Why has America stopped inventing? Americans invent less than half of what we did a century ago. Half. Why? Are we less creative then we were 100 years ago?
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Daniel Alarcon is from Peru and the author of “Lost City Radio,” a fable about a nameless country broken in the aftermath of war and the woman who does a radio program for the families of the disappeared.
Ellen Ruppel Shell talks with Anne Strainchamps about the effects of our obsession with low prices.
Cultural historian Ed Linenthal has written a book called “The Unfinished Bombing: Oklahoma City in American Memory.” He tells Anne Strainchamps that the emotional impact of acts of terrorism is immense, widespread and enduring.
David Gewirtzman is a Holocaust survivor from Poland. Jacqueline Murekatete is a University student who lived through the tribal massacres in Rwanda. The two tour together speaking about the horrors of genocide.
What does it mean to be free? And what does it mean to live a personally authentic, honest life with ourselves and with others? These are the questions that Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and their existential friends wrestled with in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Sarah Bakewell makes the case that their late-night conversations are especially relevant today. She's the author of "At the Existentialist Cafe: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails."
Chuck Klosterman talks about "Through a Glass, Blindly," the essay about voyeurism in his book, "Eating the Dinosaur."
Fred Pearce tells Steve Paulson he went to over 30 countries and discovered people are simply taking too much water out of the world's river systems.
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