In many cultures, people use pain as a means of coming closer to God.
Ariel Glucklich talks with Jim Fleming about the history and psychology behind the practices.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Samuel Clemens was an energetic and passionate man who traveled the world and created a new American idiom.
American Wendy Doniger holds two doctorates in Sanskrit and Indian studies from Harvard and Oxford. She’s the author of numerous books on Hinduism and has translated several Sanskrit texts. She’s widely considered one of the most important scholars on Indian religion in the world. So it might surprise you that there is one country in the world she can’t visit: India.
Doniger’s books have been targeted by Hindu Nationalists and by India’s ruling right-wing BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party). Her latest, “The Hindus: An Alternative History,” was the subject of a major lawsuit in India, and its publisher, Penguin Books India, not only pulled the book from circulation but destroyed all remaining copies. Since then, Doniger has received many death threats inside of India and no longer feels safe visiting there. But as she told Steve Paulson, her writing about Hinduism hasn’t changed in over 40 years. What has changed is India.
Several grammy-winning folk musicians have written songs based on the stories in a book called "Wilderness Plots" by Scott Russell Sanders.
Restaurants serve food and feelings in this story by Nathan Witkin.
Tom Bollestorff is an anthropologist at UC Irvine and author of "Coming of Age in Second Life."
Famous for its hot tubs and its yoga and massage workshops, Esalen Institute actually began as a place to explore the underlying philosophy of spiritual experience, and then popularized America's particular brand of "spirituality without religion." Sitting on the deck of Murphy House at Esalen, Steve Paulson talks with co-founder Michael Murphy and comparative religion scholar Jeffrey Kripal, author of the definitive history of Esalen.
MIT Professor Sherry Turkle is fascinated by our interactions with machines. She's just released the third book in a trilogy of books on the subject.
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