Person Place Thing With Randy Cohen

These Jane Austen scholars note that she long had a diverse readership, but in post-war America that changed. "Publishers pushed her to women specifically. Just like they made pink Cadillacs, they made pink Janes." (Caution: do not read and drive.) Produced with the Grolier Club. Music: Reid Jenkins.

The Curator of Architecture and Design at MoMA enjoys work that surprises, up to a point. "I don't like gigantic provocations, I like small provocations, the ones that sneak up on you." Jolted awake, not pummeled into submission. Presented with the Viñoly Foundation. Music: Ethel—Ralph Farris, Kip Jones, Corin Lee, Dorothy Lawson.

Celebrated for his use of light, this architect is moved by that from distant stars: "Those photons are around us—we can't see them—but they are fundamentally carrying the history of the universe." We spoke at 7 World Trade Center, a building he worked on, through the generosity of Silverstein Properties. Music: Valerie and Ben Turner, DBA Piedmont Bluz.

The heirs of deceased playwrights can be finicky about new productions—Samuel Beckett, Arthur Miller—but the head of the Mint Theater has a different experience. "What I tend to run into from estates is, 'Really? You're interested in that old play? Great!'" How to revive neglected plays. Music: Sean Hagerty

The curator and executive director of the AKC Museum of the Dog recalls one owned by Charles Dickens. "It was a Maltese that was so flea-ridden, they regularly had to shave him and bathe him to get rid of all the fleas." The dog, not Dickens. I think. Dogs in art, ethics, and history.  Music: Dorian's Room—Jonathan Stutz, Madeline Nickerson, Fae Hartt.

We tweaked our format to Cat Cat Cat for the author of The Cat Men of Gotham: Tales of Feline Friendship in Old New York. "A lot of my stories I get from going to the Hartsdale Pet Cemetery in Westchester County." She also leads historic cat walking tours in Brooklyn and lower Manhattan—about cats not for cats. Although . . .

The head of New York City's Department of Transportation sees his task as building an egalitarian city. "Transportation is a human right, but in the past most of the investment in transportation didn't go to the working class." Cars, bikes, and social justice. Presented with the Department of Records and Information Services. Music: Hubby Jenkins.

A conversation with the basic, free, web version, using its default voice. Like my human guests, it chose the three topics, and I did just the usual light editing. Good news: it says, "I'm on your side, not on any destructive path." Bad news: this is what the space aliens say in every sci-fi movie just before they try to destroy the earth.

We tweaked our format to Tree Tree Tree for this arboreal photographer, who specializes in the immense and the ancient—2,000 years old, 3,000 years old—many of which he's archived at the Gathering Growth Foundation. The big and the beautiful.

Brown, the founder of Evidence, a dance company, says, "You'll see yourself on stage." I hope he's speaking figuratively. Cabuag, its associate artistic director agrees. Presumably. How else has the company flourished for forty years? A conversation at the Billie Holiday Theatre, where they'll perform on November 14 and 15.

This set and costume designer worked on 80 Broadway shows, 30 films, several operas, and innumerable dance works. Here's a tip he gleaned collaborating with Paul Taylor: "Give a man 17 chairs and see what he comes up with." Good advice for any part of life. Presented with the Paul Taylor Dance Company.

For decades after graduating, these architects avoided Cooper Union. "We would detour three or four blocks or else the PTSD would kick in." Apparently it used to be like The Paper Chase or Whiplash but with less compassion. Presented with The National Academy of Design. Music: Karl Schwarz.

This preservationist, a wily veteran of decades of urban campaigns, is happy in his work: “I’ve never regretted being involved in saving a landmark. I’ve only regretted the ones I couldn’t save.” I envy his serenity. I regret nearly everything. Presented with the New York Preservation Archive Project. Music: Adrian Untermyer.

When this playwright’s grandfather faced a tough decision, “He sought the advice of Paul Robeson.” Of course he did. Who wouldn’t? And it all worked out fine. Fine-ish. A writer, his family, his community. Presented with the Classical Theatre of Harlem. Music: Emery Mason, Melissa Mosley.

She and her neighbors—untrained, uncredentialed—revived the Bronx River and are taking on the hideous Cross Bronx Expressway. “We’re just a group of Bronxites with ambitious ideas.” Presented with the Architectural League, in conjunction with the exhibition Cross Bronx/Living Legend at the Bronx River Art Center. Music: Jeremy Bosch, Román Lajara.

“The least interesting thing about a book is its contents, assert the curators of the recent Grolier Club exhibition After Words: Visual and Experimental Poetry in Little Magazines and Small Presses, 1960-2025. Now my head hurts. Seldom have I felt older or enjoyed a conversation more.

In 1972, his parents, Massimo and Lella, designed a map of the New York subway system. Many people hated it. I loved it. (I have one framed on my living room wall.) The MTA soon withdrew it. Now it’s back, slightly revised. Good news in bleak times.

As a member of Manhattan Transfer, she won ten Grammy awards, but “I was not going to be a singer at all, actually; I was going to be a nurse.” Medicine’s loss, music’s gain. Guitar: Sean Harkness. Presented with The Village Trip.

Her father, Leonard Bernstein, thought “that if he could write a good enough song, maybe he could stop war.” Not insane, aspiring. “It’s ridiculously idealistic, but that was his impetus.” Tales of a famous father. Music: Amy Burton, accompanied by John Musto. Presented with The Village Trip, whose annual festival begins September 19.

He’s a member of The Washington Post’s editorial board, a commentator on the PBS NewsHour, anchor of The Weekend on MSNBC, author of Yet Here I Am. He is liberal in his politics, conservative in his dress. “Absolutely. I love a good, wild outfit, on someone else.”