Terry Tempest Williams reads from her book, "Red," and talks about the desert with Steve Paulson.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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One place that new music’s finding audiences is in galleries and museum. One piece in particular has won the hearts of people across the world. It’s called Forty Part Motet. Sound artist Janet Cardiff uses 40 speakers to play "Spem in Allium," a 40-part Renaissance motet written by Thomas Tallis. Think of it as Renaissance surround-sound.
In this segment, we hear several love stories from the lives of TTBOOK listeners.
American Wendy Doniger holds two doctorates in Sanskrit and Indian studies from Harvard and Oxford. She’s the author of numerous books on Hinduism and has translated several Sanskrit texts. She’s widely considered one of the most important scholars on Indian religion in the world. So it might surprise you that there is one country in the world she can’t visit: India.
Doniger’s books have been targeted by Hindu Nationalists and by India’s ruling right-wing BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party). Her latest, “The Hindus: An Alternative History,” was the subject of a major lawsuit in India, and its publisher, Penguin Books India, not only pulled the book from circulation but destroyed all remaining copies. Since then, Doniger has received many death threats inside of India and no longer feels safe visiting there. But as she told Steve Paulson, her writing about Hinduism hasn’t changed in over 40 years. What has changed is India.
Studs Terkel tells Steve Paulson why his friend Nelson Algren is one of America's great literary secrets. Among Terkel's latest books is "Hope Dies Last."
Famous for its hot tubs and its yoga and massage workshops, Esalen Institute actually began as a place to explore the underlying philosophy of spiritual experience, and then popularized America's particular brand of "spirituality without religion." Sitting on the deck of Murphy House at Esalen, Steve Paulson talks with co-founder Michael Murphy and comparative religion scholar Jeffrey Kripal, author of the definitive history of Esalen.
Ronald Aronson is the author of “Camus and Sartre: The Story of a Friendship and the Quarrel That Ended It.” Aronson recounts the relationship and the very public dispute between two of the twentieth century’s leading intellectuals.
T.C. Boyle's new novel features a face-off between an animals rights activist and a biologist.
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