Bart Ehrman talks about the complex set of beliefs that existed in the early days of Christianity and says it was several hundred years before a single version of the truth was negotiated.More
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Interviews By Topic
Are we witnessing the birth of a new "dark green religion"?More
Stephen Burn recommends David Foster Wallace's critically-acclaimed novel, "Infinite Jest." The book was published 20 years ago, on February 1st, 1996.More
Eugene Thacker talks to Anne Strainchamps about his book, "In the Dust of This Planet: Horror of Philosophy, Volume 1."More
Lauret Savoy believes too many nature writers focus on pristine wilderness and neglect the gritty reality of the places where people actually live - in cities, for instance, maybe even near toxic waste sites. And writing about these places means grappling with difficult questions about race and poverty. More
The celebrated cartoonist Chris Ware has a graphic novel called “Building Stories.” It is full of stories. It is an actual building. Steve Paulson says, “it’s like nothing he’s even seen or read before.”More
Dianna Dilworth is a filmmaker and journalist. Her latest documentary is called "Mellodrama: The Mellotron Movie."More
Pranks aren’t just for April Fool’s Day. Sometimes they can be powerful vehicles for political and social change.More
Deborah Blum talks about the serious scientific effort undertaken by an elite group of scientists and scholars a hundred years ago to investigate the supernatural.More
Deborah Blum tells the remarkable story of the scientists who invented forensic medicine and figured out how to catch murderers using poison.More
Aidan Campbell was 15 when she butchered a caribou at -35 degrees. Now she's 17 and she's already made three trips deep into the Alaskan wilderness with her dad, James. They describe some of their hair-raising adventures into places that few people go. More
TIME magazine's book critic calls David Foster Wallace a literary ventriloquist who captured the spoken speech of Americans more accurately, hilariously and lovingly than any other writer. More
David Lipsky is the journalist portrayed in “The End of the Tour,” a film about Lipsky's 5-day road trip with David Foster Wallace. The two hit it off, sharing a wide-ranging conversation about fame, depression, pop culture and junk food. Speaking to Jim Fleming for "To The Best of Our Knowledge" in 2009, Lipsky remembers Wallace and traces the evolution of the depression that ultimately claimed his life.More
Ann Gibbons is an award-winning science writer and author of “The First Human: The Race to Discover Our Earliest Ancestors.”More
Why is filmmaker Errol Morris is still outraged by the famous philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn?More
Famous for his stories of people with brain disorders, Oliver Sacks wrote a lot about neurological mysteries, like the way a song can activate parts of the brain that language can’t even touch.More