Walter Moskowitz learned tattooing from his father William, who did tattoos from the basement of his barbershop called Willy’s. In bruising Bowery fashion, the shop offered a unique service.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Terry Tempest Williams reads from her book, "Red," and talks about the desert with Steve Paulson.
Samuel Clemens was an energetic and passionate man who traveled the world and created a new American idiom.
Have you ever heard that space is a vaccuum? That space is totally silent? Well, neither of those things is exactly true. Thanks to the research of physicist Don Gurnett, we now know there are thin layers of gas in space that produce all kinds of interesting waves — including sound waves. In this segment, we talk with Gurnett about his research and listen to some downright strange and wondrous sounds from both near and deep space.
You may not know Shepard Fairey but, you probably know his work. In 2008 he created the now-iconic Obama HOPE poster.
American Wendy Doniger holds two doctorates in Sanskrit and Indian studies from Harvard and Oxford. She’s the author of numerous books on Hinduism and has translated several Sanskrit texts. She’s widely considered one of the most important scholars on Indian religion in the world. So it might surprise you that there is one country in the world she can’t visit: India.
Doniger’s books have been targeted by Hindu Nationalists and by India’s ruling right-wing BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party). Her latest, “The Hindus: An Alternative History,” was the subject of a major lawsuit in India, and its publisher, Penguin Books India, not only pulled the book from circulation but destroyed all remaining copies. Since then, Doniger has received many death threats inside of India and no longer feels safe visiting there. But as she told Steve Paulson, her writing about Hinduism hasn’t changed in over 40 years. What has changed is India.
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