Novelist Olivia Laing's Dangerous Idea? Loneliness is a gift.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Donovan Campbell commanded a platoon of Marines in Ramadi. He tells Steve Paulson that to understand the events of April 6, you have to know what went on the night before.
Steve here. 2016 marked the 100th anniversary of America’s beloved National Park system. I could think of no one better to reflect on the importance of national parks than one of my favorite writers, Terry Tempest Williams.
Writer Edmund White looks back over 50 years of gay love and liberation. Although married, White has resisted what he calls “gay assimilation”. He talks about the politics of gay sex and promiscuity.
Writer and journalist Christopher Hitchens tells Steve Paulson that Orwell got it right about imperialism, fascism and communism.
Houston's Rothko Chapel is a shrine to the transformative power of art. Abstract artist Mark Rothko created 14 enormous paintings for this sacred space. Pianist Sarah Rothenberg tells us the history behind the music on her CD "Rothko Chapel," and writer Terry Tempest Williams describes her reverence for the Rothko Chapel.
Writer Brendan Koerner reviews Yukio Mishima's classic novel, "Confessions of a Mask".
Angie da Silva is a historian of black cultural life in the United States, going back to the Civil War. She collects stories, both through oral history and archival research. But she's not merely a writer. She brings these stories to life through historical reenactment, often as a slave character she's created named Lila. She says that the stories she hears and tells are too often left out of our history books.
In this interview, she talks about her work and tells the story of Mary Meachum, a free black abolitionist who worked on the Mississippi in St. Louis.
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