If you think the American middle class has it bad, consider life in debt-ridden Italy or Greece. Best-selling financial writer Michael Lewis portrays the downfall of several European countries with his usual verve, in Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Many things can evoke a memory. Like a smell. Or a touch. When Mamek Khadem wanted to evoke the memory of her native Iran during the Islamic revolution in 1979, she did it with music.
According to John Leland, the hipster is an outsider who crosses boundaries and challenges the mainstream. He also talks about the overlap between being hip and using drugs.
Sometimes when musicians break the mold, they end up creating new genres. Richard Hell didn't study music as a kid, but he loved how rock and roll let him experiment with self-expression.
Millard Kaufman has a long string of successes, including two Oscar nominations as a screen writer. He tells Jim Fleming why he decided to take on a new kind of writing.
Mark Anthony Neal considers himself a feminist and thinks that the traditional stereotypes of the Strong Black Man have contributed to the problems that Black men face today.
Acclaimed novelist Martin Amis talks about growing up as the son of another famous novelist — Kingsley Amis.
Meghan O'Rourke wonders if there's a better way to be bereaved in an essay called "Good Grief" which recently appeared in the New Yorker.
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