Bruce Feiler is the author of “Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths.” He tells Jim Fleming that Abraham is a central figure for three great religions - Christianity, Judaism and Islam - but their interpretations of his story are different.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
National Book Award winner Andrea Barrett writes some of the most beautiful fiction we know about scientists. The stories in her new collection, "Archangel" explore the history of knowledge through five linked characters. After reading it, we're awfully glad she gave up biology to write fiction.
Elisabeth Sifton is the daughter of theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, who wrote the famous “Serenity Prayer.” Sifton tells Steve Paulson about the history of the Serenity Prayer.
Daniel Wolff tells Anne Strainchamps that most Americans learn what they really need to know outside of school and that, as a society, we believe contradictory things about the value of public education.
Rapper Baba Brinkman tells Anne Strainchamps that Geoffrey Chaucer’s work has a lot in common with the language of hip hop music.
Esperanza Spalding is one of the brightest young stars in jazz - except she resists being labeled a "jazz musician." In fact, her new album "Emily's D+ Evolution" sounds more like rock than jazz. When she sat down in our studio with Steve Paulson, she talked about her childhood roots in classical music before her momentous discovery of jazz improvisation.
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.
Christopher Caldwell talks with Steve Paulson about the European discomfort with the rising tide of Muslim immigration.
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