Everyone thinks The Arabian Nights is a collection of stories and folktales from the Middle East. In fact, some of the most famous were written by Europeans, who fell in love with the tradition and wanted more.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Legendary showman P.T. Barnum once owned a slave named Joice Heth. Barnum claimed she was 161 years old and a former nanny to George Washington. Benjamin Reiss tells the story in his book "The Showman and the Slave: Race, Death, and Memory in Barnum's America."
Tony Faber says violins have to age for fifty years to sound their best.
Wendy Doniger says sexual positions are just a small part of the Kamasutra, and that the British taught the Indians to be ashamed of this book, and their bodies.
Stephen Thompson is an editor at The Onion newspaper, and editor of “The Onion A.V. Club: The Tenacity of the Cockroach.”
Samuel Clemens was an energetic and passionate man who traveled the world and created a new American idiom.
Music historian Will Friedwald talks with Steve Paulson about “As Time Goes By” and why we love it.
Russell Shorto is the author of "Descartes' Bones: A Skeletal History of the Conflict Between Faith and Reason."
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