According to historian Thomas Laqueur, neither sanitation nor the soul fully explain the rang of rituals we've developed for caring for dead bodies. For him, there is a deeper anthropological truth at work: caring for the dead marks the human transition from nature into culture.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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Novelist Dennis McFarland deals with the consequences of violence in his book “Singing Boy.” McFarland talks about the effects of grief on the deceased’s survivors.
I dunno, but it seems kind of extreme, not to mention risky, to bio-engineer a mass mosquito die-off. So Steve Paulson tracked down the world’s greatest living entomologist to see what he has to say. E. O Wilson is sometimes called “the ant man” – that’s the insect he studied most – but he’s best known as the evolutionary biologist and a champion of biodiversity. He’s 86 years old now, and has just finished what is probably his last book – called “Half Earth”. It’s a passionate plea to save humanity by dedicating half the planet to nature. You’d assume that Wilson would be happy to let mosquitos live in that half… but that’s not what he told Steve.
Charles Dwyer on art with his homeless neighbor - Jerry Pfeil.
Dan Lamoureux is a self-described dork who produced and directed the documentary film "Nerdcore for Life."
Franz Lidz is the author of "Ghosty Men: The Strange but True Story of the Collyer Brothers, New York's Greatest Hoarders."
Chuck Klosterman tells Steve Paulson that interviewing celebrities is a tricky business because there really isn't any up side in it for the star.
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