Paul Hoffman is the author of “Wings of Madness: Alberto Santos-Dumont and the Invention of Flight.” Hoffman tells Jim Fleming that Santos-Dumont’s craft (which he tethered to a light-post outside Maxim’s while he had dinner) was a motorized hot air balloon.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
A few brief dramatized snippets from Olivia Judson and her book “Dr. Tatiana’s Sex Advice to All Creation.”
Historian Jill Lepore talks with Jim Fleming about Noah Webster and his dictionary. She says Webster thought Americans should have their own language and he celebrated American words.
Jonathan Miller, who along with Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, and Alan Bennett, created “Beyond the Fringe,” talks about the nature of humor with Steve Paulson.
According to Nathaniel Philbrick, Melville’s classic “Moby Dick,” will always be worth our time and attention, no matter the age. He makes the case for reading what he calls a kind of "American Bible."
M.E. Thomas talks about her book, "Confessions of a Sociopath: A LIfe Spent Hiding in Plain Sight."
Maryam Eskandari is a mosque architect and founder of MIIM Designs. She say most non-Muslims think designing a mosque is full of rules. But it’s not. She told Charles Monroe-Kane that the only rule is you have to point out the direction to Mecca. This is called the marabji.
Rick Perlstein is a historian who thinks the real story of the sixties is the rise of the modern conservative movement.
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