The power of big data—why so many corporations and government agencies and political pollsters and baseball teams are after it—is that it can reveal things we might otherwise not see. But statistics alone can't do that. We need to transform those statistics into stories. One artist doing that is Brian Foo, aka the Data Driven DJ. He takes large data sets and turns them into music. His first song, "Two Trains," amplifies a dire but often ignored truth about our country: income inequality.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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Writer David Morris explains why "Solo Faces" by James Salter is one of his favorite books.
Debra Dickerson tells Steve Paulson she knows first hand that systemic racism still exists in America.
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.
Ecstatic dance can help us transcend our day-to-day lives. TTBOOK producer Sara Nics describes her own experience of ecstatic dance - grounded in her body, feeling bliss without invoking God or any larger meaning.
Back in 1956, philosopher Colin Wilson wrote a best-selling book that popularized the concept we’ve been talking about – “The Outsider.” It’s a study of misfit artists and writers, like Kafka, van Gogh and Dostoevsky – it’s never been out of print, and is still considered the classic work on alienation, creativity and the modern psyche. Blair Lorimer from the “Starve the System” YouTube channel thinks everyone should read it.
Bill Ayers was a member of the Weather Underground. In this conversation with Steve Paulson, Ayers insists he was not a terrorist since his objective was never to kill people.
Darrin McMahon is the author of “Happiness: A History.” He tells Jim Fleming the Founding Fathers equated happiness with virtue...
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