Les Blank is a much admired documentary film-maker. His subjects have included Polka music, gap-toothed women, and bluesman Lightning Hopkins.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Author of "Farm City" faces a drawback to her urban farm dream in Oakland, then called "the murder capital of the world."
Michael Palma is the translator of the new Norton edition of Dante's "Inferno." He reads passages from it and talks with Jim Fleming about this literary classic.
Oxford University philosopher Nick Bostrom offers a cautionary take on artificial intelligence in his new book, Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies. In it, he imagines what could happen if computers were to ever become smarter than humans. He tells Steve Paulson that it could have catastrophic effects, unless we start thinking about it now.
Robert Kaplan tells Jim Fleming that people had a lot of trouble accepting a mathematical symbol for the idea of nothing.
Producer Rehman Tungekar talks with Anne Strainchamps about growing up in a multi-ethnic family.
Pierre Ferrari is one of the founders of TeamX, a clothing company with a social conscience. He tells Jim Fleming that the company limits executive salaries to eight times the salary of the lowest paid worker.
Jonathan Lethem's new novel is "Chronic City." The book has been described as a cross between the famous borough-centric New Yorker cartoon and the darkest episode of "Seinfeld."
Pages
