Lars Svendsen talks with Anne Strainchamps about boredom's long, long history. Or maybe it just seems that way.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Robert Mankoff and Roz Chast talk about what characterized New Yorker cartoons of the past, and how new cartoons are edited at the magazine.
Should the Star Spangled Banner really be our national anthem? John Hasse gives a short history of patriotic songs, and suggests alternatives for the national anthem.
Matthew Clark produced a compilation CD of Chinese rock and roll. He plays excerpts for Anne Strainchamps and tells her about the various bands and the Chinese rock scene.
There's a nagging question at major sporting events: Are the athletes cheating? Steroids, human growth hormones and blood doping techniques are extending the outer limits of performance, and athletes can use them if they want -- unless they're professionals or Olympic athletes. But is doping really a problem? Australian philosopher and bioethicist Julian Savulescu has a simple litmus test: What contribution is coming from the technology and what is coming from the athlete?
Ralph Nader says he knows how to fix the United States. If he could just get a few super rich people to give him $15 billion, he's got a plan for how to get it done.
One year ago 20 children and six school staff members were fatally shot in Newtown, Connecticut. In our hour on the wisdom of children this week, Muadh Bhavnagarwala and Jason Graves share their story of taking part in the memorial that followed the shootings. Listen in.
Karen Joy Fowler won the PEN/Faulkner Award for best fiction for her novel "We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves." Based on a true story, it’s the remarkable tale of two girls raised as sisters, until one is removed from the family. The twist is that one sister is a chimpanzee.
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