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?
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Nicholson Baker talks about his new novel, "House of Holes: A Book of Raunch," which is set in a sexual theme park.
Nicholson Baker's "House of Holes" page on Simon and Schuster's website
Mark Dunn's book, “Ella Minnow Pea,” explores what happens when individual letters begin to be expunged from the language. It’s a technical tour de force since the author labors under the same restrictions as his characters.
Writer and cartoonist Lynda Barry is an outspoken left-wing intellectual with an urban sensibility who now lives off the grid in rural Wisconsin.
For Jeannette Walls, one of the things she struggled with most was keeping her past a secret from just about everyone.
When Stephen Wolfram was 17, he dropped out of college. By the time he was 21, he had a Ph.D. in physics and was one of the first recipients of a MacArthur Genius Award. Today, he is the CEO of Wolfram Research and owner of one of the largest individual datasets in the world.
Robert Leleux talks about growing up gay, in Texas, with his plastic surgery junkie and drama queen of a mother, whom he adores and who is accompanying him on his book tour.
Joel Kotkin tells Anne Strainchamps how the power of e-commerce is changing where and how we live. He says that knowledge workers choose to live in nerdistans and valhallas.
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