Light On Light Through

You'll hear a little of this and lot of that on Light On Light Through - my reviews of great television series, my interviews with authors and creative media people and their interviews of me, my media theory and political commentary, thoughts about my favorite cars and food and space travel, discussions of my music, and a few of my readings from my science fiction stories. These are usually audio and a few are video. In the first years, starting in 2006, I put up a new episode at least once a month. More recently, it became more or less often than once a month, usually a lot less often. But in the Summer of 2020, I began getting more in the mood to podcast, and you can expect new episodes now much more frequently. - Paul Levinson

Survival of the Media Fit

Jul 23, 2020

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 130, in which I talk about one of the bedrocks of my "anthropotropic" theory of media evolution -- why some media, such as sight-only silent movies, are obliterated by the advent of newer media like "talkies" (sight and sound), in contrast to other media, such as sound-only...

Media Determinism

Jul 17, 2020

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 129, in which I give you a little primer about "media determinism," the bedrock of just about all media studies.

Further listening: Politics and Media in History and Voice Mail from Marshall McLuhan, 1978

Further reading: The Soft Edge: A Natural History and Future of the...

The Village Voice Goes Silent

Dec 12, 2018

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 114, in which I reflect on the shuttering of The Village Voice this past September, and discuss the crucial role it played in my life as a writer.

The first three articles I ever had published anywhere appeared in The Village Voice in the early 1970s. You can read them for...

Interview with John Glenn

Aug 2, 2015

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 102, in which I interview John Glenn, first American to orbit the Earth, about what he sees as a constructive intersection of space travel and religion. The interview was conducted on July 30, 2015 in Senator Glenn's office at the John Glenn College of Public Affairs at Ohio...

Why I Am Against Net Neutrality

Dec 9, 2014

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 97, in which I explain why, even though I usually support progressive causes, I'm against net neutrality - or the government mandating that all providers of content have equal access to the Internet. In brief, my reasons are the First Amendment, the Utilitarian principle of...