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.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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Shaun Alexander tells Steve Paulson what chess does for him and why he thinks it’s good for inner city youth.
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."
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".
Saira Shah tells Jim Fleming how her father used stories to give her a sense of her ethnic cultural birthright and how those stories helped her when she worked in Afghanistan.
Some of the greatest trips give us that feeling of traveling back in time. Last summer, Aubrey Ralph did nearly that, when he spent nine days sailing aboard a 200 year old tall ship, across two Great Lakes. He was with the reconstructed U.S. Brig Niagara as she shoved off from her home port in Erie, PA.
Writer Stephen Kuusisto is blind. He talks of what he remembers about visiting the seashore and a stable in Finland as a child.
Laura Van Den Berg has the kind of literary success writers dream of. Her debut novel comes out later this month, and already it's become one of the most anticipated books of the year. But for Laura, writing hasn't always been easy.
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