Novelists have always mined their own lives for inspiration. But no ever's gone quite as far as Karl Ove Knausgaard. People call him the Norwegian Proust. He recently came out with the sixth volume of his autobiographical novel, "My Struggle." What's remarkable about Knausgaard is not just that he's telling the story of his life as a novel. It's the incredible level of detail.
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.
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.
Jeanne Birdsall began writing at age 41. Her first novel became an instant classic.
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.
Have you had culture shock? Did it hit when you were travelling or when you were at home?
John Alderman tells Steve Paulson that once young people figured out how to share music on the Internet, the floodgates were opened.
Ricardo Pitts-Wiley contributed to an essay by Henry Jenkins called "Multiculturalism, Appropriation, and the New Media Literacies: Remixing Moby Dick."
