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.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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What do the NSA disclosures really tell us? Ben Wizner should know. When he's not directing the ACLU's Speech Privacy and Technology Project, he doubles as Edward Snowden's legal adviser. He explains why we should be worried about the agency's push to expand its surveillance programs.
Timothy Ryback is a Holocaust scholar and tells Steve Paulson the shocking truth that the two books that most influenced Hitler's thinking were American.
In a HBO's hit series "True Detective" is an uncanny blend of police procedural and metaphysical inquiry, set in the Louisiani bayous. Creator and writer Nic Pizzolatto gives Steve Paulson the backstory.
To see Pizzolatto's website, click here.
Warren MacDonald lost both of his legs above the knee in a climbing accident. He refused to be defeated by the news and devoted himself to designing new prosthetic devices.
Writer Terry Tempest Williams recommends the novel "Tracks" by Louise Erdrich. Erdrich, one of the great writers of the Native American Renaissance, is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians.
Provocative scholar and literary critic Stanley Fish tells Steve Paulson that he admires the bluntness and strength of conviction shown in the writing of John Milton.
Frank Schaeffer grew up in a Swiss Evangelical commune, the son of a fundamentalist theologian. He and his father helped found the Religious Right and were part of its power structure for many years, Then Schaeffer recanted. Today he's a liberal democrat who describes himself as "an atheist who believes in God." He outlines his disenchantment with Evangelical politics.
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