Tom Lutz tells Jim Fleming that human beings are great crybabies. Lutz is the author of “Crying: The Natural & Cultural History of Tears.”
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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Will Russell and Scott Shuffitt are the founders of "Lebowski Fest," an annual event that celebrates Joel and Ethan Coen's 1998 film, "The Big Lebowski."
American by birth, Vijay Iyer is trying to create a new kind of music, a synthesis of Western jazz and Indian music.
The 1967 Ice Bowl is one of football's legendary showdowns, when the wind chill dipped to 50 below zero. Commentator Bill Povletich remembers this historic game.
For others, football is sacred. In fact, William Dean says the game is part of "American spiritual culture." He talks with Jim Fleming about the way religious beliefs crop up in American popular culture.
Caltech physicist Sean Carroll thinks big...really big. And not just about quantum physics, the multiverse and the other weird ideas in his field. He also loves philosophy and wonders whether there's any underlying meaning to our lives. In this wide-ranging conversation, Carroll talks with Steve Paulson about science, the universe and what he calls "poetic naturalism."
Stephen LaBerge pioneered the field of lucid dreaming research at Stanford University. He says that anyone can learn how to become aware while dreaming and use lucid dreaming as a therapeutic tool.
One of the many utopian groups that started during the late 19th century and early 20th century was the House of David—perhaps the first cult to become a pop culture sensation. Their compound in Benton Harbon, Michigan had an amusement park and a zoo; they had a baseball team that once played an exhibition game against Babe Ruth and the Yankees, and they had bands—highly regarded, touring bands. Here's Henry Sapoznik—the director of the Mayrent Institute for Yiddish Culture here at the University of Wisconsin—on the mythology and music of the House of David.
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