If there’s one writer who’s identified with the Mississippi River, it’s Mark Twain. He grew up in Hannibal, Missouri — on the river’s edge — and as a young man, he worked as a steamboat pilot. And then he wrote the “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” the novel that turned the Mississippi into myth. But it also created one of the most enduring controversies in American literary history: how to depict race relations in America's past. In this interview, Andrew Levy says that "Huckleberry Finn" is actually anti-racist — and when it was first published, the big controversy was about Twain’s depiction of wild children.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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Michael Gurian is an educator and therapist and author of “The Wonder of Girls.” He gives Jim Fleming some advice about helping girls master math.
Ballet is performed all over the world, but in Russia ballet is the route to stardom.
Josh Koury is a film-maker whose film "We Are Wizards" explores the hugely popular underground music scene called Wizard Rock.
Nikiko Masumoto's family farm goes back several generations in her family. Today, it grows some of the world's best peaches. Nikiko explains the link between growing food and growing stories.
For centuries, the oddities of nature - like two-headed cats and conjoined twins - fascinated people. Science historian Lorraine Daston says a history of wonders is to some degree a history of pre-modern science.
Patricia O’Connor tells Jim Fleming there’s nothing wrong with splitting an infinitive and that people should stop trying to make English behave like Latin.
Robert and Ellen Kaplan wrote “The Art of the Infinite.” They talk about it with Jim Fleming.
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