We tend not to talk about death much in North America. Maybe we just don’t have the words to contain something so visceral. Maybe images are a better way to explore or express our mortality, and our feelings about it.
The best-selling Turkish novelist Elif Shafak was put on trial ten years ago for "insulting Turkishness". She says the political climate in Turkey is more polarized than ever today, and even riskier for writers. She also believes fiction can help heal divided cultures.
Philosopher David Chalmers is famous for outlining the "hard problem of consciousness." He says the materialist framework of science will never be able to explain subjective experience.
You can listen to the EXTENDED interview - and find the transcript - here.
Cartoonist, author and illustrator Bruce McCall tells Jim Fleming that the same economic pressures attract Canadians and he compares Canadian and American culture.
Erin McKean talks with Anne Strainchamps about the pleasures of strange words like “squintefego” and “limiculous.”
David Thorpe is a filmmaker who went in search of his voice. Specifically, he wanted to know why he and many other gay men ended up markers of a "gay voice"—one with precise enunciation and sibilant "s" sounds. He spoke with his family and several speech therapists to better understand, control, and inhabit his voice.
Houston's Rothko Chapel is a shrine to the transformative power of art. Abstract artist Mark Rothko created 14 enormous paintings for this sacred space. Pianist Sarah Rothenberg tells us the history behind the music on her CD "Rothko Chapel," and writer Terry Tempest Williams describes her reverence for the Rothko Chapel.
Anthropologist Cynthia Mahmood is among the few Westerners who’s actually spent time talking with Islamic terrorists on their turf.
