When Samuel Clemens took on the pen name “Mark Twain,” he was doing more cleverly appropriating a measure of depth. He was also tapping into one of the most well-known sounds along the river: sounding calls. Owen Selles tells about these calls in this piece, adapted from an essay he originally wrote for the online magazine Edge Effects.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
In her book, "Do Metaphors Dream of Literal Sleep?: A Science-Fictional Theory of Representation," Seo-Young Chu argues that science fiction is a kind of "high-intensity realism." She spoke with Jim Fleming.
Steven Johnson talks about his new book, "Future Perfect: The Case for Progress in a Networked Age."
Cultural historian William Miller, author of “The Mystery of Courage,” tells Steve Paulson that the airline passengers who confronted the hijackers on September 11th displayed extraordinary courage.
Stephen Thompson is an editor at The Onion newspaper, and editor of “The Onion A.V. Club: The Tenacity of the Cockroach.”
Nick Bantock talks about his book, "The Trickster's Hat: A Mischievous Apprenticeship in Creativity."
Youngstown, Ohio is the center of the Rust Belt. During steel's heyday, Youngstown was a city of nearly 200,000. Now, it’s under 70,000. The steel mills closed in the 1980’s, people left, and no one replaced them. Steve Paulson sat down with urban planner Justin Hollander talk about what to do next - what Hollander calls "smart decline."
Susan Krieger not completely blind, but her vision is bad enough to make her legally blind. She recently got a guide dog, Teela, who is now her constant companion.
Pages
