Reinhold Messner is arguably the world’s greatest living mountaineer. He’s climbed 14 of the world’s tallest peaks, and if that isn’t impressive enough, he was the first to climb Mt. Everest alone and without supplemental oxygen. He recounts some of these adventures in a new book called “Reinhold Messner: My Life at the Limit.” Steve Paulson caught up with him and asked how he got hooked on climbing.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Stephen Greenblatt tells the remarkable story of how the discovery of an ancient poem helped launch the Scientific Revolution. Also, an excerpt from Lucretius' poem "On the Nature of Things."
If you've spent any time playing Tetris, you've probably spent a lot of time playing it. Tetris is simple yet addictive. Your job is to fit falling geometric blocks together so that there are no spaces between them. Box Brown has spent alot of time playing and thinking about Tetris. He's written and illustrated a graphic history of the world's most popular video game. It turns out that Tetris has a fascinating backstory.
William La Fleur is the author of “Liquid Life: Abortion and Buddhism in Japan.” He tells Anne Strainchamps about the Japanese mizuko rituals which are a form of public apology addressed to aborted fetuses.
Steve Paulson visits award-winning children’s book author Paula Fox at her New York brownstone. Fox has just written a highly acclaimed memoir, “Borrowed Finery.”
A big cat biologist goes on a blind date. It doesn't go well. Writer Ben Hoffman reads from a work in progress.
Susan Burch teaches at Gallaudet University and is the author of “Signs of Resistance: American Deaf Cultural History, 1900 - 1942.” She talks about the “oralist” movement which required the deaf to learn sign language and lip reading.
Rupert Isaacson made a journey with his family to seek out shamans in horse-centered cultures to treat his autistic son.
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