Have you ever read the Declaration of Independence? You'll find it's a surprisingly radical manifesto even today, as we struggle with income inequality and racial justice. Political philosopher Danielle Allen says reading the Declaration has actually changed the lives of her students.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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If there’s one writer who’s identified with the Mississippi River, it’s Mark Twain. He grew up in Hannibal, Missouri — on the river’s edge — and as a young man, he worked as a steamboat pilot. And then he wrote the “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” the novel that turned the Mississippi into myth. But it also created one of the most enduring controversies in American literary history: how to depict race relations in America's past. In this interview, Andrew Levy says that "Huckleberry Finn" is actually anti-racist — and when it was first published, the big controversy was about Twain’s depiction of wild children.
In 2009, Eric Glatt did the unthinkable for an unpaid intern — he sued his employer, Fox Searchlight Pictures, alleging that they violated the Labor Department's standards for internships. He describes why he believes unpaid internships threaten workers everywhere.
Richard Manning is the author of many books including “Food’s Frontier: The Next Green Revolution.” Among the scientists profiled in that book is Robert Goodman, a plant pathologist at the University of Wisconsin.
Princeton historian Robert Darnton says that people in 18th century Paris spread the news by making up topical songs to familiar melodies, and that the police kept records on everybody.
For centuries, the oddities of nature - like two-headed cats and conjoined twins - fascinated people. Science historian Lorraine Daston says a history of wonders is to some degree a history of pre-modern science.
Joelle Fraser wrote a memoir called “The Territory of Men.” She talks about her parents who did their best, despite pre-Women’s Lib conditioning and alcoholism.
Marla Cilley tells Anne Strainchamps that an orderly house begins with a clean, shiny kitchen sink, and that women should wear lace up shoes so that they’re ready for anything.
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