In the mid-1930's, Alan Turing made the revolutionary discovery that launched the digital age. He proved that information can be translated and communicated using nothing but a series of ones and zeroes. And that was just the first of Turing's intellectual achievements. Biographer Andrew Hodges explained Turing's genius to Jim Flemming in 2012.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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Abram de Swaan is a Dutch sociologist who studies the politics of language. He tells Steve Paulson that English is the worldwide language of business and diplomacy, though many wish it weren’t.
Before there was iTunes, Spotify, or Pandora, there was the mixtape. Jason Bittner is nostalgic for those days, when sweethearts would spend days crafting the perfect playlist. He's the editor of a book and former website called "Cassette From My Ex". He shares some songs from his collection, and explains why the mixtape is such a powerful medium.
Alex Stone is a magician with a degree in physics. He performs a magic trick over the radio and explains how it works.
To hear one of Alex Stone's favorite bar tricks, listen here.
Annie Murphy Paul talks with Jim Fleming about her research into the field of fetal development. As if pregnancy wasn’t scary enough!
Novelist Amy Tan tells Anne Strainchamps about the murder that shaped her life as a writer and the role that fate has played in her family's history.
Ann Vanderhoof and her husband ditched their lives in Toronto to sail South. The journey changed their lives.
Alison Bechdel calls her comic book memoir Are You My Mother? “a comic drama.” The New York Times Book Review calls it “as complicated, brainy, inventive and satisfying as the finest prose memoirs.” Here’s Steve Paulson’s NEW and UNCUT interview with Bechdel.
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