Susanna Clarke is the author of “Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.” It’s a huge novel that’s being called “Harry Potter for grown-ups.”
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Yann Mantel won the Booker Prize for his novel “Life of Pi.” It’s the story of a young Indian boy, Pi, trapped at sea with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Pi believes in and practices three major religions.
Sabrina Dhawan tells Steve Paulson that the Bollywood film industry is more productive than its California counterpart.
Commentator Marily Pittman shares her story of love at first sight.
Scott Jennings provides an essay on Kurt Cobain, the effects of heroin on Cobain’s music, and his legacy for a whole generation.
What are you making? In San Francisco, two radio producers are collecting stories in a project called “The Making Of...”
Given the history of the fraught relationship between the Catholic church and the sciences, you might be surprised to learn that the Vatican has an in-house astronomer. Listen in as he tells Jim Fleming about being a scientist in robes.
Piers Vitebsky is an anthropologist who studies the Eveny or Reindeer People of Siberia. They depend on the reindeer for their survival. They keep herds of them for meat - but their connection goes even deeper. Vitebsky says that they also have personal, consecrated reindeer animal doubles, which they believe will die for them.
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