Sarah Vowell is obsessed by presidential assassinations.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
The former mayor of Madison, Wisconsin, take us on a walking tour of the neighborhood of one of his big heroes, the late urban thinker, Jane Jacobs.
Music critic Yuval Taylor tells Steve Paulson that authenticity in music is a complicated business.
Stephen Prothero thinks it's imperative that Americans have a working knowledge of religious traditions at home and abroad to understand other peoples and our own politicians.
Stephen Mitchell has composed a new translation of “Gilgamesh,” the epic poem of ancient Mesopotamia.
Tom Wolfe talks with Steve Paulson, and explains why he's so fascinated by the connection between sex and social status.
The "connectome" is one of the most audacious science projects ever conceived: a detailed map of the human brain, neuron by neuron, synapse by synapse. In this EXTENDED interview, MIT computational neuroscientist Sebastian Seung explains what we can learn.
Recently hundreds of Evangelical leaders met with Donald Trump. One prominent Evangelical who did not attend is Michael Gerson, the former speechwriter and top aide to President George W. Bush. Gerson believes it's time to reframe the conservative agenda and he warns his fellow believers to beware “The Mark of Trump.”
Pages
