Diana Athill was the editor of some of the most celebrated writers of our time, including John Updike, Simone de Beauvoir, and V.S. Naipaul.
Diana Athill was the editor of some of the most celebrated writers of our time, including John Updike, Simone de Beauvoir, and V.S. Naipaul.
Chuck Taggart talks about New Orleans’ rich musical history, and we hear many examples.
These days beauty’s got a complicated reputation. One professor of literature and aesthetics at Harvard is giving beauty a makeover.
“I learned virtually nothing about mortality when I was in medical school,” Dr. Atul Gawande says. “I was terrible at knowing how to have a successful conversation with people facing terminal illness.” Gawande, author of the bestselling “Being Mortal,” is now trying to get people talking about better ways to live out the final chapter.
People have gathered together to dance for centuries. Barbara Ehrenreich says we've become so obsessed with personal happiness, we often neglect the pleasures of collective joy.
Bill Welden, an expert on Tolkien’s Elvish languages, talks about Elvish derivations and vocabulary and remembers his visit to the set of the “The Lord of the Rings” movie.