2010 was a great year for documentaries, even if they weren't actually documentaries.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Claressa Shields is one of the highest ranked fighters in the world. At the age of 17 she became the first American to win gold in Olympic Women's Boxing. To date, she has more than fifty victories and only one loss. So what's it like to be one of the toughest teen fighters in the world? Charles Monroe-Kane called Claressa to find out.
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.
Singer/songwriter Steve Earle was the Next Big Thing in alternative country music until heroin addiction and a chaotic personal life de-railed his career and almost killed him.
Benjamin Percy's new novel"The Dead Lands" is a wilderness thriller set in a post-apocalyptic landscape. The descendants of Lewis and Clark reprise their ancestors' epic cross-country journey in search of a new beginning.
In Sacred Economics, Charles Eisenstein writes that we need to get our economic systems into alignment with our values. He says the indebtness, competition and scarcity leave us anxious and unhappy. In this extended conversation, he digs down to what he sees as the root of the problem with our financial system, and what we can do about it.
Scott Russell Sanders tells Jim Fleming about the spiritual growth spurt he noticed in middle age, and reflects on how he now feels connected to his ancestors and the natural world.
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.
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