Ed Young says that even basic literacy in Chinese requires memorizing 4,000 characters.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Rehman here. This story quite literally hit close to home for me. I grew up just about an hour away from the suburb it takes place in, and until working on this story, I never would have imagined that building a mosque could be so controversial, especially in a place as cosmopolitan as Chicago. Standing under its massive dome, I was struck by the odd realization that a building could simultaneously be a haven and source of community for some, and symbol of fear and hatred for others. Though the story took place more than a decade ago, it seems we’re still wrestling with many of the same questions around religious inclusion and American identity.
Ilse Blansert says that the community that's grown up around ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) has helped her overcome insomnia, anxiety and an eating disorder. In this extended conversation, she talks about how she discovered that there was a name of the tingles she experiences, and the book she's working on about the phenomenon.
Bob Mankoff, cartoon editor of The New Yorker, recommends E.O. Wilson's "The Meaning of Human Existence."
Maybe you're familiar with art therapy - making art to cope with pain. Philosopher Alain de Botton has a different idea. He thinks just looking at great art can be therapeutic.
Researchers have discovered that cats have their own taste in music. It sounds nothing like that crap you listen to.
She is the child of fundamentalist Christians but her father was a forest ranger and she grew up in a remote wilderness cabin.
Pianist Christopher O'Riley agrees with Duke Ellington that there are only two kinds of music - good and bad. He has a thriving career playing both classical music and his own arrangements of Elliot Smith and Radiohead.
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