Ross Terrill talks with Steve Paulson about the internal politics of China and says the Communist Party is becoming irrelevant to Chinese life.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
The Interrupters tells the moving and surprising stories of three "violence interrupters" who try to protect their Chicago communities from the violence they once doled out. They believe that violence spreads like an infectious diseases, so the treatment should be similar: stop the infection at its source.
Art critic, novelist and editor Wendy Lesser reads excerpts from her essay "Hitchcock's Vertigo."
Samara O'Shea is a professional letter writer and the author of "For the Love of Letters." She tells Anne Strainchamps about the ingredients that go into a powerful letter.
One of the most horrific episodes in American history occurred on December 29, 1890. The U.S. Cavalry surrounded an encampment of Lakota on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and massacred some 300 people. The details of the carnage of the Wounded Knee Massacre are almost unbearable. As Black Elk, the Lakota medicine man who witnessed the massacre, put it, “Something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people’s dream died." This tragedy is the bleak backdrop for Jonis Agee's new novel, "The Bones of Paradise." Set 10 years after the Wounded Knee Massacre, all the characters in her novel - from white cattle ranchers to the Lakota - are wrestling with the ghosts of the massacre. Agee tells Steve Paulson about the origins of her novel.
Music historian Will Friedwald is the author of “Stardust Melodies.” He talks with Steve Paulson about the history of the song “My Funny Valentine” and we hear lots of different interpretations.
Thomas Pakenham’s passion for trees has led him all over the world. He tells Anne Strainchamps that trees can be majestic, sacred, and haunting.
In a small town in northern Wales you'll find a playground where it's normal for kids to play with rusty tools or build fires. It's called the Land, and it's an example of an adventure playground — where kids are free to take risks. The Land's manager, Claire Griffiths, gives us an insider's view of an adventure playground.
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