David Hajdu recently wrote a controversial article for The New Republic about the legacy of Alan Lomax. Lomax and his father made field recordings of thousands of folk and blues songs including work by Leadbelly and Muddy Waters.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
TTBOOK producer Doug Gordon profiles country singer/songwriter Carlene Carter. She's the granddaughter of Maybelle Carter, and daughter of June Carter.
Diana Athill was the editor of some of the most celebrated writers of our time, including John Updike, Simone de Beauvoir, and V.S. Naipaul.
These days beauty’s got a complicated reputation. One professor of literature and aesthetics at Harvard is giving beauty a makeover.
Edward P. Jones won the Pulitzer Prize for his first novel, "The Known World." His short story collection is called "All Aunt Hagar's Children."
Chris Thomas King played blues legend Tommy Johnson in the film “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” His tune on the soundtrack won 3 Grammy Awards. King sees his music as a bridge between the worlds of hip hop and the Blues.
Bill Welden, an expert on Tolkien’s Elvish languages, talks about Elvish derivations and vocabulary and remembers his visit to the set of the “The Lord of the Rings” movie.
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