When a computer program fixes a writer’s novel, or improvises a few bars of music, is that real creativity? Are they not just doing what they were programmed to do? Blaise Agüera y Arcas would wholeheartedly disagree.More
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Interviews By Topic
We're asking listeners to show us what brings love into their lives. Share yours on Instagram by tagging it #TTBOOK.More
Our musical guest for this hour, Asumaya, talks about how one person can play the music of a full band. Alongside some performances, he...More
Comedian Esteban Touma reflects on love and marriage, and reveals how squirrels explain the mysteries of evolution.More
We don't always consider the small changes in our influences, thinking and communication that occur directly as a result of those wasted seconds bouncing between emails, Facebook posts and Reddit threads, but conceptual artist and professor Kenneth Goldsmith argues there's opportunity in those precious clicks and darts from page to page.More
Around 2 million years ago, it’s believed our hominin ancestors settled down and adopted a more communal style of living centered around...More
Author Laurie Halse Anderson discusses slavery, the Revolutionary War and the long history of discrepancy between America’s democratic ideals and its practices.More
Jazz bassist and singer Esperanza Spalding talks about the inspiration behind her latest album, 'Emily’s D+Evolution.'More
Even as you read this very sentence, you may be an unwitting victim of the attention merchants — those sneaky and subversive salespeople who attract your attention and then resell it for a profit.More
Miles Hyman is Shirley Jackson's grandson. He's an artist who specializes in graphic novels and adaptations of classic literature. His latest book has a lot of personal meaning for him.
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Neuroanthropologist John S. Allen argues that the ‘home’ represents one of the most important inventions in our evolution, without which human civilization would not be possible.More
Groundhog Day co-writer Danny Rubin talks about writing the story and the film's enduring impact.More
Maybe time has its origins in grief and longing for people we've lost. That idea certainly resonates with theoretical physicist Ron Mallett. He's spent a lot of his career studying time — which he traces back to the tragedy that marked his childhood.More
Chances are if you were picked on as a child, you probably haven't patched things up with your bully and become friends. But fourth-...More
Julian Barnes discusses composer Dmitri Shostakovich and his bully - Joseph Stalin.More
