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
Steven Pinker tells Steve Paulson that parents don’t really have much to do with shaping their children’s personalities.
Sarah Lewis talks about her book, "The Rise: Creativity, The Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery."
There's a short story about a guy who's so afraid of other people reading his mind that he wears a tin foil hat to protect his thoughts. The tin foil part is crazy, but protecting your mind is maybe not such a bad idea. Academic psychologist Rob Brotherton says there are certain psychological traits that predispose people to believe in conspiracy theories. For example, there's an experiment done by a group of psychologists in Amsterdam. It involves a group of subjects and a messy desk.
FIND OUT HOW LIKELY YOU ARE TO BELIEVE IN CONSPIRACY THEORIES BY TAKING ROB'S QUIZ.
Louisa May Alcott was no "little woman". Biographer Harriet Reisen uncovers the fierce feminist behind "Little Women".
Shane White and Graham White are the co-authors of “The Sounds of Slavery: Discovering African American History Through Songs, Sermons and Speech.”
John Linnel and John Flansburgh comprise the alternative rock duo They Might Be Giants. Their first album for children, "No!" is quite different.
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