Despite pining for landline telephones, writer Virginia Heffernan sees magic in the potential of the internet.More
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Arts and Culture
Many of us are living two lives – old-school analog and cutting-edge digital. Author David Sax says that’s okay. More
Writer and producer Damon Krukowski explains why we must take care in eschewing analog imperfection in pursuit of more perfect digital sound.More
MP3 formatting compresses audio so that the file becomes 75 to 95 percent smaller. What's goes missing in the process? Conceptual artist Kenneth Goldsmith explains. More
Quan Barry is an award-winning poet and novelist who founded the website ASPHODEL.INFO, which is dedicated to publishing a new poem each week in response to current events.More
When you hear "poet", what kind of person comes to mind? Emily Dickinson in her white dress? Robert Frost in the snowy woods, with...More
A hundred years ago, the poet Carl Sandburg turned Chicago into an American icon. He called it "The city of broad shoulders" a gritty...More
Siri Hustvedt on developing voices on new platforms, all while coping with old-fashioned sexism. More
Writer Roxane Gay talks about tackling her trolls and “writing to the point of uncomfortability.”More
As an acquisitions editor for Penguin Books, Jodie Archer saw many novelists struggling to write books that would sell. Then she went to grad school at Stanford, where she and her advisor created an algorithm to help.More
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
Doug Eck directs Google’s new “Magenta” project, an experiment in teaching machines to make art, leveraging advances in machine learning like neural networks to enable computers to do things like compose music.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
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
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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Jazz bassist and singer Esperanza Spalding talks about the inspiration behind her latest album, 'Emily’s D+Evolution.'More
