Stewart Lee Allen explains why the ancient Greeks wouldn’t eat beans, how Spanish Christians began the tradition of eating ham for Easter, and what he’d serve at a dinner dedicated to the Seven Deadly Sins.
Stewart Lee Allen explains why the ancient Greeks wouldn’t eat beans, how Spanish Christians began the tradition of eating ham for Easter, and what he’d serve at a dinner dedicated to the Seven Deadly Sins.
A darkly comic debut novel explores the secretive world of industrial flavor manufacturers. Stephan Eirik Clark skewers the food industry, flavor science, and the American way of life.
Innovative dancer and choreographer Sally Gross is now in her late 70s. And though she was one of the dancers who revolted against the Martha Graham school of modern dance she says her most impressive feat was overthrowing something far greater: her own body.
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.
There are moral and ethical issues that come up around war photography. Writer David Shields charged the New York Times with glamorizing war in photographs. Shields analyzed 100’s of pictures published on the front page of the Times and last year he wrote a book accusing the paper of making war beautiful. Charles Monroe-Kane sat down to talk with him.
Scott Simon, host of NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday, and his wife have adopted two baby girls from China. Simon tells Anne Strainchamps why he and his wife are such fans of adoption.
Thomas Chatterton Williams is a young writer who grew up listening to hip hop, but lost touch with the culture upon entering college.
Stephen Barber is a surrealism expert who provides the commentary for a new DVD release of “Un Chien Andalou.” This was a short silent film made in 1929 by Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali which still shocks viewers.