(Click here for mp3’s of some recent stories from the show. And PODCASTERS, click here for a link to subscribe to The Signal’s weekly podcast.)

“Princess of the Blues” Ruby Hayes, with The Signal’s Aaron Henkin at the WYPR studios

• A visit with writer and humorist John Hodgman. He’s a ‘guest correspondent’ on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, and he’s recently authored an ‘Almanac of Complete World Knowledge’ that contains NO TRUE FACTS. He discusses his book, The Areas of My Expertise, and introduces his musical traveling companion, Jonathan Coulton, who shares a similar affection for the absurd.
• A talk with FOUND magazine publisher Davy Rothbart about some of his latest “finds” and about his collection of short stories, The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas
• The poetry of Signal contributor Rupert Wondolowski
• And the music and stories of Maryland blues diva Ruby Hayes. She started out as a teenage church choir singer in Arkansas. Then she moved out to the East Coast, where she’s gone on to earn the title, ‘Princess of the Blues’

(Click here for mp3’s of some recent stories from the show. And PODCASTERS, click here for a link to subscribe to The Signal’s weekly podcast.)

Is this mysterious man: a. Slick Vic Low, b. The Lyrical Leviathan, c. Slangston Hughes, d. Thelonious Coltrane, or e. All of the above? Find out this Friday on The Signal

• A radio portrait of poet and MC Slick Vic Low, who manages to share space in his mind with three disparate musical alter egos
• Mystery novelist Laura Lippman recounts a true story of personal failure in front of a live audience at the debut of a new Baltimore storytelling series called The Stoop
• A profile of Christopher Freeland, Justin Levy, Dan Janssen, Anna Messing, and James Saarsgaarde. They’re the members of Long Live Death, a group of local musicians whose onstage antics have made them one of the most misunderstood bands in town
• And a conversation with David Rees, creator of the Get Your War On comic series, about what it is that can be so galling about political cartoons