue Hariri, Sekou Cooke, Alexandra Lange, Paul Goldberger, Inga Saffron, Jim Olson, Sarah Susanka, Raymond and Dion Neutra, Eric and Susan Saarinen, and many more.
Past musical guests include China Forbes, Judy Carmichael, Toni Tennille, Stacey Kent, Jane Monheit, Jennifer Warnes, Ann Hampton Callaway, Lucy Wijnands, Monika Ryan, Diane Schuur, Noel Paul Stookey, Brenda Lee, Lenore Raphael and Howard Alden, Eliane Elias, Halie Loren, Marilyn Scott, Cheryl Bentyne, Janis Siegel, Storm Large, Kate Earl, Nneena Freelon, Darius Brubeck, Maria Maldaur, Claire Martin, Robin McKelle, Bria Skonberg, Sophie Milman, Lucy Woodward, Heather Rigdon, Tierney Sutton, Diana Panton, Don Most, Judy Carmichael, Linda Eder, Peter Lamb and the Wolves.
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Presented By
Host and Executive Producer George Smart HAIA, one dark and stormy night in 2007, started what has become USModernist®, the largest open digital nonprofit educational archive for Modernist residential design in the world. George and his intrepid team of wildly dedicated volunteers and woefully underpaid staff have won 19 local, state, and national awards, He appears in the 2020 architecture documentary Frey II and the 2024 architecture documentary New England Modernism, both by Jake Gorst.
Announcer, co-host, and engineer Tom Guild, legendary Raleigh FM DJ, grew up in a Durham Modernist house. He was on WRDU and WQDR back when humans actually played vinyl records over the airwaves using something called radio. Over the years, Tom recorded and mixed hours of top-notch audio including Porsche By Design for the NC Museum of Art. He met Mick Jagger. He has not met Frank Gehry. The security code for the show's recording studio, SoundTrax, is 8675309.
The podcast began in 2015, based in Raleigh NC, and has done remotes from Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Sarasota, London, New York, and New Canaan CT. As of April 2025, we've had about 400 shows and 700 guests.
Upcoming Episodes
May 26 #406/Ben Rousseau + Ian Koblick + John Jennifer Marx
May 19 #405/Flavin Architects + San Diego's Keith York + Alexandra Bregman
May 12 #404/Celeste Robbins + KAA + Lisa Gralnek
May 5 #403/Indian Canyons with Steve Treinen + Architect James Cioffi + Helen Thompson on Aspen + Musical Guest Champian Fulton
Apr 28 #402/National Notables: NTHP's Carol Quillen + AIA President Evelyn Lee + Tucson's Demion Clinco + HGTV's Elizabeth Finkelstein
Today we’ll visit with the CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Carol Quillen; the 2025 President of the AIA, Evelyn Lee; the founder of Tucson Modern, Demion Clinco, and the co-host of HGTV’s Who's Afraid of a Cheap Old House, Elizabeth Finkelstein.
Apr 21 #401/DOCOMOMO's Liz Waytkus + Photographer Andrew Pielage + Architect Paul McClean + Musical Guest Laura Anglade
From poolside at the swanky USModernist compound in Palm Springs during Modernism Week 2025, we’ll talk to Liz Waytkus, Executive Director of DOCOMOMO-US and photographer-on-a-quest Andrew Pielage. Back in the studio, we’ll hear from LA’s architect to the stars, Paul McClean and musical guest Laura Anglade.
Apr 14 #400/USModernist Radio Celebrates Ten Years with Kelly Lynch + Kate Wagner + Frank King + Special Musical Guest Heather Rigdon
It has been 10 years of people who enjoy, own, create, dream about,
preserve, love, and hate Modernist architecture, the most exciting and
controversial buildings in the world. In this special two-hour episode, we
catch up with our first guest actress and Modernist homeowner Kelly Lynch,
design writer and critic Kate Wagner, and the return of Frank King,
plus exciting talks from ten years of past shows with Bjarke Ingels; the
last living Frank Lloyd Wright client, Roland Reisley; Moshe Safdie, Eric
Lloyd Wright, Suzanne Somers, Professor and Youtube star Stewart Hicks, Hugh
Kaptur; author Chris Rawlings; Daniel Libeskind; Harriet Pattison on Lou
Kahn; Harry Bates; Myron Goldfinger; Raleigh’s Brian Shawcroft and Lewis
Clarke; Mary Schindler; and Modernism opponents David Brussat, Professor J.
S. Curl, and classical scholar Catesby Leigh. Special musical guest
Heather Rigdon; and superfan Nik Kruger.
Apr 7 #399/Palm Springs: Alan Hess + Janice Lyle + Sidney Williams + Russell Brown + Tom Lazarus + Musical Guest Colleen Duffy of Devil Doll
As part of our Modernism Week 2025 coverage from Palm Springs, it’s three stars of the Modernist movement, Alan Hess + Janice Lyle + Sidney Williams, discussing what’s become known as the Palm Springs School of Modernism and an accompanying new book. From the studio, LA’s Russell Brown and Tom Lazarus on their recent stage play called LISTING, plus returning musical guest Colleen Duffy of Devil Doll.
Mar 31 #398/Light + Color: Architect Wid Chapman + Color Expert Sara McLean + Musical Guest Laura Pursell
Modernist architecture makes special use of light and color, and with us today, architect Wid Chapman, color expert Sara McLean, and musical guest and expert skater, Laura Pursell.