“The Unraveling of Mercy Louis" tells the fascinating story of a community that’s nearly torn apart following the discovery of an abandoned baby in a dumpster. A witch hunt ensures and the girls at a local high school soon begin developing mysterious twitches and tics, which quickly intensify. Eventually, the girls in the town are acting as if they’re possessed, thrashing around on the floor or grunting like animals. As strange as it all sounds, Parssinen says the book was inspired by a real episode of mass hysteria in Le Roy, New York.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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Erik Prince was the founder and CEO of Blackwater, the controversial private military contractor. He's also been called a soldier for hire and a mercenary.
Oscar Hijuelos is the first Latino to win the Pulitzer Prize for literature for his book "The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love." His memoir is called "Thoughts Without Cigarettes."
The past is a fascinating place to visit, especially when you consider how little it would take to make it an entirely different place.
Forget the Wright Brothers, the balloonists of the late 18th century were the first people to fly. In this UNCUT interview, Steve Paulson talks with Richard Holmes about the amazing history of ballooning.
We've got theme parks on the brain so we're revisiting Steve's conversation with Karen Russell re. her novel, "Swamplandia!," which is set in a gator wrestling theme park.
Ithaca Hours is the oldest and largest alternative currency in the US. Since 1991, Ithaca Hours has an estimated circulation of several million dollars and has spawned about 80 imitators around the country.
Historian Jonathan Rose tells Steve Paulson that some members of the British working class in Victorian England and the early 20th century read the classics and used them as a means of intellectual emancipation.
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