Kevin Smokler tells Steve Paulson that the Internet is changing the world of letters but he thinks it’s progress. Smokler sees a welcome democratization of literature.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Peter Handel reviews mystery novels for Pages magazine. He talks about the rise of interest in mystery writers from such countries as Italy, France, Scotland and Sweden.
Jeff Ferrell quit his job as a tenured professor and moved back to Fort Worth for a year long experiment in living off the street.
Marco Iacoboni talks about mirror neurons - neurons hard-wired into us and explain how we feel empathy and compassion and why we feel the need to connect with one another.
Welcome to a new regular feature: PlayList: Artists' Soundtracks. Today, celebrated Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgaard shares the music he listened to while writing "My Struggle" -- Midlake's LP, "The Courage of Others."
Mark Kurlansky tells Steve Paulson that salt made food a tradable commodity and that it inspired revolutions from India to France. Because people have to have salt, governments want to control and tax it.
Love him or hate him, presidential candidate and consumer advocate Ralph Nader has stuck to his principles.
Richard Weiss tells Steve Paulson why figures like Horatio Alger, Norman Vincent Peale and Dale Carnegie are so compelling for Americans, and why we’re unlikely to give up our national optimism.
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