Michael Dirda tells Anne Strainchamps that modern readers of Beowulf owe a great deal to J.R.R. Tolkien.
Michael Dirda tells Anne Strainchamps that modern readers of Beowulf owe a great deal to J.R.R. Tolkien.
Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver and Priscilla Warner- a Muslim, a Christian and a Jew- tell Jim Fleming how they came together after 9-11 with the goal of writing a children's book and shared their experiences and religious perspectives.
Laurie King has written a series of novels featuring Mary Russell, a young woman who becomes Sherlock Holmes' partner and later his wife.
What happens to your digital self when you die? Currently, Facebook lets users "memorialize" their pages, giving family members a virtual space to post rememberances. Religious studies professor Candi Cann believes new digital tools like these are changing the way we mourn, by letting anyone share their stories about someone who's died, and preserving social connections to departed loved ones.
This week, the Indian election is on our minds, so we turn to one of Indian's most celebrated writers, Arundhati Roy.
"Sonata Mulattica," tells the story of George Bridgetower, the mixed race violinist who first performed and bore the original dedication of what we now know as "The Kreutzer" sonata.
Neuroscientist Richard Davidson is a leading expert on the science of mindfulness. He's teamed up with the Dalai Lama to put Buddhist monks in brain scanners, and he's developing a new scientific model for studying emotion. In this EXTENDED interview, he talks about how his scientific work ended up changing his own life.
Katrina Browne produced and directed the documentary "Traces of the Trade" in an effort to come to terms with her family's legacy of slave trading. Browne talks with Jim Fleming and we hear excerpts from her film.