Journalist Ted Conover tells Steve Paulson that wise guards accept that they rule with the consent of the prisoners, and recalls a few of his most dramatic encounters with inmates.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
One more story from Walter Moskowitz, the last of the Bowery Scab Merchants. Walter tattoos 80 men in a day.
What do you do when you’re an African-American filmmaker living in a country full of people who dress up in blackface at Christmastime? You pick up a camera. Roger Ross Williams talks about his new documentary, "Blackface." It's about the traditional Dutch celebration of "Black Pete" -- a Santa's helper who dresses in blackface, an Afro wig, red lipstick and big hoop earrings.
Jane Austen abandoned her novel "Lady Susan," but filmmaker Whit Stillman has revivied it - in a new film and novel, both called "Love and Friendship." He talks about why he loves Austen and the 18th century.
Today, the Dutch philosopher Spinoza - father of the Enlightenment - is revered, but in the mid-17th century, he was branded a heretic by his Jewish congregation in Amsterdam. Recently, philosopher Steve Nadler was asked if Spinoza should be exonerated. He explains why he said no.
We all love the feeling of getting lost in a good story and seeing the world through a character’s eyes. Recently, psychologists have been studying whether that experience actually changes readers. Novelist and cognitive psychologist Keith Oatley tells us about the latest research connecting fiction with empathy.
Steve Paulson talks with Sharyn November, senior editor for Viking Children's Books and head of Penguin Putnam's Firebird, about the current boom in children's fantasy writing.
The relationship between poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge is discussed by Steve Paulson and Adam Sisman.
Pages
