USModernist® Radio is underwritten by The Brent R. Harris Charitable Trust, restorer of several Modernist houses including Richard Neutra’s Kaufmann Desert House in Palm Springs, and by Diane Bald and The Budman Family, restoring significant architecture in Toronto, Los Angeles, Malibu and Palm Springs.
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. DWELL rated USModernist Radio as the #2 architecture podcast, with Atomic Ranch saying #1!
Here are all our past shows! Or listen to them straight from our library.
Past architecture guests 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 Pink Martini, Ari Shapiro, China Forbes, Madeleine Peyroux, Judy Carmichael, Toni Tennille, Stacey Kent, Jane Monheit, Nneena Freelon, Diane Schuur, Noel Paul Stookey, Brenda Lee, Jennifer Warnes, Ann Hampton Callaway, Lucy Wijnands, Monika Ryan, Lenore Raphael and Howard Alden, Eliane Elias, Halie Loren, Marilyn Scott, Cheryl Bentyne, Janis Siegel, Storm Large, Kate Earl, 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, and Peter Lamb and the Wolves.
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Presented By
Host and Executive Producer George Smart, 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 20 local, state, and national awards. He appears in the architecture documentaries Frey II and New England Modernism by acclaimed filmmaker 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.
Jan-Richard Kikkert and Tycho Saariste + David Mauer and Elizabeth Godley + Kyle Bergman + Musical Guest Nicole Zuraitis
Jan-Richard Kikkert and Tycho Saariste open the show, followed by David Mauer and Elizabeth Godley, then Kyle Bergman. Closing us out, musical guest Nicole Zuraitis.
Mary Ruffin Hanbury + Ian Dunn + Brian Goldstein + Sarah Hill + Musical Guest Karen Myatt
Mary Ruffin Hanbury leads off, followed by Ian Dunn and Brian Goldstein. Later in the hour, Sarah Hill, and closing out the show, musical guest Karen Myatt.
Herb Greene and Leila Cohen + Jesse Lazar + Monica Penick + Musical Guest Harin W.
Architect Herb Greene joins us with Leila Cohen, followed by Jesse Lazar. Then design historian Monica Penick, and later, musical guest Harin W.
David Prutting + Sacha Roubeni + Musical Guest Carrie Marshall
David Prutting starts the show, followed by Sacha Roubeni, and closing out, musical guest Carrie Marshall.
Steven Holl and Dimitra Tsachrelia + Authors Robert Ivy, Cathleen McGuigan, and Peter MacKeith + Musical Guest Halie Loren
Today's episode brings together some big names in design: architects Steven Holl and Dimitra Tsachrelia, then authors Robert Ivy, Cathleen McGuigan, and Peter MacKeith discussing their new book, Out There: Architecture Across America. And later, returning podcast guest, for whom we swoon, Halie Loren.
Cameron Hassid + Darren Kelly + Patrick Cannon + Musical Guest Nicole Lvoff
Cameron Hassid bought a bankrupt, boarded-up Richard Neutra apartment building in Los Angeles and turned its restoration into a second career. Bay area architect Darren Kelly is an expert on Rush Creek Village, Ohio's little-known Usonian-inspired community, and the author of a new book. Author Patrick Cannon retired from public relations and wrote a comprehensive book on Frank Lloyd Wright's work in Oak Park and River Forest. And closing us out, returning musical guest Nicole Lvoff.
Authors Trig Thoreson + Owen Hopkins + Craig McDonald + Musical Guest Lucy Woodward
It’s author day on the show. Trig Thoreson wrote a biography of architects Louis Sullivan and Daniel Burnham. Owen Hopkins wrote a book on Brutalist buildings in London. Craig McDonald wrote Mid-Century Modern Midland, exploring the architectural history of Midland, Michigan. Later, returning musical guest Lucy Woodward, one of our favorites.
Christopher Hawthorne + Chris Freeland + Musical Guest Kitty Kallen via Jonathan Granoff
Christopher Hawthorne spent fourteen years as the L.A. Times’ architecture critic before becoming Los Angeles’s first-ever Chief Design Officer. Chris Freeland runs Library Services at the Internet Archive, leading the charge to keep our digital past from fading away, and later, musical guest Kitty Kallen, via her son Jonathan Granoff. Kitty’s 1954 hit “Little Things Mean a Lot” topped the charts for nine straight weeks and made her one of the defining voices of the era.
Children of Genius with Christen Johansen + Ben Colburn + Musical Guest Veronica Swift
It’s our Children of Genius edition – part of a long-running series interviewing the kids of famous architects. First up, not falling far from the tree, architect Christen Johansen, son of Harvard Five member John Johansen in Connecticut’s epicenter of Modernism, New Canaan. Next, Ben Colburn — a Massachusetts real estate attorney whose father, I.W. Colburn, helped define Chicago modernism and even bought an island in Scotland. Later, musical guest Veronica Swift.