David Gessner discovered the American West as a young man, and the huge mountains and wide open spaces changed his life. He recently took a road trip through the West, following in the footsteps of two literary heroes, Edward Abbey and Wallace Stegner. Gessner says their books help us see the West in all its complexity.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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Singer/songwriter Steve Earle was the Next Big Thing in alternative country music until heroin addiction and a chaotic personal life de-railed his career and almost killed him.
Sticky Fingers is a tribute band whose members impersonate The Rolling Stones. Steven Kurutz spent a year with them and wrote about it in a book called "Like A Rolling Stone: The Strange Life of A Tribute Band."
Shane Harris tells Steve Paulson that our government is collecting masses of data on ordinary people in its efforts to catch terrorists.
Historian Tim Tyson tells Anne Strainchamps about the racially motivated murder that has informed much of General William Tecumseh Sherman's professional life.
Rebecca Dopart was working as a Peace Corps volunteer in Poland, in the mid-90s. While there, she fell in love and got married. Just three weeks after her wedding, her father-in-law died. In this story, Dopart recalls how her husband tended to his father’s body.
Screenwriter Charlie Kauffman (“Being John Malkovich”) made himself a character in his adaptation of Susan Orlean’s book “The Orchid Thief”. The movie is called “Adaptation,” and is up for several Academy Awards, including one for Meryl Streep who plays the author.
Marion Nestle is a long-time food industry activist and the author of "Soda Politics: Taking on Big Soda (and Winning)." She explains why sodas are about race and class in America.
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