Karen Armstrong is the author of nearly 20 books on religion. She tells Steve Paulson that traditions from Confucianism to Judaism emerged as responses to the rampant violence of their time. And she says our own time has a lot in common with that age.
Poet Billy Collins bookmarks "The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst."
David Denby hatched a plan to make a million dollars on the stock market. Then the dot com bubble burst, and he watched his new fortune wither away.
Bryan Palmer tells Steve Paulson how some population groups, from enslaved Africans to religious heretics, jazz musicians, and homosexuals have found refuge and freedom in the night.
In 2003, Craig Mullaney led an infantry rifle platoon along the hostile border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Author Chuck Klosterman's Dangerous Idea? Laugh tracks are the most philosophically stupid thing. Ever.
We've interviewed Klosterman a number of times, here's a link to more interviews with him.
Elizabeth Gilbert's early mid-life crisis (including a messy divorce) brought her to India to follow in the footsteps of generations of spiritual seekers from the West.
This is Charles. This interview was recorded near the end of the presidential race when everyone and their brother was trying to figure out what was happening in the minds of poor, white voters. I grew up in poverty under the shadows of Northeast Ohio steel mills. And it struck me that many of the insight everyone was looking for was right there in the music of where I grew up. In my opinion, the best example of that voice in 2016 was country music singer-songwriter Brandy Clark. Her album, "Big Day in a Small Town," had the answers, if anyone dared to listen.
