The first indoor theater was in Italy not England, notes actor David Greenspan. “Italy was always a little bit ahead. They had their renaissance first.” And better food. Listen: personplacething.org

Actor and playwright David Greenspan talks about Thespis, the Globe, and his salad spinner. Great moments in theater and dinner. Listen: personplacething.org

Does taking jazz from night clubs to Lincoln Center turn the music into artifacts and the stage into a museum? No, says Lana Turner. “I don’t know that it’s become a museum; I think it’s become a destination.” Listen: personplacething.org

Some guests have a hard time picking a person, place, and thing. Lana Turner consulted an expert: “I said to myself, are you sure, and my self said yes.” Harlem, history, and hats. Listen: personplacething.org

Like most places, Harlem has changed, so is it still Harlem? Yes, says Lana Turner. “The soul of a place can never be erased.” Except the East Wing of the White House, she did not add. Listen: personplacething.org

Here’s why you can’t sleep, says neuroscientist @AnjanChatterjee.bsky.social: “We don’t get enough light in the morning, and we get too much at night.” He doesn’t mention my clog-dancing neighbors. Listen: personplacething.org

Neuroscientist @AnjanChatterjee.bsky.social learned in college, “If you did work together, physical work, you also thought better together.” Thinking as a social act. Listen: personplacething.org

Scholar Elizabeth Way says “What made American fashion different is that it was to be wearable, comfortable, practical.” But not on the red carpet at the Oscars, she did not add. Listen: personplacething.org

Elizabeth Way, curator of the exhibition Art X Fashion at the Museum at FIT, says, “I don’t need fashion to be art to be important.” Or vice versa, I presume. Listen: personplacething.org

When musician Kinan Azmeh and his sister were kids, their dad bought them a computer and declared, “You will have to choose between being programmers or being programmed.” A metaphor. A scary scary metaphor. Listen: personplacething.org

Composer and clarinetist Kinan Azmeh asserts, “Everybody improvises. Whether they share the improvisation in public or not, that’s another story.” Juilliard Confidential. Listen: personplacething.org

For much of human history, a church organ, like the mighty one at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, was the loudest thing anyone heard (at least indoors). Was it the voice of God? Listen: personplacething.org

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine displays sculptures of one “secular saint” per century for 2000 years. Perfect people? No, says Dean Winnie Varghese: “Very flawed people who’ve done very good things.” Listen: personplacething.org

When Rev. Winnie Varghese, Dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, was a kid, “I wasn’t sure if it was intelligent to believe in God.” The making of a religious thinker. Listen: personplacething.org

Good one! But no, it is not possible that Trump is thinking of the Iliad. Even your "vague memory" is generous. (Alas.)

Good one! But no, it is not possible that True is thinking of The Iliad.

“I met Gide and Hemmingway and Ravel. I even shook hands with Camille Saint-Saëns,” says Aaron Copland (as played by Michael Boriskin). The best bar ever? No, the home of his composition teacher, Nadia Boulanger, Listen: personplacething.org

Was he Leonard Bernstein’s lover? Aaron Copland (as played by Michael Boriskin) is vague about it. A conversation from beyond the grave. Listen: personplacething.org

Architect Charles Renfro distinguishes “queer” from “gay.” The former “has nothing to do with sexuality; it has to do with openness and invention—inventing yourself.” Listen: personplacething.org

Architecture changes but does it progress? Architect Charles Renfro says, “We can talk about the word ‘progress,’ which I hate; I disdain the word. I don’t really believe there’s such a thing.” He does not refer to medical science. I hope. Listen: personplacething.org

Architect Charles Renfro describes Berlin’s Berghaim nightclub. “The music is so loud that you become disoriented, but in a great great great great way.” The best sort of disorientation. Listen: personplacething.org

“You should always do something that you could get hurt doing,” says architect Charles Renfro. Not suicidal but alive, able to move through the world without being told how. Listen: personplacething.org

Richard Nelson directed several of his plays translated into languages he does not speak—French, Ukrainian. How did he know what was going on? “You could just feel whether you’re being truthful or not.” Listen: personplacething.org

“When I’m lost as a writer, a playwright, director, and often as a person, says Richard Nelson, “I turn to two writers most often. One is Anton Chekov, and the other is Harley Granville Barker.” Who? Exactly! Listen: personplacething.org

“A play is many perspectives at once,” says writer Richard Nelson. “If you’ve got ten actors on stage, you’ve got ten points of view on stage.” And a surprisingly big budget. Listen: personplacething.org

LaFrae Sci @frae-frae111.bsky.social, head of @WillieMaeRockCamp.bsky.social is wary of calling Robert Johnson a “genius.” “That moniker can undermine or dehumanize the work he put into his craft.” Listen: personplacething.org

LaFrae Sci @frae-frae111.bsky.social, head of @WillieMaeRockCamp.bsky.social notes that their namesake, Willie Mae Thornton, “was not anybody’s idea of a lead singer, visually.” But that voice! Listen: personplacething.org

LaFrae Sci @frae-frae111.bsky.social of @WillieMaeRockCamp.bsky.social teaches girls blues and STEM. “I told them Bessie Smith was more famous than Beyonce in her day, and they asked me how did she get famous without the internet?” Kids! Listen: personplacething.org

Journalist Ali Velishi @velshi.com of @ms.now says, “Once you say thank you to a guest, they must go away, and you go to the next segment.” He means on the air, not when you host a dinner party. Listen: personplacething.org

Journalist Ali Velishi @velshi.com of @ms.now recalls, “There’s a photograph of my grandfather on Gandhi’s shoulders.” His grandfather was only seven, but still. Listen: personplacething.org