Deborah Madison talks with Anne Strainchamps about the growing popularity of farmers’ markets.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
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.
What if Crack Babies were a myth?
To see the NYTimes video on Crack Babies click here.
I dunno, but it seems kind of extreme, not to mention risky, to bio-engineer a mass mosquito die-off. So Steve Paulson tracked down the world’s greatest living entomologist to see what he has to say. E. O Wilson is sometimes called “the ant man” – that’s the insect he studied most – but he’s best known as the evolutionary biologist and a champion of biodiversity. He’s 86 years old now, and has just finished what is probably his last book – called “Half Earth”. It’s a passionate plea to save humanity by dedicating half the planet to nature. You’d assume that Wilson would be happy to let mosquitos live in that half… but that’s not what he told Steve.
Princeton historian Anthony Grafton explains how learning conversational Latin inspired his students.
Sarah Bakewell recommends "The Pillow Book" by Sei Shonagon (translated by Ivan Morris).
Bernd Heinrich tells Steve Paulson about frogs that survive being frozen solid and bears that convert nitrogen into protein while they hibernate sleep.
Pages
