Alain de Botton's latest project Is art as therapy. Feeling lonely? Stand in front of the Mona Lisa. Anxious about work? Caspar David Friedrich’s “Rocky Reef on the Seashore” will put everything in perspective. Anne talks with de Botton about his new book, free app, and… upcoming museum shows.
Colson Whitehead talks with Jim Fleming about and reads from “The Colossus of New York: A City in Thirteen Parts,” his literary portrait of New York City.
Aram Sinnreich is the author of "Mashed Up: Music, Technology, and the Rise of Configurable Culture." He talks with Anne Strainchamps about what he means by configurable culture.
Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman is fascinated by the way memory shapes our sense of self. In this EXTENDED interview, he says our memories can be quite different from what we actually experience.
Charles Baxter and Richard Bausch are both successful American writers and good friends. They talk with Steve Paulson about the pitfalls and perils of doing book tours.
Environmental writer Connie Barlow says that rhinos and elephants and tigers are native to North America and that we should bring back the Cheetah.
Brenda Peterson talks with Steve Paulson about the gray whale. They mate and give birth in Baja, where they exhibit “friendly whale syndrome” and migrate to Alaska.
According to historian Thomas Laqueur, neither sanitation nor the soul fully explain the rang of rituals we've developed for caring for dead bodies. For him, there is a deeper anthropological truth at work: caring for the dead marks the human transition from nature into culture.
