Steven Biel talks about Grant Woods' iconic American painting: who the models were; how the painting's been received and why it's so often parodied.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
According to self-described "space dork" Andy Weir, he was just sitting around at home one day imagining a manned Mars mission — not with any goal in mind, but just as a thought experiment. Soon, he realized this would be a pretty good premise for a story. And boy was he right. His novel "The Martian" started as a series of blog posts and has become a blockbuster motion picture. In this interview, he reads excerpts from the novel and discusses the balance between pure fantasty and scientific accuracy in science fiction.
It's not just the movies that offer sequels. Susan Heyboer O'Keefe's new novel is called "Frankenstein's Monster"...
Thug Kitchen is a wildly popular, foul-mouthed vegan food blog. The formerly anonymous writers have just come out with a cookbook and revealed their identities. Michelle Davis and Matt Holloway are a white couple from L.A. Now they're fielding questions about the racial politics of the way they write about food.
TTBOOK producer Charles Monroe-Kane is a great storyteller who's led an adventurous life. Here's a wild story from his memoir "Lithium Jesus" about smuggling mob money when he lived in Prague in the '90s.
Tony Rothman talks with Jim Fleming about Sangaku - the ancient tradition of Japanese temple geometry, which flourished during Japan’s period of isolation from the West.
Rupert Sheldrake may be the most famous scientific heretic in the modern world. On the 50th anniversary of Thomas Kuhn’s landmark book “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions,” Sheldrake does his own paradigm busting. In this UNCUT interview, he tells Steve why he believes scientific dogmas are preventing real intellectual inquiry.
Temple Grandin has autism and designs livestock-handling facilities. She talks with Jim Fleming about how her autism helps her in her career.
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