The power of big data—why so many corporations and government agencies and political pollsters and baseball teams are after it—is that it can reveal things we might otherwise not see. But statistics alone can't do that. We need to transform those statistics into stories. One artist doing that is Brian Foo, aka the Data Driven DJ. He takes large data sets and turns them into music. His first song, "Two Trains," amplifies a dire but often ignored truth about our country: income inequality.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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Francesco Sbano tells Steve Paulson about the culture of Calabria in Southern Italy and the importance of respect and honor.
Choying Drolma began her life as a Buddhist nun in Nepal. As she tells Steve Paulson, Drolma is now bringing music to the West with American guitarist Steve Tibbetts.
Back in 1956, philosopher Colin Wilson wrote a best-selling book that popularized the concept we’ve been talking about – “The Outsider.” It’s a study of misfit artists and writers, like Kafka, van Gogh and Dostoevsky – it’s never been out of print, and is still considered the classic work on alienation, creativity and the modern psyche. Blair Lorimer from the “Starve the System” YouTube channel thinks everyone should read it.
Writer and film-maker Arthur Bradford tells Steve Paulson about some of the stories in his collection “Dogwalker."
David Rothenberg is a philosopher and a jazz musician. He tells Steve Paulson why he likes to play his clarinet with birds.
Douglas Coupland says only twenty percent of people are hard-wired to “get” irony and the rest take everything at face value.
Dennis Donovan is the national organizer for the Center for Democracy and Citizenship. He talks about his work with school children, teaching them how to get involved in the democratic process.
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