It's A Jungle Out There

Rubyfruit Jungle cover, by Rita Mae Brown

Hosted and produced by Jan Albert, It's a Jungle Out There may have been a one off WBAI episode whose title played off its interviewee Rita Mae Brown’s most famous book, Rubyfruit Jungle (1973). Initially published in 1973, Rubyfruit Jungle was noteworthy for its explicit portrayal of lesbianism during this time. In the episode, Albert and Brown discuss the writer’s career and her involvement as a street organizer in the women's and gay rights movements. Throughout the interview, Albert occasionally reads excerpts from Rubyfruit Jungle as well as from Brown’s second novel, In Her Day (1976).

Jan Albert in the WBAI recording studio, 1974

Jan Albert, circa 2022

Jan Albert:

Jan Albert’s career in media spans public radio, print, television and documentary production. She began her broadcasting work at WBAI during the early 1970s–when she was still in high school–where she not only hosted and produced the children’s program Candy From Strangers, but also went on to assist Bob Fass on his groundbreaking late-night show Radio Unnameable. On Candy From Strangers, she emphasized live radio as a medium for kids, inviting children to call in, draw pictures of characters from her stories, and join in playful games on the air. During her WBAI tenure she also served as producer/host of the weekly series Behind the Screens, which featured interviews with film directors, actors, production designers and screenwriters, and an episode called It's a Jungle Out There, where she spoke with renowned lesbian and feminist author Rita Mae Brown.

Her WBAI archive credits also include interviews with authors Lillian Hellman, Jessamyn West, and Edna O’Brien, actor Uta Hagen, and multidisciplinary artist Yoko Ono at the St. Regis Hotel in New York on September 11, 1971, as part of the “American Women Making History and Culture 1963-1982” collection. Through these roles, she helped sustain WBAI’s culture of free‐form, exploratory audio storytelling, particularly focused on arts, culture and under-heard voices. Following her radio career she extended into print media (including features for The Village Voice) and television news-documentary production for major U.S. networks (CBS, NBC, ABC, Discovery Channel, TLC).