America has a thing for Japanese culture. And since the U.S. and its allies occupied Japan after WWII, some Japanese have had a thing for American culture, music in particular.
James Nolan is a poet, writer and fifth generation New Orleans native. He went through Katrina inside his French Quarter apartment.
Poet Rochelle Hurt is from Youngstown, Ohio. Now that she's moved away, she misses home. And the rust.
Jade Simmons is a classical pianist who's equally happy to play music by Samuel Barber or hip hop master DBR.
Leigh Ann Henion was a young mother when she felt her world closing in. So she did something unconventional: she set off on a "wonder pilgrimage" to see some of the world's most astonishing natural phenomena. She tells us about juggling motherhood with swimming in bioluminescent oceans, standing at the edge of active volcanoes, and witnessing vast animal migrations.
Ishmael Beah was 12 when the army of Sierra Leone gave him an AK-47 and a lot of drugs and turned him into a killing machine. Beah's been rehabilitated and lives in the USA.
James McManus writes for Harpers. With an advance from the magazine, he entered the world series of poker.
Recent medical breakthroughs mean we can sometimes halt and even reverse death. This has led science into a domain traditionally relegated to theology and philosophy. Steve Paulson hosts a panel discussion on the difficult questions that come up during medical crises.
