William Dean teaches theology. His book is “The American Spiritual Culture, and the Invention of Jazz, Football, and the Movies.”
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Celebrated jazz pianist Vijay Iyer has a Ph.D. in music cognition and the rare ability to describe the interplay between music and the brain. We talk with Vijay and listen to his music.
If you've spent any time playing Tetris, you've probably spent a lot of time playing it. Tetris is simple yet addictive. Your job is to fit falling geometric blocks together so that there are no spaces between them. Box Brown has spent alot of time playing and thinking about Tetris. He's written and illustrated a graphic history of the world's most popular video game. It turns out that Tetris has a fascinating backstory.
Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne called their Wisconsin home Ten Chimneys. Jim Fleming takes us to visit the property.
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.
Biologist Steven Austad is so confident human beings will soon live to be 150 years old that he’s bet on it with a colleague: Jay Olshansky, who says we’re already living way past our expiration date!
Tariq Ramadan tells Steve Paulson that Islam should be viewed as a religion in its own right and not compared to the history of Christianity.
Susan Friedman tells Anne Strainchamps about her friendship, initiated and maintained via e-mail over the internet, with a young woman scholar in Iraq.
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