Ben Ratliff has been a jazz critic at the NY Times since 1996.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Charles Taylor was convicted of mass murder, rape, and sexual slavery, among other crimes this week by the ICC. One of his top warlords, infamous for using child soldiers, is seeking redemption. Listen to this NEW and UNCUT interview about General Butt Naked.
"True Detective" creator and writer Nic Pizzolatto recommends "Absalom, Absalom" by William Faulkner.
The best-selling Turkish novelist Elif Shafak was put on trial ten years ago for "insulting Turkishness". She says the political climate in Turkey is more polarized than ever today, and even riskier for writers. She also believes fiction can help heal divided cultures.
We tend not to talk about death much in North America. Maybe we just don’t have the words to contain something so visceral. Maybe images are a better way to explore or express our mortality, and our feelings about it.
In a recent body of work, photographer Sarah Sudhoff helps us take a close look at death. In the NEW and EXTENDED interview, Anne Strainchamps talks with Sarah Sudhoff about ‘At the Hour of Our Death’.
Cartoonist, author and illustrator Bruce McCall tells Jim Fleming that the same economic pressures attract Canadians and he compares Canadian and American culture.
Erin McKean talks with Anne Strainchamps about the pleasures of strange words like “squintefego” and “limiculous.”
NPR's former Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr talked with Steve Paulson about the audacity of politicians in 2008.
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