Anne Strainchamps sat down with the great Turkish writer Elif Shafak. Her latest novel, “The Architect’s Apprentice,” is an epic tale set in the height of the Ottoman Empire. It has bloodshed. It was palace intrigue. It has romance. And, yes, it has architecture.
Shafak’s tale centers around a 16th century mosque architect named Mimar Sinan. Though a character in her novel, Sinan was also a real person – considered to be the greatest architect in the Islamic World.
We need a green revolution, and our current crop initiatives are not adding up to such things.
Stefan Kanfer tells Jim Fleming that Groucho Marx flaunted authority his whole life, and that the price of his comedic genius was a tormented private life.
Jazz pianist and cognitive scientist Vijay Iyer just won a MacArthur "genius" award. He's also landed a job at Harvard teaching music. He tells Anne Strainchamps how he incorporates science into his music.
Salman Ahmad is a Pakistani rock star. His group is Junoon, and they're the most popular rock group in South Asia.
Historian William Dalrymple tells Steve Paulson that the British weren't the masters of India when they first arrived. The Mughals were.
Sue Halpern spent five years subjecting herself to every memory test and brain imaging technique she could find.
Zadie Smith portrays London as it really is with people from many races and cultures living together and spillinng over into each other’s lives.
