Joan Didion, who died last week at the age of 87, helped shape a highly personal brand of nonfiction that came to be known as the New Journalism. Her early essay collections "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" (1968) and "The White Album" (1979) influenced generations of writers. Her later memoirs, "The Year of Magical Thinking" and "Blue Nights," chronicled the deaths of her husband and daughter. In 2011 Didion talked with Steve Paulson about illness and growing old in the wake of the death of her daughter, Quintana.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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One of this summer's hot new reads is Dean Bakopoulos' new novel, "Summerlong." It's the story of Claire and Don Lowry. They've been married for a long time. And they're now back in the college town where they met -- Grinnell, Iowa. Claire wanted to be a writer but wound up a stay-at-home mom, while Don is a real estate agent. When we meet them, they're deeply in debt and unbeknownst to Claire, they're also behind on their mortgage. And then everything begins to fall apart.
Philosopher Alva Noe has a theory about art. He says art is like philosophy, and the best art is disorienting and uncomfortable. It takes you into a space you didn't even know was there.
Jonathan Goldman talks about using sound as a therapeutic tool and demonstrates several of the so-called primal sounds in nature, using his own voice.
Louise Brown tells Anne Strainchamps that the traditional culture of prostitution is related to the performing arts in Pakistan but that it is being replaced by a sex industry.
Biologist Renee Askins tells Anne Strainchamps why she is passionate about wolves, and why she was determined to re-introduce wolves to Yellowstone National Park.
Neil Steinberg tells Jim Fleming, among other things, why AA seems to work, even when you intellectually reject its basic premises.
Mike Daisey is the playwright and star of the off-Broadway 1-man-show called “21 Dog Years: Doing Time @ Amazon Dot Com.”
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