Tom Lutz wrote "Doing Nothing: A History of Loafers, Loungers, Slackers, and Bums in America." He tells Steve Paulson it was his way of dealing with his teen-age son, who never left the couch.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Singer/Songwriter John Wesley Harding (AKA novelist Wesley Stace) talks to Anne Strainchamps about his double life as a musician and a novelist. Harding has transformed one of his songs into a novel called “Misfortune.”
When you talk about Japanese popular culture, there's one name that towers above all others. Literally. Godzilla. The giant green lizard recently became an official Japanese citizen. William Tsutsui knows all there is to know about this larger-than-life movie star; he's the author of "Godzilla on My Mind."
We hear a round-up of some of the latest research into happiness, from economist Richard Layard, and psychologists Robert Biswas-Diener and Sonja Lyubomirsky.
Jazz pianist and cognitive scientist Vijay Iyer just won a MacArthur "genius" award. He's also landed a job at Harvard teaching music. He tells Anne Strainchamps how he incorporates science into his music.
Neuroscientists say that about a quarter of our mental energy is dedicated to maintaining our narrative identities. Julian Keenan says there's got to be an evolutionary benefit for all that "self".
Travel writer William Dalrymple has lived in India since 1989, witnessing the economic boom and the cultural changes that followed.
Steve Paulson prepared this report on the life of Edward Abbey, who's book changed the way people thought about the earth.
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