USModernist Radio
 

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.

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.

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Upcoming Episodes

 Apr 14 #400/Special show

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.

Mar 24 #397/Neutra:  Raymond Neutra + Catherine Meyler + Noam Saragosti + Scott Goldstein + Special Musical Guests Louis Prima Jr. and the Witnesses

 Kicking out our 2025 Modernism Week coverage from Palm Springs, Raymond Neutra of the Neutra Institute, Catherine Meyler, owner of a celebrated Neutra house in Palm Springs, and   Back in the studio,  Neutra’s VDL House Executive Director Noam Saragosti; and the story of Neutra’s sadly destroyed Maslon House from filmmaker Scott Goldstein.  Special musical guests Louis Prima Jr. and the Witnesses.

Mar 17 #396/ARO + Kevin Alter + Musical Guest Carrie Marshall

You’ll hear from with the principal architects of Architecture Research Office (ARO), Adam Yarinsky, Stephen Cassell, and Kim Yao. We’ll explore a 12,000 sf Modernist house in Dallas with architect Kevin Alter, and wrapping up, musical guest Carrie Marshall.