Jennifer Egan tells Steve Paulson all about her polyphonic narrative "A Visit from the Goon Squad."
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Justin O. Schmidt has been stung by nearly every insect with a stinger, from the benign honeybee to the viscious tarantula hawk wasp. He is a research biologist and professor at the University of Arizona school of Entomology and he told Steve Paulson about his creation, the Schmidt Sting Pain Index.
Lars Svendsen talks with Anne Strainchamps about boredom's long, long history. Or maybe it just seems that way.
Penny Von Eschen tells Steve Paulson about the State Department's use of jazz musicians as a weapon in the cold war to win hearts and minds in the Third World.
Keith Miller is a novelist for whom libraries function as a muse.
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?
So romance is about sex, right? By definition?
Not so, says David Jay. He founded the Asexual Visibility & Education Network.
Jack Pendarvis reads from his essay "The Fifty Greatest Things That Just Popped Into My Head," published in "The Believer" magazine.
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