Richard Marcinko is CEO of a private security firm which trains mercenaries and he candidly tells Steve Paulson about waging war and interrogating prisoners from a mercenary's point of view.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Nadine Svoboda’s been all over the world listening to forests. She records their sounds for the British Library Sound Archive.
We present two takes on the question of whether or not the world's supply of oil is drying up. Princeton's Ken Deffeyes says production has peaked. Danish statistician Bjorn Lomborg says that's just crying wolf.
Nicholas Carr believes the Internet is rewiring the human brain with its instant access to all sorts of information. Are we losing our ability to focus on one thing for any length of time?
Joan Didion, who died last week at the age of 87, helped shape a highly personal brand of nonfiction that came to be known as the New Journalism. Her early essay collections "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" (1968) and "The White Album" (1979) influenced generations of writers. Her later memoirs, "The Year of Magical Thinking" and "Blue Nights," chronicled the deaths of her husband and daughter. In 2011 Didion talked with Steve Paulson about illness and growing old in the wake of the death of her daughter, Quintana.
As a child, Michael Ondaatje took a long ocean voyage from Sri Lanka to England. This is the seed of his novel "The Cat's Table." He talks with Jim Fleming about the fine line between fiction and memoir.
Jay Parini talks with Jim Fleming about the power of poetry and how it especially empowers young people in troubled times.
Celtic historian John Matthews tells Steve Paulson that Merlin probably was a real person and that wizards are related to our ancient shamans.
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