British novelist Jim Crace is an atheist. He doesn't believe in an afterlife, and tells Jim Fleming that he intended his novel "Being Dead" to be a comfort to readers.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Mark Rectanus tells Steve Paulson that corporate sponsorship can create conflicts of interest for museum curators and can turn art exhibits into “tarted-up trade shows.”
If you like novels about computers and the history of technology, then you must know Neal Stephenson's work. The author of Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle talks with us about his new novel -- a fast-paced thriller about the world of hyper-gaming. It's called "Reamde."
Author John D'Agata and fact-checker Jim Fingal talk about the boundaries of literary nonfiction as chronicled in their book, "The Lifespan of a Fact."
Cosmology is on our minds, with the remarkable new discovery confirming the Big Bang. To get a better sense of what it all means – and how creation stories like the Big Bang have shaped our sense of ourselves – Steve Paulson turned to Adam Frank, an astrophysicist who writes for NPR’s science blog 13.7. He’s the author of the book “About Time: Cosmology and Culture at the Twilight of the Big Bang.”
Poet Patiann Rogers tells Jim Fleming why she finds the language of science inspiring, and says naming things is the way to notice and appreciate them.
Philip Freeman is the author of “Saint Patrick of Ireland: A Biography.” He says that Patrick was enslaved by Irish raiders, escaped back to England, then returned to Ireland because of a vision and devoted himself to converting the Irish.
Matthijs van Boxsel is the author of “The Encyclopedia of Stupidity.” He tells Steve Paulson it started with shame at his own stupidity, but he’s come finally to praise it.
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