Arts and Culture

The Kills

The author of "Borne" and the Southern Reach Trilogy recommends Richard House's novel about soldiers tasked with burning waste in the remote reaches of Iraqi desert.More

Brodeck's Report

The author of "Borne" and the Southern Reach Trilogy recommends Phillippe Claudel novel about a small town murder and the winding investigation into the culprit.More

"Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline

The author of "The Martian" recommends Ernest Cline's virtual reality adventure, now a motion picture.More

vinyl player

Novelist Hari Kunzru talks about listening through the scratch and hiss of old 78’s for the voice of the past.More

Books and books

The complexity of mental health makes it challenging to boil down to a single hour of radio. So here's a reading list to open up a bigger conversation.More

Ben Marcus talks about another one of the stories he chose for the "New American Stories" anthology — "Going for a Beer" by Robert Coover.More

“Refugees didn’t live in town. The overwhelming majority were stuck in a camp with layers of razor-wire-topped fences that evoked comparisons to Guantánamo from some of its residents. Meant for 600, its population had, during my late-October visit, swelle

Molly Crabapple's art — her drawings, paintings and posters — have ignited various political causes, from the Occupy Movement to protests against the treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo. She tells Anne how art can be a political tool.More

Craig Taborn

In the pantheon of contemporary jazz pianists — from Keith Jarrett to Herbie Hancock — Craig Taborn is not widely known.  But among fellow jazz musicians, he’s revered. Vijay Iyer calls him “one of the greatest living pianists.More

Vera Sung, Jill Sung, and Thomas Sung from ABACUS.

Only one bank faced criminal charges in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Somewhat surprisingly, it was a small, family-owned bank run by Chinese immigrants. Documentary filmmaker Steve James tells the story in his new film "Abacus: Small Enough to Jail," now nominated for an Academy Award.More

paint on canvas

Philosopher Alva Noe has a theory about art. He says art is like philosophy, and the best art is disorienting and uncomfortable. It...More

Frank Stella, Double Gray Scramble, 1973. Screenprint on white Arches 88 mould-made paper, 29 x 50 3/4 inches. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Gemini G.E.L. and the Artist, 1981.5.98 © 2016 Frank Stella / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New Yor

Frank Stella sits down with Steve Paulson to talk about a lesser known aspect of his remarkable career — his work as a printmaker.More

Street art that reads "Love is Color"

Maybe you're familiar with art therapy — making art to cope with pain. Philosopher Alain de Botton has a different idea. He thinks just looking at great art can be therapeutic.More

How do you join a revolution? Egyptian artist Bahia Shehab says she was too quiet to shout in the streets during the uprising in Cairo, so she started spraying graffiti with the word "no" in Arabic.More

ignored on the phone

For three decades, MIT professor Sherry Turkle's been looking at the ways we interact with machines. She believes our digital devices are taking a toll on our personal relationships.More

Person doing magic

Nate Staniforth spent thousands of hours learning the craft of stage magic. But he was really looking for wonder. And he says real magic is not smoke machines or stage tricks; it's creating a moment of genuine astonishment.More

Time

James Gleick, a science writer with a special interest in the cultural impact of technology, recently sat down with Steve Paulson to talk about the cultural history of time travel and its enduring appeal.More

The Velvet Hours

Alyson Richman is the author of six historical novels. Her latest is called "The Velvet Hours" and it was inspired by a recent newspaper story in the Paris press.More

Ursula K. Le Guin

The trailblazing author passed away this week at the age of 88. She was known for marrying the tropes of science fiction and fantasy to big ideas drawn from spirituality, economics, sociology and beyond. That eclectic mix made for impactful and relevant stories that transcended genre.More

Pages