New York Public Radio WNYC

Josh Greene is a conceptual artist who comes up with projects that try to provide a service to his audience. In 2008, he remounted a piece he calls “Unlicensed Therapy” in San Francisco. It’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Produced by Tania Ketenjian.

You know them for their catchy futuristic-disco song “Whip It” and their iconic flowerpot-like head gear, but Devo has surprisingly serious origins. After witnessing the killings at Kent State, the band came together to address the heavy issues of the day in their music when no other bands would. Produced by Michael May.

Jenova Chen is breaking open the head of videogame design. Instead of stealing cars and waging war, he wants players to commune with nature. Kurt talks with Chen about his new game “Flower” — the #1 downloaded game in February for Playstation 3.

Conceptual artist Mel Chin has made a career turning toxic landfills and abandoned buildings into things of beauty. Lately he’s been concerned with the poisonous levels of lead in the soil of New Orleans. Cleaning up a problem like this is a huge undertaking that requires an enormous amount of money; Eve Abrams looks at Chin’s creative scheme to make money.

Iranian-born singer Mamak Khadem moved to Los Angeles in 1977, two years before the Islamic revolution. Today the Persian community in Southern California numbers nearly 600,000 people. Mamak takes Kurt on a walk along Westwood Boulevard, the commercial heart of “Tehran-geles,” to her favorite record store, The Music Box.