Historian Rebecca Spang tells Judith Strasser that "restaurant" originally meant a cup of broth and explains how it evolved into the culinary paradise we know today.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Max Boot tells Jim Fleming that the United States is the most powerful state that’s ever existed, and that sometimes it’s a good and necessary thing to take unilateral action against tyrants.
Steve Paulson spoke with Kurt Vonnegut just after his 83rd birthday, and Vonnegut recalled his experiences during the fire-bombing of Dresden.
Penny Von Eschen tells Steve Paulson about the State Department's use of jazz musicians as a weapon in the cold war to win hearts and minds in the Third World.
Linguist Mike Hammond talks about made-up language games with Jim Fleming. Going way beyond pig latin, we hear samples from “The Name Game,” as well as “ob” and “Geta.”
Robert Bly has re-translated some of the work of a fifteenth century poet-saint from India named Kabir.
Richard Holmes is fascinated by what he calls "The Age of Wonder." The subtitle of his book is "how the romantic generation discovered the beauty and the terror of science," and he tells Steve Paulson about how Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" came directly out of the scientific climate of the time.
With tensions flaring up in the Middle East this week, we're thinking about the city of Jerusalem and the role it plays in inspiring religious fervor and conflict. Boston Globe Columnist James Carroll writes about it in his book, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem: How the Ancient City Ignited Our Modern World."
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