Simon Winchester talks about the enormous volcanic eruption of Krakatoa in Indonesia in 1883. The tidal waves killed almost forty thousand people, and the resulting social chaos gave rise to the first incidents of Muslim clerics fomenting violent uprisings against Westerners.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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Zainab Salbi is the founder of Women for Women International, a group that helps women rebuild their lives after the devastation of war.
Writer Richard Rodriguez views his so-called brown identity as a racial mixture, dating back to the colonization of the Americas. He tells us why he celebrates being brown, and embraces the term "Hispanic."
The idea of a universal basic income is getting serious consideration these days from governments -- in Switzerland, Finland, even Kenya. Could it get traction in the U.S.? Absolutely, says journalist Rutger Bregman.
There’s a Modern Caveman Movement afoot. And their inspirational leader is 76 year-old Arthur De Vany. A man who says we all should be mimicking our caveman ancestors.
Stephen Prothero tells Steve Paulson about the first American cremation, which didn’t really go very well, and the current craze for going out in a blaze of glory.
We know a lot about how slaves looked at books because of the hundreds of slave narratives they wrote. Scholar Cherene Sherrard-Johnson says a fundamental trope in those narratives is what’s called “the Talking Book.”
Film critic Roger Ebert on the glories of black and white films
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