Before the airplane was invented, ballooning was all the rage, and many people thought this was the future of air travel. Cultural historian Richard Holmes describes the remarkable history of the hot air balloon.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Writer Stephen Kuusisto is blind and he says that among the many advantages —he gets eavesdrop on the rest of us, because most of the time, we don’t even notice he’s listening.
William Langewiesche tells Anne Strainchamps about the underground rivers at Ground Zero and the extraordinary courage and leadership shown by all the volunteers who participated in the clean up, even as the firemen rejected the heroic language used in the media.
Rosalind Wiseman and Rachael Simmons say that girls’ popularity with other girls is influenced by the politics of the social pecking order and that the effects of being ostracized can be devastating.
Thomas Hine is the author of “I Want THAT: How We All Became Shoppers.” He tells Anne Strainchamps how our culture grooms men and women to behave differently as shoppers and exploits the traits of both sexes.
Stephen Greenblatt tells Steve Paulson he thinks Shakespeare’s father was a drunk, leaving Will with complex feelings about alcohol.
Wangari Maathai triumphed over discrimination and tribalism in her native land and became an environmental activist, planting trees all over her country.
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