Cheeni Rao came from a successful Indian family and attended an elite American college. But he ended up a junkie on Chicago's South side.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Christopher Byron tells Anne Strainchamps that the Martha Stewart public image is consistent and ubiquitous but has little to do with the real Martha Stewart.
Daniel Wolff tells Anne Strainchamps that most Americans learn what they really need to know outside of school and that, as a society, we believe contradictory things about the value of public education.
Arika Okrent is a linguist and the author of "In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Logian Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build A Perfect Language."
Bon Iver's Justin Vernon has created a nearly perfect summer music festival in Eau Claire, Wisconsin -- his hometown. 25,000 people spent two days camping by a river, throwing frisbees and listening to indie bands. Festival narrator and local writer Michael Perry shares the story behind the town, the festival, and the musical legend.
Elizabeth Little is a writer and editor who collects languages. She tells Jim Fleming about the perils of learning tonal languages.
Human and animal history is so intertwined it's hard to imagine one species without the other.
Eugene Mirman is an indie comic and the author of an outlandish self-help send-up called "The Will to Whatevs." He tells Jim Fleming that school was horrible for him and gave rise to his nerd humor.
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