Episode 22: Jascha Hoffman

Jascha Hoffman is a singer, songwriter, and journalist. He writes regularly for The New York Times (he has a monthly column called “The Scan” that covers science and culture). He’s also a regular contributor to the science journal Nature, and his work has appeared in Scientific American, The Boston Globe, and Business Week. As a singer-songwriter Jascha has recorded three records. His most recent release, called “The Afterneath” was released independently in late 2014. Several years ago, he wrote a handful of obituaries for the New York Times, mostly of scientists, an experience that led him to compose a collection of songs inspired mostly by Times obituaries. He says “to my surprise the strongest character on the album has turned out to be the 20th century…you could say the album is a sort of technicolor obituary for an American era, one that is slowly fading.” Here he talks about his writing process, success, failure, disappointment and delight. http://www.afterneath.org