Doug Dorst talks about "S.," the novel-within-another-novel that he wrote based on a concept by producer and director J.J. Abrams.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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A. J. Jacobs decided to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica. He tells Steve Paulson why and some of the peculiar facts he picked up along the way.
Los Angeles comic and humor columnist Alan Olifson reads an essay on the dangers of enjoying irony.
Psychiatrist Allen Peterkin tells Steve Paulson that beards make people think of either Santa Claus or Satan, and that facial hair is making a comeback.
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.
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.
Somalia didn’t have a written language until the 1970's, and today, many if not most Somalis still live within an oral tradition. And in that tradition the poet is king.
Amy Gorman is the author of "Aging Artfully," a book with 12 profiles of visual and performing women artists between the ages of 85 and 105.
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