If there’s one writer who’s identified with the Mississippi River, it’s Mark Twain. He grew up in Hannibal, Missouri — on the river’s edge — and as a young man, he worked as a steamboat pilot. And then he wrote the “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” the novel that turned the Mississippi into myth. But it also created one of the most enduring controversies in American literary history: how to depict race relations in America's past. In this interview, Andrew Levy says that "Huckleberry Finn" is actually anti-racist — and when it was first published, the big controversy was about Twain’s depiction of wild children.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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Fed Reserve Chairman Ben Bernake may wield more power over the economy than anyone else, even though he was never elected. Washington Post journalist Neil Irwin takes us inside the elite club of the world's leading central bankers.
For centuries, the oddities of nature - like two-headed cats and conjoined twins - fascinated people. Science historian Lorraine Daston says a history of wonders is to some degree a history of pre-modern science.
When Noelle Howey was a teenager, her dad realized he was a trans-sexual and began the process of undergoing a sex change. Now, they’re better friends than ever.
Philip Harvey tells Jim Fleming about using the profits from his porn business to underwrite his philanthropy.
International security expert Michael Klare tells Jim Fleming that the war in Afghanistan has its roots in Saudi Arabian oil. He says the U.S. is pledged to support the Saudi royal family, and that they must begin to democratize the country.
Major Steve Beck is a Marine Casualty Notification Officer. And every Marine family's worst fear is seeing Major Beck at their door.
Rachel DeWoskin is a young American who was working in Beijing and became a TV star as the American vixen in "Foreign Babes in Beijing."
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