Anne here. My conversation with Turkish writer Elif Şafak back in April still sticks with me as the year comes to a close. In many parts of the world, 2016 was the year of the populist leader—especially in Turkey, where Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched a crackdown on free speech and all forms of opposition. 120 journalists have been jailed, more than 2,000 academics have been dismissed from universities, and more than 100,000 public workers have been fired. How did Turkey—once a model of new democratic nations—become such a different place? Not only did Şafak see this coming, she warned that the West should not consider itself immune.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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Hiking. Fishing. Camping. What about using the parks for, well, being a bad ass. The documentary “Valley Uprising” tells the story of the rock climbers who have dared El Capitan – the 3000 foot granite wall of Yosemite National Park. Nick Rosen is the film’s director. He told Steve Paulson that the story starts back in the 1950s. Before climbing wall gyms. Before it was even legal to climb in Yosemite.
Even when there's no one else in the room, we're never really alone, argues Joshua Wolf Schenk. We're in constant creative dialogue with the voices in our heads. But we need solitude to hear them. So this Valentine's Day, go spend some time alone!
David Hughes tells Jim Fleming some of the reasons why a script might never get made into a film.
Choying Drolma began her life as a Buddhist nun in Nepal. As she tells Steve Paulson, Drolma is now bringing music to the West with American guitarist Steve Tibbetts.
Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgaard recommends a chilling read: "The Flame Alphabet" by Ben Marcus.
In March of 2000, the conceptual artist Mark Lombardi was found hanged in his studio. In the art world, speculation swirled about whether his death was suicide or murder? Why would anyone want to murder Lombardi? Maybe because his intricate drawings revealed connections between George W. Bush and the bin Laden family, as well as other connections between banking, organized crime and intelligence agencies. Patricia Goldstone is the author of "Interlock: Art, Conspiracy, and the Shadow Worlds of Mark Lombardi." She talks about Lombardi's work and the mystery behind his death.
Long before the Occupy movement made headlines, writer Dean Bakopoulos foreshadowed it in a darkly comic novel called My American Unhappiness.
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