Linguist Mike Hammond talks about made-up language games with Jim Fleming. Going way beyond pig latin, we hear samples from “The Name Game,” as well as “ob” and “Geta.”
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Richard Holmes is fascinated by what he calls "The Age of Wonder." The subtitle of his book is "how the romantic generation discovered the beauty and the terror of science," and he tells Steve Paulson about how Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" came directly out of the scientific climate of the time.
How's this for a novel premise? Owen Lerner is a pediatric psychiatrist. One day, he's struck by lightning. He survives but he has a new obsession -- with barbecue. That's the premise behind Mary Kay Zuravleff's novel, "Man Alive!" She talks about its inspiration and the book's themes.
Biographer Joan Schenkar thinks Patricia Highsmith deserves to be recognized as the author of one of the great American novels.
Mark Barrowcliffe wasted his youth playing Dungeons and Dragons. Now he's turned his obsession into a book.
Judith Claire MItchell's first novel “The Last Day of the War” is set just after World War I, when Europe's peace brokers decided to ignore the Armenian massacres. She talks about the painful legacy of that decision, 100 years later.
John McNally is the author of “The Book of Ralph: A Fiction.” McNally tells Steve Paulson about the real life kids who served as the models for his character Ralph, a trouble-maker.
Jonathan Haidt talks with Jim Fleming about an often-overlooked emotion - elevation.
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