Stephen Thompson is the founder of the A.V. Club, the arts section of the satirical newspaper, "The Onion," originally based in Madison, Wisconsin. Thompson eventually left Madison for Washington DC, to work at NPR as an editor and reviewer at NPR Music. In this interview, Thompson tells Steve Paulson about the forces that drew "The Onion" staff to New York, and what it means to be an artist in the Heartland.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Sarah Bunting is one of the founders of the website Televisionwithoutpity.com, a site for people who have a love/hate relationship with TV.
Sticky Fingers is a tribute band whose members impersonate The Rolling Stones. Steven Kurutz spent a year with them and wrote about it in a book called "Like A Rolling Stone: The Strange Life of A Tribute Band."
Shane Harris tells Steve Paulson that our government is collecting masses of data on ordinary people in its efforts to catch terrorists.
David Gessner discovered the American West as a young man, and the huge mountains and wide open spaces changed his life. He recently took a road trip through the West, following in the footsteps of two literary heroes, Edward Abbey and Wallace Stegner. Gessner says their books help us see the West in all its complexity.
Screenwriter Charlie Kauffman (“Being John Malkovich”) made himself a character in his adaptation of Susan Orlean’s book “The Orchid Thief”. The movie is called “Adaptation,” and is up for several Academy Awards, including one for Meryl Streep who plays the author.
Marion Nestle is a long-time food industry activist and the author of "Soda Politics: Taking on Big Soda (and Winning)." She explains why sodas are about race and class in America.
Falling in love is easy. Staying in love for 30 or 40 years takes some skill. Social psychologist Arthur Aron identifies some of the techniques devoted couples use to keep the spark alive. Aron's the psychologist who figured out how to build intimacy in just 36 questions. He gives us some more lab-tested tips for keeping the love you find.
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