A.M. Homes was adopted as a newborn. When she was 31, her biological mother made contact, launching the writer on a years-long quest into her identity.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
One of the largely unknown stories about Camus was his friendship with the scientist Jacques Monod. Both later won Nobel prizes - Camus for literature, Monod for biology - and both were heroes of the French Resistance.
Steve Paulson talks with philosopher Alva Noe, author of "Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness."
Economists at the University of Warwick in England have calculated the price of happiness. Andrew Oswald tells Steve Paulson that money can buy happiness, but it takes a lot.
Constitution quoting religious fanatics with guns taking over government land might seem as extreme as you could take your beliefs in god and country. But you can take it further. Christian Picciolini is the former leader of the US’s first neo-Nazi skinhead organization. He too was acting out of patriotism. He was also acting out of hate and white supremacy. The title of his 2015 memoir, “Romantic Violence” says it all. But Christian quit being a neo-Nazi skinhead. And in 2010, he co-founded a nonprofit peace advocacy groups called Life After Hate that helps youth leave extremist groups. Charles Monroe-Kane sat down with Christian for a frank discussion on racism.
Anthony Doerr wrote a stunning book of short stories, “The Shell Collector.” Doerr talks with Anne Strainchamps and we hear readings from the title story.
In his book "The Ethics of Voting," Georgetown philosopher Jason Brennan argues that we'd be better off if more people stayed home on Election Day. He says citizens don't have a civic duty to vote, and that some of us probably shouldn't vote at all.
Shattered by her father's sudden death, writer Helen Macdonald began dreaming of wild hawks. In an effort to move beyond her grief, she bought and trained a wild goshawk -- one of the world's fiercest birds of prey. But between the bird and her grief, she became, in her words "more hawk than human."
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