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.
Cartoonist, author and illustrator Bruce McCall tells Jim Fleming that the same economic pressures attract Canadians and he compares Canadian and American culture.
Cheng-Sim Lim knows her kung—fu movies. She’s the curator of “Heroic Grace: The Chinese Martial Arts Film” at UCLA’S Film and Television archive
Erin McKean talks with Anne Strainchamps about the pleasures of strange words like “squintefego” and “limiculous.”
David Margolick is the author of “Strange Fruit,” a history of the revolutionary Billie Holiday song. Margolick tells Jim Fleming who wrote the song, what happened the first time Holiday sang it, and what it’s lasting impact has been.
David Thorpe is a filmmaker who went in search of his voice. Specifically, he wanted to know why he and many other gay men ended up markers of a "gay voice"—one with precise enunciation and sibilant "s" sounds. He spoke with his family and several speech therapists to better understand, control, and inhabit his voice.
Houston's Rothko Chapel is a shrine to the transformative power of art. Abstract artist Mark Rothko created 14 enormous paintings for this sacred space. Pianist Sarah Rothenberg tells us the history behind the music on her CD "Rothko Chapel," and writer Terry Tempest Williams describes her reverence for the Rothko Chapel.
