J.R. Thornton was once a serious tennis player on the junior circuit. Then he moved to China and spent a year training with the Beijing National Team, where he discovered just how different the life of an aspiring champion could be. His novel "Beautiful Country" reveals the incredibly difficult demands on young athletes in China.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Journalist Susan Orlean set out to discover why this night is so special to Americans and tells Steve Paulson about some of her Saturday night excursions.
Ruth Reichl draws on her career as a high-profile food writer and editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine in her first novel -- "Delicious". It's the story of a magazine writer with a superhuman sense of taste, who discovers a secret cache of letters from the legendary chef and cookbook writer James Beard.
Sarah Lewis talks about her book, "The Rise: Creativity, The Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery."
Saul Williams has been hailed as hip hop's poet laureate. He talks with Anne Strainchamps, and we hear some of his work.
What happens when war becomes just another video game? Lido Giovacchini tells a story of futuristic combat.
Michael Paterniti travels to the highlands of Spain to track down one of the world's greatest cheesemakers.
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